Page 10 of Three Rugged Bosses and a Clueless Girl

“So Carl just happens to be the son of the owner of Ali’s Chandeliers, and he told me about his father’s feud with your fathers from school, but Carl also has serious, deep-rooted issues with his father and wanted to get back at him, so he said he would sell it to me for the price on the tag, but he also wanted something else, so I gave it to him. We did an exchange—”

“What did Carl want, Michelle?” Jake asked softly.

“My panties,” she said so fucking calmly and so fucking completely unbothered that Jake and his friends could only stare at her as a full ton of rage rushed through them.

That fucking kid had her panties in his possession?

Chapter Eight

Okay, Michelle had no idea what was going on, but the amount of testosterone being flung her way by her brother’s best friends was overkill. And why did they look so murderous?

“He has your panties?” Marc thundered at her.

“Hmm… I don’t know why you’re getting so bent out of shape. You gave me a task, and you said if I executed it, I would have a job. So, I did whatever I needed to do in order to get the job done. What is the problem?” But seriously, why were they so mad?

“And I’m not stupid. Carl thought he was going to get some hot piece of lingerie in silk and satin; well, the joke is on him. I was wearing practical cotton underwear.”

They were still mad. Okay, whatever.

“Can I get back to work now?”

“Let’s just get this straight one more time. You gave him your panties?” Evan asked, and his cool blue eyes darkened to a stormy azure, which was unlike his normal laid-back nature.

He was like a lazy lion, powerful, but when he was relaxed, he was easygoing. His smile, well, that smile made girls want to give him their panties. She supposed she could see why girls lost their minds over him.

And Jake and Marc, for that matter, even though Marc rarely smiled and looked like a beast, every girl wanted to be his Belle. And Jake... Jake had the kind of aura where you just wanted to follow him through a meadow or over a cliff.

Of course, she never personally felt any of those things for her brother’s best friends. She had just observed how other girls responded to their presence, that’s all.

Nothing more.

“Arg. In what other language do you want me to say it?” she cried. “Carl is a nice guy, and he said he would probably throw them away in a day or two, and honestly, what he does with them is his business, not mine. So it really isn’t a big deal at all.”

“So you’re not wearing any panties under your skirt right now?” Jake murmured softly, and his brown gaze glided over her. He had never looked at her like that before, and she felt as if he had peeled off her clothes with his eyes alone.

Maybe she was hungry. It was probably time she ate her peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

“No, I’m not,” she said softly.

“Then it’s time we teach you not to go around giving fucking strangers your panties.” Marc issued quietly but so dangerously soft and strained that she almost didn’t hear him. But she could not avoid watching him unbuckle his belt and pull it through the loops of his jeans.

If that wasn’t strange enough, her gaze caught Evan and Jake rummaging around their office, looking at things, like screwdrivers and curtain hooks.

“Wait. What?”

“Look in her bag. Maybe we’ll find something there.”

“Find what?” she asked as a warm flush in her skin rose and became more heated. Evan opened her tote, and when he pulled out her bottle of perfume, removed the lid, and put it into his pocket, she frowned. Okay, but what was going on?

She took two steps back but hit the desk that would be hers—yay, because she worked for it—as Jake and Evan started toward her. Before she could utter a word or take a second breath, she found herself spun around, bent over the empty desk, effortlessly held down by her wrists by Jake as behind her, Evan pulled her skirt up until her whole bare backside was revealed.

Oh god. Her sudden nakedness in front of them seemed to change the needle of the compass of her life, and it only seemed amplified by their harsh, low groans that also started a fire in the pit of her stomach and sent a throbbing sensation to her clit.

What was happening to her?

“Fuck. She really gave that fucker her panties,” Evan said with the same note of darkness she had found in Marc’s voice. But then Jake had started to bind her hands with ropes, restraining her wrists to the legs of the desk. His knots were so foolproof that she couldn’t escape unless she lifted the whole desk with her.

“I don’t know what the big deal is—”

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