Chapter 3
3
Christa
A s soon as Teagan and her husband return from their honeymoon, I’m called into the head offices of the Hawthorne Steel Mills Corporation for my interview. I’ve had two weeks to mull this over, and I am as anxious about it today as I was when Teagan first suggested it.
My phone pings as I pull into the parking lot, the morning sun shining gloriously over the city’s brick and steel skyline. The Lloyd District is as bustling as I remember it. It’s the city’s business center and it overlooks the Burnside Bridge as it stretches over the dark blue waters of the Willamette River.
Good luck with the interview. I’m sure you’ll ace it , River’s text reads.
Hesitating for a moment, I type a reply. Lose my number .
Now you’re just being mean , he replies.
I roll my eyes and step out of my car. I’ve got on a navy blue pencil skirt and jacket over a white silk shirt. I look clean and crisp, professional and classy, just as Teagan suggested.
I hiss at the pain in my feet from these stupid high heels as I reach the top of the front steps. “This is going to be uncomfortable.”
I soldier through the revolving glass and steel doors, briefly lost in the middle of a sprawling lobby area. I need a moment to find the reception desk, but once I do, I sign in and they direct me toward the elevators.
“Good morning. Christa Campbell,” I tell one of the executive secretaries waiting behind her desk. “I’ve got an interview with Anthony Jackson at nine.”
“Good morning, Miss Campbell,” the secretary says. “My name is Dasha. We’ve been expecting you.” She adds a smile at the end, but it doesn’t feel genuine.
I check my phone. “Am I late?”
“Not at all. You’re a minute early. I’ll take you to the interview room,” she replies and gets up from her desk, heels clicking across the hardwood floor.
I follow her closely through a corridor with several black doors, each fitted with a steel nameplate. At the far end of the hallway, I spot the words “Interview Room 01” on the nameplate. We stop outside for a moment, and she gives me another half-smile.
“Here we are. They’re waiting for you. There’s coffee and water available,” Dasha says.
“Thank you,” I reply. She’s about to leave. “Wait, they’re inside waiting?”
“Yes.”
“Who’s they?”
She smiles again and walks away, seeming a tad irritated, as if she doesn’t have time to waste on me. I’d be offended, if I actually cared.
And as soon as I open the door, an involuntary groan escapes me.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I mutter, my eyes popping out of their sockets.
Anthony is nowhere in sight. Instead, Cassius, River, and Nathan Hawthorne are casually sitting behind the glass conference table. A coffee urn and water bottle are positioned in the middle.
“Good morning, Christa,” River quips with his signature devilish grin. “Or should we call you Miss Campbell until you say otherwise?”
“What’s going on here?” I manage.
“We’re supposed to sit down for an interview,” River replies, dashing as ever in a navy blue suit and tie. “Unless you’ve changed your mind?”
“No, I’m still interested in the job. But I was told I’d be doing the interview with Tony.”
“Who’s Tony?” Nathan asks, the shadow of a smile dancing across his lips. The dark gray suit hugs his muscular frame, making him look even huskier—but I must admit, I like the overall effect.
“Your brother-in-law?” I reply.
“Oh, we avoid nepotism here in HQ,” Nathan casually declares. “Here he’s Anthony. At home, he’s Tony.”
“I see. So yeah, where is he?” I ask, struggling to offer a polite smile, but the looks they’re giving me are turning my insides to mush.
“Not here, obviously,” River chuckles.
I give him a heartfelt scowl. “And that text from earlier? What was that? A tease?”
“You texted her?” Cassius asks him in a low voice.
River shrugs it off. “Just being friendly.” He looks at me. “Miss Campbell, would you like us to commence the interview or would you like to leave?”
“You’re kidding, right?” I snap and scoff, breaking into a cold sweat. “We’re really doing this?”
“You seem upset,” Cassius replies.
“No, just surprised.” I exhale sharply and take a seat at the table. “My apologies.”
“Welcome to Hawthorne Steel, Miss Campbell,” Cassius says.
“Christa, please,” I say, playing along with an underlying perverted sort of amusement.
“It’s your first time in the building, isn’t it?” Nathan asks.
He hasn’t given up on the military crew cut, I see. It suits him. It brings out the stern angle of his strong jaw, thick neck, and massive shoulders.
“It is,” I reply. “I never had a chance to visit the offices while I was in high school. Your father, bless his soul, insisted on keeping Teagan out of the family business. And you were in the service, if I remember correctly.”
Cassius nods slowly, his eyes never leaving mine. “That is correct. What did Teagan tell you about the job?”
“Just that you need a fintech specialist,” I say with a shrug. “I’m here to get the details.”
“Mind if I ask you something?” River replies.
I give him a wry smile. “You can ask me anything you want. I’m an open book.”
“Are you?” he asks, pointing at the experience page of my resume. “It says here you spent the last three years working for a major financial corporation, but you didn’t disclose the name of the company, nor did you provide us with a phone number in case we wanted a reference from them.”
“I also added a redacted copy of the nondisclosure agreement I signed with the aforementioned company to justify the absence of such details in my resume,” I say. “It’s the last page. The work I did for them was extremely sensitive and highly classified. It involved the Federal authorities toward the end of my employment, so secrecy was a prerequisite. I could’ve lied or made something up, but I’m choosing honesty.”
“Not full honesty, though, is it?” Cassius replies.
“Given the restrictions of the NDA, this was the best I could do. My previous employment details are listed, however, along with the independent contracts I worked with on the side. Any of them would be glad to provide you with the references you need. And I’m open to doing a trial run, if you doubt my skills.”
River chuckles softly. “You forget whom you’re talking to, Christa. Cassius is the one who sat you down in front of a computer for the first time. Oh, that reminds me, how’s your aunt Mary?”
“Excuse me?” I blink a few times in genuine confusion.
“Your aunt Mary. How is she? We haven’t seen her since she retired four years ago. She was one of our longest-serving employees, I think. She was working here when Cassius and I were still in diapers.”
“I haven’t seen my aunt since I’ve been back. Surely you remember what a difficult relationship we had.”
“I remember. That’s why I asked. She misses you, you know.”
“I doubt that very much.”
River sighs deeply. “The woman is a hard-ass, I’ll give her that. Tactless. Foot-in-mouth syndrome. Whatever you want to call it. But she does care about you.”
“I’m sorry. Did I walk into a job interview or a family therapy session?” I quip, my nerves bouncing all over the place.
Cassius shakes his head slowly. “We’ve been worried about you. And for good reason, I see. You’re different, Christa. Something happened in Los Angeles, didn’t it? Something you’re keeping hidden behind this NDA.”
“If you don’t want to hire me, that’s okay—”
He cuts me off. “I didn’t say that. We think you’re a perfect fit for the job.”
“Oh.”
I don’t know why I didn’t see that coming. I’m usually quite confident in my experience and abilities.
“If we’re to start this professional relationship, it has to be built on trust, honesty, and transparency,” Cassius says. “Knowing you on a deeply personal level…” He pauses with intention, and I can’t help but give River a quick glance, my cheeks burning, “gives us special insight into you. If you can’t be honest with us on a personal level, how can we expect you to be honest with us on a professional level?”
“There’s one thing I can promise you, Cassius. Whatever I do for this company, I do only with your best interests in mind. In here, you have my full cooperation and transparency. But where my past is concerned, I’m sorry, but right now, what you see in my resume is all I can disclose.”
“Do you expect that to change soon?” Nathan replies.
“I do, yes. But I don’t know when.”
What I’m not telling them is that it depends on how quickly the FBI takes out the rest of the Mancini crime family. I still dream of them sometimes. I still see Brett’s life slipping away right in front of me. I shudder and push the thought away.
“Take it or leave it,” I add with a cool smile. “That’s the best I can do.”
“We’ll take you, then,” Cassius says.
“You will?” I ask, my face practically ablaze. Are the double entendres intentional or am I just being paranoid?
“You’ll make a fine asset to the company,” Nathan says agreeably. “And we’ll be working together closely. Cassius directs day-to-day operations and our expansion projects. River handles our finances, and I head up security. We need your input in each of these sectors.”
Teagan had said that I wouldn’t be working with any of them directly. “I’m sorry,” I say. “Not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but I was told that our paths wouldn’t cross much within the company.”
“Teagan told you that?” River asks.
“Was she wrong?”
“She was insufficiently informed,” Nathan says.
“Insufficiently informed,” I say, while trying to figure out the best way forward. There’s no denying the attraction among the people in this room. It weighs me down, causing my shoulders to droop and my core to ignite. And it’s not just River I’m talking about. Oh no. I recognize the hunger in his brothers, too. I feel their desire echoing mine. But it’s wrong on so many levels.
“Okay. In that case, perhaps we should draw up some kind of agreement going forward,” I decide.
“An agreement?” Cassius asks.
“Something that sets some boundaries between personal issues and business,” I reply.
River laughs. “You had that locked and loaded, didn’t you?”
“What did you expect?” I ask, giving Cassius and Nathan another shrug. “Oh, come on. Do I seem blind or stupid to any of you?”
“Absolutely not,” Cassius says quickly.
“Then you obviously know that I know… that you all know about what happened at the wedding,” I manage, feeling less intelligent with every word I utter.
River takes a deep breath and gets up from his chair. I watch him like a hawk as he cautiously moves around the conference table like a panther on the prowl.
“My brothers and I don’t keep secrets from one another. We share everything.”
“Figures,” I mutter. “Well, the cat’s obviously out of the bag. It happened. It’s not going to happen again. Of that, I can assure you.”
“I don’t think she heard you,” Nathan tells River.
“Nope, she did not,” River says.
My gaze bounces from one hot Hawthorne to the other. “What didn’t I hear?”
“We have no secrets. We share everything,” River repeats.
“Yeah, I heard that.”
“We share… everything .” He gazes into my eyes.
Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room becomes charged. And as I look across the conference table, I can tell precisely what he means. It turns me on so hard, it scares me.
“Wait, hold on. What are you saying?”
“We know about what happened at the wedding,” Cassius says. “It was profoundly consensual, right?”
“Absolutely.”
He gets up, too. My core tingles as I sit up straighter in my chair. The anticipation builds, setting off every alarm in my body. Whatever is happening between us thrives on the intensity and is impossible to control. Once the fire is kindled, common sense and reasoning go up in smoke.
“And since we’re clearly adopting a bullshit-free zone here,” Cassius says, now making his way around the other side of the table to reach me, “I guess we should be honest with you, too.”
“Yeah, that would be nice.”
“Did you enjoy what happened at the wedding?” River asks upon reaching me.
I look up, my breath faltering as I meet his smoldering gaze. “You know I did.”
“Would you like to take things to the next level?” he inquires.
“I’d like to get this job and keep things professional,” I say.
Nathan clicks his pen and closes my folder, then leaves his chair as well. “Consider this interview completed. You’re hired. We’ll have HR reach out before the end of the week to get your paperwork started. Now we’re on personal time.”
“So we just flip a switch?” I mumble as River cups my face with both hands and plants a light, feathery kiss on my lips.
“I look forward to dealing with this beautiful, smart mouth of yours on a daily basis,” he says, fingers gently tracing my jawline.
Cassius comes beside me and pulls me out of my chair. I look at him, and he looks at me. For a moment, he says nothing and I hold my breath. He captures my mouth in a kiss, and stars explode behind my eyes. It’s an instant surrender.
“I remember how you looked at us, Christa,” Cassius tells me with a low growl that sends a lightning bolt to my belly. “When you were a teenager, your hormones raging. I remember how you lit up like a firebug whenever we met. And I know what I saw in your eyes when we saw each other again at Teagan’s wedding. It was as plain as day.”
“You want us,” Nathan adds.
“You want us as much as we want you,” River says.
“I do?” My nipples struggle against my bra.
River’s gaze drops as he discretely takes my jacket off, a slow smile appearing on his handsome face. “It’s obvious.”
I look down. “Oh.”
“You’re not crazy,” Cassius says, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. “Neither are we. What we are is simply perfectly aware of our desires, of our wants and needs, and we don’t deny ourselves anything. We’ve always been always like this, the three of us.”
Nathan locks the door and takes his jacket off. “And we often wondered if we’d ever see you again. Then you came back for Teagan’s wedding. It was an opportunity we don’t want to miss.”
“It was quite uncanny that you made it to my room that night,” River continues, trailing wet kissed down my chest as he unbuttons my shirt.
I feel Cassius’s hands moving over my hips, registering my curves while his fingers search for the zipper. I catch a whiff of Nathan’s cologne as he comes up behind me, his erection pressed against my butt.
“Oh, wow.” I tremble as Cassius unzips my skirt.
“That was a sign from the universe,” River says, peeling my bra off.
I don’t even register when it happens, but it happens. I stand, almost naked, between the Hawthorne brothers. There’s a pile of clothes gathering on the floor. Mine and theirs.
“Keep the pumps on. I like the way you look,” River whispers and kisses me again.
He’s ravenous. Eager to claim me again. Except he’s not alone this time, and I can’t stop his brothers from joining us. Hell, I don’t want to stop them. I’ve craved them from the moment I hit puberty.
“You smell like heaven,” Cassius says as he hooks a finger under my panties. A split second later, they’re on the floor, too.
“Fuck,” I hiss as Nathan grabs me by the back of the head and yanks me into a kiss. His lips mercilessly press against mine, his tongue eager to explore while River goes to town on my full breasts. “Oh, wow…”
Cassius slips a hand between my legs. He can feel that I’m dripping wet and burning hot. Our eyes meet. “Just as I suspected,” he says.
I whimper when River playfully bites my nipple, the delicious sting spreading like wildfire through my ribcage.
Nathan turns me around and bends me over the table, while River and Cassius tease my breasts and run their fingers down my bare back. My hands reach out, and I gaze at each in simmering silence as they stroke their massive, bulging, hard cocks, watching their younger brother position himself behind me.
No one says much as I firmly wrap my fingers around River’s and Cassius’ erections, licking my lips as I feel Nathan probing my entrance. I’m wound up so tight, my knees are shaking. This is insanity, the kind of insanity that has shoved me so close to the edge, my pussy is throbbing for some kind of release.
“Take me,” I tell them desperately. “Please. Take me.”
“Oh, baby, we’re just getting started.” Cassius smiles and bites his lower lip as I stroke him harder and faster. River gets the same treatment, and I revel in the feel of their magnificent cocks, the throbbing veins and their body heat seeping through me.
“AH!” I cry out when Nathan buries himself deep in my pussy.
Fuck. He’s thick. So thick, I’m stretched beyond my wildest dreams. I feel every glorious inch as he brings me closer to a razor-sharp edge with every thrust. My breasts bounce, my core tightens as I welcome him.
“I’ve wanted this for so long,” he grunts and digs his fingers into my hips. “We’ve wanted this for so fucking long.”
“Christa,” Cassius says as he flicks my clit, “this is only the beginning.”
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” I moan, yet I don’t want them to stop.
River fondles my breasts, his eyes drilling holes into my very soul. Cassius teases my clit, flicking and pressing in a rhythm that matches Nathan’s relentless pounding with Swiss precision. I hold on for dear life, rubbing their cocks as they watch, as they hear and feel me come. Hard.
“Oh, God, YES!” I gasp as my climax unravels.
Nathan fucks me like a beast, harder and deeper and faster until I lose my senses altogether and feel his hot seed spurting out and filling my core. He pulls out and lets Cassius take over.
“My turn,” he whispers and lifts my left leg for an even deeper penetration.
Cassius is big, too. Long and strong, my pussy glazing him as he fucks my lights out. The sound of my climax makes him smile.
“Save some for me, darling, because I’m dying for a rematch,” River quips, looking into my eyes just as Cassius comes inside me. I feel that, too.
The heat exploding.
The ripples of raw pleasure.
Next thing I know, I’m riding River on the conference table. My clit pressed against his groin. Another orgasm building. I’ve lost count. I don’t know where I am or what I’m doing anymore. All I know is the Hawthorne men have me. I am theirs at this single moment in time, and they are mine.
In this single moment in time, at least.