Page 3 of Duality

I powered on the expensive coffee machine Sebastian had insisted on purchasing for the office. This thing had more buttons and levers than a command switchboard. It had taken me three months and several re-reads of the manual to feel comfortable operating it. Working quickly, I prepared my first of several cups of coffee for the day before starting on Alexander’s flat white.

The elevator chimed at 6 a.m. on the dot. Alexander’s flat white was sitting on the corner of my desk, steam rising from the hot liquid, and I was checking email for anything that had come through in the eight hours I was absent from the office.

“Miss Harper, I thought I told you to come in later today.” Alexander stopped by my desk.

Like every morning, he was dressed in a sharply tailored suit that fit his tall, well-built frame perfectly. This morning it was a dark gray Tom Ford suit with faint pin striping. His dark hair was combed back perfectly, not a single strand out of place. His sharp blue eyes traced over my face like a burning caress. I kept my posture relaxed, knowing I had done an expert job on my makeup this morning and no dark circles remained under my eyes.

“I’m fine, sir,” I said, handing him his coffee. “Besides, you couldn’t survive without me.”

When I first started at SDS, I kept a professional mask up at all times, especially because I wasn’t there with the most honest intentions. But over the last six years, the brothers had chipped away at the barrier until I allowed myself to lower it ever so slightly. The witty banter was the only crack in my professional armor I allowed

He huffed, but there was a smile on his lips. “Fine, but I expect you to take a longer lunch.”

The brothers treated every employee well, but they always seemed to pay extra attention to me. I told myself it was just because I was one of their most valuable employees, but I couldn’t stop the flutter in my stomach when his sharp blue eyes softened for me. My stomach clenched, and I mentally scolded myself. He was just being polite.

“We’ll see how the day goes,” I said.

My day could go to shit at any moment, whether it be from a problem with one of the contracts we handled at SDS or something with one of our Archer missions.

He hummed, his pale pink lips flattening into a line, then walked past me to his office in the corner to my right. I sat back in my chair and muffled my groan. It was hard enough hiding my second life from the brothers but hiding my attraction? For some reason I struggled with that more than I did hiding my secondlife. I really needed to get a handle on it before I embarrassed myself.

The next hour went by steadily as I organized their email inboxes into things I would reply to, things I passed along to the other assistants or departments, or things that the brothers would need to handle directly. I reviewed the meetings for the rest of the week and flagged which ones I would need to prepare the executive conference room for.

At 7:15 a.m., my watch alarm went off, and I made a note of where I was in the document I was reviewing. I quickly made Marcus’s Americano when my watch buzzed again. Roy gave me the heads up that Marcus wasn’t alone, so I poured a large black coffee into a separate mug. Placing both cups on the corner of my desk, I quickly finished reviewing the document on my screen, then printed it.

The elevator chimed open at 7:25 a.m., and two men exited. Marcus sighed and shook his head when he saw the coffee sitting on my desk. “I told Roy not to warn you.” He raked a hand through his dark hair, still wet from his shower after his morning workout. He was dressed in slacks and a collared shirt with a blazer thrown over the arm carrying his briefcase. His broad athletic build was honed by his former military experience and current obsession with the gym. I let myself have a moment to appreciate his forearm muscles as I handed him his coffee.

A small smile played on my lips. “Roy knows who keeps him stocked with snacks.” Roy and I had a long-running agreement that he would give me a heads up when the brothers or anyone else I needed to know about arrived, and I would keep him stocked with pastries from his favorite bakery that happened to be owned by a contact of mine.

“Thank you, Miss Harper,” Adrian murmured, standing next to Marcus.

“How many times do I have to tell you to call me Evelyn?” I handed him his coffee.

He never would. But I couldn’t resist digging at him. Adrian Cross was SDS’s head of security. He had met Marcus when they served together in the military. He had served much longer than Marcus did, but Marcus kept the job open for him, and when he got out four years ago, Marcus hired him on the spot. He had a rugged handsomeness to him, with a few faint scars on his brow from his time in combat. I wasn’t a short woman by any means, but his tall, muscular build always had me feeling dainty when I stood next to him. Like every day, he was dressed in black cargo pants and a black t-shirt.

He was also the only person at SDS who knew my secret.

“At least one more time.” He grinned sheepishly, his green eyes twinkling. The smile made him look younger.

His short-cropped hair was peppered with gray, giving him a silver fox vibe that would have me panting if he didn’t have the ability to ruin me. Okay, that was a little negative. He had known my secret for four years and hadn’t told the brothers yet. I always felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, though, especially since he was closest to Marcus. If the brothers found out about my double life, they would all be upset, but Marcus had a really strict code about honesty and truthfulness. I didn’t know the full story, but I had a feeling it had something to do with his time in the military or his mindset as a lawyer.

“Do you have that brief I sent over yesterday afternoon?” Marcus asked.

“Yes, I just finished looking it over. I marked a few spots that I think need revision, but everything else looks good.” I grabbed the papers from the printer and handed it to him.

While Alexander was the big boss CEO, Marcus handled the legal department, utilizing the law degree he earned after histime in the military. He was in charge of all our contracts and was ruthless in protecting them.

His intense green eyes scanned the papers, and I knew I’d lost his attention. He wandered in the direction of his office next to Alexander’s and left me with Adrian.

Adrian stayed silent, staring at me, his green eyes a few shades lighter than Marcus’s. They looked more like brothers sometimes than Alexander and Sebastian did.

I arched an eyebrow at him. “Can I help you, Mr. Cross?”

“You look tired,” he said bluntly.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s not polite to comment on a lady’s appearance?”

He ignored my teasing and kept studying me. “Late night?”