Free Out of Control by Shannon McKenna

with unconcealed scorn. “Playing in the sandbox, are we, Marcus?”
    Marcus’s hands clenched into fists, his nails digging into the delicate Driscoll glove. “Just fiddling with some new designs.”
    She sniffed. “You’ve fiddled for years. You’re relatively intelligent, after all. With three PhD’s, don’t you think it’s time to stop fiddling and do something useful?”
    Like plan your disgrace and ruin, perhaps? “I’m working on patenting some of them,” he said vaguely. Let her think he was a vacuous idiot. He no longer cared. Her days were numbered anyway.
    â€œWhere on earth is the domestic staff, Marcus?” she demanded. “This place is becoming a sty. The terms of Titus’s will gave you and Faris the right to reside at Worthington House for life, but remember that the place does not actually belong to you. And it never will.”
    â€œI’m well aware of that,” Marcus said. He had, in fact, dismissed the staff months ago in preparation for the Blessed Event, which required utter privacy, to say nothing of the obtrusive presence of several armed professionals. He’d never dreamed it would drag out so long. He was tired of the dust and cobwebs himself. Another inconvenience to lay at Margaret Callahan’s door. Bitch.
    â€œIf the place falls to ruin, I will take legal action. And now, if you can drag your attention away from your toys, I have a real job for you.”
    Marcus’s stomach tightened, but his smile simply widened. He’d always been good at masks. “Of course.”
    â€œDr. Driscoll will be leaving his post as lab director. He’s going back to Boston, for health reasons. His place will be taken by Dr. Seymour Haight, who is flying in from Baltimore tomorrow. His plane stops in Seattle for one night. The next day he’ll fly to San Francisco.”
    Marcus nodded. Priscilla enjoyed humiliating him by giving him assignments more suited for a low-ranking social secretary. It was all she thought he was fit for. That, and holding Faris’s leash, of course.
    â€œI want you to organize his welcome,” Priscilla went on. “Arrange for lab security to have his enrollment data entered into the system. Highest security clearance. And have Driscoll’s deleted immediately.”
    â€œOf course.” He was glad he had avoided having sex with Driscoll after all. The event would have lost all its power, all its meaning.
    â€œArrange for housing, and a limo to pick him up at the airport.”
    â€œI’ll need his flight info and contact numbers,” Marcus said.
    Priscilla waved her hand vaguely. “Ask my staff. Melissa or Frederico should have the contact data. Tell them to arrange a dinner date for him with me that evening, too. The rooftop restaurant at the Halsey Crowne, that should be nice. Oh, yes, another thing. Where on earth is Faris? I haven’t seen him lurking about in weeks.”
    â€œHe’s mountain climbing in the north Cascades,” he said. “He loves climbing. It’s good for him. Keeps him emotionally balanced.”
    â€œClimbing? Unsupervised?” Priscilla’s brows snapped together. “Titus and I only permitted Faris’s release from Creighton Hills on the strict condition that you would monitor him constantly!”
    â€œFaris is under control,” Marcus soothed. “He’s taking his meds regularly. I talk to him several times a day on my cell phone.”
    â€œI don’t care! Get him back here immediately! I cannot risk any embarrassing incidents, particularly not after Driscoll’s little scandal! The one useful function that you serve around here is to keep an eye on Faris. If you can’t even handle that much responsibility—”
    â€œI’ll have him come home immediately,” Marcus assured her.
    â€œDo that,” she said crisply. “I am leaving myself this week to spend a