“Because, Kitten. I want to see you do this one on your own. It was your vision to begin with. And I already made plans to help Elijah with some things early on Friday so I need to get there.”
She frowned. That was the first she was hearing of it. Since they’d gotten back together, she’d taken on a lot of the cyber security at Solitaire. Was he working on something without her? Why did that irk her so much?
Twirling the engagement ring on her finger, she scowled at the speakerphone. “Fine. I don’t like it. But fine.”
“You’re going to be fine, Kitten. I love you.”
“I love you too. I’ll see you at home?”
He hummed. “Home. Do you know how much I like that we have a home together again?”
“Are you about to get all mushy on me again? You’ve been doing that a lot lately.”
He laughed. “I’ve always been mushy. It’s why you love me.”
She made a face at the phone. But he wasn’t wrong. His mushy made up for her less than mushy nature sometimes, and she did like the way he fussed over her even when she fought it.
When the call ended, she settled back at her computer and eyed the half-eaten sandwich her assistant had brought her. It would irritate Lance if he dropped by, and she hadn’t finished it. But she was too busy to eat. They were nearing the final stages of alpha testing for the app she’d been working on for the last few weeks and could soon send it into beta testing.
“Ms. Sullivan?”
She looked up to see Cameron standing in the door, looking confused.
“What’s up, Cameron?” she asked, motioning him into the room.
“I got a weird call from a reporter asking if you’ll be staying on board at Moss Tech if you and Mr. Moss break up?”
She wrinkled her nose. “What kind of reporter?”
He shook his head. “They didn’t identify their paper or magazine or anything.”
“Then they probably weren’t a real reporter and are just fishing for information about the wedding. We’ve been vague about details and the gossip rags are getting restless.”
“I mean he is a hottie and the magazines and gossip sites loved printing pictures of him. They have to be upset he’s finally getting married. They’ll have to find a new eligible bachelor to harass.”
Marissa grinned. “Cameron, are you saying you have the hots for my fiancée?”
He laughed. “Your fiancée is entirely too straight for me, but if I thought I had half a shot at turning him gay or bisexual and I could talk my husband into a threesome?” He shrugged and backed out of the room with a wink.
Marissa laughed as she turned back to her computer to work. The past couple of months had been a real growth experience for Marissa and Lance. They’d completed six weeks of couple’s therapy and were now down to seeing the therapist once a month, though Marissa kept her solo appointments twice a month as well. They’d talked a lot about what went wrong in their relationship before and how to avoid the same pitfalls. They’d talked a lot about their kink dynamic and how to use it to strengthen their relationship instead of using it to escape the parts of the relationship that were suffering before.
Her mind wandered to the first night after she’d moved back in with him. Heat flooded her cheeks as she thought about the way he’d taken her. She was pretty sure he’d given her an orgasm in every room in the house.
A knock on her door frame startled her out of her memories and her face flushed with heat as she jerked her head toward the interruption.
“Sorry again, Miss Sullivan but you might want to see the Chicago Celebrity Dirt blog.”
Marissa clicked over to a new browser window and typed in the website name.
“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Should I call someone?”
Marissa shook her head. “I’ll handle it. Thank you, Cameron.”
When he was gone, she picked up her phone and dialed Lance’s private line.
“What’s up Kitten? I’m neck deep in bugs over here.”
“I’m sorry. I know you’re busy but go to Chicago Celebrity Dirt. Did you know we broke up again?”
Lance groaned, but she heard his fingers on the keys as he went to check out the article.
“What should we do?”
Lance laughed. “I say we don’t do a damn thing.”
“But this could hurt our chances with Griffin. They kind of liked our love story and they might see a potential breakup as the company being unstable.”
Lance sighed. “Riss, if we respond to every salacious thing the gossip columns decide to make up about us we would get nothing done.”
“I know, but isn’t that what we have a PR department for?”
Lance chuckled. “Technically they are there to make the company look good, but you’re right. We can set up a personal PR team for ourselves. I’ll call Dana Gray.”
“OK. Thank you. Sorry to bother you.”
“You’re not bothering me, Kitten. I miss having you up here with me.”
She grinned. The man had practically forced her to open her own shop, and now he missed her? It was sweet.
“You’re so sappy,” she said, adding a gagging sound for effect.
“I can switch to strict asshole Dom if you’d rather,” he said, his voice taking on that tone.
She swallowed. “No, Sir. I’m good.”
“That’s what I thought. Now quit worrying about gossip rags and get back to doing what you love.”
“I’ve been told by HR it’s inappropriate to do you at work, Sir.”
His laugh was dark. “You and your mouth are this close to being dragged up to my office.”
“Hanging up now, Sir,” she said with a giggle.
Once back to focusing on her work, she did her best to put the article, and Friday night dinner, out of her mind. It wasn’t hard, but she still couldn’t concentrate, because all she could think about was being dragged into Lance’s office.
8
Thursday, December 13th
Lance
“Mr. Moss, has Miss Sullivan left yet?” Sean, one of their drivers asked Lance. He frowned as he pushed back from his desk to stretch.
“I think so. We’re both working on our own projects today, so she was going to go home ahead of me. Why?”
“It looks like you have a couple reporters or something snooping around the property and she isn’t answering her phone. Just wanted to give her a heads up.”
“Thank you, Sean. Let me see if I can track her down.”
When he ended the call, he immediately dialed Marissa’s office and got Cameron.
“Is she in?” he asked.
“No, Mr. Moss. She left about an hour ago.”
“Did she say where she was going?”
“I assumed home, but she didn’t say specifically.”
He hung up without saying goodbye and dialed Marissa’s cell.
“Is there a reason you’re not answering your phone?” he asked when she said hello.
“I believe that’s what I just did? What crawled up your butt and died?”
He blew out a breath and prayed for patience. “Sean has been trying to reach you. Are you at home?”