Monroe, Marla - Hot and Bothered (Siren Publishing Classic) by Marla Monroe Page A

hell for? You practically run his office and do all the work on his projects.” Savanna couldn’t believe the lowlife would actually fire her.
    “He says I screwed up an important client’s file, and the client was threatening to take his business somewhere else.”
    “Is he still trying to get you to continue your affair with him?” Savanna asked.
    “Yes. He says I’m just upset over my breakup with Ben. He says it’s all for the better, and there is no reason we can’t continue like we were.”
    “He’s using this problem that has come up with the client to blackmail you, Karen. You know he is.”
    “I know, but I don’t know what to do about it. I don’t want to lose my job, Savanna. I’m good at it. I know I didn’t make a mistake, but he won’t even let me see what he’s talking about.”
    “Do you keep copies of what you do here?”
    “Yes, and I’ve gone through everything this weekend for the project and can’t find anything that looks out of place. I just know this is all a big blowup over nothing.”
    “Do you have any idea who the client is? Maybe you could contact him personally and assure him you didn’t do anything on purpose.”
    “I don’t know which one it might be. We worked on five different projects over the last few months.” Karen shook her head. Tears escaped again.
    “Don’t worry about it. We’ll come up with something. That bastard isn’t going to get away with this.” Savanna sighed. Then an idea occurred to her.
    “We need to get evidence of him having an affair with you. Then you would have some leverage against him. He isn’t going to risk his job with a scandal.”
    “I’m not going to sleep with him so we can get some dirty pictures!” Karen growled.
    “You shouldn’t have to, honey. We just need some incriminating ones. You can go along with him to a certain extent to get the pressure off of you—lull him into a false sense of security that he has you indebted to him. Then we will get our proof, and that should stop him from firing you.”
    “I hope so. I don’t know what I’m going to do if I lose this job. I won’t be able to get another job like this. He’ll blackball me.” Karen ran a hand through her hair.
    “Stop worrying about it, and let’s get you cleaned up. We’ll go out for lunch and make our plans.”
    “I really don’t feel much like going out. Let’s just have a salad here. I have plenty for both of us.”
    “Go jump in the shower, and I’ll throw it together,” Savanna said.
    She watched Karen disappear into the bedroom, and a few minutes later, the shower turned on. This was bad. She didn’t want to sound worried since Karen was already upset, but she wasn’t sure blackmailing her boss was going to work. Getting incriminating evidence without Karen actually having to sleep with him was going to be next to impossible.
    Savanna sighed and walked into the kitchen. There were dirty dishes in the sink, which wasn’t like her friend at all. She was one of the cleanest people Savanna had ever known. She washed the dishes while turning everything over and over in her mind, trying to come up with possible scenarios. By the time she had the salads ready, she had a couple of possibilities. She was just about to go looking for Karen when she walked into the kitchen looking much better, though still gaunt with red-rimmed eyes.
    “I wasn’t sure which dressing you wanted, so I didn’t put it on the salad.” Savanna indicated the two bottles of dressing sitting out on the counter.
    “Doesn’t matter, either one would have been fine.” Karen still didn’t sound like her old self.
    “Have you talked to Ben at all since you two split?” She hated to bring it up, but she still thought they were great together.
    “No, I don’t think he wants to hear from me. I didn’t exactly leave on good terms,” she said.
    “He loves you, doesn’t he?”
    “Well, he did.” Karen fiddled with her salad.
    “I think you love him, too.”