Page 21 of Pressure

7

Marissa kicked one leg into the chair next to her at the conference table as her other foot bounced up and down on the floor. They had been digging through illegally accessed news agency e-mails for three hours. So far it looked like papers were doing initial research into Solitaire. They knew someone had accessed city records that showed where Solitaire had first obtained permits for remodeling and construction on the property and a private business license.

One particularly savvy reporter had dug up the speculation of a reporter in New York from several months ago about Patrick Sutton—now Yates, Austin Yates, and Hunter Novak being members of the club. Hunter was famous for his elaborate kink parties in Vegas and he never tried to hide his membership. Nothing was ever confirmed and interest in Patrick died when it turned out he wasn’t going to prison for stealing millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds.

These people had seriously interesting lives.

“Jesus Marissa. You’re shaking the entire table.”

“Shit, sorry.” She forced her leg to stop shaking and went back to typing as she dug through yet another e-mail string.

“What else do you want me to look for?” she asked as she shifted in her seat. Her ass was going numb.

“Can we shift focus to Garrett? He’ll be here soon, and I want to know how much damage control he’s going to need to do in D.C.”

“Got it. I’ll start with Capitol Hill gossip blogs. They eat this shit up, and if our leaker really wants to fuck with your guy, they’ll definitely send the video to them.”

She stood and hiked one leg onto the table and leaned into it, trying to stretch her hips and legs. Lance pulled his glasses off and stared. “Good to see you’re still nice and flexible,” he said with a wicked grin. She lowered her leg and picked up a pen, hurling it at his head.

“Don’t be a perv. I will hurt you,” she said.

He raised his hands. “Just making an observation, Kitten.”

Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of her old nickname on his lips. Being here was really fucking with her head.

“Sorry,” he muttered when he realized what he’d called her.

She shook her head. “It’s cool. Um. Garrett. Right. Getting on it.”

As she was pulling up the home page of a D.C. gossip site, the subject of her searches burst through the door. “Is Isabelle OK? I had seven missed calls from her and then nothing. No texts, no updates. I had to get briefed by one of Russell’s security teams. Where is she?”

Marissa thought he looked frantic and angry.

Lance pushed back from the table and stood, going to him to pat his shoulder. “She’s upstairs. She’s fine. We asked her to stop using her phone until we figure out what got leaked and how.”

“I’m going to check on her but when I come back, I want details, Lance. All of them.”

Marissa swallowed as she watched the exchange. Garrett was as intense a Dom as Lance, Eli, and the others seemed to be. The amount of alpha energy that hung in the air with just the two of them was intense. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like to be in a room with all of them.

Patrick and Hunter had both seemed a bit more on the playful side but were still intense and she hadn’t met any of the others yet. How many were there?

Garrett turned as if he was just now noticing her. “You must be Marissa. I promise I’m not always this rude. I’ll properly introduce myself when I get back.”

Marissa waved her hand. “Don’t worry about it. Sounds like you have a lot on your plate.”

He nodded and turned to stalk from the room.

“Why do I get the feeling Isabelle is about to be in trouble?” she said when Garrett was gone.

Lance chuckled. “She’s not. Though if I hadn’t told him why she wasn’t updating him that might be a different story.”

She nodded. “Makes sense. Are all of you so damn intense?”

“I’ve been told we are. I don’t think it’s all Dom energy. A lot of the subs are just as intense. Many of our members have high-stress jobs that require intensity and they come here to blow off steam and channel that into something a little more fun. You know what it’s like to be amongst a group of extremely powerful people who also get off on power exchange.” He shrugged. “I’m honestly surprised you stayed away all these years. You used to crave that energy.”

She closed her eyes. In some ways she still did. Discovering her inner switch that allowed her to dominate certain types of submissive men had helped, but she definitely leaned more to the submissive side of the slash. “It hasn’t been easy,” she finally admitted. “I’m not gonna lie. I’m looking forward to the party tonight. You still don’t want to cancel do you?”

He shook his head. “Not so last minute. There’s a chance we’ll close down next weekend while we reevaluate, but we try not to cancel. A lot of people plan their schedules around trips here and some only get to come into town once a month. That’s the drawback to us not seeking local members. Isabelle is kind of the odd duck there. She found us by accident and applied.”

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