Page 52 of Good Girls Beg

"Right," Oak said, scrunching down in his seat.

"We appreciate everything you do," Hel said firmly, giving Fade and Oak both a look.

"Of course you do," she said. "If you didn't, I would have walked a long time ago. Lucky for you I haven't, because we both know no one else would put up with the three of you."

"At last we agree on something," Fade said cheerfully. "Although narrow that down to two, no one would put up with Hel or Oak."

Oak flipped him off, which, if you ask me, was totally fair. He had some strange idea that I was his, but he seemed marginally more harmless than Fade. Which was a very good reason why I should be wary of him. Appearances could be deceiving. He could be waiting for me to let his guard down before he struck. After last night I was aware these men were capable of almost anything.

Of the three of them, Hel was the most difficult one to figure out. He didn't seem offended or amused. He was reserved, always in control. Quietly generous, and yet there was an underlying air of danger there. Suppressed violence.

He sat behind the desk of Egger Security, but I suspected he could take on a bad guy as well as Oak or any of the other security guards he employed. He was the kind of guy who wouldn't ask someone to do something he wasn't willing to do himself.

To be honest, that made me even more curious about the basement. What was down there someone like him would want to hide? Did the other two know?

Hell, it could be a storage room for all their childhood plushies. Yeah, I doubted it too.

These men had a secret and I wanted to uncover it, whatever it was.

CHAPTER TWENTY

TEDDIE

"And this is my office." Hel showed me through the door and into the room.

A desk faced the space, angled toward the door. No one could enter without being seen immediately.

Shelves took up one wall. A window took up another. To the side of the room was a table and four leather bucket chairs. Most of it was what I would have expected, except one noticeable difference.

“I would have thought you'd have a view of the ocean." I peered through the glass at the view of Saltgrave Cove. I could make out the college campus from here, and the industrial area that contained furniture stores and places to buy paint. A rotating sign which advertised used cars.

"I figured it would be ostentatious," Hel said with a shrug. He seemed to be watching for my reaction. Did he really care what I thought of his office?

"Plenty of guys like being ostentatious," I remarked. "Isn't it expected of the average CEO?”

Didn't the E stand for ego? If it did, I didn't know what the C or the O stood for. Okay, I had some ideas for the C word.

"That sounds like a good reason not to do it," he said without inflection. "I've never been inclined to be like everyone else." Once again, he was watching me for my reaction.

"I noticed," I said. “Is that why you get along with Fade and Oak? Because they’re both…unique?”

That was an understatement. They both seemed to go out of their way to be different.

If I described anyone else that way, it would be a compliment, but in their cases, not so much. Especially Fade fucking Mitchell. He wasn't trying to be different, he was trying to be antagonistic. Looking for ways he could piss me off. Wanting to get a rise out of me for shits and giggles. Playing with me like I was a mouse and he was a cat. With any luck, he’d choke on me if he tried to play too hard.

I shouldn't use him and choke in the same sentence. It led me to wonder how it would feel to have his hand around my throat. Squeezing while he drove his cock into me. A cock, I was determined, would never see my pussy, much less be inside her. No, the asshole could amuse himself with his own hand. I had no doubt he'd gotten himself off after I came in the media room. Literally getting off on pushing my buttons.

Prick.

"Did I hear my name?" Fade stepped into the office, a tablet in his hands. Tattooed wrists peeking out from the sleeves of his suit. No one should look that good in a suit. Wasn't there a law against it or something? If there wasn't, there should be. The punishment? Don't think about spanking. Don't think about…

Too late.

Both of these men were like something out of a dark romance novel. Lyra would have called them BookTok villains. If they put on masks right now, I'd be absolutely fucked.

I cleared my throat.

"You were imagining it," I told him. “Why would we say your name? It might summon you." I've seen that episode of Supernatural. If I said his name three times, I'd be possessed forever. Or something like that.