Triple XXX Threat
Lex
Myboss?
I glower up at Axel for a good long minute. I’ve found that in life there’s no greater way to communicate rage, disappointment, and perhaps overall disgust in a person than a long bout of silence backed up with a hellish glare beaming from youreyes.
“I see.” My teeth grind as I try to digest this. First, I knew that Ax had a share in The Sloppy Pelican, thus theoretically placing him in this power position. And second, I knew that I would have the occasional run-in with him at my new place of employment, but never in my wildest—weirdestdreams did I imagine him barking out orders—demanding that I jump—fully expecting me to ask howhigh.
I take a step in close to him in that three-piece black pin-striped suit, the deep navy tie that gleams in the light like a warm velvet night, and his cologne permeating my senses. Axel Collins has always had the gift of dressing impeccably, but it was his warm, woodsy scent that made me want to wrap myself around his naked body like ascarf.
“Let me get this straight—you think you’re going todominateme?” I scoff at the idea. “I’d laugh, but I won’t waste my energy on theidea.”
Axel inches in with those glowing gray eyes, and my stomach bottoms out like the traitor it is. My breathing picks up, and I try my hardest to hide the fact my chest demands to palpitate as if I just ran the Boston Marathon. His hair is neatly slicked back, dark and glossy, and just begging for my fingers to run through it. Axel had the softest hair, so thick you could get lost in it, and I would often spend hours doing just that. Once upon a time, I loved Axel Collins or so I thought. In reality, once upon a time I was an all-out idiot, and I swore I would never venture into idiot-infested watersagain.
A brief visual of Axel’s naked body gliding over mine rips through me like a nuclear heat wave, and my thighs quiver as if this were a reality about to happen. If I could, I’d sever them and feed them to Strudel for even thinking about quivering for the moron in front ofme.
Axel smolders into me as if reading my mind, and judging by that lewd grin begging to pin itself on his face, I’m guessing that he enjoys what he sees.Pervert.
“Excuse me?” a tiny female voice drawls out in a faint Southern accent from behind, and I turn to find a petite blonde with blue eyes the size of dinner plates and boobs the size of basketballs. “I happened to notice thenow hiringsign out front and wondered if I could get an application? I just tried at the Black Bear—that’s sort of my haunt. I’m there so often I might as well be a fixture—but it’s a no-go since they’ve met their quota. It’s mostly coeds they hire anyway—and believe you me, I’ve long since said goodbye to those schoolgirl days. I am one hundred percent wo-manif you know what I mean.” Her finger glides down Axel’s tie unwarranted. “I’ve waited tables for years back in South Carolina, but, at the moment, I’ve sort of hit a dry patch with the tech firm I work for, and I’d love to give it another shot.” She bites her oversized red painted lip while batting her doe eyes up at Ax. “I’d work real hard all night long just for you,honey.”
“And I bet you’re hired.” I force asmile.
“You think so?” she squeals like a chipmunk on fire. “I’m Abby Wilcox.” She’s quick to extend a svelte hand with long vixen red nails to Ax. “The waitress I ran into in the parking lot said to look for a handsome devil in asuit.”
“That would be him.” I snarl in his direction. “The devil incarnate. Beware. This gentleman prefers blondes, redheads,andbrunettes—sometimes all at once. He might make you feel extra special at the moment, but when push comes to shoving his tongue down somewhere, he goes for the nearest orifice he canfind.”
Her entire face brightens as if I just spouted off some erotic bedtime story that ended in her favor. “Well, well—a man that goes after what he wants. I’ve always been drawn to the naughty love ’em and leave ’em type.” Her eyes widen and so do Axel’s, but for entirely differentreasons.
He blinks my way. “Lexy here is simply pulling your leg.” Those heavy dark brows frame his face with something just this side of frustration. Speaking of frustration. What the living fresh hell is this Lexy business? I scowl over at him because for one he reduced me to an expletive even if it was simply privy to my own thoughts. “But I’ll be happy to give you an application. In fact, if you ask the bartender, he’ll pull one out for you. Why don’t you come back tomorrow afternoon and I’ll gladly give you aninterview?”
“Great!” She does an odd little bunny hop, and I’m tempted to hook my heels under her feet and send her crashing hard on her bottom. “It was super nice to meetyou—”
“Axel. Axel Collins.” He offers an affable smile her way, and she succumbs to a giggle fit that begs my hearing to shut offpermanently.
“And it was great meeting you, too, Lexy! Something tells me we’re going to be fastfriends.”
“I’m all caught up on my friend quota for the year. Oh, and call me Lexy again, and I’ll make sure you lose the ability to speak for a week. It’s justLex. And I sincerely hope you get the job.” So you can annoy the ever-living heck out of Axel Collins with that dolphin meets hyena laugh. It’s enough to drive a grown man wild, all right. I’m betting Ax will be counting bottle caps on the roof right along with that silly pelican after three solid days of listening to thatbraying.
The Braying Barbie is quick to comply, and as soon as she leaves our air space Axel leans in. The warm smoky scent of his cologne calls to me like an oldfriend.
“I think we should talk.” His voice hits its lower octave, something that has always had the ability to drive me insane, and, at the moment, it drives me insane for another reason entirely—we should definitely nottalk.
I don’t even bother quantifying it with an answer. I simply scoff at the idea and turn to leave, bumping promptly into Shep, Axel’s younger lookalike brother. My, my how Shep has grown over the years. Way back when I knew him, he was a scrawny kid, still in high school, just out of braces, and here he is, out of high school, out of both braces and Briggs, with two rows of perfectly white teeth. And let’s not forget that devilish gleam in his eyes. I’ve no doubt that Shep has an entire harem he tends to. I can spot a playboy a mile away, and right now I’m looking at two of them—duplicates of one another noless.
“I’ll email that paperwork to you.” He offers a partial embrace, and I accept—but only because I know Axel will have to witness the event. If there is a Collins boy touching my body, I’m pretty sure he’d rather it be him. We can’t all get what we want. It’s so nice to incorporate a teachable moment in this brief yet highly connectiveembrace.
“Is that a washboard in your shirt, or are you just happy to see me?” I force a violent laugh, and Shep laughs right along withme.
“That’s one hundred percent granite, baby!” He lets out a whoop, and I mask the fact I’d like to knee him for blowing out my eardrum. First, the blonde bunny, and now Shep? Is detonating eardrums a thing now? I haven’t exactly kept up with the trends other than myself onTwitter.
“Well, I don’t doubt it.” I offer his tummy a quick pat. “Sure enough, it’s not granite—it’ssteel.”
Shep leers at me while pulling me in by the waist—a move that could have easily cost him his future children, but I’m slow to protest due to the fact Ax actually has steam coming from his ears. It’s a good look on him, one I’d like to induceoften.
“Hey”—Shep brushes his finger over the tip of my nose, and it takes everything in me not to gasp—“why don’t I stop by sometime with those papers instead? We can go over a refinance plan that works for you. I gotta run.” He shoots Axel with his fingers, but Ax doesn’t bother to crack a smile. “Let’s do it, Teagan. I’ve got fifty places to be.” Their little sister hops up and glowers at me on her way out, offering Axel a meager wave. I’m shocked how much she looks like Emilia. In fact, Emilia is the Collins I’m looking forward to seeing the most. I hate that my breakup with her buffoon of a brother cost us what was shaping up to be a true friendship. As much as I’m loath to wade ankle-deep in the friendship pool, Emilia had a sardonic sense of humor that I could truly appreciate. Not to mention the fact she really knew how to put Axel in his place. And God, I’m going to spend the rest of my employment history at this place doing justthat.
I try to make a break for it, but he glides over and blocks mypath.
