"You and Penny." Archer clasped his hands to his chest. "I can't believe my baby brother has a girlfriend."
"And one of your employees, at that," Hunter said, staring at me.
I glared back at him. "I'm not dating her."
"According to the Harrogate Facebook group, you are," Archer said.
"You spend entirely too much time on social media, Archer. Give me that." I snatched the phone from him. There was a post from Ida featuring Penny and me reciting lines.
"We're plotting to kill Banquo," I said.
"Who? You don't mean Sebastian, do you? Because we need him to sell us the company first," Mace said.
"I heard he was all over Penny," Hunter said with a frown. "This is a lawsuit waiting to happen."
"She's not technically an employee," Mace said. "She works for the temp agency. She's a contractor, legally speaking."
"You're free and clear to bang her," Archer said cheerfully, "but then you have to marry her."
I, oddly, did not have a problem with that.
"You should have just peed on the side of the building to show dominance," Parker said. "You would have been more subtle."
Hunter smirked. Mace struggled not to laugh, and Archer collapsed in a fit of giggles.
"All of you," I hissed, "are going to regret this."
"We're just teasing!" Mace called out.
"He doesn't mean that, does he?" I heard Mace mutter as I stalked out.
I didn't have time for little minds. I needed to figure out what I was going to do with Penny. I knew what I wanted to do to her: push her against the couch in my office, push up her skirt,fuck her.
I filled up the bathroom sink with cold water and dunked my head in, did three hundred pushups, and still felt wound up.
I scrolled through my phone and searched for "things to help you fall asleep." The first result was Penny's website with photos and links to her YouTube videos. There were soothing pictures of cakes, ingredients, and baking tools. Front and center was a photo of her in fall colors, standing at a counter and stirring batter.
I clicked on the video link and lay back on my bed, hypnotized as I watched her slowly, methodically bake cakes. Periodically she would whisper instructions; her voice made my scalp tingle.
* * *
I was still…tingly the next morning. I went out to the trails in the woods on the estate property and did sprints in the cold of the fall morning. Then I forced down my Bulletproof coffee after an ice-cold shower. I barely had the patience to listen to my brothers' chatter during breakfast.
"I think we're ready to start our company!" Billy said from his spot next to me.
"Don’t talk with your mouth full," I told him absently.
"Can you help us set up a corporation for our toy company?" Oscar asked.
"Talk to Hunter," I said. "He's the lawyer."
Hunter glared at me from across the table.
"We need a loan though," Oscar said.
"You need to have a product first. Show us a prototype of whatever it is you're selling."
"A paper airplane launcher."
