Pressure: A Diamond Doms Novel

by Ivy Nelson

  "And you think she would be better off without me?"

  "Now you're putting words in my mouth. I really have to go, Mr. Moss. Let me just leave you with this. You probably know her better than you think you do, and the answer is right in front of you."

  He scowled as the call ended. What the fuck was that supposed to mean?

  He paced his office and glanced at his watch. It was rush hour, it would take forever to get across town. But he had to try something. After their last therapy session, she'd been happy he came to see her. Did she want him to chase her again? He had no idea, but he knew he had to try.

  Ninety minutes later, his driver pulled into her apartment complex parking lot. He strode to the door, still irritated that she lived here.

  He rang the doorbell several times, though he had no idea if she was home.

  She yanked the door open with cash in her hand. "Sorry, I was in the bedroom..." her sentence trailed off when she realized he wasn't there to deliver food.

  "Go home." Her words were terse.

  "I can't. Talk to me."

  The delivery driver stepped up with bags of Chinese. Lance fished a fifty-dollar bill out of his pocket and shoved it him.

  "Beat it," he said, taking the food.

  The driver froze for a minute until Lance glared at him. "Keep the change and beat it," he snarled.

  "What are you going to do, hold my food hostage until I talk to you? You just gave that guy like a thirty-dollar tip."

  He stared at the amount of food. "All of this was twenty bucks?"

  "Cheap Chinese is the best. Can I have my dinner please?"

  He clutched the bags.

  "Come work with me. You'll be in charge of an entire department of developers. Full hiring and firing authority and you can implement whatever gender bias training you see fit, company-wide, not just in your department."

  She whistled. "That's a pretty sweet offer."

  "Don't say yes right now. Just say you'll think about it." He shoved the bags of food in her direction. "I'll let you eat your dinner and I'll send a courier over with an offer."

  He took a step back as she held the bags and stared at him.

  "I'm sorry, Marissa. I didn't mean to hurt you again and I know you did nothing to hurt me. Let me make it right. Even if you want nothing to do with me romantically. We can have a go between at work, so you never have to see me unless you want to."

  She blew out a breath and shook her head. "I'll think about it. Now go away."

  ♦♦♦♦

  Marissa watched as Lance walked away with slumped shoulders. She'd planned to spend the night working on code for a new app she wanted to market to potential investors in her new company, but he was offering her something far more lucrative and potentially game changing.

  Could she work with him again? There was so much to lose. What was to stop him from making another baseless accusation?

  She sat on her couch and opened a box of steaming food. She absently stirred the pork fried rice with her chopsticks as she contemplated her dilemma. She didn't have another session with Dr. Hoffman until next week, but she would kill to talk to the woman now.

  He looked so dejected when she walked away, and she knew from the texts he'd sent her that he was genuinely apologetic.

  She sighed and shoveled rice into her mouth. As she pushed chopsticks back into the box for another bite, her phone rang.

  She frowned at the number.

  "Hello?" she answered with hesitation.

  "Marissa, it's Eli Barrett. I wondered if Solitaire could employ your expertise again."

  "What can I do for you?"

  "We're still not convinced we don't have a mole among us. Would you be willing to work with us and keep everything super hush hush? You've got skills and Lance is not in a good place right now."

  She sighed. "Lance is the reason I have to say no. That's his system and I would report to him."

  Eli cleared his throat. "No. You would be answering to me. I can make sure you don't have to interact with him unless you want to."

  God it was basically the same offer Lance had made her. But she was genuinely curious about who was on the inside working against Solitaire. Who could want them shut down or hurt?

  "I guess I'll say yes then since I quit my job in Chicago."

  Eli chuckled. "Very good. Do you want to come here and work or can you access our systems remotely?"

  "While I've got you on the phone, I wondered if I could talk to you about my membership. I enrolled in the house sub program but um..."

  Eli was quiet as she trailed off. Finally, he cleared his throat and said. "If you still want to be a member, we would love to have you. You can either have another Dom take over your training or you can withdraw from the program. If dues are a problem, we can find another scholarship for you."

  She blew out a breath. "I'll pay the dues. Lance is the only one I could ever..." she faltered.

  "I completely understand. Does that mean we'll see you this weekend?"

  "Let's take it one day at a time. I'll access your files and start working right away."

  It was nearly three in the morning before Marissa finally told herself to go to bed. She'd spent all evening pouring over files and background information. She wasn't an investigator, she was a hacker. Eli hadn't explicitly asked her to hack into their members lives but he'd hinted that he would look the other way if she had cause to dig a little deeper into someone's background.

  It was petty, but she'd gone for Jodie first. She was a Los Angeles native who went to Caltech and had a Graphic Design degree. Not exactly a hacker type but going to a place like Cal Tech you kind of couldn't help but hang out with those types.

  It disturbed her that the girl had no social media footprint. If she were a graphic designer, she would have to advertise somehow, wouldn't she?

  Ultimately, she'd set the girl's files aside knowing she was being petty and jealous. Lance hadn't slept with her, that much she knew.

  Now, as she was going to bed, her attention was drawn back to the girl and her last encounter before she was kicked out. “You’ll regret the day you came back into his life.”

  Not into his life, back into his life. The woman knew she was Lance’s ex and they’d never shared that information. Damn it. Her fingers flew across the keys as she tried to worm her way back into the dark web chat forum.

  It wasn't there.

  Had someone wiped it?

  There had to be traces somewhere.

  But her eyes were red from the strain and she knew she had to close them for a few hours, or she wouldn't get anywhere.

  Despite knowing better, her brain fucked with her all night long, and she dreamed of Jodie and Lance in bed together.

  By the time she woke four hours later, she was pissed and ready to fight.

  By the end of Wednesday, she was getting nowhere with Jodie and she knew she had to move on to other members and finish the job Eli had hired her for.

  Her phone lit up as she rubbed at her eyes.

  "Hello?" she answered.

  "Marissa, it's Austin. You going to be at the club this weekend?"

  "Eli told you he rehired me?"

  "Something like that. I also noticed you paid dues and withdrew from the house sub program. All the cabins are free if you want to rent one and stay on site."

  She smiled. "Thanks. I'll think about it. I really do want to come hang out and people watch some more."

  Austin gave a hum. "I'm sure that's not all you want to do."

  Marissa shook her head. "I don't think anything else is on the table right now."

  "Let me know if you want Patrick to pick you up in his jet."

  "You do understand how ridiculous that sounds, right? It's not like he can just swing by the neighborhood and pick me up."

  Austin giggled. "It took some getting used to when we first got together but having a jet is fun. And he kind of can swing by. I mean not literally, but he's in Chicago on business and leaving t
omorrow night to meet me in Colorado if you want to tag along with him."

  She sighed. It would save her from having to book a flight and fly commercial. She'd ridden with Lance enough to know that private was the best way to fly.

  "OK. I'll do it."

  She could practically hear Austin grinning.

  "Great. I'll see you tomorrow night then. We can go to Denver and hit up a bar or something."

  Marissa grimaced. Bars weren't really her thing but she liked Austin so she might humor her.

  Her doorbell rang as Austin hung up.

  She frowned and made her way to the door. It was a messenger clutching a thick manilla envelope.

  "Marissa Sullivan?"

  She gave him a skeptical nod. Was she about to be sued?

  He shoved the envelope in her direction. She recognized the logo immediately.

  "Can you sign for it please?"

  She nodded and scrawled her signature on the clipboard he held out.

  When he backed away, she shut the door and tore the envelope open.

  It was the employment offer Lance had promised her.

  Her eyes widened as she read the offer. She would essentially run an entire arm of Lance's company. It was one of the most prestigious tech companies in the country. How could she turn it down? Her hands shook as she flipped through the contract.

  She owed it to herself to do some research. Lance wouldn't give her an unfair contract, but he might be overly generous in an attempt to win her back.

  She dialed Austin's number again.

  "You're not calling to cancel on the weekend, are you?"

  Marissa chuckled. "No. You know contract law, don't you?"

  "I do."

  "Would you be willing to give me some friendly advice if I bring a contract with me this weekend?"

  Austin hesitated and Marissa winced. "Sorry. I shouldn't have asked. I can just find a local attorney."

  "Wait. It's not that. It's just... Is it the contract Lance is offering you?"

  Marissa closed her eyes. "How did you know?"

  Austin laughed. "I know contract law and Lance wanted a friend to look it over before he had his own people look at it. He wanted to make sure he wasn't being too over the top."

  Marissa chuckled. "OK then. So, you think it's a solid offer?"

  "I do. Though if you're not going to fix your personal issues, they'll rear their ugly heads again in the future."

  Marissa was surprised at the woman's honesty, but she appreciated it.

  "You're right. Well. I guess if you've already looked at it, I won't bring it. I'll see you tomorrow."

  She hastily ended the call and went to her bedroom to pack for the weekend.

  25

  The cool Colorado air made Lance tug his leather jacket on as he stepped off his plane on Thursday evening. For once, there wasn’t a board meeting, so he’d arrived late, intent on crashing until morning. He still hadn’t heard whether or not Marissa was accepting his employment offer and he had no idea if she would be at Solitaire this weekend or not. An alert told him she’d paid membership dues and withdrawn from the house submissive program which gutted him but at least it looked like she still wanted to be part of the club. It gave him hope but the suspense was fucking killing him.

  Now that she was back in his life, he didn’t want to lose her. Even if that meant not sleeping with her, he had to have her in his world. It wasn’t complete without her. He just had to make her see that.

  He’d spent the week agonizing over her while trying to clean up the shit storm at Moss Tech. Reputation was hard to earn in this industry but it was easy to ruin and he was on the verge of doing just that if he didn’t fix his problems.

  There were just too many damn questions he didn’t have answers to.

  Twice, he’d nearly canceled his trip to Colorado this weekend, but he knew it was his second home and these people were his family. The chance he might see Marissa had also been a driving factor in his choice to get on the plane tonight.

  He walked into the Glenview and smiled when he saw Isabelle sitting at the desk.

  “Still don’t know how to take a day off, do you sweetie?”

  Isabelle glanced around and giggled. “Only under threat of a spanking from Garrett. I can’t help it. It’s in my DNA. I enjoy keeping busy. Especially when he travels so much.” Her voice grew quiet and a bit sad as she handed him his room key.

  “Hey,” he breathed, letting his fingers wrap around hers as he took the key. “The election is in a few weeks. You’ll get him back soon.”

  She smiled. “Thanks. Being around all of you helps too.” A guest stepped out of the nearby elevators and approached the front desk. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze and nodded to the stranger as he turned to step into the recently vacated elevator car.

  When the doors slid closed, he laid his head against the wall and let his eyes drift shut. It had been a long week. In the hallway on the highest floor, he pulled his bag behind him and looked for his room. He was just staying for one night before moving to Solitaire for the rest of the weekend.

  As he slid his key into the slot, a door farther down opened, and he looked up just in time to see Marissa stepping out. His hand froze and the light on the door switched from red to green and back to red again.

  “Um. Hi,” she said, giving him a little wave.

  Key still in the door, he turned and strode to her, intent on fisting a hand into her hair and crushing his lips to hers. She held up a hand and pushed it to his chest, keeping him at bay.

  “Down, boy,” she murmured.

  “Christ, Marissa. I can’t do this. We should be sharing a room.”

  Her eyes grew sad. “I’m not so sure we should.”

  “And my job offer?”

  She gave a half smile. “I’m still considering it. I um. I gotta go. See you tomorrow.”

  Lance felt his fists clench. Where was she going at nearly nine at night?

  As if she sensed his question she sighed. “Calm your protective ass down. I’m meeting Patrick and Austin for a drink.”

  He relaxed and nearly smiled as she brushed past him.

  With a shake of his head, he went back to his door and pulled the key free and tried unlocking it again.

  Inside, he stripped down and took a long hot shower but visions of Marissa showering with him had his cock standing at attention, so he yanked the knob for the cold water and shivered as it coursed down his body. He was a god damn mess over a woman. Something he didn’t think was possible anymore.

  Not just any woman. Marissa had always been his and they both knew it.

  ♦♦♦♦

  Marissa sat in Solitaire’s conference room and swiped at her red-rimmed eyes. She’d been staring at screens and files all day, stopping just long enough to shower in her cabin and change into something slightly more party appropriate. Try as she might, she’d found nothing to connect Jodie to Lance’s past or her own, but she knew the woman was involved and she wouldn’t stop until she proved it.

  It was just after seven and she knew she needed to make an appearance soon. But Lance was likely out there and after running into him in the hotel last night, she wasn’t sure if she was ready to face him again. His gaze as he’d stalked down the hall toward her screamed sex and dominance. He’d had every intention of trying to kiss her until she stopped him. At least she knew he still respected no.

  Austin poked her head in. “Come on, woman. You’ve been working all day. Let’s get you a drink.”

  Marissa looked up and smiled. “Be right there.”

  Shutting the laptop down, she pushed away from the table and stood to follow the leggy attorney into the bar. When the approached Mitch, the bartender who always seemed to be there, he gave them both a wide grin and began making their preferred cocktails.

  “Enjoy, ladies,” he said with a wink before moving to another club member to take their order.

  “To a weekend of fun and debauchery,” Austin said, raising her gl
ass.

  Marissa grimaced but toasted anyway. “I doubt there is much debauchery in my future but at least the booze is top shelf,” she said after a sip.

  Austin rolled her eyes. “Lance is in the corner brooding over you. All you have to do is sashay over there and flirt a little if you want debauchery.”

  Marissa turned her head to follow Austin’s gaze. Sure enough, Lance was sitting in a corner nursing a beer.

  Austin picked up her cocktail. “Excuse me a minute. I need to go talk to someone.”

  Marissa eyed her skeptically knowing damn good and well Austin didn’t need to talk to anyone.

  Lance must have sense her staring at him because he looked up and raised his beer in her direction. Even from across the room, she could see the irritation and moodiness on his face. He wanted to talk to her, but she didn’t feel ready. She could at least put him out of his misery about the job, though.

  Sliding from the barstool, she thanked Mitch for the drink and carried it to Lance’s table.

  “I’ll take the job,” she said, plopping into the chair across from him.

  His shoulders sagged in… relief? Had he really been that torn up about it?

  “Thank fuck,” he said. “Welcome aboard.” He raised his beer and clinked it to her glass.

  “Now how do I talk you into a scene with me tonight?”

  She closed her eyes. “I’m not sure that’s a great idea, Lance. I’m still struggling with what I overheard you saying to Patrick.”

  Lance leaned forward and ducked a hand beneath her chin. “You mean what you think you heard?”

  She closed her eyes, his touch sending sparks through her entire body. It had been a mistake to come over here.

  “Why don’t you come to the dungeon. We’ll talk, we’ll purge everything.”

  She sucked in a gasp. Purging emotional baggage during a kink scene was heady, cathartic, intense. And incredibly fucking dangerous if you weren’t in the right head space.

  “I can’t,” she murmured. “I’m just not ready.”

  He closed his eyes. “Sorry. You’re right. I should make the rounds and talk to the other members. I haven’t been very personable tonight.”