8. Courtney

I wantto tell everyone in the office to go home and stop coming into my office looking like the gloomy, tearful employees they are.

I sigh and tug at my earring on my left ear. It's an old habit when I'm worried or agitated. And right now I'm both.

My mind drifts back to the men who rocked my world last night, taking control and letting me just be. Not asking anything of me but my body.

I wish that was the case today. Instead, everyone at my company wants a piece of me. It's been a whirlwind since I got in here this morning. Every time I turned around and thought I could get just a minute's peace to myself, another person knocked with another damn problem.

We're about to launch a new security line and there's a bug in the system so we're all on high alert and working overtime until we get the damn thing fixed. I know it's good. Hell, I've got the system installed in my townhouse just outside of town.

It's good except for the tiny little flaw of experienced hackers being able to find a back door to the system and disarm it.

Not ideal for a fucking security system.

My oldest employee, a personal friend of my parents and like an uncle to me strides in the door still wearing his lab coat. He's in charge of the lab and I know he feels responsible for this fuck-up.

"I'm so sorry, Courtney. We're still working on it but so far that damn back door is staying open and causing a shit ton of problems with the system as a whole. The guy who's testing the system has found even more places to breach the security and cause shut-downs all over the place."

I take a deep breath and close my eyes, shaking my head. Rubbing at the massive headache threatening to explode into a migraine. "I don't understand, Evan. We've been working on this system for two years. How has none of this shit come up before in all the tests?"

He grimaces and his thin, wiry body almost quivers with agitation, his glasses slipping down his nose. The man takes his job seriously. Hell, he takes everything seriously. He's been like a second father to me since I was born.

As Dad's best friend, he took over in the lab several years ago and expanded our tech into fantastic new directions including a new product that he's still working on for a device that helps to connect patients in the hospital with their new prosthesis, helping to mobilize them quicker and help them adjust to their new devices.

It's amazing and I can't wait to make it a reality and send it out on the market. It's been doing well in testing but now with this massive issue with one product, I'm terrified that that one is going to be an even bigger problem. Since it's an invasive product that has to be implanted in the brain there's a helluva lot more that could go wrong and if I wasn't worried, I'd be concerned about my own humanity.

"I don't know, Courtney." His washed-out gray eyes sparkle with anger. The salt and pepper head of hair is thinning and he looks like everyone's idea of a stereotypical scientist. "I thought we ran every test and possible scenario on it before this happened. Now I'm starting to wonder."

"Just keep working on it."

"Of course, of course." He stops and his eyes linger on mine. "Do you need anything, Courtney. I'm so sorry about your parents."

I flinch away from yet another concerned employee. Although Evan has more of an interest in it than most of our short-term employees. But they all care and I should respect that. Should understand their pain.

But right now I'm fighting my own overwhelming losses and the horrible feeling that this is where I tank my family's company and take us all down some sketchy rabbit hole that fills in with dirt all around us.

"Thank you," I mutter and my eyes fly up when he steps up to me and tugs me into his chest, kissing my forehead. I don't like to be touched and normally he doesn't do anything like this.

My eyebrows lift and I struggle not to shove at his chest, an overwhelming feeling of suffocation coming over me. And not the kind that lets me fly.

"I'm fine, Evan. Just worried about this new testing. Mom and Dad would never have wanted me to fall apart over their deaths."

He nods his head but doesn't move away and a raw, intense need for space sinks into me, biting into my skin like a rabid dog.

Until the door flies open and I jump in his arms. "What the hell?"

"Get the fuck off of her before I tear your arms off and beat you to death with them!"

I know that voice. My eyes widen and my temper notches higher. Because I know more than that voice. I know those dark chocolate eyes, flecked with golden sparks that glitter with fury right now.

"Hello?" Evan nods at them and steps back slightly but makes the dumbest move of his life and steps between me and the vibrating temper of the three men in front of me.

"Get. Away." Max's emerald eyes are so dark and tormented that he looks like he's gonna throw Evan out a window.

I step in front of him, my lips tightening. "Oh my god!" I whisper, my temper flaring into a whirlwind of boiling anger. "I can't believe you three used me like that."

Max, ever the peacemaker smirks. "Not true at all. We just took what's been rightfully ours for years."

"And at that point in time? You think that was fair to me? I was a fucking mess and you three made a hash out of my life and took away my choices."

Reid snorts. His blue eyes snap. "You had choices. Options, princess. You made your choice."

"Well, now I'd like to change all that. I didn't have all the damn facts." My finger stabs into his rock-hard chest and I glare up at him, trying to avoid inhaling the delicious, wild smell of him. He smells warm, like the sea and sky on a hot summer day at the beach. It's intoxicating as hell and I shove that feeling of melting lust pooling in my belly all the fucking way down.

Reid grabs my finger and tugs me closer to him until I'm leaning into his hard body and it's like I'm being branded by the sheer, overwhelming masculinity of him.

His dark brow lifts over his bright blue eyes. "You knew what you were doing. You weren't drunk."

My own brow lifts and I swear I can feel the heat crackling between us. "Once again, there were some missing pieces of that permission since we were all masked. And you never introduced yourselves."

"Masked? Who the hell are these guys, Courtney?" Evan huffs from behind me. "What the hell is going on?"

That's when I realize that the door is open and my assistant is staring in here with her wide eyes watching the scene like it's a freaking television show.

I groan internally and close my eyes. I'm a fucking telenovela. Jesus!

"Uh, Evan. I think maybe we should table the discussion on the Sabre until later. I need to talk to these…gentlemen." My eyes glare at all three of them but they are magnificently uncaring that I'm embarrassed and want them to get the hell out of here so I can shut my door and have a huge meltdown.

He nods his head but I can see the questions in his eyes and I know he's gonna corner me sooner or later.

But he steps around all three of my men and closes the door after himself.

I shudder when I feel trapped with the three of them, especially when they move closer and surround me. Electric tingles wind through my body and slam into my core with the ferocity of a summer thunderstorm and I have to wonder what the hell is going on here and when did I start thinking of them as my men.

I can't do this. I just need some space and time. And I need to forget.

Forget these men and all the feelings they stirred about. Because feelings are something I need to shove into a bottle and slam a lid on them so that they can's escape and drag me down into a morass of depression that's been pushing at my mind and body.