Page 5 of Pressure

Elijah dragged a hand through his hair as he looked between the two of them. “Well this is awkward. Lance, go wait for me in my office while I talk to Miss Sullivan please.”

He backed out, lifting his hands in surrender. “I’m gone.”

“Please sit, Marissa,” Elijah said when they were alone again.

“You don’t understand, Lance Moss nearly ruined my life and ended my career. I can’t work with him.”

“What if I triple your salary?”

A hundred and fifty thousand dollars would be more than enough to launch her own firm. But she knew a job like this meant working in close proximity with Lance. It wasn’t something she could do from her office in Chicago. She would need to be here with the system, and if it was Lance’s baby, there was no way in hell he would just let her have at it without supervising. Then there was the minor matter that he didn’t trust her, and she didn’t exactly trust him either.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I just don’t know how I can say yes.”

“I believe in taking no for an answer.”

“But you still want me to stay,” she said wearily.

“I would like for you to stay here while I talk to Lance. That’s all I’ll ask for now.”

She sighed and sank back into the chair she’d just vacated. “I can do that.”

♦♦♦♦

Lance paced Elijah’s office. Of all the people they could have hired, they found Marissa? He didn’t even know she was back in the game. Elijah stepped in and shut the door.

“So that happened,” he said with his hands in his pockets. He moved to sit behind his desk.

“Did she leave?” Lance asked, dragging a hand through his hair.

Elijah shook his head. “I asked her to wait until I talked to you.”

“She hates me. With good reason. I almost got her sent to prison. Completely by accident,” he added when Elijah whistled.

“So, do you see a way forward to work with her?”

Lance shrugged. “I think that’s going to be completely up to her. I can tell you she’s one of the best. At least she was when we were together.”

“That’s what Russell said.”

“Russell sent her to you? I had no idea they knew each other.”

“Seems to be a small world indeed. What do you want me to do?”

“We can’t make her stay. I’m not thrilled about the idea of working with her again, but I can’t say I would pick anyone else either. If she’ll stay in the same room with me long enough, I might be able to convince her to take the job.”

Lance dropped into one of the visitor’s chairs and buried his face in his hands. “This is seriously fucked up.”

Elijah chuckled. “You’re not telling me anything new. This whole situation is fucked. Go talk to her. If she doesn’t run screaming from the room, that means she’s at least thinking about my offer to triple her salary.”

Taking a deep breath, Lance stood again and stepped into the lobby. He’d helped found this oasis of kink, and he didn’t want anything to happen to it. The thought of hiring someone else to come look at his work had kept him up at night because he knew how dangerous outsiders could be to a community like theirs. But Marissa wasn’t exactly an outsider.

He pushed his way into the conference room. She sat at the table with her back to the door and one hand on her forehead while she read something on her phone.

“Hello, Marissa,” he said quietly. She jumped and dropped her phone at the sound of his voice. He stepped in front of her chair, bending to retrieve it.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” he said when he handed her the phone.

“It’s fine.”

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