“Listen,” Maisie said, her voice trembling only a little as she prepared to give the man she loved a reason to cut her out of his life. “I think it’s really important for us to be honest with each other. To trust that we won’t judge each other for things that happened before we were married—”
“I’m not worried about you judging us,” he said with a little head shake.
“No, of course I wouldn’t, but—”
“What happened on the roof involved all three of us. We should be telling you together. But tonight isn’t the time to air our secrets. Let’s just… relax for a bit. All right?”
She anxiously opened and closed her fingers a few times. “All right,” she said.
“Good. There are other things to discuss. Like the future. I’d like you to come back and work at LB&B.”
About time. “Accepted.”
“You haven’t even heard my proposal yet.”
She grinned. “I’ve heard one of your proposals, and I doubt I’ll be able to reject this one, either.”
Ethan’s expression grew serious. He moved his champagne glass to the side and took her hand again. “Let’s talk about that for a moment. I know this marriage came out of left field. Have you told your family?”
“Eek,” she said, and laughed. “No. Not yet.”
“Why?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “I figured I’d wait to see what happens. The Ballystock thing will soon be nothing but a bad memory.”
She noted the irritated look on his face and decided to keep talking lest he give her another lecture about having visited Glasser.
“There’s no need for us to stay married. Not anymore.”
Ethan’s fingers tightened on hers. “Yes, there is. Because it makes sense. Because we know you, Maisie. You realize we all wanted to marry you. I’m the lucky one, and I’m not letting you go. If we get divorced, then Trent or Raphael will surely swoop you up. Face it; you’re a married woman now. Off the market. You’re ours.”
Ours.
The word made her think of the Master/slave collaring ceremony. She would be their slave. She would be theirs.
If the ceremony ever took place. Because for her bosses, that was the real measure of commitment. Compared to the ceremony, maybe marriage was like… going steady?
“This is your first serious relationship,” Ethan said.
“How… I mean…” She shook her head. She’d never told him that.
“You were thoroughly investigated,” he reminded her. “Of course we looked into your relationship history.”
“It seems a little unfair. I don’t know anything about you guys.”
“You will,” Ethan said.
Their dinner arrived, and Maisie tried to hold back, but she was hungry after the long day, and for several minutes she and Ethan ate in silence.
“Are you ready to hear my job offer?” he asked, setting down his fork and knife.
“Sure, but I already agreed to take it. I trust you.”
“You’ll remain in custodial services.”
She choked down a mouthful of peas and decadent cream sauce.
Ethan smiled. “We’d like to hire you as the building liaison. The results of the survey have been eye-opening. I thought I’d done a good job there, but there’s much room for improvement. Are you at all interested?”
Maisie didn’t know what to say. She didn’t have experience with that sort of position, and Ethan knew it. “Why me?”
“Why not you?”
She shook her head. “It would be weird. I’d be managing people who’ve been there far longer and who understand the job better. I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Then I haven’t explained the position very well. You would be responsible for aggregating the suggested changes, then working to see what can be implemented. The job is primarily research, which is something you excelled at when you were our assistant. The objective is to create a small, nimble department that looks for ways to improve efficiency.”
“I’m not going to lay people off,” she said stiffly.
“If they’re not working, you’ll need to. But I’m not trying to squeeze every last ounce of productivity out of these people. This is about improvements.” Pride flared in his eyes.
The employees would be thrilled to hear that mass firings weren’t on the horizon.
“What if I say no?” Maisie asked, curious. She already knew she would accept.
He cocked his head. “I thought you’d be thrilled about the opportunity. I know it’s not glamorous, but the three of us expected it would appeal to you.”
“I’m not saying I’m turning it down,” she said quickly. “Just wondering what would happen.”
“Ah. Trent warned us about your hypothetical questions. Didn’t one of your hypotheticals result in a lesson in the middle of the woods?” His gray eyes bored into hers.
She swallowed. “Yes,” she admitted.
“Did you deserve it?”
For asking who started the fire at Norman Ballystock’s house? Maybe her timing had left something to be desired. “Yes, or Trent wouldn’t have needed to punish me by denying me sex.”
Ethan nodded, a ghost of a smile on his lips. “Excellent answer. The truth is that while we’d love to have you working back on the sixtieth floor, you can’t return as our assistant. It wouldn’t be fair to the other assistants, and frankly, it wouldn’t be fair to you.”
Maisie thought of Heather, who was now getting large bonuses for her suggestion that Lotani reward employees for snitching on their coworkers.
“Why not hire Lotani? Half of their business is corporate management.”
A dark expression crossed Ethan’s face. “Lotani isn’t going well at the moment.”
Heather. It had to be. “What happened?”
“I’ve already spent all day dealing with it. I don’t want to talk about it tonight. Are you interested in the position? If you’re not, we’ll commence the search for someone else.”
Her mind whirled. Jayne would know if the thing with Lotani was a serious problem, right? Unless Jayne was the problem, in which case it had nothing to do with Heather.
Oddly, the thought that Jayne might have screwed something up made her feel almost as sick as the Heather situation.
“Maisie?”
She came back to the present with a start. “I’d love to take the job. Thank you.”
“You’ll be allocated space on the sixtieth floor. You don’t need to start right away. Next week, the week after. It’s up to you.”
“What about this week?”
“You’ve got plans for this week.” He smiled cryptically. “Your food is getting cold. Eat.”