Eight Brothers' Fiancée: A Reverse Harem Romance (Love by Numbers Book 7) Page 3

  Garrett cocked his head to the side. “What? No. You just seem interested.” I hadn’t ever worked in a studio before. All of my stories had either been self-filmed or filmed by some media intern that I paid $50 to do camera work for me. I wrote all of my own notes and stories and owned all of my own equipment. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to work in an actual studio. “Going once,” Garrett said.

  “Okay,” I responded. “For a few minutes.”

  Garrett winked at me, grabbed a couple of manila folders from the desk, and started off towards the elevator. I fell in line behind him, still not entirely sure Garrett wasn’t coaxed into showing me the studio, but not really caring because of my curiosity. We took the elevator down to the bottom floor of the tower, which was only allowed with the use of Garrett’s key card, and the doors opened up into a huge, beautiful television studio.

  Dead center in the room was a stage on which the news anchor desk sat, with three television screens behind the desk, which wrapped around three chairs in a rectangular shape. A host of cameras and lights pointed at the stage, and there was a handful of stage hands running around and chattering, all seemingly centered around a few huge pieces of equipment that were still covered in seran wrap.

  I followed Garrett off of the elevator and through the studio to a small workshop off to one side. There was a man standing inside with his back to the doorway. Garrett knocked on the door frame.

  “Got your files, Jett.”

  “Thanks,” the man replied. “When will the new model be here?”

  “Any minute,” Garrett responded.

  “And Maverick?”

  “He’ll be here at 10.” He slid the folders into a hanging file system on the wall and then crossed his arms. “Hey, can you turn around for a second, I wanna introduce you to someone.”

  “I don’t have time.”

  “It’s Alexa Storm.”

  The man whipped around instantly. “Oh.”

  He was beautiful. He was very tall and had a light, tan skin. His oval face shone in the overhead lights and he had picturesque, crystal blue eyes and brown hair that hung down around his face in waves. He had a well groomed goatee that was already following his lips into a smile.

  “Hello Miss Storm. I’ve heard a lot about you. Can I take this to mean you’ve accepted our job offer?” He crossed his arm and his full biceps threatened to burst the seams of his shirt.

  “Not yet,” I responded and then caught what I said immediately. “I mean, no. I have not accepted the job offer.”

  Garrett chuckled. “She’s thinking it over.”

  “I’m not thinking it over. I said no.”

  “Right.” He extended an arm. “Well, I’m Jett Foxx. Nice to meet you.”

  He had that same Foxx energy, the energy I was used to, not the one Garrett seemed to be confused about. He was one of Richard Foxx’s six adopted sons. They all lived at the same orphanage and when they were in their youth, Richard adopted them and gave them the life they deserved, or so he said on all the numerous clickbait interviews he did after it happened. He claimed he loved his children, but I wasn’t convinced he didn’t do it just for the media attention.

  I extended a hand and took Jett’s weakly. “Nice to meet you.”

  “So tell me, Miss Storm. Why don’t you want to work for us?” he asked.

  “I know your brothers very well, and I’m not interested in working so closely with them,” I responded. “And, no offense, but you remind me of them, so my fear is that arrogance is a familial trait.”

  Garrett side-eyed me nervously. “Well, we’ll go then.”

  “Judging someone you just met about being arrogant? You should probably look up the definition of hypocritical.” Jett smirked at me and I could feel my blood start to boil.

  Garrett glanced over his shoulder and let out a sigh of relief. “Oh thank god.” He moved a little further into the room and then another woman came and stood at my side. “Jett, this is the new model, Sadie Hartville.”

  She was a stunner too. She had a few feet on me, even in the roman sandals she was wearing. She had silky, cocoa skin, and medium-length, golden brown hair that rested gently on her shoulders. Yeah she was a model; she made it look easy.

  Her chocolate eyes landed in mine and she threw me a blinding smile. “Looks like you already have a model.”

  My irritation with Jett dissipated in an instant and I was just shy. “Oh, um, haha, no. Th-thank you. I’m no model.”

  “You could be,” she responded without missing a beat.

  Jett grinned. “I think so.”

  I suddenly felt overexposed and was ready to go. “Um, I’ll just be going now.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt something,” Sadie said.

  I shook my head. “No, you didn’t, I was just leaving.” I looked at Jett. “Tell your brothers thanks for the job offer, but no thanks.”

  “Is $175,00 a year for head anchor not enough?” Jett asked.

  Sadie scoffed. “$175? For the Foxx Network?” She looked at me. “Are you an anchor? I have tons of connections. I can get you a job for $350K if you’re interested?”

  My jaw fell through the floor. “What? Why would you do that for me?”

  Sadie’s smile grew even wider. “Girl power, man!” She shot a glare at Jett. “We can let these men sell us for less than we’re worth.” She reached into the clutch she was holding in her hand and pulled out a small, maroon card. “Call me! Let’s get lunch and talk it over.”

  “Cool!” I took the card. “Thank you!”

  It was like a sign from the gods. If I was meant, for any reason, to accept the position from the Foxxes, some sundress toting goddess wouldn’t just walk up to me and hand me a job for double the salary. I figured it was time for me to leave before I ran the risk of tipping my luck needle in any other direction.

  I looked at Jett. “Good luck on the search.”

  I turned around and flew away from the room without any hesitation. As I rode the elevator back up to the main floor, I smiled at Sadie’s card, relieved that I wasn’t going to be forced to work for the Foxxes after all, even if it did mean giving up the succulent, insider exposé. Maybe there was another way I could get it, but that was a mission for another day.

  5

  Jett

  Part of me wanted to fire Sadie immediately for making things more difficult for my brothers and me with Alexa, but not only was she one of the most famous models in the country, she was married to none other than Dante Marcello himself. I couldn’t rightfully haul off and fire the wife of the man who owned half my company, especially given we were currently in the process of trying to claw it out of his clutches. On top of that, she was amazing. I watched as she recorded several commercials on our studio set for a new marketing package coming up and I could already tell the commercials were gonna bring in thousands. She was beautiful and commanded the entire set while she was there.

  She gave me a sly smile as she was preparing to leave. “It was wonderful to meet you. I’d love to work with you again.”

  I bit my tongue. “Yes, it was lovely to work for you too.”

  She laughed. “Oh, come on. You can admit you’re irritated with me, I’m not gonna tell Dante. I’m sure you and your brothers really want that girl. I’ve seen her before, she’s a pretty big deal right?”

  “Yeah, a huge deal. She’s good at what she does and my older brothers went to school with her and know that she has great worth ethnic too,” I responded. “I’ll admit, your little ‘offer’ didn’t help us.”

  “I was just doing what I knew was the right thing to do. With her experience, and the way her looks are gonna boost ratings. Offering her $175,000 a year is almost an insult.” She grabbed her clutch and raised an eyebrow at me. “I’ll wait a few days to get in touch with someone about an appropriately salaried position for her. Maybe talk to your brothers about upping the pay a little bit. I, of all people, know that you can afford it.”
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  She nodded her head and then left. Once she was gone, the studio quickly emptied out until it was just me left behind. I sunk down into one of the cheap, metal chairs on set for the photographers.

  “Shit.” I took out my phone and navigated to the group text message I shared with all of my brothers.

  Group meeting, my place at 8.

  Keaton/Quentin, one of you utilize

  your contacts and bring us some

  burritos.

  I’m surfing. If I order the burritos, can I skip?

  No, you moron. Group meeting

  means everyone needs to be there.

  I locked my phone, slid it into my pocket, collected my stuff and made my way home. I lived in a penthouse on the East side of Austin, Texas. Of all of my brothers’ homes, mine was my favorite. It was extravagant, obviously too big for me, but it did overlook downtown Austin, had a great view of the night sky, and had a place for me to store my kickboxing equipment, and the property gym had a basketball court.

  I pulled out some drink glasses and a couple bottles of scotch. Selling my brothers on a $400K salary for a starting anchor was going to be difficult; they were definitely going to need to be drunk.

  Rogan showed up first, which was to be expected. He was the only one who had a key to my place and we were the closest to one another out of my siblings. We weren’t blood brothers, but no one felt more like a brother to me than Rogan. He always looked out for me at the orphanage even though he was younger than me. We were both seen as ‘nerds’ in the orphanage, but Rogan was good at outsmarting those who would try and mess with us. He skipped several grades and became known as a bit of a wizard for talking people into corners. It was cool to witness growing up. After graduating, Mr. Foxx allowed Rogan and I to extend his business into the realm of modeling. We use the agency to make money and for marketing purposes, it was a win-win.

  Rogan tapped me on my back. “Hey. How did things go with Sadie today?”

  “Well, she’s amazing,” I said, pouring Rogan some of the scotch and handing it over, “but she also fucked us.”

  Rogan took the glass and then sat down. He pulled a hair tie off of his wrist and pulled his long, wavy blond hair up into a messy, man bun. His blue eyes, which had always calmed me, looked back at me with concern.

  “What happened?”

  I shook my head. “I’ll explain when everyone gets here.”

  We caught up over business matters while we waited for the rest of my brothers to arrive. Quentin arrived next, followed by both Harley and Huxley, and then Delvin and Maverick almost back to back. My brothers and I got together often. We were very close. Even though Rogan, Quentin, Keaton, Delvin, Maverick, and I grew up outside of the Foxx family, it didn’t take long for us to bond with the twins. They were happy to have more siblings and were more than willing to take us under their wings.

  “Where the fuck is Keaton?” Harley growled.

  I rolled my eyes. “Are you really surprised he’s late?”

  “Just move on without him,” Rogan said. “He can catch up when he gets here.”

  Maverick shifted angrily in the arm chair he was in. “He was supposed to bring the food.”

  “Relax Tiny,” Quentin hissed, and one of my throw pillows was sailing across the room at his face a second later. Quentin batted it away with a laugh.

  “Okay, look,” I started, pulling everyone’s attention to me. “I met Alexa today.”

  Huxley chuckled. “So she did stick around. I knew she was considering it.”

  “What’d she say?” Harley asked.

  Maverick leaned forward. “Is she as hot in real life as she is in pictures?”

  Rogan scoffed. “Will you focus?” Then he looked over at me. “Is she?”

  “Yes, she’s a stone-cold stunner,” I responded, “but that’s not the problem right now. The problem is that the salary we agreed upon isn’t going to work. She crossed paths with the new model, Sadie, who went all ‘women’s empowerment’ on us and told her that she shouldn’t accept the $175, and that she could help her get a job for $350,000 a year.”

  “Fuck that, man!” Delvin hissed. “What’s so good about this chick anyway? Anyone would be glad to take $175,000. Less even.”

  “No,” Harley and Huxley said in unison.

  “Trust me,” Huxley continued. “You want this girl.”

  Jett shook his head. “I gotta agree with the twins on this one, Del.” I looked at him. “We want this one.”

  Delvin sat back on the couch where he was sitting next to Quentin and Maverick. “Okay.”

  Maverick held out his arms. “I don’t get it. We literally shit money. Let’s just offer her $400K.”

  “We will,” Harley said, “but we’re not going to give it to her straight.” His gears were turning, like he was formulating a plan as we spoke.

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  Huxley started to nod. “Harley, you’re a fucking genius.”

  Quentin rolled his eyes. “I hate when they do this shit.”

  Harley and Huxley had a weird, twin telepathy. Whenever one of them thought of something, the other one caught it before even saying it out loud. It was weird.

  “This whole marriage and Malia issue. It didn’t even occur to me at first, but Alexa’s the solution.” Harley looked around the room at all of us. “We’ll offer her $250K and then inroads with all of our businesses. She won’t just be our head anchor, she’ll be the official spokesperson for our brand.”

  Huxley took over. “She’ll work with all of us and then eventually…”

  Harley smiled. “I’ll propose.”

  The room went totally silent. Everyone was trying to process this plan that the twins had just cracked up out of nowhere, when the door opened and closed. The sound of muffled music filled the room as Keaton came wandering into the living room. He had no t-shirt on, a pair of still dripping wet, tye-dye board shorts, and his blond hair was still soaked and hanging around his head. He had a grease-stained bag in his hand, and he dropped it onto the table and then plopped down on the marble outcropping in front of my fireplace.

  “You’re fucking dragging sand and seawater all over the place!” I barked. “You’re this fucking late and you didn’t even change?”

  “Who’re you proposing to?” he asked, ignoring me entirely.

  Maverick raised his hand. “Yeah, I’ve been sitting here the whole time and I also have that question.”

  “It’s perfect,” Huxley said. “If she’s ingrained into our entire business and then Harley announces, publicly, that he’s in love with her and wants to marry her, Malia will have no choice but to back off. When it was just any woman, Dante had the leverage to wedge Malia in, but if they were actually together. That’s good TV.”

  “I’ll marry her, get the company out of Dante’s name, and dad’s for that matter, and then we’re home free.”

  "But you aren’t actually together,” Keaton commented.

  Delvin clapped his hands. “And that’s Keaton with the obvious.”

  “I’m not yet, but if we all work on her slowly, we can get her,” Harley said.

  Maverick crossed his arms. “So you want us to try and get with her?”

  “It’s not open season,” Huxley said, “but if she falls for even one of us, that’s the opening we need.”

  “Yeah, it would be a miracle for her to want to hop into bed with any of us with our museum of kinks. You two,” Quenten started, pointing at Harley and Huxley, “tag-team. Jett has his vampire-bite thing.” I cleared my throat at the mention of my personal kink for sinking my teeth into a woman’s neck until she submitted to my demands. “Keaton’s into bondage, and Maverick and his--”

  “Alright!” Maverick through his hands in the air. “You don’t need to air out all our dirty laundry.”

  “You act like the media hasn’t done that already,” Rogan replied.

  “I agree with Quentin, don’t think it’s going to work, but I’m willin
g to give it a try,” Delvin said. “If we don’t figure this Malia/Dante thing out we’re fucked anyway, so why not.”

  “Sadie really threw a wrench in our plan with her whole ‘femme fatale’ thing,” I said.

  Keaton snickered, shoving a burrito into his face. “Heh, do you think Dante sent Sadie to sabotage us hiring Alexa?”

  Everyone’s heads shifted dramatically towards him, unable to believe that none of us had thought of that.

  “Fuck,” I said, “we’re going to have to be even more on guard than we originally realized.”

  6

  Alexa

  “Wait, what?!”

  I stared at the email that Garrett, Huxley’s assistant, sent me late the night before. I’d just woken up and seen it marked as ‘Urgent’ with the subject line ‘Read Immediately: An INSANE Offer.’

  Dear Miss Storm,

  It was a pleasure to meet you and show you around the studio yesterday. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone turn down three Foxxes in a row. You must be some sort of superhuman.

  Well, I’ve got some news for you that was a shock, even for me. The Foxxes want to offer you a complete package, not just at their news network, but at their entire company. You would still be the head anchor on their news channel, but for the remainder of your job, you would be the spokesperson for the entire Foxx brand. You would make $250,000 a year, with the full benefits and perks as they have been explained to you already, and you would be heavily involved in the other branches of the Foxx Company including their modeling agency owned by Jett, who you already met, and Rogan Foxx, the record label owned by Maverick and Delvin Foxx, and the event planning business owned by Quentin and Keaton Foxx.

  Alexa, I’m saying this as a person and not as someone who works for the Foxxes. You don’t know them as well as you think you do. You won’t regret accepting this position, trust me.

  I know you probably need time to think about it, so sleep on it and let me know how you’re feeling tomorrow. The Foxxes anxiously await your response.