by L. A. Boruff
Only a few minutes of peace passed before several voices laughed from out front. Shifting, I stood just as four gorgeous men came down the hall. They obviously knew one another. There was an overt camaraderie between them, that comfortable air you get when you've really known someone for a long while. They stopped in their tracks when they caught sight of me and the tension levels in the room skyrocketed.
"Who're you?" The man on the far left pushed up a pair of chic, wire framed glasses and stared at me with what I could only guess was surprise.
"I'm Lucky Santos. Rick Lamper from Quantum sent me." The complete surprise on each of their faces had me fumbling. I already sucked around hot men, and these four could single-handedly melt the polar ice caps, but it was obvious they had no idea what I was talking about. I grabbed the folder I'd been given the day before and offered it to the one with the glasses. "I'm supposed to be on the team that sorts through the redundancies?"
Damn. I hadn't meant to let that come out as a question.
The four of them shared a look, and then the one in the back stepped forward. He was a good foot taller than me, and his jaw could cut glass, it was so chiseled. His deep chocolate eyes pierced me to my very core, as he blatantly checked me out. I couldn't really be upset, though, considering I was currently wondering if I needed a climbing harness to mount him. I know...naughty Lucky.
"I wasn't informed we would be receiving anyone from Quantum."
His voice was like a timpani, reverberating through me like an earthquake, and I bit my lip, while I tried to formulate a response. As immediately attractive as I found these men, I couldn't just roll over and let them dictate how this would go. Mr. Mountain was insinuating that I wasn't welcome, but I needed this job, and I wasn't going to let anyone kick me off of an assignment.
"Well, maybe you should check with your bosses over at Alphaline. Because I'm where I'm supposed to be, whether you like it or not."
The smallest of the men behind him, and I use smallest hesitantly, as he was still well over six feet tall, stepped forward and smiled crookedly at me. "No, Miss...Santos did you say?" I nodded and he took the folder from Glasses. "You misunderstand. We are Alphaline. I'm Fen," he gestured to the Mountain, "and this is Rawlins." He waved a hand at Glasses who nodded curtly and said, "Lowe." The fourth man offered me his hand, and when I shook it, I swear sparks shot up and down my arm. His dark blue eyes widened as he introduced himself. "I'm Marrok, but pretty much everyone just calls me Rok."
I couldn't help myself. I snorted, and he raised an eyebrow at my outburst. "Rok and Rawlins? Do you have a band?"
Rok looked like he couldn't decipher my sense of humor, but I caught the slightest hint of a smile perk up at the corner of Rawlins' lips.
Fen chuckled, drawing my attention back to him, and shook his head. “No rock band, but Rawlins plays guitar.”
The silence grew thick as the weight of all four of their stares had me feeling suddenly vulnerable.
Rawlins took a step forward, his mountain-esque stature filling my vision, and ran a decidedly delicate touch down the side of my cheek. I knew I should have been terrified or pissed or some combination of the two about him invading my personal space, but instead, my breath hitched, and I leaned into him. His chocolate eyes went molten, and all sense fled as his crisp, woodsy musk surrounded me.
The finger that had been hovering just along my jaw continued to trail a searing path down the side of my neck, and my eyes rolled back, practically of their own volition.
In that moment, the building could have come crashing down around us and I wouldn't have noticed. Rawlins growled something inarticulate, and then suddenly, I found myself airborne. We moved, me in his arms, and the world around us inconsequential, and when I next was able to catch my bearings, he was setting me on an abandoned desk, while simultaneously popping the buttons from my blouse with a quick tug.
"Wh—" His lips were on mine before I could complete my half-assed protest, searing me with the heat radiating from him. He licked across the seam of my lips, inviting himself into me, and I felt as though through heat alone, he could consume me.
He tasted like whiskey and campfire, and I couldn't get enough. His lips pulled away from me again, and I whimpered as his kisses trailed down my throat, nipping my sensitive skin with his teeth along the way and making me fear total combustion. I didn’t even know this man, and already, I was panting with desire. There was more sex in this kiss than I’d ever known, and I wanted more.
He stopped, his lips hovering just above my right breast. "Are you fond of this bra?"
In my hormone-laden stupor, I couldn't quite decipher his question, and shook my head. I couldn't really concentrate on anything beyond him and the way my skin ignited under his touch.
"Good." He rumbled deep in his chest, and suddenly my breasts were bare. A moment of panic wafted through my hazy thoughts, never having exposed myself to a man before, but all concern was swept away the instant his lips found my nipple.
"Oh God!" Sparks shot straight from his mouth to between my legs, and I gasped, lacing my fingers fiercely into his thick dark locks. "Don't stop!"
Rawlins was like a force of nature, raw power and somewhat terrifying. But I didn’t want him to ever stop. His tongue swirled around, and my panties dampened in direct response.
“Oh fuck me!”
He clamped his teeth down on my nipple and growled, the vibrations shocking my raw nerve endings. Distantly, I wondered what the hell I was doing, letting a complete stranger get so incredibly intimate, but the louder, more insistent part of me screamed out in rapture as cresting waves of pleasure sparked through me. Rawlins lifted his gaze and my breath hitched at the animal I saw staring at me through his eyes. It was just a moment of an amber gleam, but it was enough to rouse something within me, and I came, the most intense orgasm of my life crashing through me. Flashes of light danced around my vision, fireworks timed to pulse with me as each delicious throb sent pleasure coursing through my veins.
I never knew it could feel like that.
I may have been a virgin, but I wasn't a prude.
"Fuck," I rasped out as the waves slowed and my vision cleared.
Rawlins grinned. "Not yet, but we'll get there."
His deep, rumbling voice practically re-ignited my orgasm on the spot, and he dropped to his knees before me, pushing my skirt up and ripping my panties away in one smooth move. Lifting his gaze to me, he lowered his nose and inhaled. It was fucking erotic. "Oh gods, you smell like heaven."
I couldn’t think.
Rawlins was a man that exuded pure sex, and he was kneeling before me, looking at me like Christmas had come early. Still locked in eye contact with me, a wicked gleam crossed his face, and he stroked his tongue slowly in my most intimate of places. Shocked at the pleasure spiraling through me, I let loose a scream as an almost instant orgasm wracked through me. I'd never come twice before, even with my vibrator on the highest setting.
The door slammed open, and Marrok rushed in. He took one look at me, my legs spread wide with Rawlins kneeling with his face between them, and something visibly snapped. A snarl ripped out of him as he somehow threw Rawlins away from me with one hand. "Mine!" he roared.
Hearing Marrok claim me like that should have sent me running, but shocking not only myself, but both of the men posturing before me, it had the opposite effect. Heat pooled low in my belly, and I opened my legs wider while the aftershocks of my second orgasm were still riding me. Marrok’s hands dropped from where he was about to take a swing at Rawlins, and he took a step forward, his eyes glued to my bared core.
I gulped.
The waves of lust radiating from the sexy Viking man washed over as he prowled closer. Rawlins appeared glued to his spot, but the heat in his gaze wasn’t any less than that of his colleague.
A sharp inhale from the doorway cleared the fog in my head slightly, and I shifted my attention to find Lowe, the one with the glasses, standing there with his hand braced, white-knuckled, on th
e doorframe.
He cleared his throat, and assessed the situation with raised brows. "Everything alright in here, Miss Santos?" I could tell he was going for nonchalant, but the husk in his voice betrayed the fact that he was just as affected as the rest of us. I slowly sat up, pulling my knees together, completely horrified by my actions as the lust in the room cooled.
Rawlins glared at Lowe before storming out, and Marrok straightened from the crouch he'd assumed, tilting his head to the side as though I had suddenly gone from desirable woman to interesting specimen. My cheeks flushed, and I pulled the sides of my ruined blouse together over my exposed breasts. Lowe cleared his throat again, and Marrok turned without a word, leaving me alone with the bespectacled man.
"Oh my god..." Complete and utter embarrassment flooded me, and I stood on unsteady legs to straighten my skirt. Lowe stepped fully into the office and closed the door gently behind him.
"Miss Santos...?"
I shook my head and clutched my blouse tighter. "N-no. Please, it's Lucky." I cringed as he mouthed my name a few times, waiting for the inevitable joke.
"Lucky...I like it." The corner of his mouth quirked up, making him look younger. "Are you alright?"
He shrugged out of his blazer and handed it to me as a slight flush stained his cheeks. I took it wordlessly and slipped it on. The Armani label caught me off-guard, probably costing more than all my clothes combined, and as I buttoned it up, covering my ruined shirt and shredded bra, his words from earlier came back to me. "We are Alphaline."
Shit.
He hadn't said they worked for the company that had just bought mine. He said they were it. My panic must have been plain to read on my face, because his expression shifted, and he took a step back, as though afraid to frighten me.
"Lucky?"
To complete my humiliation, tears flooded my eyes, and a sob burst from my chest. "Please don't fire me!"
Warm arms wrapped around me as I dissolved into a blubbering mess. Lowe smelled like the ocean, and comfort radiated from him. "Nobody's getting fired today, Lucky. Just breathe."
My hormones threatened to surge again, but I reined them in with the steely control I'd mastered dealing with my mother. Drying my tears with the back of my hand, I stepped away from Lowe and straightened my posture. This was one of my future bosses comforting me, and a huge part of me still wanted to jump him right then and there.
Lucky Santos pull your shit together!
I squared my shoulders and took a deep breath. He was right, nobody was getting fired today.
A new fire ignited within me, and I once again felt in control of myself. Lowe smiled, seeing the change come over me, and held the door open, gesturing for me to lead.
Damned straight I'd lead.
I was Lucky freaking Santos, the girl who practically raised herself while her momma wasted what little money they had on good luck charms and lottery tickets. I learned to cook so I wouldn’t starve while momma went to free love festivals, and figured out how to forge her signature on school papers by the time I was seven. Four sexy men in suits weren’t about to bring me down.
I may have been completely confused on how my previously non-existent sex drive had taken control, but what about Rawlins? And Marrok? My temper flared. He'd said I was his?
Fuck that. I stomped down the hallway. I was nobody's plaything, and I certainly didn't belong to any of these sexy strangers.
I stepped back into the front room to give them a piece of my mind, but pulled up short when I saw Fen standing between Rawlins and Marrok, a restraining hand on each of their chests and an air of authority surrounding him. "No one is to claim her. She can't belong to both of you. Step away and listen to your wo—" Fen stopped speaking mid word when he saw me, and all three of them stepped away from one another with intense expressions. Lowe tried to squeeze past me, as I'd stopped directly in the middle of the entry, and his watch caught on the drooping lapel of his coat, yanking him back by the wrist, and causing him to grab me to keep from falling.
"Shit. Sorry, Lucky. Let me just..." His voice tapered off as he realized where exactly he'd grabbed me.
Knowing it was a complete accident, and feeling the overwhelming need to diffuse the tension in the air, I channeled my inner sassy Latina and laughed. "Usually I require a man to buy me dinner before he's allowed to get so fresh."
Lowe blushed again, as he pulled his hand away from my breast, and both Rawlins and Fen snorted, the strain in the air lifting like I’d intended. Marrok tilted his head to the side instead of laughing, but I was beginning to realize he was a bit strange anyway.
Fen shook his head and waited for Lowe to untangle his watch before speaking. "Well, this morning has been...interesting, but what say we all take a break from one another and reconvene in say," he glanced down at his watch, "thirty minutes?"
I opened my mouth to respond, but was sidetracked when I noticed a scrap of familiar turquoise lace sticking out from Rawlins' pocket. My temper skyrocketed.
Right. I was mad at him. He'd shredded my fucking underwear, and then held onto them like a creeper. What the hell?
I folded my arms and glared at Rawlins. "No, I don't think that will work for me."
Fen looked at me in surprise and I shook my head. That's right. I was no shrinking violet. Anyone who could survive a childhood with Eugenia Santos as their mother knew how to take care of herself.
I stalked forward.
"I need to go home." I darted my glare to Fen, wondering if he'd dare to interrupt me, but he wisely kept his lips shut. "Because someone," I returned my glare to Rawlins as I took another step forward, "ripped my clothes to shreds."
Marrok chuckled. "I don't see why that should preclude you from working this afternoon."
My glare shifted, and an evil smirk lifted in my lips. "Well, seeing as how one of my soon-to-be bosses just manhandled me, ruined my clothes, and then performed lude acts on an employee during work hours, I'd suggest you reconsider." I grabbed my purse and crossed the room with my head held high. "I'm taking the day to go home and figure out if I even want to come back to this insanity. If you don't want to be bogged down in an HR nightmare, you're going to let me, and smile about it."
Without looking back, I stalked out of the office, managing to make it to the bathrooms by the elevators before my legs went to jelly and my stomach threatened to rebel. I locked myself in a stall and collapsed to the floor, letting the tears come as I tried to figure out what I would do without this job.
No.
Fuck.
I needed this job, even if I had to do it with men that made me lose my mind.
I slammed my fist into the side of the stall several times as I rambled at myself. "What the hell are you doing, Lucky? You can't go back to Pittsburgh. You’re in debt up to your ears in student loans. Don't let your libido fuck this up."
My demented pep talk helped to calm my tears, but my mind still reeled. Had I really threatened to sick HR on them? A laugh bubbled out of me, and for a second, I wondered if I'd lost my damned mind. "It's not like you were an unwilling participant," I told myself as I stood. Stepping out of the stall, I examined myself in the mirror and shook my head. My hair was a mess, and after unbuttoning the borrowed coat, I had to bite back the string of curses that leapt to mind. Not only had Rawlins shredded my bra and panties, but my blouse was ruined as well. A long tear ran from the first button all the way down to the hemline.
Shit. I loved this shirt. Fishing my emergency Rick-deterrent sweater out of my bag, I considered if it was worth asking Rawlins to replace it. A flush stole across my cheeks as I remembered what had followed the ruination of my blouse, and shook my head. I'd enjoyed it all way too much to do that.
Appearing somewhat presentable again, I turned to leave, when a dark mark caught my attention in the mirror. I leaned in close to see, pulling my hair aside, and swore. "Is that a fucking hickey?"
Rawlins had some stones, that was for damned sure.
* * *
<
br /> I spent the day rage-cleaning my apartment, and the night tossing and turning as I relived Rawlins' lips on me; imagining the others in his place, and wickedly, fantasizing what it might be like to have them all at the same time. We hadn’t even fucked, and I was already thinking of doing more than one of them at a time.
Groaning, I looked at the clock and saw that it was three in the morning. I'd never get any sleep like this. Sighing, I fumbled around in the dark for a minute until my hand landed on the vibrator in my nightstand drawer. Giving in to my fantasy, I closed my eyes and imagined Rawlins stalking toward me in that predatory way of his.
I could practically smell his woodsy cologne as my fingertips slid up my leg, lifting my satin nightgown slowly, like I'd demand of him next time. No more ruining my clothes. In my mind, as his slow exploration revealed that I sleep commando, Marrok would sidle up next to him and tilt his head as they both took in my nakedness.
Heat pooled low within me, and I stroked my fingers up the slick material of my nightgown, slowly circling my left nipple. I moaned, imagining it as Lowe's tongue laving at my breast, while Fen knelt on my other side, running his hands up and down my stomach. It would almost tickle, but fall just short, leaving me squirming for more. Finally, Marrok would come around to my head, cradling me in his lap so that I was surrounded by the four of them. The bulge beneath me would twitch as he watched Rawlins take a lick of me— I flicked the switch on the side of my vibrator, running it down the path I imagined Fen's hands taking— and I gasped as I trailed it lower, where Rawlins would be slowly stroking my clit with his tongue. He'd growl, vibrating in just the right spot, and—
I climaxed almost as hard as I had in the office, screaming out unintelligibly as my vibrator slipped from my fingers and tremors shook through me. In my mind, it was only the beginning, and I drifted off with a smile on my lips, and a glowing warmth radiating in my chest.
* * *
After having fantasized about them all night, I was both eager and dreading seeing the Alphaline men this morning. Never one to delude myself, I would readily admit to any of them that I was insanely attracted to them, but I couldn't help but wonder what they thought of yesterday's happenings. It couldn't have been normal for Rawlins to go down on a random girl at work, and definitely couldn't have been normal for them to have all been so intense about one after just one meeting, either.