Shane (Mallick Brothers 1)

“There are practically no jobs,” I said, sipping my coffee.

“Yeah, Navesink Bank has a, ah, unconventional workforce,” she said oddly, not seeming like she was going to elaborate on it. “So you do know that the job opening we currently have is for the graveyard shift, right?”

“Yeah,” I agreed. It was actually what I liked best about it. Now, I was a pretty strong, independent kind of woman. But my apartment building and neighborhood in general wasn’t the most comforting of places in the harsh light of day. At night, it was downright scary.

“Our usual night girl just went into labor three nights ago. I’ve been taking the shift since then but, well, my husband has been having a hell of a time getting our girls to bed and, well, the point of being the boss is not having to work the shitty shifts anymore,” she said with a smile.

“I will happily take the shitty shift.”

“So, just a quick, random question,” Fiona said, eyes twinkling. “What is a double-fishhook?”

I had been taking a sip of my coffee and immediately snorted and started choking on it hard. “You’re… serious?” I coughed, setting my coffee down.

“We both know I could pick a worse term to explain than that one. Out with it,” she demanded with a wicked smile.

I shook my head with a slightly embarrassed smile. It was one thing to dirty talk to a lover or explain something to a friend or even get paid to say things to a man. It was a whole other to explain a sex act to a potential employer.

But, this wasn’t any normal potential employer. This was a woman who had herself worked as a phone sex operator. And she damn sure didn’t want to hear a sugar-coated, PG version of the act.

“It’s when you’re getting fucked from behind and the guy hooks the insides of your cheeks and pulls you backward by them so he can get deeper.”

Fiona did a silent clap, a big smile making her green eyes warm up. “That was pretty good. Alright. Sure. I like you. The first night, we will do a trial run. We record calls for security purposes. I will let you do your thing in one of the cubicles while I’m in my office. When you’re done, I will review one or two of your calls to see if you have the chops. Though, I think you will be an old hand at it.”

“Fee, I swear to fuck I am going to murder your ass,” a deep male voice called just seconds before the owner of it came swaggering into the room and, in doing so, seemed to pull all the air out of it. He simply overpowered the space. First, because he was a giant. Second, because he was very possibly the best looking man I had ever seen in my entire life and I wasn’t exactly unaffected by that.

I mean, really, was there anything hotter than the tall, dark, muscular, chiseled-face, blue-eyed, tattoo-covered type of handsome? I was pretty sure there wasn’t.

And Fiona, well, she somehow seemed completely unaffected. The freak.

“What’d I do now, Shane?”

“You’re the reason Ma has this bug up her ass about us all bringing dates on Sunday. You bringing your fine, crazy ass into Hunter’s life and thereby setting standards for the rest of us and making Ma and Pops get their hopes up about a dozen more grand babies.”

“It’s not my fault you guys are acting like a bunch of horny teenagers and refuse to settle down and grow up.”

Shane took her coffee out of her hand and took a long swig, seeming to be completely oblivious of my presence. “Where the fuck am I supposed to find a convincing date for Sunday dinner in two fucking days?”

“That’s a good question. Maybe you can go ask Eli, Mark, and Ryan where they are getting theirs and get one for yourself. I am in the middle of a job interview,” she said, gesturing toward me and making me wish I’d had a chance to flatten my hair a bit before his eyes landed on me.

And they landed on me.

I swear there was physical impact.

The light blue gaze took in my face for a long second before traveling downward, not lingering overly long on any one place, but somehow making me feel flushed all over anyway.

What can I say? He was hot. I hadn’t had sex in months. Months. I mean, it had been a choice. After the shitstorm of my last relationship, I had decided that I needed to not fall into bed with hot bad boys just because they were hot bad boys. That, in fact, I needed to not fall into bed with anyone for a while. As such, I had done the absolute unthinkable. I had stopped shaving. I might have found it hard to not give into my libido at times, but let’s just say that being unkempt down there was like having a hair chastity belt for me. No way was I going to let a man all up in that.