Triplets Make Five

“JP Johnson was my accountants before they closed down. I know all about it, and there’s no way in hell I would ever give someone from there a job. I wouldn’t give you a job scrubbing the toilets, much less handling any money. Now get out.”

He went back to what he was doing. I stared at him one minute more before I staggered back out to the cafe. I slumped onto my usual couch, but I had to remind myself to blink. I couldn’t sink any lower than this. I couldn’t even get a job when someone just quit. My past dogged my every step. Now what was I going to do?

I took out my phone and stared at it for a long time. The same text notification flashed on the screen, and searching those websites wasn

’t getting me anywhere except closer to the bread line. I swiped my thumb over the screen and it blinked back to the same job post.

Wife Wanted.

What in the world did I possibly have to lose? No matter how old and ugly and rude he was, he was rich, and he wanted a wife. I had all the other qualifications, so why not? I let my thumb dangle over the Apply Now button, but I already knew the answer. He couldn’t possibly say anything to me worse than what Paulo just said. I didn’t need any accounting qualifications to be some trophy wife.

I let my thumb fall. The button lit up, and the screen flashed to the application page.

3

Gray

I tossed the clipboard of application forms onto the table in front of me. “This is ridiculous. I am NOT marrying any of these girls.”

Serena sighed for probably the twentieth time today. “It really doesn't matter what you think.”

“Of course, it does,” I growled. “You don’t have to marry her. I do.”

Tanya uncrossed her legs on a chair next to me and recrossed them going the other way. She didn’t participate in these interviews. She didn’t have to say anything. She just came along to make me behave.

I didn’t have to say anything, either. I listened to Serena and Jason question the girls. They paraded into the office, sat down for a while, answered a bunch of standard job interview questions, and left. They never knew I was there. They batted their eyelashes at Jason. They expected him to be the lucky groom. Lucky him.

“Just put up with it for a little while longer,” Serena told me. “We’ve got three more girls to interview and then we’re done. Once we get the girl picked out, we can move forward. What’s good for your reputation is good for your bottom line, and more importantly your brother. Just remember that when you look at them.”

I muttered something profane under my breath when the next girl walked in. She was a copy of every other girl that walked into the office. Nothing was special about her. Nothing attracted me to her. This was insane. No more clubs. No more girls for a year—at least, not the kind of girls I liked. How could they do this to me?

I wouldn’t allow it. I would fight them. I would.... Then I remembered Tanya’s threat. If I didn’t go along with it, the investors would leave. My brother would take control of the company from his pretty desk in the White House. And he didn't I had a feeling Tanya would make him, just to teach me a lesson.

In the last week, Tanya showed me her claws for the first time. I always knew she was a tiger under her professional exterior. She always used her claws in the courtroom and the boardroom for my benefit—until now. Now she turned them on me. The whole team claimed to be doing this for my own good.

I couldn’t settle down. I just couldn’t. Even if I married the most gorgeous supermodel in the world, I couldn’t stay home and watch TV with her. I would have to go out. Monogamy just wasn’t my thing, and I had come to terms with that. I didn’t understand why my team couldn’t as well.

I tried not to listen to Serena interviewing the next girl. “You said you left your last job to take a new position. Where are you working now?”

Same old boring questions. I wasn’t marrying her. No way. At last, she got to her feet and walked out of the room. My stomach growled. Four long hours of this, and I was starting to get hungry. I could use a gin and tonic about now, too.

Serena flipped the page on her clipboard and the second to last girl walked in. Her heels clipped along the floor and attracted my attention. Without really meaning to, my eyes gravitated to her. I caught sight of a nice, shapely curve where her thigh met her ass. Her tight skirt showed off her assets in crisp, neat lines.

She settled herself on the chair and crossed her legs. Those legs made a perfect inverted V joined at the knee. Her ass bent against the chair, and her curvy chest plunged into her neckline. Her dark blue blazer buttoned across the stomach.

I couldn’t take his eyes off her. Her dark chocolate hair curled around her shoulders. She moved a stray curl out of her eyes with one finger. She wore just enough makeup to set off her bright green eyes and kept it light over the rest of her pretty skin. That beautiful glow shone out of her inner self like no one I had ever seen before in my life.

She scanned the team with one quick glance. Her pupils dilated when she saw me, but she moved on in an instant. She gave the same appraising glance to each person in turn.

Serena turned her page. “Gabriela Landon?”

Gabriela. Beautiful. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect name for a more perfect girl. She was just the kind of girl I liked to pick up in bars and hammer in the back of my limo before dropping her off at her place for the night.

I scanned her up and down one more time. I surprised myself by thinking that I could get on board with this. I could look forward to her waiting for me every night. Hell, I could peel off that tight suit and find all the treasures hidden underneath.

Even sitting there watching her made the blood rush to my cock. I spread my legs just a fraction of an inch to give it room. She couldn’t see under the table separating us. She had no idea what she was doing to me.

She burst into a brilliant smile when Serena said her name. “Yes.”