Page 7 of Close to the Edge

“We have a new client.”

“Yes! Great job, Maggie. I’ve no idea what I’d do without you, Maggie. I’ll even consider giving you that pay raise you’ve been hinting at for the last six months, Maggie.”

“Keep talking about yourself in the third person and your boss will think you’re a lunatic and fire your ass.”

“I don’t want that. At all. What do you need me to do?” she asked, back in my preferred super-efficient mode.

I strolled to the farthest window while I updated Maggie on the assignment. “My first thought was to keep her completely off the radar while I hunted down this creep, but I’ve changed my mind.”

“O...kay.”

“I need you to prepare a couple of safe houses. Have the jet on standby, too. We might need to change location quickly.”

“Yes, boss. Right away, boss.”

“Don’t be a smart-ass, Maggie.”

“Absolutely not. Safe houses. Private jet. Check.”

“Good girl. And if you insist on it, you can go get some sleep after that. But I need you bright and early in the morning. Got it?”

“Of course. I’ll text you once it’s done.”

I hung up, satisfied with taking the direct approach to Lily’s problem.

I turned around. She’d stopped messing with her cuff, but her fingers were linked over one knee, and the look in her eyes was mildly censorious.

“You have something to say?”

“Do you treat all your employees like that?”

I pocketed my phone. “Like what?”

“Like they’re one level up from chattels.”

I retraced my steps back to her. “I don’t have a problem cracking the whip, if that’s what you mean. I find it works best if it’s established clearly who’s boss.” I didn’t add that Maggie often rolled her eyes when I used my dominant voice. Which was pretty much all the time.

“So that’s your thing? You like to lord it over people?”

I shoved my hands in my pockets as I stood over her. This time the disparity was even more acute, and her upturned face was even more exposed. Fuck, she was so small, such a delicious morsel wrapped in a bundle of sharp brains and fierce beauty. That feral urge to possess her stormed through me, firing up every cell in my body.

Still, I should probably have curbed the words that slid to the tip of my tongue. But hell, I was never one to back down from speaking my mind. I’d learned the hard way how high the cost of holding my tongue could be.

“Would you like me to lord it over you, sweetheart?”

Her eyes widened into alluring green pools. Her nostrils pinched delicately as she inhaled too quickly. “Excuse me?”

“I will, Lily Gracen, but only if you ask me very, very nicely.”

Lily

There were so many things wrong with his statement that I didn’t know where to start. I wasn’t even sure where shock ended and annoyance started. Which was surprising since for the past three years I’d lived in an environment dominated by the worst type of male ego—one with a half-decent brain and a bottomless bank account.

Silicon Valley wasn’t the place for shrinking violets, and while my start at SDM may not have been conventional, I soon learned to find my voice or be flattened by pompous assholes.

That voice was now trapped somewhere between my throat and my tongue as I stared up at the seriously gorgeous man planted before me, watching me with eyes that started saucy little fires in my body.

I cleared my throat. “You’re forgetting who hired whom, Mr. Steele. Technically, I’m your boss. If anyone will belordinganything, it’ll be me.”

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