Lucky Between the Sheets: An Anthology of Stories that Get to the Point

by L. A. Boruff

  I'd done a little digging. Alphaline was run by the four of them together and had steadily been growing for the last five years. Lowe was the genius behind the inception of the company, but all four of them were listed as founders and CEOs. They couldn't run a company together if they were always fighting, so I had to assume that yesterday was a one-off.

  Stepping out of the elevator with a hint of a bounce in my step, I flew into the office without announcing myself.

  Fin was the first to see me, and he smiled, heat in his gaze, as he tucked a stray hair behind my ear. What a way to greet a gal. My skin tingled at his touch, but before anything more could happen, Lowe grabbed me by the hand and literally twirled me away from Fen and into his chest. His other hand wrapped lightly around my waist, and he lowered his lips to mine, kissing me with a sizzling passion that left me dazed. Oh wow. Lowe tasted like honey and summer.

  Rawlins yanked me away from Lowe hard enough that I stumbled, and Marrok pushed his way between us with a growl.

  What the hell was happening? I hadn’t been there a minute yet, and already violence pervaded the atmosphere. My light mood evaporated as the air grew thick with testosterone. They were all growling and pacing one another, each of them trying to block the others from me. Tension rose, and impossibly, it felt as though they were getting bigger. There was a feral aggression about them, and I was sure we were mere moments from all hell breaking loose.

  Putting my fingers to my lips, I let out a shrill whistle, drawing them all up short. As a unit, they turned to me in surprise. It would have been funny if the air weren’t a spark away from combustion.

  Rawlins shook his head. "Did you just whistle at me like a dog?"

  Fen's eyebrows practically disappeared into his black hair, and I cocked a sassy hip out. "Well, it worked, didn't it?"

  Rawlins barked out a laugh, and the tension of the room dissipated as the others joined him. Marrok eyed me with what might have been approval, but it was hard to tell with him. He could have been thinking about cupcakes for all I knew.

  Lowe shook his head, laughter still alight in his honey brown eyes. "Perhaps it would be best if we focused on work today, gentlemen."

  I nodded in agreement, probably a little too forcefully, but a small part of me couldn't help the wave of disappointment that washed through me. I wanted these men, and work just seemed so mundane after the fantasies of the night before.

  * * *

  We worked late into the evening, until Fen yanked his tie off with a sigh and stood. "That's enough of this garbage." He turned to me. "Lucky, you've worked for Quantum for several years now. You seem to know what you're talking about. Tell us, honestly, where should we be looking for redundancies?"

  My stomach clenched.

  I knew I'd be responsible for people losing their jobs, but never thought it would be so direct. "Well," I hemmed. "If I'm completely honest, my previous department was pointless." I shrugged at the varying looks of confusion and surprise. "I basically translated the science for the bigwigs who couldn't tell a pipette from a petri dish, but with the merger, isn't that basically you guys now?"

  It had become apparent in the last several hours that Lowe and Fen were the science behind Alphaline, but Rawlins and Marrok were no slouches either. Marrok, or Rok, as he insisted I call him, was hard to read, and a little odd, but none of them had exhibited that glazed over look I'd come to know when presenting data to my superiors.

  "You don't seem like you need anyone to dumb down the science, and frankly, I've always thought the job was a bit of a joke." I rolled my neck to stretch out the kinks from hovering over files all day. "I have a degree in biochemistry, and started in the lab. I'm almost positive that at least half of the department is in the same boat."

  Lowe stared at me like I'd just performed a strip-tease, and Fen cleared his throat, "After seeing just these few files we've reviewed today, I'm wondering if we don't need to completely overhaul Quantum." At my sudden shift to panic, he smiled and shook his head. "Not necessarily get rid of everyone, but definitely shuffle people around. We have people who should be in the lab anchored to desks, and people in the lab who should probably consider retirement. There are more supervisors than is called for, and though having people translate the science into lay terms is important for funding and oversight approval, the ratios of employees in those departments is astounding."

  Marrok cracked his knuckles and then his neck before speaking. "Perhaps it would be best if we were to familiarize her with Alphaline, so that she can see how it is we want the company running. Though the media is calling this a merger, it is more of a takeover. Quantum has many patents in which we are interested, and has a lot of potential, but has been mired down for too long in the capitalistic aspects of pharmacologica."

  It was the most I'd heard Rok speak at once since this whole strange adventure had begun, and I nodded in agreement. He smiled and took my hand in his. "Now that the work day is complete, and we have a plan to move forward, would you do me the pleasure of joining me for dinner tonight?"

  The old world manners would have been enough to charm me into saying yes, but the electricity sparking from his touch had me practically shouting it from the rooftops. "Of course." Mentally smacking myself for the sudden intensity once again pervading the room, I tried to dispel it with a little sass. "After all, a girl's gotta eat, right?"

  Marrok just continued to smile while the other three chuckled.

  * * *

  Marrok insisted we go straight to dinner after work, and I didn't have it in me to argue. I was starving, and though he was odd, there was something charming about him that piqued my interest. We walked to the restaurant, a small Trattoria less than two blocks away, and I examined him in the awkward silence.

  There was an air of mystery about him. He was tall, a little over six feet, and his long blond hair was pulled back in a knot that shouldn't have looked professional, but did. The stubble dotting his jaw told me that the blond was natural, and somehow, this well put together man in a three piece suit that probably cost more than my entire education reminded me of a Viking warrior. A teaser of tattoo reached out from beneath his left shirtsleeve, covering the back of his hand to his knuckles in what appeared to be runes and symbols. It had my fingers itching to undress him so that I could discover just what the tattoo was, exactly.

  "Why do you stare?"

  His inflection was subtly foreign, and again, the flash of a Viking raider coursed through my mind. I smiled. "I'm just trying to figure you out." We walked silently for another few paces before I continued. "Until you asked me to dinner, I wasn't even sure you liked me. As a matter of fact, I was pretty sure you didn't." That wasn’t entirely true. When he’d walked in on me and Rawlins, I was positive he wanted me, but I still wasn’t sure he actually liked me. He had the habit of looking at me like I was an interesting specimen.

  He pursed his lips and shook his head. "I did not mean to give you that impression."

  He stopped abruptly and turned to me, the intensity in his gaze making me squirm. "There is something compelling about you, Miss Lucky, that makes me feel out of control, and I do not like to feel out of control."

  He didn’t expand on that. Without another word, he turned back toward the restaurant and ushered me along. It was something to think about.

  I felt almost compelled to be with him too...with all of them. For someone whose only sexual experiences have been with a vibrator and her own fingers, it was strange to crave these four men so. I'd known them for a little over a day, and already felt like the world was realigning to place them securely in my orbit.

  I should be so lucky.

  After walking into the restaurant, we were quickly seated at a small table in the back.

  "May I offer you our wine list?" The waiter was a bit smarmy, with an obviously fake French accent, but either Marrok didn't notice, or didn't care.

  "We'll have your house merlot and two plates done in Chef's choice."

  The
waiter nodded and left, leaving me to deal with the fact that I hadn't even been consulted on my own dinner, but before I could offer my opinions on it, Marrok startled me, this time by reaching across the table and grabbing my right breast.

  "What in God's name do you think you're doing?" I didn't want to raise my voice, but the entire scene was too bizarre. First he ordered for me, and then groped me in public? Marrok grinned, making my heart skip a beat, but had yet to remove his hand from my chest.

  Rage boiled up through me, and I jumped to my feet, dislodging his hand and his dumbass grin. Sputtering, my anger making it nearly impossible to get anything that even resembled words out, I stalked away, leaving the restaurant and the obviously unbalanced Viking behind.

  "Lucky?"

  I pulled up short when a shadow detached from the side of the building as I exited the Trattoria. "Fen?"

  I didn't really need to question that it was him...his unique scent of pine and rain washed over me in a calming breeze that doused the fire of my rage and helped me to find my bearings almost instantly. He came closer, and I was once again struck by just how gorgeous he was. He carried himself like an athlete, all smooth grace and agility. His olive skin and black hair made his amber eyes stand out in the glow from the restaurant window, and the fact that he was focused solely on me in that moment almost stole my breath.

  "What did Rok do?" He didn't seem the least bit surprised that I was storming out of the restaurant less than five minutes after we'd gone in, and the resignation in his tone made me wonder if he'd suspected something might happen.

  At that line of thought, I furrowed my brow and wondered if he'd followed me there.

  He shrugged sheepishly. "Rok doesn't really do...social. I thought it might be a good idea to hang around in case something happened." He frowned. "Obviously, I was right to be concerned."

  I nodded, frustration and a fair dose of confusion knotting in my shoulders. "I don't get it. One minute we're walking and talking like normal people..." He raised an eyebrow and I quickly amended my statement. "Well, like mostly normal people, and then suddenly, he's like a freaking caveman, ordering my food for me and then groping me in the middle of a crowded restaurant. I mean, what the actual hell?"

  Fen sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I'll have a talk with him."

  I pursed my lips and he stopped what I was sure was going to be some kind of defense for his colleague. Loyalty was great and all, but I wasn't in the mood to hear it.

  "Lucky, would you mind if I escorted you home?"

  His abrupt shift in topics wasn't that surprising given the nonverbal cues I was throwing out there, but I hadn't expected that. "Um, sure?" I'd planned on catching a cab, as I lived almost a mile away, but the evening was mild, and the company was suddenly quite intriguing.

  * * *

  "Fen, tell me a little about how you four met." It was obvious they were from very different backgrounds. Lowe was a bit geeky, Fen, poised, Marrok was probably crazy, and Rawlins was something like a mix between a grizzly bear biker and a corporate executive. They were all sexy as hell, and shared that almost animalistic magnetism, but other than that, they were almost too different to have come together naturally.

  Fen smiled and wrapped an arm loosely around my waist. "Lowe and I met when I was a teenager. He'd just inherited his father's...company, and at the celebration, we struck up an instant friendship." Fen's beautiful amber eyes shuttered slightly as he remembered. "It was rare for me to have the opportunity to make friends."

  There was more to that story, but I knew it wasn't the time to pry.

  "Rok actually was there that night, but I didn't really get to know him until almost ten years later when Lowe wanted to form Alphaline."

  Ten years? I examined the man walking beside me critically. He didn't appear to be much older than me. "How old are you?"

  He smiled, the shadows retreating from his eyes. "My birthday was last week. I'm twenty eight."

  I was right. He was only two years my senior, but that would mean..."You met Lowe when you were what, fifteen?"

  He shook his head as we turned onto my street. "Thirteen, actually. Lowe was nineteen, and we were the two youngest people at the gathering. Even though it was to introduce him to his father's contemporaries, we were both kind-of outcasts."

  I looked up at him, but he didn't elaborate.

  "Rawlins, well we didn't even know about him until three weeks after news of our company hit the rumor mill. It's pretty funny, actually." He smirked, stopping at the front of my building without me even mentioning it was my place. "Lowe, Rok and myself were in the middle of working out a few logistics, when this mountain of a man, who had a black eye at the time, storms in on our meeting and demands to be a part of it. None of us had ever met or even heard of him before, but here he was, promising to bankroll our first year so long as he was made an equal partner. Said he wanted to be a part of something that would make a difference."

  I had a hard time reconciling the moody Rawlins I knew with this philanthropic ideal he was in Fen's story. Fen didn't expand on anything, and gently took my hand in his. Sparks shot from where our skin met, and his grip tightened. I swayed into him, desperate to be closer to that undefinable center of calm of his. He gave my hand a little tug, and I willingly fell forward into his arms. Though part of me was wondering what kind of woman I was becoming— leaving on a date with one man, but going home with another— I put up no resistance. I wanted him, and when faced with nerves, I tended to go one of two ways. I'd either shut down emotionally, or be filled with boldness. I went bold.

  "Want to come up?"

  A slow, sensuous smile spread across his face, and his hands trailed up my arms to the back of my neck and head. As his right hand twined into my hair, causing my breath to hitch, his left pressed into the back of my neck, bracing me as he gently lowered his lips to mine.

  He tasted like peppermint, and as he exhaled a sweet sigh, he pulled me into his chest, holding me like I was precious to him.

  "I've been wanting to do that since I first saw you." His voice had deepened, raising little goose bumps on my arms, and I smiled into his chest before pulling away.

  "I want you."

  Three words, but speaking them almost left me breathless. His amber eyes gleamed, almost like the reflective glow of a wild animal, and he nodded, pulling the front door to my building open and caressing my hand as I led him to the stairwell.

  Tingles radiated from his touch, and I gasped, as he pinned me to the wall. "Just so we're clear, Lucky. I want you too." His words were almost a growl, and he lowered his mouth to my neck, laving his tongue directly over the hickey Rawlins had given me the day before. I gasped again. Where had all the air gone? Hooking my leg around his, pulling him as close as we could get without merging into one being, I grabbed his head and lifted it until I was able to kiss him.

  A rumbling laugh tore out of him, and he lifted me off the floor entirely, while pulling me away from the wall and bursting into the stairwell in one smooth move. "We need to get inside before I fuck you right here for your neighbors to see."

  My eyes flew open.

  I wasn't a stranger to swearing, but hearing the crass words tumbling from his mouth seemed somehow forbidden. It cranked my lust even higher.

  "Third floor." I gasped as his hand holding me up pulled my blouse out from my skirt. "301."

  He carried me up the stairs while somehow managing to unclasp my bra and unzip the back of my skirt. When we reached my door, I fumbled through my purse for the keys while simultaneously trying to undo his belt.

  "Give it to me." The demand in his tone increased the heat coursing through my veins, and I was afraid that if we didn't get inside immediately, I would combust on the spot.

  Without missing a beat, he unlocked my door. He kicked it shut behind us and then braced me against the wall next to my kitchen. It was a small apartment, but at least I'd cleaned yesterday. He held me there effortlessly with one hand while slowly
, gently unbuttoning my blouse. With each inch he exposed, my need grew.

  "Fen. Now. I can't wait."

  He growled and dropped me to my feet. "You do it. I don't want to ruin your clothes."

  His eyes burned with desire, mirroring my own, but his tenderness made me weak in the knees.

  I ripped my blouse and bra away almost as fast as he got rid of his shirt and tie. Like an invisible force was pulling us, we slammed back together so quickly, it almost hurt. His thumb stroked my left nipple while his right yanked my skirt down.

  "Now, Fen. I need you."

  I wanted his hands, his lips, any and every part of him all over me.

  I reached for his pants, but his hand caught mine, stilling me. "Are you sure? I need you to be sure."

  I nodded, fire exploding in me. If I didn't get some relief soon, my heart might explode out of my chest. "I'm sure."

  It was as though a shroud lifted. The heat, the passion he'd shown me up until now was nothing in comparison. An inferno raged in his eyes, and before I could understand what was happening, we were both naked in my kitchen. His eyes never leaving mine, he leaned in until our noses were practically touching. One hand bracing himself by my head, his other trailed fire up my side. "Mine," he growled.

  I nodded. In that moment, I was his. "Now, Fen. I need you now."

  The corner of his mouth quirked up in his crooked smile, but there was nothing sweet about it. "In good time." He lifted me, my legs automatically going around his waist as he carried me to my bed. "Haven't you ever heard, Lucky? Good things come to those who wait."