Work Wife by Dee Ellis

Chapter One

Kolt

“Get me the meeting, that is all I am asking for,” my voice booms in the big office but I don’t care.

I want this meeting—I need it to take Master Tech to the next level. I am partnered with my cousins Jase and Milo, who run everything from splashy magazines to commerce media sites. My tech helps them, and their partners, and I am working on a deal with a designer whose automation program will streamline my work and make us all richer than we already are.

For me it is not about the money or even the power of expansion this kind of deal would provide. Really, I just want the best tech and the best programming. Working with new designers, with innovative tech and networking with brilliant minds—that keeps me doing this not the money. Not that I am complaining that my company turned me into a billionaire by thirty.

“Sound a little upset there, cousin,” Jase’s voice is full of humor as always and I turn to find him and Milo at my door.

Tension from the past three weeks of calling in favors to get me this meeting makes my shoulders ache. I smile at them and for a moment, that all fades away. My cousins come into the room and sit down at the club chairs facing my desk, as relaxed as if they own the place. In their case, it is true.

Ten years ago, they dug themselves out of the gutters our families left them in and hustled their way to the top. Their media empire is unrivaled now and they could retire with their wife—the one they both married—and live out their best years on an island somewhere. For now, they are still just as hungry as I am, so I don’t see them jetting off to sandy beaches just yet.

“Trying to get a meeting with Holden Hill is like jumping through flaming hoops,” I grumble as I go to the little bar beside my desk and pour us all some whiskey.

It may be early afternoon, but I need to take the edge off. I called in every favor I had to get this meeting and it pisses me off that I had to. My firm, which got started with funds and faith by my cousins, is known around the country for making moves with tech and programming. Holden Hill’s engineering firm has some smart tools that I want, and I make it a point to get what I want.

“He will meet with you and sell you what you want. Just playing hard to get. We may think we are gods of industry, but that man is fucking Zeus. He holds the power, and he knows it,” Jase explains.

“Besides, Hill is all about family. He wants to work with us for that reason. You, however, are not settled down or even with a serious woman. Might not be so keen to talk to a man whose virtue he doubts,” Milo says in that dead-pan tone of his, but I know he is teasing me. At least, I hope he is.

Growing up with the mothers we grew up with—three sisters cut of the same wild child cloth—we were always a bit hesitant with the ladies. The two of them were closer even when we were little, so I was not that surprised when they settled down with the same woman. All our lives the two of them shared everything so sharing their wife seemed to fit the bill.

Most of my life, I was a loner. Even though I always had the two of them and they took care of me, I wandered a bit aimlessly. As a teenager, I started tinkering with computers and coding and found I was good at it. When they started their hustle, I was in the background, making sure every launch went smoothly and stayed that way. We built a solid brand and then they funded my own interests, so I owe everything I have to them.

“Because I am single and don’t dip my dick very often,” I scoff, taking long sip of my whisky and letting the burn chase away the bitterness.

Truth is, I do not “dip my dick” at all. Spending most of my time nose deep in code means I never honed social skills. At least not ones that made me as charming as my pretty-boy cousins. A few years ago, I met a girl at work, a smart, beautiful intern my cousins hired. Thought we might go somewhere after a few fun weekends together. I was sure it was love.

Now I know it was just lust and that one dose took me a long time to recover from. The only place she wanted to go was the bedroom and my bank account. Kept my dick from dipping in anyone ever since and it suits me fine. Feeling lonely is not something I pay much attention to.

But watching my cousins settle down with their wife and start to build a family of their own has made me more aware of how alone I am. I always have them, I know that. But watching them be so in love with their wife and her so in love with them, it does make me a bit envious. It also makes me wonder if I could find a woman as good as their wife Fallon.

“Maybe you got it right,” Jase muses, taking a sip of his whisky, “maybe he needs to convince Hill he is a good man with solid virtue. How does he do prove he is a stable man to be trusted?”

“How about he settles down?” Milo says seriously.

“What are you two idiots going on about?” I ask with a frown, sitting at the edge of my desk and watching them talk it out without me.

“That’s it. That is what he needs. You, cousin, need a good woman,” Jase decides, finishing off his whisky.

“Are you two suggesting what I think you are?” I wonder, watching the two of them talk without words.

“What do you think we are suggesting?” Milo shoots back.

“That I let Hill think I am settled down with a woman, so he thinks I am trustworthy. Basically, lie to him to seal a deal that I ought to be able to get without lies or subterfuge.”

“That is not what we are saying,” Jase counters but he is grinning, “not at all. No, we are saying let him think what he wants about you and your lady friend. Present a solid front for you and your firm. Nothing wrong with that, cousin.”

“And what lady friend would I use, Jase? Your wife?” I laugh when he growls at the taunt and Milo clenches his fist so tight around his tumbler, I am sure it will crack.

“Lucky you’re blood, Kolt,” Milo growls, “how about Karina? Your pretty little assistant?” he suggests, grinning when I nearly choke on my drink.

Karina Sparks has been my assistant for three months. Three months of temptation. They hired her for me while I was away on business and when I met her, I thought they were trying to punish me. Not because she is not brilliant or capable—in fact, she is the best assistant I have ever had.

And the most beautiful distraction I have ever laid eyes on.

Working with her the past few months has been sweet torture. We work together great. She has become an asset to me. But I am finding it harder and harder to remember my place. I have rules for how I conduct myself here, how I treat people and I cannot break them. But something about her makes that feel like breaking rules. I want to wreck the rules and her like she is slowly wrecking me.

Each morning she is there with my coffee and my smile. With her bright green eyes and a bad joke, she starts my day off right. I sometimes forget she is here because I pay her to be here. She is always professional even if our relationship has slowly become a little less than. We don’t flirt, exactly. But she gives me more smiles, sweet laughs, and even casual touches than she should.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I spit out, shaking my head even as the idea starts to sound good to me. For all the wrong reasons. I can’t ask that of her.

“She would do it. She is dedicated. Strong. Brilliant. She would woo him the same way she has wooed you,” Jase declares.

Flushing because it’s not like they don’t know me well enough to see my attraction to her, I shake my head. I could not ask her to something like that. To pretend we are together just to seal this deal. It would be wrong. And I cannot take advantage of her that way. Even if I know she would do it.

“No, I can’t do that. It would be wrong,” I declare, dismissing the idea.

I watch them share a look and I almost laugh. Because I don’t sound very convinced that it is a bad idea at all. They change the subject and talk about a business holiday they want me to attend next week. Four days at their house out in the Pillars, Harmony Hollow’s equivalent of The Hamptons. All the important families in town have homes out there by the mountain range that spreads from here to Crystal Cove.

“It is business, but it is also meant to be a good time,” Jase says with a grin, “we want to disarm and charm our partners and maybe even work a few deals. Holden Hill will be there. Gabe Holmes, Roman Thorne, and a few other big pockets. Everyone will be staying for the whole weekend and donating a chunk of change to a few charities.”

“It would be the perfect time to debut someone like Karina as your plus one,” Milo pushes again, and I wonder if that was their plan all along.

“Hard to do if she is not, indeed, my plus one,” I say tightly, now getting a little bothered by the suggestion.

“But she is your assistant. Our assistant will be there,” Jase is quick to say but I laugh at his absurd reasoning.

“Not the same thing. Not when your assistant is your wife!”

Fallon forbid them to have an assistant shortly after they got married. Not out of jealousy, exactly. But if they spend time with a woman, it better be her or their daughter. Sometimes her best friend fills in for her, but he is so in love with his own husband, he barely registers Jase or Milo as men.

“No more excuses,” Milo says darkly, draining the last of his drink, “it is an important weekend. Tell her you need her there, end of debate. See you there, cousin,” he calls, nodding at me with a smirk.

Cursing them as they go, I know I have no choice. Not only is it my job to be there, but they are also my family. They asked me to be there, so I will be there. And since important business partners will be there too, I need to have my assistant there with me.

Can I ask her to act as not just my assistant—but as my other half?