8. Soren
A long day of unplanned assisting, and I drag myself home to my new apartment on weary feet. When I open the door and step through the threshold, I freeze. The sounds and smells wafting from further inside the apartment are my first signs of being invaded.
The second signs are the shoes kicked off to the side, none of which are mine. With a sigh, I remove my shoes and nudge them near the pile that simultaneously makes me twitch and smile.
Walking through to the living room with my suit slung over my shoulder, I study the scene in front of me. Two of my best friends are sprawled on the sofa, feet kicked up on the coffee table, beers clutched in hand as they watch baseball like this is normal. I can’t see the third pain in my ass, but from the sounds and smells coming from the kitchen, I can take an educated guess.
“What are you fuckers doing here?”
Donovan turns his head to meet my eyes and grins, lifting his beer. “Watching baseball, what are you doing?”
“I thought I was going to relax after a long day, but I guess not.”
Dmitri leans over his brother and pouts. “You mean you don’t want to hang out with us? Well, now I’m sad.”
Rolling my eyes, I turn on my heels and head for my bedroom. Dropping my dress shirt and trousers in the hamper, I toss the jacket over the back of a chair before heading into the bathroom and stripping.
The shower after a long day makes me groan and I close my eyes, tilting my head down to feel the pressure of the spray on the back of my neck. The longer the hot water beats down on me, the looser my muscles become, and slowly, I relax by degrees.
As I stand under the spray, the whirlwind of the day finally hits me, and I set a hand on the wall to steady myself. I didn’t doubt that I was going to get the job. My uncle and Cristian Amato orchestrated the whole thing, after all.
What I didn’t expect was Doc. He is…something else. A brat in need of a firm hand, for one thing, and intriguing as sin for another. Some dark part of me wants to take him in hand and force him to earn that respect he talked about, another knows not to touch that bag of crazy with a ten foot pole.
My cock stirs at the thought of forcing Doc to his knees, his amber eyes looking up at me as they fill with tears while I thrust my cock into his mouth. Groaning, I turn the water to cold, unwilling to jerk myself off to my new boss. Not only that, knowing my luck, one of my asshole friends will burst in here and catch me in the act.
The cold water does the trick to erase my burgeoning arousal, and I hurry to dry off before dressing in sweats and an old T-shirt that’s just tight enough it’s probably one of the triplets—not that it matters, the four of us have shared more than just clothes in our twenty-year friendship.
In the living room, Dmitri and Donovan are where I left them. As I enter the room, twin pairs of storm gray eyes meet mine, causing me to roll my eyes.
“How’d you even get in here?”
Dima smiles. “How do you think?”
I huff and head for the kitchen, saying over my shoulder, “I’m buying an electronic lock tomorrow.”
“You’re no fun!” Vonny calls back.
Entering the kitchen, I find Dominic using my kitchen like he belongs. He looks up from what he’s doing to grin at me, his gray eyes full of mischief. If it weren’t for growing up with the three of them, it’d be impossible to tell them apart. Not only are the three of them identical, down to the way they cut their hair and how they dress, but they’ve tailored their mannerisms to further throw people off.
The only way someone who doesn’t know them or their miniscule tells could ever possibly hope to tell them apart is the fact that Donovan is deaf. Though, if they’re really fucking with someone, he’ll forgo his cochlear implants and all three will play deaf.
How I got stuck with them as my best friends is a mystery to me. “Sour cream mashed potatoes and”—I lean forward over the counter to try to see into the pot on the stove—“pelmeni?”
“Yep. I wanted borscht, but I was outvoted, so mashed potatoes it is. Set the table? I have no idea where anything is.”
“Because it’s not your kitchen,” I say with a roll of my eyes.
“Well if someone would have invited us over sooner, this wouldn’t have been an issue.”
“I’ve only been here a week. And I didn’t invite any of you, you showed up like a bad smell.”
“You love us, Sory.”
“Debatable.”
Setting the small kitchen table, I head to the fridge and grab everything that wasn’t there this morning. “Oh good, you got the good sour cream,” I say. “I guess I love you a little.”
Nico snorts but carries the serving dishes to the table before calling for his brothers.
The four of us sit around the table, and my grumbling stomach reminds me I haven’t eaten anything but half a sandwich at lunch all day.
“So, how was your day? You started your new job, didn’t you?” Vonny asks.
Mouth full of hot dumpling, I sign. “It was good. Unexpected, but good. I think I’m going to like it there.”
“Unexpected how?” Dima asks.
I shrug and take a drink of my beer before responding. “They’re nothing like the Bratva.”
Nico snorts. “I coulda told you that.”
Rolling my eyes, I take a minute to think about my answer. “No, I mean, they’re different in more ways than not being Russian. For one, they don’t care that I’m queer.”
“Be hypocritical if they did,” Dima replies.
“True, but… I may have lost my temper a little. And gone off on a rant at my new boss.”
“You, Soren Ilya Petrov Knightly, lost your temper? I don’t believe it,” Vonny teases.
“Look, Doc is… I don’t wanna say crazy, but he sure as shit ain’t normal. And so maybe I was a little more caustic than I should have been, but he seemed to like it, so whatever. As long as I still have a job, I’ll take it as a win. But… I don’t know, something about the Amatos is…different. It’s only been a day, but I can see myself carving a place there.” I hesitate for a long moment before continuing, “Maybe you three should think about it, too.”
Three pairs of dark gray eyes stare at me, and it’s like looking into the eye of a storm.
“What?” Dima laughs. “You want us to jump ship for the Italians?”
I shrug. “Why not? You can’t honestly tell me you expect to get anywhere in your careers where you are. You especially, Dmitri. I know you say Andrei is on your side, but surely you don’t believe they’d actually let you advance.”
Dima scowls and stabs a fork into one of the pelmeni like it offended him. The triplets go quiet as they absorb my words. Neither of us want to admit it, but we know it’s true. Dima has been training to be a bodyguard for three years now, and if he were anyone else—meaning straight—he would have already been on the job. But nobody in the Bratva wants a twink bodyguard, despite the fact he’s damn good at it.
Donovan and Dominic would have better chances as a doctor and physical therapist, but still. With Vonny being deaf, and Nico being… Nico, nobody in our world trusts them.
Whereas, the Amatos have proven they’re welcoming to people who don’t quite fit the status quo. We all hear the rumors. With Uncle Ivan being allied with the Amatos, we hear more than other Families would on some of what goes on with the Italians.
“Think about it,” I tell them, going back to my food. “You know you fuckers will miss me too much otherwise.”
Nico snorts. “In your dreams, Sory.”
“Please don’t dream about me,” Dima says. “Unless I’m naked, of course.”
“Gross,” Vonny mutters into his beer. “Why would he want to dream of you naked when he can dream of me?”
“Our cocks are identical, dipshit,” Dima shoots back, flinging a spoonful of sour cream at his brother.
“No food fights!” I exclaim. “Unless you wanna clean the entire kitchen all night.”
“Party pooper,” Vonny mutters as he wipes the sour cream from his face.
“Damn straight.”
Dima snorts. “Straight,” he says. “None of us can claim that.”
I roll my eyes, but can’t help the laugh that escapes. As ridiculous as the three of them are, there’s a reason I keep them around. Nobody can get me out of my head faster or as efficiently.
As we finish dinner, everything weird about my day with Doc leaves my head, and whatever confusing things I was feeling for the man get pushed to the back of my mind. Tomorrow is going to be interesting for sure, but I’m oddly looking forward to it.