When I think back, if there's one thing it can be blamed on its probably that damned air conditioner.

But whatever started it, I do know that the fire I couldn’t possibly put out started that day, right there in their office. The second I saw them - so rawly masculine, so dominating, so in charge - well, I knew that was what I wanted. I wanted a man like Luke Steele. Of course, I also wanted a man like Jordan Stone.

But you can’t want two men, can you?

It was confusing from the get-go, but I knew men like that - men who’d take control, men who’d take charge, and men who wouldn’t be tender with me - was exactly what I’d never known I wanted.

I knew that day, even if back then it was only a naughty fantasy in my head, that I would submit to a man like Mr. Steele or Mr. Stone. I would yield myself to men like that, and nothing - not life, not that I worked for them, and not that it was scandalously dirty - would stop that.

Maybe I should start at the beginning.

* * *

The job was a welcomed change to being unemployed for so damn long, I can say that. Sure, it was way below my pay grade, and way below my education level. But a recession was a recession, and after five months of being too proud to admit that, it wasn’t just nice to have a job anymore it was needed.

What savings I’d had before had been decimated by my ex, Mark. Mark who “ran with the wrong crowd”, and Mark who was constantly in need of a loan, or a bailout, or a lawyer’s fee. I’d finally left the creep after two years of promising myself I’d do it. Two years of feeling trapped by his wanna-be criminal aspirations, his drug dealing, and his neglect. When I finally got out, it was freeing, but not as much as I’d want it to be.

Because I was basically flat broke.

Yeah, I needed a job.

I tried not to think about the four expensive years of college, or worse the two more very expensive years of grad school under my belt and on top of my credit report as I arrived for my first day as a secretary at Steel & Stone Holdings. I didn’t know a thing about the company; just that they’d hired me, were going to pay me a livable wage plus benefits, and, oh yeah, they’d hired me.

Standards are fine, when you’re employed.

A small, slightly frumpy woman introduced herself as the Tilly from HR led me around introducing me to a few people around the ultra-modern looking exposed brick and glass office of the company.

“So, this is you;” she smiled through cake-y looking makeup at me, gesturing towards a cubical and desk to the right of a massive wooden door that I assumed went to Mr. Steel and Mr. Stone’s offices. I was there to be their combined secretary, after all.

Tilly smiled at me. “Anything else you need, hon, you just let me know, okay?”

She started to walk away but I stopped her. “Um, Tilly, when do I meet Mr. Steel and Mr. Stone?”

“Oh,” she smiled. “Soon enough. They’re probably in one of their sparring matches right now.”

“Sparring matches?”

Tilly laughed. “They’re both big boxing nuts. They’ve even got a gym set up in the building for their daily workouts.”

I frowned. I’d never met the two men who were to be my new bosses, but I was trying to figure out what she means about “sparring” when it came to what I could only imagine as the two stereotypical CEO-types - pot-bellied, grey-haired, old guys throwing punches at each other

“Well that’s…impressive. How old are they?”

Tilly chuckled. “Wait, have you never met them?”

I shook my head, and she grinned, wagging a brow and fanning herself dramatically. “Oh, honey.” She winked. “You know being personal secretary to those two men pretty much makes you the envy of the office, right?”

Uh, no?

“Look, just don’t…” She trailed off. “Never mind.”

I frowned. “What?”

“They’ve just, well, they’ve had problems with personal secretaries before.”

I swallowed heavily. “Um, what kind of problems?”

Tilly just shook her head. “Oh, I’m sure you’ll be fine, hon.”

She smiled again before she turned and walked away.

Sasha Reed, welcome to your new job.

* * *

“And you must be Sasha.”

I jolted at the sound of the deep, honeyed voice from behind me, and I whirled around to come face to face two sets of jaw-dropping eyes. The ones on the left were blue - blue like some sort of cold metal, and they belonged to a man with jet-black hair. The one who was on the right were a forest-green, their owner with hair a darker brown.

And both men were gorgeous.

Oh my God, I thought. This was Mr. Steel and Mr. Stone.

I’d never met them before, but the men that stood before me in a perfectly tailored slim suits with very expensive looking watches and smug, cocky smiles across perfect, cleanly shaved jaw-lines couldn’t be anyone else.

“Oh! I- hello, sir.” I blushed, feeling ridiculous for doing so. “Um, sirs, I mean.

My words tumbled awkwardly out of my mouth, and I felt flustered that I was, well, flustered by these men.

“You aren’t used to that word, are you.”

The man with the grey-blue eyes said it in such a way that it wasn’t a question, but a statement. I blushed again, trying to find the words.

“Just an observation, thats all.” His eyes sparkled as he grinned at me again. “Luke Steel,” he said, not offering a hand.

“Jordan Stone,” his associate said crisply in a dark and edged voice, his deep green eyes flickering vividly over my face as I felt the heat bloom across my face.

God, why was I acting so flustered by these men? Was it because I’d walked into this job thinking they’d be two elderly, crotchety old men asking me for tea? Or was it because the reality was that they were in fact stupidly good looking younger men?

Both?

They both seem supremely confident, almost arrogantly so. And they carried themselves with an air of pure, smug boldness. They’d earned it, I suppose. Tilly had been telling me earlier about how both of them had started from nothing as street kids. They’d scraped their way into college, started the acquisitions firm right after, turned to renewable energy as it was taking off, and then turned the company into the multi-billion dollar international corporation it was today.

“Anyways, pleasure to meet you Sasha, and I know we both look forward to working with you.” Mr. Stone said with a slight grin. Mr Steel nodded next to him, his own icy blue eyes never leaving mine, before the two of them gave one more curt nod and turned sharply to head back to their offices.

Well, this was unexpected.