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“A hundred thousand dollars.” Brooke looked at me as if she was waiting for me to say more, but I just shrugged. “For me.”
“Yes. All for you. Half up front, half once we’re closer to an answer,” Lucas said, resting his hands on the back of the chair in front of him. “What do you say?”
The tension in the room ratcheted up higher and higher the longer Brooke remained silent.
“Can I think about it?” she finally asked.
Lucas’s shoulders sagged, even as he tried to keep the upbeat look on his face. I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or frustrated that she hadn’t immediately said yes to all the money.
“Sure,” Lucas said. “But we need an answer by the end of the day tomorrow. No extensions.”
Brooke nodded, her skin pale. “By the end of the day tomorrow. Okay.”
“Good.” Chase opened the door for her. “Looking forward to your answer.”
CHAPTER4
Brooke
Iwasn’t a wine kind of girl, but I understood why people loved a glass after a long day. Today was one of those days.
What the hell was going on? Was today one long, very weird, strangely sexy fever dream? Having not just one, but three ridiculously hot bosses was wild enough. But now they wanted me to go undercover? If they’d wanted me to work overtime hours to reorganize some of their workflows, I wouldn’t have hesitated.
But even a hundred thousand dollars wasn’t going to make me take the leap.
On my way home, I stopped by the grocery store to get a few more much-needed snacks. My roommate, Jamie, was already home, stretched out on the couch. Like me, she’d gone through a breakup not long ago, and some days were worse than others. Today must have been a bad day, because she was in her fluffy pink robe, her hair a bit of a mess.
“What’s wrong?” she asked once she paused the show she was watching. Her brown eyes were wide. “Did your first day get worse? Do you hate it? Do you need me to put a word in at my job for something? We aren’t hiring, but I bet we could figure something out.”
“No, no.” I put my groceries down on the kitchen counter. Our apartment was small, with the kitchen being set off from the living room in one big space. “The job’s not the problem, necessarily.”
I actually liked it so far, even though I hadn’t had the chance to really dive into my day-to-day duties. Lucas, Hunter, and Chase were organized and actually read their emails, which was way more than most of my past bosses had done.
Maybe they were on their best behavior today.
“So your day got better, then?” Jamie sat up, tilting her head to the side. Her haphazard blonde bun slid to the side. “What do you mean?”
“Um… Well…”
My whole body thrummed at the memory of seeing Lucas again, then the shock of seeing that Hunter and Chase were just as hot. Hunter’s caramel-brown eyes didn’t miss a thing and made me feel like I was his only focus in the entire world. With his perfect cheekbones and expertly cut hair the same shade as his eyes, I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage talking to him face to face.
Chase wasn’t nearly as intense, but he was still gorgeous. The contrast between his reddish beard and brown hair stood out to me, as did his intelligent eyes. We’d hardly spoken, and it already seemed like he cared about me.
But I was a professional. I had to keep these thoughts firmly in my “do not engage” folder in my head. No matter how charming Lucas’s smile still was or how delicious Hunter’s shoulders looked in his suit or how strong Chase’s forearms were.
Okay, the “do not engage” folder was probably going to be opened at some point, but I was in the middle of a dry spell. My vibrator wasn’t going to collect dust any time soon.
Jamie was still staring blankly at me, so I just blurted out, “My bosses are all super hot.”
Her posture relaxed. “And that’s a problem how? Sounds like an added benefit to me.”
“Because it’s a distraction!” I grabbed a bowl for my popcorn, then reconsidered and put it back. I took the bag over to the couch and flopped down next to Jamie. “I actually went to high school with one of them. Lucas.”
“Awkward.”
“Surprisingly, not really?” I tore open the popcorn and scooped up a handful. “He was really nice back then, even though he hung out with the popular crowd that usually made my life kind of shitty when he wasn’t around.”
And it felt so good to catch up, even just a little. It was like we’d picked up where we would have been if we’d talked beyond what classes we shared—like we were already friends.
