by Shayla Black
Logan chuckled. “How can you suck at a holiday?”
Brooklyn debated whether or not she should confess her silly views about New Year’s, then decided to hell with it. When she first started working for them, she’d walked on eggshells, the picture of professionalism. That hadn’t lasted long.
Primarily because Logan and Elijah wouldn’t let her get away with calling them Mr. Sherwood and Mr. Roberts. They were easygoing and friendly. And more than that, they’d always seemed genuinely interested in getting to know her as a person, rather than as their secretary.
Slowly, over the course of the past two years, all the walls had fallen and she was completely herself with them. She had always been slow to trust people, to let them see the real Brooklyn. When she considered it, there were really only three people she felt comfortable enough with to just be herself. Darcy…and the two men sitting with her right now.
“You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I’ve always thought that what happens at midnight lays the foundation for the rest of the year. If you’re laughing, drinking, and having a great time with friends, it’ll be a fun year. If you’re kissing Prince Charming, it will be a year of romance and love. And if you’re alone…”
“You’ll be alone all year?” Logan asked.
Brooklyn sighed and grimaced, even as she appreciated the fact he sounded genuinely surprised by the idea that she might be alone. “I always make these big plans, always think it’s going to be a stellar night, and then the bottom falls out. I’ve never been kissed at midnight. Not once.”
“That reminds me…I thought you had a date tonight,” Elijah said, and for the briefest of moments, she thought he looked slightly angry about that. Though she couldn’t understand why.
She had told them about the date, had actually asked them if they would be okay with her dating one of their clients. She didn’t think there was a problem with that, but Brooklyn still wanted to seek their approval so it wouldn’t look like she was hiding anything from them. They’d been cool with it and told her to have a good time.
Brooklyn didn’t want to tell Elijah and Logan about getting stood up. It would just drive home how different she really was from her wealthy, charming bosses. They’d both come from good homes and attended Cornell, where they’d met and become friends. Upon graduating, they’d moved to Baltimore and opened their own firm. Ten years later, they were running the most successful firm in the city and their bottom line was more than she’d ever make in her entire lifetime. Women no doubt circled the block for the chance to date them.
Meanwhile, she’d been fighting to eke out an existence since she was eighteen years old, only managing to get a little bit ahead in the past year or so. Logan and Elijah had given her a raise a few months earlier and they were currently paying for her to take an online class each semester so that she could earn her associate’s degree. Without their help, she’d still be stuck working too many dead-end, minimum-wage jobs and carrying around a wallet full of maxed out credit cards. And unlike them, her dates were few and very far between.
“Yeah. That didn’t work out at all,” she said sadly.
Elijah’s eyes narrowed. “Explain.”
Brooklyn wasn’t sure what to make of his suddenly stiff posture, then it occurred to her that her boss looked a lot like one of the Collins men whenever they thought someone had hurt a family member or friend.
“Oh, I mean…we never even saw each other tonight. He called and broke the date. Got a better offer.”
She hadn’t meant to add the last, but there was no point in hiding it.
This time she didn’t imagine Logan’s hand in her hair. He cupped the back of her head, turning her face toward him. “That’s not possible.”
She frowned. “Trust me, I can show you the sext he didn’t mean to send to me after breaking our date.”
Logan shook his head. “I meant it wasn’t possible for him to get a better offer than you.”
Brooklyn shrugged. “I don’t know. What he planned to do with her—to her—sounded better than—”
“Don’t.”
She looked across the table at Elijah. “I’m sorry?”
“Don’t tell us that Joel traded up. Logan said that’s not possible and he’s right. You constantly sell yourself short, Brooklyn. That stops tonight.”
“Have you ever attempted to turn your demands into requests?” she asked, perfectly aware the rum had loosened her tongue too much.
“Excuse me?”
“Everything you say is a command. Never a question.”
Logan chuckled, murmuring something that sounded like “She’s got your number.”
Elijah, however, never cracked a smile. “I don’t like hearing you disparage yourself. Do it again and you won’t like the consequences.”
Brooklyn’s mouth opened and closed several times, as she struggled for some sort of response. It took a while because images of Elijah taking her over his knee and spanking her shorted out her brain for a few seconds.
Finally, she managed a whispered, “Consequences?”
Elijah looked away from her, his gaze connecting with Logan’s for a split second. Something passed between the two men, but she was clueless to figure out what.
“So what you’re saying,” Logan said after a long, quiet minute, “is that you’re free tonight.”
Brooklyn nodded. “I was actually going to settle my tab when you guys showed up. Was going to go home and curl up in bed with a book.” After the last few minutes at this table with them, she’d be adding a vibrator to that plan. Her bosses unwittingly left her in a constant state of hot and bothered.
“Seems a shame to waste a holiday,” Logan said. “Why don’t you spend it with us?”
“What were your plans?” she asked, even though she was screaming hell yes in her head.
“Until we bumped into you, the plan was to spend a quiet evening in this pub drinking whiskey and listening to the music, then walking to the waterfront to watch the fireworks at midnight,” Elijah explained.
“That’s not still the plan?”
Elijah shook his head. “No.”
“What’s the new plan?” she asked.
Logan wrapped his arm around her shoulders, tugging her closer. “We’re going to make sure when midnight hits you don’t have to worry about this year ending the same as the previous ones. You’re going to be set.”
“Set how?”
Elijah reached across the table and clasped her hand in his. “Let’s just say, this year at midnight, you’re not going to be alone. You’re going to be ours.”
2
Elijah didn’t bother to look in Logan’s direction to see his reaction. He knew what he’d see. Logan was one hundred percent into Elijah’s plans for the evening. Hell, for the whole year, if Elijah managed to get his way.
What he was most curious to see was Brooklyn’s response.
Her hand trembled slightly, but she held his gaze. He loved that about her. She was twelve years younger than he and Logan, but there was a self-assurance in her—even though it wobbled at times—that put them on more even footing. She was strong, a survivor, someone who’d looked adversity in the eye at a young age and hadn’t crumbled.
He tightened his grip on her hand, and her confusion cleared and the sensual woman he’d always suspected lurked within her gave him a sexy smile.
The dark cloud that had been looming over him all day lifted. Because what Elijah didn’t include in their original agenda for the evening was the fact he and Logan had both intended to drink away their frustration at having let Brooklyn slip through their fingers.
It had taken everything Elijah had not to forbid her from accepting Joel’s request for a date, something that would have been completely preposterous. There was no rule about their secretary dating a client. Or at least, there hadn’t been. Until five minutes after Brooklyn left their office, permission granted, and he and Logan drafted up a new office policy.
The past two years
since she’d begun working for them had been an experiment in torture. In this time of #metoo and stories of workplace sexual harassment, he and Logan toed the line, determined that their employees—male or female—would feel respected and safe in the work environment.
Brooklyn had tested their resolve. Not because of their sexual attraction, though they were both attracted to her beyond measure. He was a man, but he wasn’t a beast and he was fully capable of controlling his sexual desires. He and Logan were able to curb their baser instincts and they had—for twenty-four long, loooooong months.
No, Brooklyn tested them because of who she was. She was intelligent and funny, with a work ethic that put even him and Logan and their fourteen-hour workdays to shame. The more they’d gotten to know her, the more his respect—no, his awe—for her grew.
Shortly after she started working for them, she’d told them she had applied for the position at their firm out of desperation and without any expectation of getting the job. At the time, she had been working three minimum-wage jobs, sleeping less than five hours a night, living on peanut butter crackers in a rundown apartment, and still barely making ends meet. She had thanked them for taking a shot on her and it had touched Elijah greatly.
They’d never told her they had agreed to give her a courtesy interview at the behest of an associate, Lochlan Wallace, with whom they’d been doing some work at the time. Lochlan insisted Brooklyn had an incredible work ethic, and because he and Logan both respected the other man, they’d agreed to meet her. Neither of them had any intention of hiring her. She simply didn’t have the experience.
Then Brooklyn had walked in, young, earnest, and though Elijah hadn’t recognized it at the time, there had been desperation in her eyes. He’d actually viewed it as ambition, drive. Ten minutes into the interview, he and Logan had locked eyes, agreeing silently that they’d found their secretary. They’d offered her the job on the spot.
Brooklyn had accepted, thanked them, and left. He and Logan had moved to the window. Their office was on the second floor of an old house that they had converted for their firm and they’d watched as Brooklyn exited the building.
Elijah would never forget the way she’d made it to the bottom of the stairs before her legs gave out. She sank down on the lowest step, her entire body seeming to cave in. It appeared the only thing that had been keeping her upright during their interview was the breath she’d been holding, and once outside, it escaped in one big rush. She’d sat there, still as a statue for no more than a minute, less than sixty seconds, before her spine stiffened again, and she stood up and walked with more grace and composure than a queen to the bus stop.
Elijah knew without a doubt that was the moment he’d fallen in love with Brooklyn Michaels.
“I’m going to be…yours?” she asked.
Logan leaned back, his arm resting behind Brooklyn on the booth. They’d both resisted pursuing Brooklyn for two reasons. One, Brooklyn was a damn good secretary and neither of them wanted to lose her.
And secondly, not all women understood his and Logan’s need to share their lovers. There was an innocence about Brooklyn that was a direct contrast to her worldliness. It was an interesting contradiction.
As such, they’d agreed it was best to keep their relationship with her platonic, professional. That had fallen apart when they learned Joel Richardson had asked her out and they realized that they stood to lose Brooklyn regardless of their actions. Losing her to another man because they never told her how they felt for her seemed infinitely worse than taking a shot at something that could be amazing.
Of course, they’d come to that conclusion too late.
Or so they’d thought. Until they’d shown up here to drown their sorrows and fate had smiled down on them.
Elijah was beginning to believe in this midnight magic Brooklyn suggested existed.
“Ours.” Logan tucked his arm around her, pulling her toward him. Brooklyn looked up at Logan, her lips parting as she drew in a quick, surprised breath just seconds before he kissed her. Elijah watched his partner guide Brooklyn through the kiss, starting off slowly, gently, before deepening it. He saw Logan’s tongue come out to touch hers and he smiled at the low hum that resonated from his friend’s chest when he got his first taste of their lady.
Brooklyn responded with the same level of enjoyment, enthusiasm. There was no hesitance, no shyness on her part, though there was no denying she was just as innocent as he suspected.
When they parted, Brooklyn blinked a couple of times. Elijah could read her thoughts through her expression, saw her struggle to believe what was happening. He loved how open, how genuine she was. They’d never have to guess what she was feeling. Everything was written right there on her beautiful face.
Then she turned her gaze toward Elijah, her forehead creased in confusion and a touch of concern.
“You’re beautiful,” Elijah said. “And I can’t wait to steal my own sweet kisses from you, but before we move this party somewhere more private, we need to talk about what’s happening tonight.”
Brooklyn nodded. “You share your lovers,” she whispered.
They’d never alluded to that, never given her any reason to suspect that at all. The hard truth was neither he nor Logan had taken a lover to bed together since hiring her. Tonight was about breaking down all the barriers, laying it all out for her. “We do.”
“Always?”
Logan nodded. “Ever since college. Everyone has kinks, Brooklyn,” he said with a devilish grin. “We figured ours out one night at a frat party. We’d been competing for the same girl’s attention the entire evening. She was the one who invited us both back to her place. It was an eye-opening experience.”
“One we’ve never turned away from,” Elijah added.
“So…the two of you…you’re together?”
Logan shook his head. “No. Elijah and I aren’t lovers. Our pleasure is found in making our lady come…over and over again.”
Brooklyn blew out a breath that betrayed how much she liked that thought. Especially when she whispered, “Wow.”
Logan laughed softly before sobering up. “We want you, Brooklyn. We have for a very long time, but the choice is yours. And if it’s no, then it’s no. Nothing at work will change. I swear that to you.”
Brooklyn bit her lower lip as she looked from Logan to Elijah then back to Logan. “I’ve never…”
Logan reached for her hand. “Very few people have indulged in a threesome, Brooklyn. We’ll—”
“No,” she interjected. “I mean…”
Her voice fell away again and Elijah’s suspicion was confirmed. “You’re a virgin.”
Brooklyn’s face flushed, but she didn’t respond.
She didn’t have to.
Elijah had mentioned to Logan several months earlier that he thought Brooklyn was a virgin, but his partner had dismissed it, certain that while she was inexperienced, she wasn’t a complete innocent.
Logan caught his eye. Elijah had almost expected his best friend to grimace, to show some signs of regret. None of that was there.
Instead, Logan was smiling. He wrapped his arm around Brooklyn’s shoulders and placed his lips at her ear to whisper, “That’s okay. We can train you our way.”
Brooklyn shivered, even as her smile grew. “I’d like that. But…”
“But you want to know what happens after tonight,” Elijah finished for her. Brooklyn didn’t have the benefit of a supportive family the way he and Logan did. If she embarked on an affair with her bosses, it was with the knowledge that she stood to lose everything—her job, the financial means to pay for her apartment, food. Their lives would carry on as normal, but Brooklyn was risking much, much more.
She nodded. “I want this more than anything. I have for a long time. But it can’t be more than tonight. I just can’t risk…” She sighed. “I’ve spent years working my ass off and still starving for it. I can’t go back to three minimum-wage jobs, with no benefits and no hope for a better fu
ture. If we do this, you have to agree that it’s a one-night stand, one we won’t mention ever again when we go back to work. Okay?”
Elijah was not okay with that, even though he knew for her peace of mind, that promise would be necessary. If they didn’t offer it, she would never take the leap of faith. But Elijah wouldn’t go into this night with a lie between them. “Fine. We agree.”
Logan shot him a what-the-fuck look that told him his partner did not agree. Until Elijah added, “But we reserve the right to change your mind about that.”
Brooklyn didn’t appear concerned about the addendum. “I won’t change my mind.”
Elijah smiled, and from the slight widening of her eyes, he knew his expression appeared wolfish. “We’ll see. Should we move this to my place?”
3
Brooklyn fought the urge to pinch herself the entire way back to Elijah’s house. She’d never seen either of her bosses’ homes. She’d claimed the backseat of Logan’s BMW, insisting Elijah take the passenger’s seat due to his long legs. Sitting in the back in the dark gave her a few moments to compose herself and to shield her expressions from Elijah and Logan.
There were too many emotions rattling around inside her and both men were far too astute at reading her face. So far, she’d traveled from disbelief to excitement, then to nervousness that turned into what-the-fuck-am-I-doing, before heading to anticipation and OMG-best-night-ever exhilaration.
Which was an insane pronouncement to make considering she’d only shared a single kiss with Logan so far.
As they pulled into the driveway of Elijah’s beautiful home in an upscale suburb of Baltimore, her only thought was, You’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.
Logan parked the car, then opened the back door and helped her out. “You’ve gone quiet.”
“I haven’t changed my mind,” she said hastily, prompting Elijah, who was suddenly standing next to her, to chuckle.
“Good. I haven’t gotten my kiss yet.”
Before Brooklyn could respond, Elijah pushed her back against the car, his lips descending on hers. The touch was an outright claiming. Unlike Logan, Elijah took what he wanted unapologetically. He pressed her mouth open, his tongue darting in, stroking hers, as his hands gripped the sides of her face, holding her still for his delicious assault.