Page 73 of Just Business

Eli had let Justin go. Stopped. Heeded the safeword.

The screech of tires and the long honk of a horn focused Justin.Shit. He’d run a light.Holy fuck. He was never that careless. After swinging down a side street, he slowed. Paid attention to his surroundings.

Had he really just walked out on Eli?

Yeah, he had.Oh God.No undoing that. Not that he wanted to.

He peddled back up to speed on his bike, mostly to ignore the wrenching shakes that were threatening. He didn’t have time for self-pity or for rich bastards. A few more blocks found him at his apartment. He dragged his bike down the steps and inside his hovel and collapsed on his bed.

He didn’t know whether to cry, scream, or throw up. What, exactly, had happened? Justin pulled the rumpled throw from the corner of the bed and hugged it close. Eli had happened, another rich man expecting Justin to bend over and take whatever was offered. Dinner, fucking, beating. He’d been a fool to think this time would be any different. Justin unbuckled the collar around his neck and threw it across the room. Should have walked away when Eli first ordered him to suck his dick.

Justin scrubbed his face. Sam would fire him once he got wind of this. There was always the coffee shop, or maybe finding a job on campus until he graduated. Something. Anything.

Anything but Eli.

Tears pricked at the corner of his eyes. A tiny voice, his own, whispered about mistakes and trust. Eli wasn’t Francis. He almost—almost—believed that voice.

He’d seen the bill. Knew his price.

Across the room, his backpack buzzed—a text on his phone. Justin pushed himself off the bed and dug it out.

Just tell me you’re safe, please!

He deleted the message and turned the phone off completely, then grabbed his laptop and sat down at the kitchen table.

Time to write a resignation letter.

Chapter Fourteen

As soon as Sam entered on Monday morning, Justin closed the outer door and followed him into the inner office. Now or never, the same way he’d gotten into this mess. His resignation letter shook in his hands.

Sam’s expression went from wary to a mask. Poker-faced, except for a tiny twitch of the eye. Justin had seen him like this before, but with customers. Never with any of them.

No, Sam, you’re not going to like this.He wanted to be packed and gone before Eli came to work. Once Sam sat, Justin handed him the letter. Sam studied it, set it down on his desk, and turned his gaze on Justin.

This man was so not a submissive. Not here, anyway. Justin resisted the urge to fidget under the weight of Sam’s stare. Sam didn’t even look at the paper as he pushed the page back across the desk.

“No.”

No anger, not a demand, but such finality in that single word, more so than any order Justin had ever received from any Dom—or anyone else, for that matter.

“No?” He should be furious, but Sam had spoken sofactually. That broke Justin’s anger into tiny pieces of confusion.

“This is the result of something between you and Eli, yes?”

He nodded.

“Then no.”

A spark of fury ignited finally. “It’s aresignationletter, Sam. You can’t say no to it.”

“Yes, I can.” Sam sat back in his chair. “I didn’t make a mistake when I hired you and I’m not about to let you walk away from a job you’re brilliant at because you’ve had a falling-out with your lover.”

Everyone making decisions for him. Even Sam. “You can find another assistant.”

“Yes, but I can’t find anotheryou.” Sam steepled his fingers and touched them to his lips. “I haven’t been grooming you to be myassistant, Justin.”

That stopped Justin dead. He sank down into the guest chair. “Grooming?”