Page 23 of Past and Present

The woman froze.

“Now, out of respect for Kimberly, I’m not going to have you arrested, nor am I going to have you black listed—and believe me I can do both. But you are fired and I never want to see you in this building again.”

“I’ll just go. I don’t need security to escort me out.”

Lance shook his head. “I don’t think you’re in a position to be telling me what you do and don’t need, Ms. Chester.”

Just then there was a firm knock at the door that made Jill jump.

“Come in,” Lance barked.

The door swung open and two men stepped in.

“Is this Ms. Chester?”

Lance nodded.

“Follow us, please.”

They gripped Jill by either elbow and led her out of the room.

“Take her out the front, please and stop at the security desk to drop her pass off.”

Lance went back to his desk and brought up the front lobby security camera feeds. He smiled when he saw Marissa leaned against the security desk talking with the guard stationed there.

She would be quizzing him, trying to find out what was going on.

It took several minutes for security to arrive at the desk with Jill in hand.

His girl was smirking as Jill was ushered to the front entrance. With a smirk of his own, he dialed her cell phone again.

“What the hell happened?” she demanded as soon as she answered.

Lance chuckled. “Wait there for me. I’ll take you home and tell you all about it. We can talk about our trip to Colorado, too. I have some bad news so hopefully knowing I fired Jill will keep you from being too angry with me.”

11

Wednesday, December 19th

Marissa

“And she just waltzed in and took her jacket off like you were going to clear your desk and fuck her on it?” Marissa asked, still dumbfounded by the events of the night.

Lance laughed dryly. “Yep. I’m just as surprised as you are.”

“Have you told poor Kimberly yet?”

Lance shook his head. “I figured I would call her after I talked to you.”

Marissa unbuckled her seatbelt and straddled him.

“Hey, what are you doing?” he asked, brushing hair out of her face.

“I love you,” Marissa said, feeling overwhelmed by the evening.

“I love you too, but you need to put your seatbelt back on, kitten.”

She sighed and pressed a hard kiss to his mouth but dutifully repositioned herself in her seat and tugged her seatbelt back on.

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