The Retainer

I needed six months of steady income and a reference that didn't come with an apology attached. That's the only reason I said yes to a "special retainer position" at Kesler Vance before I understood what the word retainer was actually going to cost me.

There isn't one boss. There are three.

Adrian Kesler doesn't raise his voice — he doesn't have to. Malcolm Vance watches everything and says almost nothing, which is somehow worse. And Theo Reyes, the youngest of the three and the one everyone underestimates, is the only one who ever bothers to ask if I'm all right — right before he tells me exactly what he wants from me next.

The contract is real. The salary is real. The rule that I answer to all three of them, on their terms, in ways no employee handbook has ever covered — that's real too, and I signed it anyway, because pride is a luxury I stopped affording a long time ago.

I tell myself I can hold the line between what's business and what isn't. I am, it turns out, very good at lying to myself.

A hostile bid from the company that broke Adrian's family once already is closing in fast, and the three men who have never had to want the same thing at the same time are about to find out what happens when they do. I am not the prize in this. I refuse to be. But somewhere between the boardroom and the nights that don't officially exist, I stopped being able to tell the difference between surviving them and needing them.

If I walk away, I keep my pride. If I stay, I don't know what I keep — but I'm starting to think it might be worth more.

Very high heat. Power exchange, group dynamics, and possessive claiming between consenting adults (18+).

Tropes: Boss/Employee, Reverse Harem (MFMM), Power Exchange, Workplace Forbidden, Possessive Alphas x3, Corporate Rivals-to-Allies