Shadowlight by Lynn Viehl Page A

harassing other women. She insisted on hiring only male assistants. I did the math, Cal.”
    “Einstein couldn’t do this math,” he assured her. “Jessa, if you asked, I think I’d set myself on fire for you. So would Angie and everyone else.” He reached across the desk.
    Jessa flinched, jerking out of reach before she could stop herself.
    “Why does a warmhearted woman like you avoid being touched?” he asked.
    Her temper wanted to answer him, because a month after hiring him she had accidentally touched him. A brush of her fingers against him when exchanging a form had pushed her into the shadowlight, where she’d discovered his secret lust for Angela. She’d seen into his most private fantasies, most of which revolved around scenarios where he seduced and dominated the girl into adoring submission. Caleb’s secret bondage fetish was not the only shadow on his soul. When he had sex with other women, he always turned out the lights. His partners never knew it was so he could better pretend they were Angela.
    “Shit. That’s it, isn’t it?” she heard him say. “Touching them. You always shake hands with the ones you don’t trust.”
    The intercom light flashed, and with relief she answered it.
    “Jessa, a Mr. Bradford Lawson from GenHance, Inc., is on line three for you,” her switchboard operator said.
    She had no idea who Bradford Lawson was, but she’d heard of his company. Everyone who did business in Atlanta had.
    “Thanks, Karen, I’ll take it.” She looked at Caleb. He smiled. “Am I fired now?”
    “No.” She’d come very close to revealing something she’d guarded for ten years, and while she thought she could trust Cal, she needed to regroup. “Let’s talk about this again another time.” As he rose to leave, she added, “Caleb, I do appreciate your concern.”
    “No, you don’t. But you have it anyway.” Still grinning, he left.
    She let out the breath she’d been holding before she picked up the phone. “Good morning, this is Jessa Bellamy.”
    “Ms. Bellamy, Bradford Lawson from GenHance,” a pleasant tenor voice said. “Tim Baker from Nolan, Hill, and Suskin referred me to your company.”
    “That was very kind of him.” Jessa recalled the work she’d done for Tim Baker on three different paralegals he’d been interviewing for hire; one had turned out to be a plant from a rival law firm. “How can I help you, Mr. Lawson?”
    “GenHance is expanding its research operations in the Southeast,” he said. “That will create about forty new biotech-related jobs here in the city, and another two hundred support positions in our satellite operations over the next three months. The nature of our business has always required thorough background checks and credential verifications on all new hires, which until now was handled in-house. This new phase of our operations, however, is quite sensitive. To keep from having our research compromised, our CEO has decided to hire an independent firm like Phoenix, Inc., to screen our applicants.”
    “I’d be delighted to have the business, but I have to be realistic,” Jessa advised him. “We’re a small company, and two hundred and forty screenings can’t be done overnight. My people will need at least two weeks, maybe three, depending on the availability of the applicants for interviews as well as the specific information you’d like verified.”
    “Your candor is appreciated,” he said. “But what we’re looking for is a more permanent arrangement. If we can agree on terms, GenHance will contract Phoenix to screen all of our new hires. I have the projected figures here …”
    Paper rustled in the background. “About five thousand or so new positions over the next two years. Would you and your people be up to that kind of challenge?”
    Jessa thought quickly. She would have to hire more investigators, at least ten, to handle that much work. But this was what she had been working toward, and with the right contract,