Page 21 of Masked

Darci raised an eyebrow. “Mind? We’re paying for you to finish. In fact, finishing is part of your employment agreement. You have two years to finish your coursework and three to finish your dissertation. After that, you’ll have your pick of jobs.”

Reva’s mouth fell open. “Seriously? Did Noah put you up to this? He tried to talk me into letting him pay for this semester, but I didn’t want that, so he said he would work on finding me more funding.”

Darci winked. “Noah usually gets his way so get used to that if you’re going to spend any amount of time with him. But seriously. We have a hefty tuition budget for employees we see a lot of potential in, and you fit that description.”

“I’m completely speechless. And what do you mean if I’m going to spend time with him?”

Darci shrugged. “Noah doesn’t do this sort of thing for just anyone. I assume he’s interested in you. Whether that’s romantically or otherwise I can’t say.”

Reva put her hands over her ears. “Oh, I do not need to hear this. He’s my ex’s dad.”

Darci chuckled. “Weirder things have happened. Now let’s show you the ropes.”

“Is this the sort of thing you usually do?” Reva asked, as Darci nudged her toward the desk.

The redhead winked. “Only for the important ones. But also, I just had a baby, and I’ll take any excuse for getting out of the house. My husband has been… overprotective since the baby was born.”

Reva smiled. “Congratulations. I saw the pictures your office released on Instagram. You have a gorgeous baby and husband.”

“You think my husband is gorgeous?” Darci teased, sending a blush up Reva’s cheeks.

“That is not how I meant it.”

Darci laughed. “Relax. I was only teasing. I think he’s gorgeous, too.”

Darci spent the next two hours walking Reva through their database and various protocols for the job she’d been given.

“Here’s a good one for you to practice on. Along with working with the LGBT, poly, and sex-worker communities, we also do heavy outreach in the BDSM community. Club Exposure is a club we endorse and support when we can. There are a few other places in town that we don’t approve of, but if they reach out for educational materials, we provide them because our hope is that they’ll change their policies.”

Reva clicked on the file and read through the materials. The club in question wanted to offer consent education every other month in a neutral location.

“This is really interesting. I’m so glad the organization does this.”

As she read, she glanced at Darci and decided to be bold. “Can I be forward?”

Darci smiled. “Of course. What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing serious. I just wanted to say that I used to read your blog before it disappeared.”

Darci’s eyes widened. “Oh wow. You’re even better suited for this job than I thought. I’m really sad I had to take the blog down, but I do maintain a very private mailing list where I can still get my thoughts out. It took a lot of negotiating with the secret service to make it work and even that didn’t happen until after Steve… President Givens died.”

“He was a great man. I admired his politics.”

Darci smiled. “Me too. I’m sad he’ll never meet his grandson.”

“You should get going!” Reva exclaimed when her eyes landed on the clock. “You said you have a dinner appointment at five.”

Darci looked at the clock. “Shit. I’m going to be in so much trouble. Since you used to read my blog, I’ll share. My husband isn’t just my husband. I’m his submissive. We’re meeting another couple tonight for some fun. I better go. It was so lovely to meet you. Why don’t you take off for the day and I’ll make sure to check in on you next week?”

Reva went with her gut and opened her arms for a hug. “Thank you so much for everything, Darci. I promise I won’t let you down.”

Darci squeezed her back and motioned for the door. “Walk out with me?”

They walked out together, and Reva stood back as the woman climbed into the back seat of an SUV under the watch of what must have been a secret service agent.

She didn’t want to go back to the hotel, and Noah had already arranged for her stuff to be retrieved from Parker’s place, so she went back inside and sat at her new desk.

It had been forty-eight hours since Parker dumped her, and she was back in school and had a job she never even dreamed of. And it was all thanks to Noah.

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