CHAPTER 5 “Four’s a Crowd”
“Four’s a Crowd”
A loud crash jolts me from sleep.
I spring upright, all sense of fatigue forgotten. My feet land on the ground, prepared to make a run for it when the sound of a gruff voice halts me in place.
“Who ate my food?”
Another, smoother one, answers back, “My chair is fucking broken.”
“You can fix it, who’s going to make me a new bowl of stew?”
My surroundings come into focus, and when a gust of chilly air brushes against me, I realize that I’m still on the sofa where I fell asleep. In my underwear.
Oh, no. How could I be so careless?
Panic seizes my chest as I become aware of the very ungrateful position that I put myself in.
My fingers latch onto the duvet cover, pulling it over my almost bare body, ears straining to hear the commotion not twenty feet away from where I’m sitting shrouded in shadows. Thankfully, no one’s noticed me yet, giving me time to decide on a plan of action.
“We better clean this up,” Smooth begins, “before brother gets back. You know he gets really angry when things are a mess.”
“Shit,” Gruff replies, his voice strained. “Here he comes.”
The door bangs open, the walls shuddering from the raw force of the impact. I shrink back, lifting the cover over myself until only my eyes remain visible. Stillness falls around me, the two men that have been bickering mere moments ago now silent as the grave.
An enormous shadow passes over the wall, its sheer size blocking my lungs from working. I hold my breath, utterly paralyzed from the fear that has my muscles locked in position.
“What is this?” The deep, raspy voice echoes all around, engulfing me, until it swallows me up entirely.
Its powerful vibrations attack me with full force.
My skin tingles while I sit on the plush sofa, hidden away from direct view.
Every single pore in my body soaks in the intoxicatingly alluring sound.
“Before you get mad,” Gruff says, “we didn’t do anything. We found it like this when Hunter and I came in.” Silence ensues, as if the room itself is holding its breath.
“We’ll clean it up.” Hunter, I assume, pauses. “Right Rein?”
“Uh, yeah, let me just grab—”
My gaze collides with the man I believe to be Rein as he comes into view, stopping his words mid sentence. We stare at each other from across the room: me bundled up, only my eyes visible; him standing frozen, as if he’s seen a ghost.
I observe him, needing only a second to do so before he’s moving again.
He’s tall, most likely taller than me by a head, with broad shoulders that taper down to narrow hips.
A five o’clock shadow covers the bottom half of his face.
Short, matching curly hair rests on top of his well defined features, which are drawn in something that could only be described as shocked confusion as he gapes at me through a pair of elegant, silver rimmed reading glasses.
“What are you staring at—” the other one, Hunter, a younger version of the stranger still gawking at me, joins him, spinning on the spot when he finally notices me. “Fuck,” he spits, his expression worried. “Not good.”
“What is it?” Rein asks, eyes still glued to me.
Hunter glances at Rein, lifting an arched brow, a deep frown etched into his pleasant face. “Are you stupid? What, in the actual fuck, does it look like to you?”
Rein smacks him across the head, scowling in clear disapproval. “Watch your mouth, little brother. Wouldn’t want the past repeating itself, now would we?”
They hold each other’s stare before turning towards me, their features grave, most likely contemplating on what they should do, but then a form shrouded in darkness appears behind them.
The two brothers part—and a man of impossible proportions steps forth into the dim light.
I whimper, every one of my nerve endings snapping to full attention, when the gaze of an apex predator focuses on me, and I shrink even further back under its feral intensity. So far back, that I feel as if I’m about to imprint myself into the piece of furniture.
The man’s eyes go wide and unblinking as he drinks me in.
The fire casts gold along the angles of his face, illuminating the sharp cut of his jaw, the glint in his eyes that seem less human now.
More like candlelight flickering in a crypt.
A primal, menacing aura seems to leak from his entire being, yet I stare back at him with equal determination and force as all self-preservation and fear abandon me.
I feel it then, as we hold each other’s gaze: that fine, electric thread forms between us. Tension thick as velvet, unspoken, but alive. Like being in the presence of a storm that hasn’t broken yet. It stirs something within me I don’t recognize.
Not quite fear.
Not quite desire.
Both.
As if the devil himself is nudging me on, whispering in my ear to do something foolish, I tilt my head, a need to be close to this clearly dangerous man overtaking me, and I stand, my heart pounding as the duvet falls from my hands and lands on the floor at my feet.
Temptation and sin weave a web of seduction around me as I ever so carefully saunter over to him.
His dark gaze brushes over my flesh, causing shivers to erupt all over me, whether from fear or arousal, I’ve yet to discover, but my core seems to have a mind of its own.
I’m burning up. Feverish. Utterly mad with inexplicable desire.
And it’s making me question my current mental state.
This is a stranger.
A man that is clearly more than capable of, and has lived through, a great amount of violence. So why do I feel as if no harm will come to me? Where is my foolish confidence stemming from?
Doubt and fear burrow a hole in my chest when I finally come to a stand in front of him.
Eyes the deepest shade of brown that I have ever seen examine me through a curtain of thick ebony lashes.
A proud, slightly crooked nose with a scar across the bridge connects to large, plump lips the color of ripe raspberries, while a strong, square jaw lies hidden underneath a short beard and mustache.
Hair the color of burnt mocha frames a masculine face in waves that reach well defined, broad shoulders.
Like some dumb airhead, I shamelessly stare at this spectacular piece of fine art. So impossibly perfect even with all of his flaws, that I’m instantly reminded of some vengeful forest god come to life.
Caught in a daze, I’m unable to shift my focus and regain my missing senses that in any other circumstances, would already have me rolling my eyes at my clear ogling. The only thing missing is drool dripping down my chin.
As if on cue, saliva pools in my mouth, and mortified, I swallow it down, cursing myself for the way my body is reacting.
As if reading my mind, the hint of a smirk plays at the corners of his lips but before it can make an appearance, he dips, his nose coming within a hairsbreadth of my neck. He inhales, long and deep.
I shiver, goosebumps erupting all over my skin in endless waves at his closeness, before notes of cedar and pine assault me.
Without warning, strong arms hoist me up and over a muscular frame, the man’s powerful strides taking us from the gloomy kitchen to a wide staircase at the end of a secluded corridor.
Wait.
This wasn’t here before, was it?
How did I not notice it?
My voice is trapped in my throat as alarm bells go off in the back of my mind, screaming at me that something isn’t right. That I need to do something, anything, and get myself out of this unpredictable situation that will surely escalate with the way it seems to be evolving.
I try to move, but my body is locked in position under strong arms that pin me down.
“Niko,” Rein warns, running after us as we reach the bottom of the stairs.
“You’re being reckless. Niko! Think about this for one moment!
You can’t just take her upstairs. You know what will happen if she finds out—” My captor ignores him, already climbing the many steps to the top landing. “Nikolas!”
I helplessly hang down his back like a lifeless rag doll, completely at his mercy. Without a word, he flies up the remaining steps at impossible speed, as if he didn’t have another human on him.