Not that they knew she found them both as tempting as sin on a Sunday though. They probably didn’t even have her on their radar.
She couldn’t prove it, but she bet every guy that signed on Uncle Sam’s dotted line received a handout on how to rock the intimidation with a side order of sexy. She tightened her hold on the pen she clutched a fraction more and steadied her bouncing knee. Reining in her thoughts, she turned a bit in her chair.
She might fantasize about having the two battle-hardened men at once, but reality really sucked when it shoved the truth in her face. What did she know about having two men? That little admission stung.
Reece, who stood with his hand still resting firmly on her shoulder, was the first of the two men to speak up. “Miss Torres, you might say you missed the entire day with how distracted you’ve been since keying in late this morning.” Reece released her shoulder and stood back, waiting.
His deep voice invited her to answer his unspoken question. Abigail didn’t miss the eagle sharp stare of her other employer from the head of the table either.
The fine print of her employment had been clear. They operated under a strict zero-tolerance policy. If she failed to complete her duties or misrepresented their company in any fashion, her contract with them would be terminated.
Abigail winced. Without her Re-con Security's job, her student loans alone would eat through the little savings she had put away within a couple of months. But if she was honest with herself, she’d feel worse about letting both men down. They’d stuck their necks out for her by hiring a woman with a freshly inked diploma and no experience out of so many applications. She loved her job, being part of a team and working to build one of the country’s most successful security companies.
Her heart swelled and despite all the anxiety eating away her insides, she had to smile. One night over takeout, when Reece, Caden and herself had punched in overtime, Caden relayed the story of how he and Reece had met in boot camp.
In between bites of fried shrimp and noodles, she’d earned an insight to their decade-long friendship and how they’d known since those first grueling weeks of training that they were either going to hate each other or use their combined strengths to do something great.
After that night, Abigail knew she belonged here, a part of their working family. And to not see her men every day made her heart heavy.
They weren’t hers outside of her fantasies, but she’d take whatever her warped imagination could give her.
Abigail wet her lips. “You’re right. It’s nothing, it’s…”
What should she say? She couldn’t mix her job with her personal life by telling them. Plus, what if it was just some prank? She’d only been working for the Re-Con Securities for a little over five months. She couldn’t burden her new employers with whatever the hell she was dealing with. If it came to it, that was what the cops were for anyway.
Besides, she was here to help solve problems, not bring them problems.
From her seated position, her gaze switched between the men. “It won’t happen again, gentlemen.” She caught a flash of something light the men’s eyes. A spark of heat gone so fast she questioned if she saw it at all. What was that about?
She could analyze it later. Much later. Right now she needed to work fast and salvage her job. Abigail pushed back from the large table and gathered all the folders she’d brought for the conference call she’d been summoned to help organize.
She stacked the files neatly, running her fingers over the sides multiple times.
Abigail turned to both men slowly, forcing her eyes not to dip.
They stood with their arms crossed and rock-hard muscles coiled tight beneath their cotton dress shirts. It didn’t take a stretch of the imagination to know they were just as solid everywhere else.
She looked between them as the silence grew heavy.
“Are you…am I…” She wavered on how to pose her thoughts into a question she really didn’t want the answer to in the short or long run. What if they did decide to let her go? Could she blame them? Today was a monumental day for their company and she’d dropped the ball.
Abigail squared her shoulders, and despite the butterflies doing the cha cha cha in her stomach, she pushed forward. “Am I fired?” She mentally patted herself on the back. Her voice sounded wobbly but didn’t break. That had to say something for her.
An astonished expression replaced the inquisitive look on their faces simultaneously.
Reece dashed away the surprise her question caused and followed Caden as if they moved as one to settle their big hands over hers, stilling her hurried motions with the paperwork.
This close, God help her, they smelled like gods. Sex gods that could promise and deliver wildly passionate nights of the kind of sex that would leave her profoundly fulfilled.
They stood next to her and looked at her, into her with dark, knowing eyes. Almost like they could read her mind and it made her shiver with uncertainty.
She inhaled again, wanting to etch the memory in her mind.
Pure heaven and pure sin all in one.
“Are we firing you? Look, Abigail,” Caden jumped in first, pulling her out of her jumbled thoughts.
He flicked a thumb toward Reece, who moved to the head of the table. “It’s not nothing and I think you know us better than to believe we’d give you the boot so quickly. Now tell us what has you so wound up and unfocused so we can help.” For a split second he looked hurt.
That smarted.
Her heart rate quickened at the small gesture of comfort from Caden’s touch and the dismissal of her question. Tension across her shoulders eased and the flutter of uncertainty lessened.
“Sorry, I understand your no tolerance policy so I kind of jumped to assumptions.”
Caden only nodded while, from the head of the table, Reece stood listening to her with his arms crossed and his attention on her. His white dress shirt stretched across the wide expanse of his strong, broad shoulders, tightening in all the right places that made a woman’s feminine side sit up and take notice.
“You’re biting your lip, which is a nervous tic and the worried look in your eyes, Abigail, adds to the layering of clues. Another is the way you’ve been looking out that window for the last two hours like you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, sweetheart.”
“Tell us, darlin’, so we can help.” Reece lifted his dark eyes from Caden to land on hers. A slow smile glided across his face to offer her comfort, she supposed.
Caden had a point, but all her freaked out mind took away from that was his sweet endearment. Before today they always used her given name when at the office or Miss Torres when accompanied by Re-con clients.
The words sweetheart or darlin’ didn’t fit into their vocabulary as far as she knew, but it sounded lovely all the same.
“There’s no reason to be reading me like you do one of your clients. I’m fine. Promise.” But her voice failed her and the lie didn’t come off as smoothly as she’d hoped.
Reece narrowed his eyes and she could clearly see how displeased he was with her lack of answers at his command.
“Remember, we do this for a living. Reading people. So tell us, Abigail. You’re not leaving until you do.” Reece unfolded his arms and leaned forward, resting his hands on the back of the chair in front of him. He wasn’t going to take another dismissive answer.
After being walked all over by a cheating fiancé who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants and a shitty childhood that left her heart broken, hearing Reece’s ultimatum sent a shock of defiance through her blood and set her nerves on edge.
Abigail pulled her hand out of from under Caden’s and turned toward where Reece stood. She pinned him with a narrowed-eye glare.
Looks like tomorrow I’m hunting for a new job after all.
“Reece Sterling.” She whipped his name out with a roll of her tongue. Before she could dish out the rest of her sentence and tell him exactly what he could do with his high-handedness Cade
n stepped in, placing a gentle touch to her elbow.
“Don’t pay any attention to him, sweetheart. Reece can be a controlling ass sometimes. Especially if he’s worried about someone he cares about.”
Caden leveled his own narrowed-eyed glare over his shoulder at his partner—who only shrugged—before returning his attention to her. “You can talk to me while he pulls his foot out of his mouth and finds a more suave way of posing his concern for you and your safety.”
Cares about? Abigail stopped in her tracks. What was that supposed to mean? What was going on with these two? She couldn’t shake the feeling they were having a silent conversation.
Her frayed nerves zinged with raw energy and her fingers twitched against her sides. Folders and papers forgotten, she sidestepped Caden and that damn sexy half grin of his and took a detour straight for the coffee station on the opposite side of the conference room.
Caden stepped back a fraction to let her pass, his gaze locked on her every movement.
She grabbed the coffee and filled a mug before turning back around to face the Re-con inquisition. These two wanted answers and truth be told she didn’t have a clue where else to go for help. Now somewhat calmer, she swallowed her pride long enough to palm her phone from the top of stacked folders.
“I’m showing you both these because I’m no fool. But I need your promise this doesn’t leave this room. Please.” Abigail lifted her eyes to lock with theirs a beat before continuing.
“You have nothing to worry about,” Reece spoke first and then Caden.
“You have our word.”
She worried her lower lips a second longer and then nodded as she took in their no bullshit expressions.
She swiped her thumb across the screen and pulled up the violating images. “I was on my way here this morning when this arrived in my work email.” She bit her lip and took a deep breath to calm the quivers in every fiber of her body. She couldn’t believe she was going to show these pictures but what choice did she have?
Reece raised from where he rested his weight on the back of the office chair and stepped closer to her left. So close she could feel his heat radiate out and envelope her. And in some odd way it comforted her, as if she was doing the right thing. She passed over the phone and cringed at what the images detailed. This was definitely not how she pictured them seeing her naked ass for the first time.
Both men stood in silence for a long moment. Their eyes never leaving the screen.
“I see. I didn’t realize you were into exhibitionism, Miss Torres.” Reece’s biting tone grated on her nerves more than hurt her. But she couldn’t ignore the twinge of pain deep in her chest. The pictures he referred to were of her returning from a midnight dip in the lake behind her house. She lived several miles outside the city limits and miles from her closest neighbor. The thought of someone being so far out there watching her had never crossed her mind.
He flicked a couple more times, oblivious to the power of his words and then he stopped on the one. Whoever took pictures of her had caught her mid-fantasy splayed out on her bed, fully naked and dreaming of taking one of her bosses in her mouth while the other claimed her virginity. She’d cum hard that night, yet fell asleep feeling empty.
“Were you worried we’d find out about these through blackmail from some boyfriend or a one-night stand? That we would fire you? Is that what you’re so worked up about?”
Reece’s soft tone clashed with his hardened indecipherable expression and pulled her out of deep thoughts. Even his eyes looked frosty when he lifted his eyes to hers. Abigail took a half step back and her mouth fell open. Her breath came in tiny, shaky pants and heat flushed her body. She could do nothing more than gape back and forth between both men.
She moved her mouth a couple of times before the words started flowing. “So we’re back to Miss Torres now and are you serious?” Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat before continuing. “I show you these and that is the first conclusion you come up with? I’ve spent days, and sometimes nights long after everyone else has gone home working by both your sides. You should know me better than that. Or at least I had hoped.” A furious wave of hurt and embarrassment washed over her.
Caden reached around her and plucked her phone out of Reece’s hand and started scrolling, his expression mirroring Reece’s now.
Abigail took a deep breath to recover from the double punch to the stomach. She was a fool to put so much trust in them. In anyone really. After her rotten childhood and an even worse ex-fiancé, she still hadn’t learned her lesson. And now that Reece and Caden knew her body in various sorts of disrobement, including full commando, she hoped like hell this was the final lesson she needed to drive the point home.
Trust was no more than a myth.
“No, gentlemen.” Abigail slashed her hand in the air between them. She cocked her head to the side, channeling all the hurt in her heart into her tone. She wanted to make damn sure they understood what she had to say next because afterward, she was walking out the door and never looking back. “Because you obviously think less of me than I thought, let me explain something to you. I’m not some vain exhibitionist who likes to slink around naked or a woman who sleeps around. In fact, I haven’t dated in over a year. According to my ex being a virgin, it seems, is a huge turn off for men., So, no, Mr. Sterling, these pictures are not me getting off by flaunting myself or from some random hook-up or fling. Someone invaded the privacy of my home. A place where I’m supposed to feel safe and secure. Not fearful and prayed upon.”
With every ounce of dignity she had left, Abigail willed away the burning sensation against the back of her eyes.
The longer she talked, the higher Reece’s brows climbed or maybe it was her virginal confession that had shock written all over both men’s expressions.
Who knew or cared? She let the anger building in her veins bleed into her words, so he was bound to be burning from the cut.
His nostrils flared and his broad, muscular chest expanded with each deep inhale. And just like that, the hard lines around his eyes softened. For a fleeting moment she thought he would apologize, but so true to his character, he sealed his lips instead.
Defeat replaced a fraction of her anger before resolve settled in. She straightened her shoulders. “I’ll gather my things.” It took all she had to hold back the hurt from her tone this time.
White-knuckling her now cold coffee, she placed the mug on the table, gathered her folders then walked past her bosses. Pesky tears pricked the back of her eyes, but she refused to show any more weakness in front of the two men she began to think, for some silly moment, might care for her.
“Sweetheart, stop.” Caden’s soft command had her pausing inches from the door, but it was Reece’s gentle hand on her elbow that turned her around slowly.
“I apologize. Damn. I’m sorry, Abigail. I’m an idiot.” Regret flashed in his eyes, and she saw he truly meant what he said.
She nodded, her mouth set in a grim line.
Reece guided her away from the door and deeper into the conference room.
He led her to the table and Caden pulled up a chair for her. She eased down and crossed her arms over her chest.
Both men took their own chairs, briefly glancing at each other as if communicating in secret code. With the table at her back, they effectively had her cornered.
Reece braced his elbows on his knees and leaned closer. So close that with the slightest movement, the material of his slacks brushed against her bare knee. She caught Caden appraising her from under hooded eyes and her cheeks flushed from the attention. She hoped her face didn’t betray the fear she felt inside.
Caden shifted back in his seat and moved his focus to Reece. With a single nod toward the phone Reece held, Caden asked, “Why don’t we start over, Abigail?”
Reece passed her phone back to her. When she reached out to take it, he captured her hand in a gentle hold. “Start from when you received these. Please.” His gaze held something that borde
red on pain. Like she was the one hurting him.
More for her to digest on the mystery that was Reece Sterling.
“Before I do that, why don’t you both tell me what’s going on with the ‘sweetheart’ and ‘darling?’”
She motioned between the three of them.
“You can’t just throw that at me and not explain,” she continued.
Heat once again crept into her cheeks. They continued to sit, their expressions giving nothing away. Abigail nibbled at the flesh of her lip. Did she overstep and read too much into their words? Maybe they were just trying to calm her.
As usual, Caden spoke first. His husky tone pulling at the tethers to her libido. “Because we’re tired of watching from a distance and hiding what we’re feeling.”
She straightened in her chair, brows knitted together.
Feeling?
Watching from a distance?
Reece shot Caden a look of frustration from the way his expression turned grim, if that were even possible. The man wore annoyance like most men wore cologne.
Silence bloomed between the three for a drawn-out moment before Reece took her hand in his.
It was damn annoying how easily her body responded to the slightest touch from either man.
He smiled and the effect reached his eyes and blew her mind all in a single second. Reece’s smile was like a shot of tequila. Warm, intoxicating and an experience you would never forget.
His square jaw with a feather-light dusting of stubble highlighted his kissable lips.
Her heart sank when his expression grew solemn again.
Caden sat forward too. This close and she could almost kiss them with just a small turn of her head. The air grew warmer around her, their mingled masculine scents working double time to calm her nerves. Was it because she wanted to trust them, have them this close to her, or did they have that effect on all women? Probably a little of both.
Red Hot Steamy Romance Boxed Set: A Steamy Military Romance Series Collection Page 14