How far would you go to keep your wife? Would you let someone blackmail you?
Karen was afraid. Afraid that after her harrowing night, Connor would think better and tell her wife. Afraid that she couldn’t escape. Afraid that she had missed something and the worst was yet to come.
She doesn’t know the half of it.
The next morning she comes into work to find that Liz, the girl she’d seduced the night before, was her new executive assistant. And Connor wants to see her in his office, immediately.
But to her relief, nothing happens. She goes back to her office and relaxes. When Karen’s wife, Diane, comes to see her at the office, though, Liz takes Karen away for a “meeting.”
The only thing Karen’s going to meet, though, is the limits of her comfort zone. With Connor and Liz working together, she’ll find out exactly how far they can stretch.
EXCERPT
Karen’s jaw clenched automatically as she came through the door and saw Elizabeth. She’d almost hoped that the night before had been some sort of strange, terrifying dream.
But it wasn’t a dream. She knew it wasn’t—she hadn’t slept a wink. She was at the very end of her nerves before she even walked through the door, and she knew that if he hadn’t started in on her the night before, it was for a reason. That only made the entire thing more worrying. What on earth could he possibly have planned? How the fuck was she supposed to get around a plan that she wasn’t bale to figure out?
She let out a long breath. It wasn’t going to be too bad, she reasoned. As long as she just kept working, she could safely ignore everything and react as it came. If things went the same tonight as they had last night then she might be able to rationalize getting a few hours’ sleep. Or at least, she might be able to take a few sleeping pills and get the same effect.
Liz’s shirt was professional from a distance, but as she got closer it became less and less so. Men’s heads openly turned to watch her walk as she came up past security. She had a clipboard in her hand, a stack of papers ready, and a pen that dangled from a lanyard that pointed straight at her too-obvious cleavage.
She would have brushed it off for anyone else. Anyone who Connor didn’t have his claws in. She just liked looking good, liked feeling attractive. Karen knew better. She was doing this to frustrate her, she had to be.
Well, she was a grown woman. It wasn’t going to be too bad, surely.
“Hey, Mr. Rice wants to see you in his office as soon as you arrive.” Liz’s tone was professional and flat. The total opposite of the party girl who had been writhing on her desk the day before.
“Good morning to you, too, Miss…”
“Oh, I’m sorry. We haven’t been properly introduced, have we? Elizabeth Meyer. I’ll be your new assistant, Mr. Rice hired me.”
Karen’s teeth ground together harder at the charade.
“Nice to meet you, Miss Meyer. I’ll go right up.”
“Oh, I’m coming with you. I’m to transcribe the meeting, of course.”
“… Of course.”
Karen turned and started toward the express elevator. It only led to the top floors, which was good, because there were too damn many of them already. She stepped in and watched the doors close in front of her, felt the elevator start to lift, faster and faster.
Finally, with a jolt, it stopped and let out a loud ‘ding.’ The door opened and they were standing in the front area of Connor Rice’s lavish office. His secretary stood when she saw the pair and smiled.
“Connor told me to show you right in when you arrived, Mrs. Li.”
“I’m sure he did,” she said under her breath, following the woman through the thick soundproofed doors.
Connor smiled when he saw them enter. “Karen! You came. I’m glad to see you.”
Karen had no patience for the games he was playing. “What the fuck do you need?”
“Need? Nothing, I’m sorry. I just wanted to say hello, make sure you were doing alright.”
“I’m doing fine. If that’s all then I’m going to go to my office.”
“Don’t be silly, of course that’s not all. I just don’t need you. I had instructions for you. We’re going to need to talk about the next quarter on Wednesday, so I wanted to make sure that you went through the expense accounts and intake so that you were up-to-date on all of that.”
Karen’s jaw tightened. This was completely unlike him. He wasn’t one to micromanage, certainly not with her. “Did you really think you needed to tell me that?”