Page 105 of Pressure

Marissa looked up and smiled. “Be right there.”

Shutting the laptop down, she pushed away from the table and stood to follow the leggy attorney into the bar. When the approached Mitch, the bartender who always seemed to be there, he gave them both a wide grin and began making their preferred cocktails.

“Enjoy, ladies,” he said with a wink before moving to another club member to take their order.

“To a weekend of fun and debauchery,” Austin said, raising her glass.

Marissa grimaced but toasted anyway. “I doubt there is much debauchery in my future but at least the booze is top shelf,” she said after a sip.

Austin rolled her eyes. “Lance is in the corner brooding over you. All you have to do is sashay over there and flirt a little if you want debauchery.”

Marissa turned her head to follow Austin’s gaze. Sure enough, Lance was sitting in a corner nursing a beer.

Austin picked up her cocktail. “Excuse me a minute. I need to go talk to someone.”

Marissa eyed her skeptically knowing damn good and well Austin didn’t need to talk to anyone.

Lance must have sense her staring at him because he looked up and raised his beer in her direction. Even from across the room, she could see the irritation and moodiness on his face. He wanted to talk to her, but she didn’t feel ready. She could at least put him out of his misery about the job, though.

Sliding from the barstool, she thanked Mitch for the drink and carried it to Lance’s table.

“I’ll take the job,” she said, plopping into the chair across from him.

His shoulders sagged in… relief? Had he really been that torn up about it?

“Thank fuck,” he said. “Welcome aboard.” He raised his beer and clinked it to her glass.

“Now how do I talk you into a scene with me tonight?”

She closed her eyes. “I’m not sure that’s a great idea, Lance. I’m still struggling with what I overheard you saying to Patrick.”

Lance leaned forward and ducked a hand beneath her chin. “You mean what you think you heard?”

She closed her eyes, his touch sending sparks through her entire body. It had been a mistake to come over here.

“Why don’t you come to the dungeon. We’ll talk, we’ll purge everything.”

She sucked in a gasp. Purging emotional baggage during a kink scene was heady, cathartic, intense. And incredibly fucking dangerous if you weren’t in the right head space.

“I can’t,” she murmured. “I’m just not ready.”

He closed his eyes. “Sorry. You’re right. I should make the rounds and talk to the other members. I haven’t been very personable tonight.”

Marissa gave him a tender look. “Hey. I’m sorry, OK. I just have a lot of confusing things going on in my head and I don’t think either of us are in the right frame of mind to address it.”

He waived his hand. “Just drop it. You’re right. I’ll talk to you about the job when we get back to Chicago.”

He drained the last of his beer and stood to walk away. Marissa watched as he approached a group of women who simpered and giggled when he stepped into their conversation. Bastard. Was he purposely trying to make her jealous?

She couldn’t watch him spend the night being ‘personable’ with other women, so she tossed back the stout cocktail and made her way to the exit. In the lobby, she stopped in the conference room and gathered her tech.

“Going somewhere?” Eli asked from his office.

She gave him a tight smile. “Think I worked too hard today. I’m just gonna go crash in my cabin for a little while. I don’t mind coming back to help with shutdown or something if you want.”

Eli pushed away from the door and walked toward her.

“Why don’t you leave your tech in my office. Then you won’t be tempted to work.”

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