Caught Between My Ex And The Turner Twins

3

Just as the tension reached a fever pitch, an authoritative voice suddenly rang out across the conference room.

"What in God's name is going on here?"

We all turned to see a sleekly dressed woman standing in the now open doorway, arms crossed and eyes blazing with a mixture of fury and disgust. Despite her petite frame, she commanded an undeniable presence that immediately snapped everyone out of the charged reverie.

Sam was the first to find his voice, straightening his rumpled suit. "Ms. Deveraux! This isn't...we were just..."

But the woman - Ms. Deveraux, clearly someone of importance here - raised a hand to silence his floundering. Her piercing gaze swept over the scene before her: me standing disheveled with my blouse hanging open, Tom and Lucas looming nearby with matching expressions of chastened guilt.

"Mr. Turner...and Mr. Turner," she said tightly, eyes narrowing at the twins. "I might have expected this sort of depravity from you two cads. But you, Ricci? And you, Kaplan?"

She fixed Sam and I with equal measures of contempt. My cheeks flamed with humiliation, though I struggled to maintain a defiant front despite my compromised state. Sam simply hung his head, unable to meet Deveraux's censorious glare.

"I am utterly disappointed," she went on, voice dripping disdain. "This is meant to be a respected workplace, not some bacchanalian frat party where you all indulge your basest impulses."

Tom cleared his throat, attempting to interject some of his typical cavalier bravado. "Look, there's been a simple misunderstanding here - "

"Oh, I understood everything quite clearly from where I was standing, Mr. Turner," Deveraux cut him off icily. "The four of you were well on your way to a lewd public orgy like something out of Caligula's court."

A tense silence stretched as we all absorbed the severity of her words, of the situation we'd found ourselves in. Even the unflappable Turner twins looked appropriately cowed.

Eventually, the imposing woman continued in a tone that somehow carried even more threat. "I should fire you debauched miscreants on the spot. In fact, I'm tempted to have building security do just that and toss you all into the street where you belong."

My heart seized in my chest. Losing this job - my first big break out of grad school - would be a devastating professional setback. Then there were the personal ramifications of some sort of s*x scandal leaking out. The shame, the ruined reputation...it didn't bear thinking about.

Sam seemed to be weighing the same dire consequences. "Please, Ms. Deveraux...we never intended for things to go this far. It was a completely stupid lapse in judgment that will never, ever happen again."

His pleading eyes searched mine, silently begging me to corroborate his appeal. Against my better judgment, I gave a small nod of agreement.

Deveraux's withering gaze flicked between us, unmoved. "And why should I give either of you another chance after this egregious breach of ethics? State your case."

Sam opened and closed his mouth, struggling to find the words. In the end, it was Lucas who stepped forward, surprise surprise with that unruffled eloquence and bravado.

"Because, Ms. Deveraux, if you let us go, you'll be depriving Omni-Tech of some of its finest talent over a momentary indiscretion." His tone was carefully modulated, focused solely on her rather than the lascivious leers he'd been aiming at me earlier.

"My brother and I have been invaluable assets in corporate acquisitions. Ruthless negotiators who've secured highly favorable terms for the company time and again."

Tom rallied as well, picking up the thread seamlessly. "And you know Kaplan here is a prodigy, despite his..." he waved a hand vaguely, "Occasional lapses. Brilliant financial mind and business instincts."

"As for Ms. Ricci," Lucas rejoined smoothly, "Well, I believe her acclaimed marketing campaign for the Zephyr rebrand speaks for itself. Showed true visionary creativity in reframing the company's image."

I couldn't help but flush slightly at the compliment, though I kept my features carefully schooled. Flattery would get these silver-tongued charmers nowhere as far as I was concerned.

Still, I had to admire the way the two arrogant brothers worked in tandem, simultaneously stroking Deveraux's ego about retaining top talent while never overtly mentioning the compromising situation at hand. It was a deft deflection, and one she seemed deliberately considering despite her lingering ire.

*

Ms. Deveraux's angular features remained inscrutable as the Turner brothers made their case. For a long moment, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. Then, finally, she gave a tight nod.

"Very well. I'll allow you miscreants to keep your jobs...for now." Her tone made it clear this was the smallest of reprieves. "But you're all on extremely thin ice, is that understood? One more infraction, one hint of impropriety, and you're out that door before you can blink."

A chorus of "Yes, Ms. Deveraux" and "Absolutely, ma'am" followed from the sheepish group. The haughty woman fixed each of us with a lingering glare before continuing.

"Furthermore, I'm reassigning you four to separate projects and offices, effectively immediately. You'll be based in different buildings, on different floors, without any reasons to so much as breathe the same air." Her lip curled with distaste. "Clearly you cannot be trusted to conduct yourselves professionally in one another's company."

While part of me was relieved at the notion of putting space between myself and that unholy trinity of temptation, another part...wasn't so sure. The confusion must have shown on my face, because Ms. Deveraux's keen eyes narrowed slightly.

"Is there a problem, Ms. Ricci?"

I quickly shook my head. "No, ma'am. Thank you for your...leniency."

"See that you show you deserve it going forward. This is your final chance." With that ominous warning, she turned on her heel and marched out, leaving us to our disgraced silence.

As soon as the reverberating click of her heels faded, Tom blew out a long breath, running a hand through his tousled blond locks. "Well, that was a right bollocking if ever I received one. Bloody well done, mates."

"This is hardly the ideal outcome," Lucas remarked dryly.

I was too overwhelmed to process their fraternal banter. My mind was still spinning from the consequences of my indiscretions. Getting fired would have been bad enough...but the veiled threat of what sort of other action Deveraux might take had chilled me to the bone.

"Hey." Sam's gruff voice made me start, his large palm landing on my shoulder as though to anchor me back to reality. "C'mon, let's get you put back together before the firing squad arrives."

"Right, yes...of course." Gratefully, I clutched the opening folds of my blouse back across my chest, face flaming anew as memories of just how exposed I'd been flooded back.

Shooting twin glares of warning at the Turner twins hovering nearby, Sam steered me into the hallway and in the direction of the nearest bathroom. Once inside the mercifully empty restroom, I let out a deep, shuddering breath, bracing my trembling hands on the edges of the ceramic sink.

"You okay?" Sam asked gruffly, allowing me a moment before closing the distance between us.

I met his concerned gaze in the mirror for a beat before giving a jerky nod. "I...I think so. Just still processing everything that happened back there."

"Trust me, you're not the only one completely mind-f****d right now," he muttered, moving up behind me.

His broad chest pressed against my back, so achingly familiar yet tinted with newfound heady tension. Sam's deft fingers made quick work of rebuttoning my blouse, the gentleness of the act at odds with the raw, primal energy still thrumming through me.

When the final button was secured, neither of us moved to put space between our bodies. If anything, the air seemed to thicken and grow heavy with unspoken desire. My pulse kicked into a staccato rhythm as Sam's hands settled on my hips with undisguised possessiveness.

"Seeing you like that, with those two vultures circling..." he growled against the side of my neck, sending a full-body shiver through me. "God, it made me crazy, Stella. All I wanted to do was throw you over my shoulder and get you the hell out of there."

"Then why didn't you?" I heard myself asking in a breathless whisper, arching back against the hard planes of his torso instinctively.

Sam made a gravelly sound of satisfaction low in his throat, trailing scorching kisses along the exposed column of my neck. "Because as infuriating as it was, part of me still hasn't stopped picturing you surrounded by me...and them..."

His taboo confession hung heavy in the air between us. I should have felt shocked, repulsed even, at the implication. But instead, a sinuous curl of illicit arousal bloomed in the pit of my stomach at the thought of being...claimed...by not just one, but multiple partners.

Before I could fully process the depravity of what he was suggesting, the door to the bathroom swung open.

"There you two are!" Tom exclaimed in a tone of mock scandal. "Having a clandestine rendezvous already, I see."

Sam instantly moved to put distance between us, though the tension was a living thing that hung in the air.

"Piss off, asshole. We were just...-"

"Yes, yes, procuring some alone time before your unfortunate separation," Lucas drawled, entering the room behind his twin with that insufferable carnal grace. "How...economical of you both."

The glacial blue-eyed gazes of the two brothers roamed over me and Sam in a way that could only be described as co-conspirators assessing a target. Despite having just been dressed down in the most withering way by Ms. Deveraux mere minutes ago, their overweening confidence seemed utterly revitalized.

"Though I must say, you make a fetching tableau," Lucas continued in a tone of smirking suggestion. "One that gives the mind...terr498inspiration. If you catch my drift."

Tom made an exaggerated show of fanning himself, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "Getting a wee bit warm in here suddenly, wouldn't you agree?"

Sam instantly bristled, instinctively planting himself in front of me as though warding off predators. "Back off, you perverted freaks. The lady's had more than enough of your degenerate bullshit for one day."

"Has she though?" Lucas countered, one dark blond brow arching upwards.

To my shock, I felt his speculative gaze flit towards me - an almost imperceptible gauging of my reaction to their overtly lewd insinuations. And what was even more disturbing? I didn't immediately reject them out of hand.

My silence seemed to embolden the pair, with Tom letting out a low chuckle and shaking his head. "Looks to me more like she's just getting started..."