The phone buzzes on my desk and I pick it up. It’s Max. My boss, my lover, my friend and now my family.

“Afternoon, Icy, would you come into my office please? I need some assistance.”

“Sir, I’m afraid there’s no one here by that name,” I say, putting all the emphasis on Sir.

“Hmm, I like the sound of that, Icy. I think you should refer to me that way all the time. It has a nicer ring to it than Jester or Max, don’t you think.”

My eyes flick up to Sarah, who shares the office with me. “Max,” I mouth.

She pulls a funny face and I stifle a laugh. I’ve been working here for two months and we’re getting along famously. We are already at the comfortable stage where we can tease each other. It feels good to have another female friend in my life. Sarah is one of the few who knows about my relationship with all the brothers. Like Calum, she knew the brothers growing up. For a few years they were all in the same care home. Sarah has a lovely girlfriend called Jessica and they have a cute two-year-old boy together. Ty is adorable and totally won over my heart the very first time I met him.

“If you require my assistance, Sir,” I say, laying it on thick, “I will be with you shortly. But Icy, she stays at home.”

“Spoilsport,” Max says with a laugh and hangs up. I can’t help but grin.

Putting the phone down, I pick up my pad and pen. “Max needs me for a bit, probably has a letter to dictate or something,” I say to Sarah.

Sarah shoots me a look. “Sure he does. Do you want me to hold all calls?” she asks sweetly, a twinkle of amusement in her eye.

“No, don’t give Max any more ideas. He’s incorrigible.”

“Frankly, I don’t blame him. I mean, you are hot stuff.”

“Shush, don’t let Jessica hear you say that,” I say with a wave of my hand.

“She agrees with me…” Sarah bursts out laughing at the look on my face. “What? Sometimes we discuss how ridiculously hot my co-worker is.”

“Oh, bloody hell.”

I leave our office, smiling at Sarah’s tinkling laugh, and head towards Max’s, which is situated alongside our own. When I enter he has his feet up on the desk and a wide smile on his face.

“Shut the door,” he says in a voice that is far too sexy for the middle of the day in an office full of employees.

“I’ve brought my pad and pen. Do you have a letter that needs dictating… Sir?” I add, my own voice dropping lower. When he is playfully sexy like this I can’t help but join in.

Max removes his feet from the desk and saunters towards me. He is looking particularly gorgeous today in a button-down, black shirt and a pair of grey cotton trousers. He pulls off smart casual better than either Hudson or Bryce, who look more at home in a smart suit, or at the other end of the scale, tracksuit and hoody. I’m not sure which I prefer. If I had to choose it would Bryce in a suit, Hudson in a tracksuit. There was something so attractive about Bryce’s huge muscles straining against a well-tailored suit, and Hudson freshly showered wearing his trackies after a session in a gym.

“Earth to Louisa,” Max says, clicking his fingers.

I laugh. “Sorry, my mind wandered for a moment.”

“I sure would like to know where to.”

“I bet,” I say, taking a seat on the Chesterfield sofa in the corner of his office. “So tell me, what is it that you need exactly? I’m quite busy. My bosses are slave drivers.”

Max sits down on the sofa next to me, smiling languidly. “Is that so? Sounds to me that your bosses are taking advantage of you. Perhaps they’re a bit uptight?”

“Uptight?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. “He certainly wasn’t uptight when we made love last night. Nope, I’d say he was pretty much the reverse of uptight.” In fact, Max had been incredible. We’d made love for hours, this time just the two of us. Bryce and Hudson had drawn the short straw and flown out to Amsterdam a couple of days ago for a business meeting, so it has been just myself and Max. Apart from Nisha dropping in to see us for a meal, we’ve only had each other and as much as I’ve been missing Bryce and Hudson, it has been lovely.

Max slides along the seat towards me and raises an eyebrow. “Sleeping with your boss, are we? Isn’t that against employment law?”

“You tell me, Boss,” I say, placing my pen and pad on the low coffee table in front of us. “I could always resign.” I cross my legs in front of me, acutely aware I am wearing the tight pencil skirt Max loves to see me dressed in. His eyes linger on my bare calves and high heels. Despite insisting that casual attire is fine for working, I like wearing more business-like clothes. It makes me feel good about myself. I also feel confident, sexy.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” he says, sliding a warm hand up the front of my shin and under the hem of my skirt.

“No?”

“No,” Max repeats, his fingers straying higher. “Bryce and Hudson are back tonight. This may be our only chance to be alone for a while.” He looks almost wistful. We would have to chat about that. For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been feeling a bit of tension between the brothers. Not enough to worry me, but enough to make me think a discussion is needed to lay some ground rules. All of them want to spend time alone with me as much as they want to spend time with me together, and a couple of times more recently there have been moments where it has been a little tense when it came to the alone time and doubling up. A rota doesn’t sound like the right kind of term to use in a relationship, but ours is beginning to need something like that, some way we can rotate the time we spend together. That talk is for later when the guys are home, right now me and Max have some horniness to address.

“Then I guess we’d better make the most of it?” I uncross my legs, parting them as much as the skirt will allow.

“Damn it, Icy, I swear you wearing this skirt and looking all hot secretary has me in all kinds of bother.” He presses a hot kiss against my neck, his fingers now blazing a trail towards my crotch.

“Hot secretary. I think you’ve been watching way too much porn,” I giggle.

Max laughs softly in my ear. “I can’t help it if you’re fulfilling every fantasy I have. I’m a lucky man, I guess.”

“You guess?” I pull a face, feigning upset.

“I am a lucky man.”

“That’s better. Now stop talking and kiss me. Sarah’s got us covered for the next half an hour or so.”

“Second to you, Sarah is about the best bloody PA ever,” Max says, before sliding his lips against my own. His kiss is warm and familiar and melts me entirely. Each of the brothers have their own style of kissing. Max often kisses me slowly, savouring the moment when our lips collide. He could kiss for hours, and frankly I could let him. There have been many occasions when I have almost orgasmed from his kisses alone, which is a bloody feat in itself. Bryce’s kisses are more urgent, a clashing of lips, teeth and tongue. Most of the time he kisses like he makes love, passionately and with utter abandon. Those times I am completely lost in his arms, both physically and metaphorically. Hudson is somewhere in between. There are days when he takes my breath away with a kiss and I feel the love behind it, the honesty. Ever since he admitted he loved me, it’s like a bottle has been uncorked and all this emotion is flooding out of him. It’s beautiful. Other times the dark, hard-edged part of his nature takes over, and he kisses like he has everything to lose and nothing to gain, like it’s the last time we’ll ever be together. On those occasions, I feel such a surge of love and heartbreak for him because I can almost touch the damaged parts of him when he is raw and unguarded like that. They all have a similarity though; their kisses are full of love. I am loved by these men. It’s still a wonder to me.

“Icy, I could kiss you forever and never come up for air,” Max murmurs against my lips.

He eases me down onto the sofa and I wrap my arms around the back of his neck. Until now, none of the brothers have instigated sex at work, but I must admit, the thought of him taking me right now is a huge turn on. Groaning into his mouth, I pull him tighter against me. Max is as excited by the notion of us fucking on this sofa as I am. My skirt has made its way up around my waist and Max’s hands have found their way up my shirt and under my bra. The pad of his finger swirls over my nipple, sending pleasurable waves right to where I want them. He grinds his hips against mine, the firmness of his cock sliding deliciously against my already wet knickers.

Then the phone rings.

“Damn it,” Max groans, instantly stilling.

“Ignore it,” I say, pushing my hips up against him.

“Christ knows I want to, but it could be important.”

The phone rings incessantly. Whoever it is, they’re not going away.

“You’d better answer. It’s Friday afternoon, it might be something you need to deal with before the weekend.” I sigh, thoroughly disappointed now. “We can always fulfil your secretary fantasy another time.”

Max gives me a quick kiss on the mouth. “Hold that thought, okay.” He stands, pulling me up with him. I adjust my skirt and shirt, and Max does up his belt. If anyone were to walk in now it would be so obvious that he and I have been busy making out. Just as well he has a large mahogany desk to sit behind to hide his excitement.

“Max Freed,” he says as he snatches up the phone. He looks at me and mouths, “Hudson.”

“Yes, Louisa’s here. I can put you on loudspeaker if you want.” He pauses. “Sure, hold on.” Max presses a button and Hudson’s voice fills the room.

“Louisa, how’s Max treating you?” Hudson asks.

I glance at Max and we share a smile.

“Max is being a most attentive boss. How’s it going in Amsterdam? Are you enjoying the tourist spots? Red light district interesting, is it?”

Hudson laughs. “I have no desire to go there, baby. Although Bryce did smoke a joint last night. Now that was pretty entertaining.”

“He smoked a joint?” Max says with a laugh. “The last time he did that we were seventeen and he puked up half his stomach.”

“Well, that’s because you were drinking cider as well.”

“Tell him not to make a habit of it,” I say, partly amused and partly annoyed. I know Bryce wouldn’t take it up, but my history of dealing with the other side of addiction isn’t something I want to replicate any time soon.

“Hey, baby. It wasn’t a whole joint, just a couple of puffs. He didn’t particularly like it… the hash cakes, on the other hand, were great.”

“Hash cakes?!”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” Hudson says quickly, recognising when I am losing my sense of humour. Nisha had lost her mum to drug addiction, which had started with smoking the odd joint and ended up with heroin and cocaine abuse. It isn’t a subject I like to joke about.

“Hey, Louisa, sorry. I’m being a prat. Honestly, we were with clients who live in the city. It’s normal to smoke hash here. Bryce and I were being social. It’s not something we’d ever take up, I can assure you.”

“I know that. It’s a sore subject for me.”

“When time can we expect you back?” Max asks, filling the awkward silence.

“We should be back around midnight tonight. I can’t wait to get home, I’ve been missing you like crazy.”

“Thanks, Hud, I can’t say I’ve missed you, though,” Max says, giving me a wink.

“Ha bloody ha,” Hudson responds. “You’ve been enjoying your alone time with Louisa way too much, I think.”

“It’s been great, mate,” Max ribs gently.

“That late? We were expecting you back a bit earlier,” I say, cutting over their banter.

“Yes, I know. Sorry, Louisa. We’ve had some business to wrap up and it’s taken us a bit longer than we originally thought.”

“It went well, then, I take it?” I ask. I’m not entirely sure what they’d gone out to Amsterdam to discuss. I think it was to do with finalising a new venture, purchasing holiday apartments abroad somewhere exotic, but it had been all very last minute and I hadn’t been filled in on all the previous months’ negotiations.

“Very well. We have some amazing news, but I’ll fill you both in when we’re back. There may even be a little surprise for you too, baby.”

“Surprise? I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”

“You will this one… Fancy a holiday?”

“A holiday?” I glance at Max, who is smiling knowingly.

“Uh-huh. Pack up for a warm climate because Sunday we are all going to fly off to an exotic country surrounded by the Andaman Sea.”

My mouth drops open in shock. Max grins his megawatt smile at me. “That’s right. We’re all heading to Thailand for a few weeks.”

“You’re kidding me.” The only time I’ve been abroad was to Alpe D’Huez where I met the brothers. Flying to Thailand is like a dream come true.

“Nope, I’m not. This time next week we will all be lying on a beach in Krabi in front of a new holiday complex we’ve just bought,” Hudson says. I can tell by his voice he is smiling.

“Right, I’ve got to go. See you later. Love you, baby.” I don’t get a chance to say goodbye before the phone cuts off.

I turn to look at Max. “Is this really happening?”

“Yep.”

“Holy shit,” I say, flabbergasted. Who would have thought that three months ago I would meet the brothers Freed, fall in love, move in with them and then get the opportunity to go Thailand? Not me, that’s for sure.

But I am.

The thought of lying on a beach next to three sun-kissed Adonises is an image I do not want to lose any time soon. “We’re really going on holiday to Thailand?”

Max smiles. “Yep, we really are.”

I let out an excited squeal, traverse around Max’s desk and throw myself into his arms. Thailand, here we come.