It was nine am when I awoke to the sound of Markus' alarm clock. My usual five am alarm had not gone off. My phone, while fully charged, was turned off. That sneaky bitch. He'd left me a message, at least, and it wasn't surprising to learn he'd left for work early today. Of course, he'd give me fewer hours only for him to work them himself.

I only had an hour between waking up and the beginning of my shift. Thankfully, I had a spare uniform in my locker at the gym because I didn't have the energy to go back to my flat to change. I didn't even have the energy to shower this morning. As long as I washed my face and brushed my teeth, it was a win. Though, to be honest, even washing my face seemed like too much.

I'm functioning so well as an adult.

I felt dehydrated as fuck; my throat was sore as hell and my eyes felt puffy and swollen. Naturally, I didn't drink anything before leaving that morning. Instead, I'd spent thirty minutes scrolling through twitter before forcing myself to get dressed and head straight out.

I looked like an absolute mess and it hadn't slipped my mind that I would hopefully talk to Markus about us dating today. So glad I look my absolute worst when I officially ask out the guy I'm obsessed with. 'So Markus, ever thought about dating a troll? No? Well, now's your chance! Pucker up, buddy!'

When I arrived at the gym, I took a few minutes to stand on the corner, just out of sight of the door, to take a few deep breaths and ready myself for the day. Markus and I had a lot to talk about and I wasn't sure when we would do it or if I was prepared for it. I knew I would have to tell him about Jarred soon, explain who he was to me and why I was so determined to help him. There was no other way to make him understand why I had worked myself so hard the past month.

The two minutes outside the gym easily stretched into five until I had to force myself inside, my feet dragging with every step. The glass door felt heavier than usual as I put my weight behind me to open it, a sickly feeling of stress churning in my stomach.

Four pairs of eyes swung my way as I stepped inside the reception area, freezing me momentarily on the spot. My pulse leapt in my throat. What the fuck was Jarred doing here, loitering around with Lynch, Andres and Alec?

"Well, you look a thousand times better this morning," Lynch greeted with a genuine smile. "I take it you actually got some sleep for once?"

I didn't answer him, my eyes fixed on my brother. He didn't look as sickly as he had the last time I saw him, and there didn't appear to be any fresh bruises. But he was still wearing that worn, oversized hoodie that drowned him in its fabric.

Beside him, Andres looked startled. He uttering a quiet, "Oh, shit," under his breath as the front door swung shut behind me. I noticed Alec edge closer to me, standing between Jarred and I.

"What the fuck have you done to your hair?" Jarred asked, gruffly, any surprise at the sight of me, directed at the pink mop of greasy hair I'd slicked back into a low bun.

Well, that was a much-needed boost to my self-esteem.

His familiar attitude broke me out of my surprise. With a glare directed at Jarred over Alec's shoulder, I stalked right past them all and snapped, "Don't be a dick."

"You two are a right pair," he continued, nodding to Alec and his purple hair. "You channelling your inner Barbies?"

Ignoring him, I stalked straight for my desk, where Markus was already waiting for me. "What's going on?" I asked hotly, caught off guard as I approached him. "Why's he here? Why are you all here?"

"Sorry, I thought we'd be done before you got here," Markus answered quietly, not elaborating as he stood and offered me his chair. I dropped my backpack into it instead, glancing at the full tub of chopped mixed fruit, yoghurt and granular, and a bottle of water on the desk with a frown. There was a neon yellow post-it note stuck to the tub with my name scrawled across it.

"Is this for me?" I asked, peeling off the post-it note as my brows furrowed deeper and some of the tension I was feeling at my brother's presence eased.

"You've been living off a diet of sugar and coffee the past few weeks," Markus said, not seeming at all shy to have been caught doing something so incredibly thoughtful, despite how easy he usually was to embarrass.

"Oh," I murmured, a lump suddenly caught in my throat. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. "Thank you."

A loud throat clearing drew my attention away from Markus, a.k.a the sweetest man alive, a welcome distraction as I urged myself not to be an overemotional mess and start sobbing in public about how nice Markus was being to me. I was about five seconds from dropping to my knees and proposing to the man.

"What are you doing here?" Jarred asked me, pointedly eyeing Markus and I stood so close together.

"I work here."

"What? Since when? I thought you worked at that expensive café?" How did he know I worked at the café? I'm sure I'd never told him that.

"Wait, he doesn't know?" Markus asked, and the weight of his gaze had me shifting on my feet.

"Well - ah -"

"Know what?" Jarred said, cutting off my mumbling.

"Dais," Markus half sighed, half groaned, shaking his head, before adding sarcastically, "Of course he doesn't know. Why wouldn't you choose to be as difficult and as secretive as possible? Why are you determined to make things harder for yourself?"

"Hey!" I cried, my hands falling to my hips. "I'm not diffi-"

"Know what?" Jarred repeated insistently, cutting me off once again. "What don't I know?"

"She's been working more hours to help you out with Wraith," Markus answered, crossing his arms against his chest. "A fucking ridiculous amount of hours."

"That's why you've been working so much?" Lynch gaped.

"I thought you hated him?" Andres interjected, looking confused.

"I told you I had it sorted!" Jarred snapped, his hands flying into the air.

Far too many people were talking to me all at once, and they were all being too loud. It was all too much for my first social interaction of the day. Ignoring the others, I locked eyes with my brother, who was glaring at me fiercely. "I had to buy you a drink from the shitty train station Costa because you didn't have any money, and half your face was covered in bruises. Forgive me for thinking you very much didn't have it fucking sorted, you Shit-head," I responded just as heatedly.

"You're the most frustrating person I've ever fucking met."

"Ditto."

Jarred stared at me with so much rage building across his expression, until finally, in a low, threatening tone, he said, "Carry on and I'm gonna' fucking smack you."

Maybe it was the absurdity of such a declaration, maybe it was the familiarity of arguing with my brother, or maybe it was because I was so fucking tired that I'd finally cracked, but a bubble of mocking laughter burst from my lips. It was a laugh that quickly grew in volume and intensity. One that no doubt made me look absolutely psychotic. One that transformed into panicked squeals as soon as Jarred lunged for me. Instinctively, I grabbed Markus' arm and yanked him in front of me, sprinting around the other side of the reception desk.

"Seriously, why would you work yourself to fucking death just to get the money for me, without even talking to me about it?" Jarred fumed. He circling one corner of the desk as I circled the other. We must have looked absolutely ridiculous. At least no one else had walked by. "I had no idea you were doing this. Do you know how stupid that is?"

"All right, do you want to back off a bit? I was doing this for you!"

"I didn't want you to get involved at all! It's not your mess to sort out."

"Right, okay," I crooned, sarcastically adding, "I'll just be a heartless bitch and let you struggle next time, shall I?"

Jarred lunged and, unable to move away quick enough, his fingers caught the edge of my hoodie. He yanked me closer to him until we were squared up to one another. I didn't flinch away or try to escape, instead fixing him with a challenging stare. He glared at me heatedly for a long few seconds before a grin broke across his face and he started to laugh.

Without giving me a chance to pull away, he yanked me closer still, and wrapped me up in a tight hug.

"You're so, so, annoying, you know that?" he murmured against my hair.

I patted him on the back awkwardly, scowling as I uttered, "Yeah, yeah, I know. Now get off me. You know I hate being touched."

"I love you too," Jarred laughed, releasing me.

"Gross," I said, pretending to retch, dodging the weak punch he threw my way. "Seriously though, how do you guys even know each other? What's with this little get together?" I asked, gesturing between them all with a frown, aware that all the guys were staring at the two of us weirdly.

"You know Lynch, we've been friends for years," Jarred explained as if my question were ridiculous. "The guys have been helping me with the Wraith situation."

"You're friends with Lynch?" Wait, does that mean... I whirled around to face the dark-haired man. "Did you know who I was before I started coming to the gym, then?"

"Now you see why I was so surprised that you didn't know who I was before this year."

"So you already knew I was his sister?"

"Wait, hold up," Andres interjected, "Sister?"

"You know he's my brother. You know who I am?" I asked Lynch again, ignoring Alec and Andres' wide-eyed stare and ignoring Markus' penetrating gaze burning a hole in the side of my face.

"Yeah," Lynch confirmed, grinning. "I can't believe you got Grim to ban your own brother from the gym. That's fucking hilarious."

"What?" Jarred snapped. "You were the reason I couldn't come to the gym anymore?"

"You're such a snitch," I hissed to Lynch, turning to Jarred with my hands held in the air innocently. "In my defence, that was before we'd met to talk about everything. I thought you were still besties with Wraith. I nearly had a panic attack when you showed up the first time, and I did have a panic attack the second time. And I didn't ask for you to be banned, he offered."

"And after we spoke, you didn't think to talk to Grim about it?"

"Well... I kind of just forgot about it." It hadn't even crossed my mind until now. Oops.

***

"So let me get this straight," I sighed, picked at a loose thread on the seam of Markus' shorts. We were alone in the staff room while the others had gone to Andres' and Alec's pub to grab some food. As it was the only place to sit back here, we shared the gross, sweaty sofa; I sat facing Markus, my legs crossed and my shoulders hunched forward as I stared down at his lap.

"Last night, when you said I didn't need to work to save money for Jarred, you weren't just saying that. You actually meant it. Because you'd already loaned him the money. So this month really has all been a stupid waste of my time. I didn't need to quit my shitty café job, and I didn't need to fuck up my sleep schedule or abandon my uni work. Brilliant, fantastic, I don't hate myself at all. What a great day I'm having."

I groaned deeply and rocked so far forward, my forehead pressed against his thigh just above his knee. "I want to scream. Or cry. Or just like, dig a hole in the grass out back and bury myself. Never to be seen again."

"Not at all an overreaction," Markus said dryly. He bounced his leg beneath me, jostling my head. "Come on, get up. Don't die on me. I have more work to do today."

"So sorry," I uttered, unfolding myself away from him and collapsing back into the sofa cushions. "There, now I can die in peace and not disrupt your schedule."

Markus grabbed my hand and tugged me back into an upright position. He looked like he was fighting off a smile. "I would have told you earlier if I had known why you were working or that he was your brother."

I shot him an unimpressed look. "Yes, yes, I get it. Communication isn't a strength of mine."

"At least you can relax now."

"Relax? Are you kidding? I have so much uni work to catch up on. My deadline is literally in a week and a half's time and I have no clue what I'm doing for my final piece, I've not got nearly enough artist references, my contextual research is weak as fuck and I have barely any experimentation at all. Like, I'm feeling so much bloody relief now that I don't have to worry about money. I genuinely have felt sick coming into work every day, I've been stressing about this so much and now it feels like I can finally breathe again, but I'm so painfully aware that I can't actually relax yet because I have so much uni work to catch up on. Oh shit, I don't need to work two jobs any more now though."

"Shall I take this epiphany as your resignation?"

I blinked at him. "What makes you think I'd quit this job and not the studio?"

"Dais, come on," Markus laughed. "Would you rather sit and hang out with your friends every evening listening to music, or would you rather sit quietly by yourself in the gym reception early in the morning and miss more uni."

"Well," I drawled, laying a suggestive hand against his thigh. My index finger drew a slow path to the edge of his shorts, dipping beneath them to inch higher. "Maybe I'd prefer to spend more time with you."

"Daisy," Markus uttered my name like a warning, his voice deep as his eyes flared in something that looked an awful lot like excitement.

"Yes?" I drawled, smirking, enjoying the heat that bloomed in his face.

He looked towards the closed door of the staff room and back to me. His eyes dropped to my mouth. "We're at work."

"I thought you were understaffed today? Who's going to walk in?"

"I'm your boss."

"Are you?" I raised an eyebrow. "I thought we'd just concluded I was quitting?"

"I'm still your boss the rest of today," Markus murmured, though it had little conviction as he shifted in his seat and I glanced at the growing budge in his shorts. I had only intended to tease him a little, but seeing the evidence of his obvious interest had a heat pulsing between my thighs. Are we actually about to do this? I've never had sex in public before.

"Aren't I still on probation? I can quit without notice, can't I? Maybe I won't finish my shift," I teased. "If we're quick, no one will know."

I leaned into him, my mouth a hair's breadth away from his, allowing him to decide if he wanted to close the gap between us. My eyes met his and the heat in his gaze was almost enough to ignite me.

With more agility than I expected for a man his size, Markus dropped from the sofa to his knees, pushed between my now splayed thighs. His large hands settled on my legs, stroking upwards in a smooth, yet hurried, movement as he gripped the waistband of my exercise shorts and tugged them away. Before I knew it, my underwear was hooked around one of my ankles.

One of his hands pushed beneath my t-shirt, sliding up across my abs. I wasn't wearing a bra today, and soon he had one of my small breasts cupped entirely in his hands, my nipple hard against his rough palm. His other hand had made itself busy further south. Two fingers thrust deep within me, curling upwards. They retreated, only to be thrust forward again, and again, and again.

His mouth was hot and wet. Just like me.

Though I had been the one to initiate things, to push him to this point, the suddenness of it all had still taken me by surprise, and as his tongue swiped upwards in a long stroke from his fingers to my clit a strangled cry of 'Oh God', escaped me. My palm slammed against my mouth to quieten myself.

Despite my earlier words, Markus was right. We were at work and anyone could walk in at any second. Dev was out on his lunch, but who was to say he wouldn't return any second and find Markus feasting on me in the staff room? I'd never live past the embarrassment of being caught.

"Oh shit," I whimpered, closing my eyes as Markus thrust his tongue inside me, drawing me closer and closer to an orgasm. I was sopping wet. My thighs tensed and my legs startled to curl together as if to shy away from the intense pleasure I was feeling, but Markus placed both hands firmly against my thighs, keeping me spread open before him.

"Keep your legs open," Markus commanded.

I reached out for his hand, desperate to grip onto something, threading my fingers through his in a crushing grip. My core tensed and it took all my focus to keep myself spread, to not wind my legs around his broad shoulders.

"That's it," Markus murmured softly. "Good girl."

That was all it took. One hushed appraisal and I fell apart under him.

When Markus continued to lick at me, I had to push him away. He looked up at me, and the sight of his cheeks flushed and his mouth glistening with my wetness was glorious.

I reached out for the waistband of his shorts, but Markus' hand clasped around mine. "What about you?" I asked, still feeling out of breath.

He shook his head, a barely there smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Later."

A thrill shot through me. Gosh, Daisy, will you never be satisfied?

[feeling a bit meh about this one but I didn't want to re-write it for a third time and keep you all waiting

also, please suggest some chapter title names if you can think of any, I'm really struggling]