Chapter Eleven
Mia
“Fucking hell,” I cursed, reaching for another paper towel. “This is ridiculous.”
The entire house was coated in dust. Every surface.
Gunk and grime had accumulated in the corners and around the legs of furniture, meaning I had to get down and scrub the floors with a brush before I could mop them.
Of course, I had to clean every other surface first before I did that because, otherwise, the floor would end up with another layer of dirt on it by the time I was done.
I’d already revised my estimate from two weekends to at least four based on my progress.
Or lack of progress. I’d been at it for several hours and was just—just—finally reaching the point that I could call the first bedroom clean.
All that was left was the floor. A few more hardened piles of gunk, then it could be mopped.
“Just nine more bedrooms after this,” I muttered angrily, the words echoing in the empty room. That was a saving grace, at least. They’d removed it all to make way for the new stuff Tor had bought. If I’d had to clean all that, too …
Footsteps in the hallway caught my attention. I quickly swiped the clean edge of the paper towel across my brow before returning to digging at the hardened dirt on the floor. Just how long had the place been abandoned?
“Looks great in here.”
“Oh, hi, Ty,” I said, looking over my shoulder and forcing a smile.
He was wearing another plaid shirt. Black and tan lines. Dark jeans and work boots. Bits of wood chips and leaves were stuck to him. He’d been outside working on the grounds again.
“Something wrong?” he asked, leaning on the doorframe.
“Huh? No, I don’t think so. Why?”
“Just never heard someone sound so disappointed to see me,” he joked.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to.” Although I’d expected to see Tor …
“It’s fine. I’m just kidding around. This room looks great. Can’t wait until the whole place looks like this.”
I chuckled, tossing the grime-covered towel into a pile with the others. “Well, I hope you’ve got some patience because it’s going to be a while. This place is disgusting. How long was it abandoned?”
Ty shrugged, thinking. “Something like seventeen years, I think.”
“Ah, that explains it,” I said, nodding. “Though I don’t understand why the previous owners never used it. It’s such a lovely place out here in the middle of nowhere. So peaceful.”
“Previous owners?” Ty said, scrunching up his face.
“Well, yeah, whoever sold this place to Tor, you know. They clearly never came here. This stuff is hardened in place. That takes time.”
Ty shook his head. “There were no previous owners. The house has been in the, uh, family, I guess, ever since it was built.”
I frowned. It had?
“Anyway,” he said, waving a hand. “I have stuff I have to do. Keep up the good work.”
He disappeared before I could ask him why the hell nobody had been there in nearly twenty years. That made no sense.
Tor isn’t telling me everything about this place. Just what is he hiding? And why?
I wondered, and not for the first or even tenth time, if perhaps I should just leave. Go home, and keep saving up money the way I had been. If I did that, though, I’d have to tell my father he wasn’t getting the car anytime soon. I couldn’t go back on that.
So I got back to cleaning. Which meant going through an ungodly amount of cleaner, towels, both reusable and disposable, and more.
“Damn, that looks so much better,” I said, stepping back to admire my work after a half-hour of scrubbing the floor until it all but shone. In the next room, I was taking a before and after picture because, wow.
Gathering up the dirty supplies, I made a run back to the stock room where the supplies were held, along with garbage, etc. Along the way, I passed by the ornate set of double doors that blocked access into the “Forbidden Zone” as I’d come to think of it.
That time, I stopped to look at them and their intricate carvings of various animals and beasts, along with trees and plants. I could even see several dragons flying around. It was really quite beautiful and very high quality.
“What the hell are you hiding in here?” It couldn’t just be his bedroom. There had to be more to it than that.
Was it, like, some sort of weird sex dungeon?
I’d read the books and seen the movies. I knew it was a thing some people had.
Could Tor be hiding something like that?
Except Ty went in there as well. So it had to be something else.
Unless I was reading their relationship wrong.
Were the two of them together? Did they feel like they had to bar me from the truth because I wouldn’t approve?
I sure hoped that wasn’t the case, though I hadn’t picked up on any romantic vibes between them.
The doors abruptly slid open, and Torrent stepped through. He obviously hadn’t been expecting me to be on the other side because he nearly ran me over. I eeped and swayed backward so fast I started to fall over.
“Gotcha,” Tor rumbled, sweeping in, his arm catching my back as he lifted me. “Next time, try moving your feet as well.”
“Yeah,” I said, staring into his face, mere inches from mine. I was instantly reminded of our kiss. A moment that neither of us had addressed or talked about since it happened. We were just pretending it never occurred, as far as I could tell. “I’ll do that.”
He settled me upright, then let go, turning to close the doors behind him before I got more than a glimpse of the hallway beyond. There was nothing I saw at that moment that looked overly secretive or out of place.
“What are you doing here?” he questioned, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
“Uh,” I said, then dumbly smiled and held up the bags of dirty supplies.
“Oh,” he said. “Right. I guess. You remember that this area is not to be cleaned, correct?”
“Yes, I remember,” I said, my mind snapping back to reality as he sternly spoke like I was a child. I had a better memory than that. I knew he didn’t want me snooping in there. Which just made me want to snoop even more.
“How’s the cleaning going?”
“Slowly,” I said. “You left your house empty and untouched for almost twenty years. It’s a little bit dirty.”
“I know.”
My stomach rumbled violently and without warning, interrupting our conversation.
Tor beamed. “Ah, good, you’re hungry. Come on.”
“What?”
“You usually eat when you’re hungry, don’t you? That’s what I do. And I’m hungry, so I’m going to get some food. It’s dinnertime, after all. I’m not heartless. Come, have some food. Unless you brought dinner?”
I shook my head. “No, I hadn’t planned on being here this late.”
None of my plans seemed to be working out the way I’d expected.
“Well, come, then, you have to eat.” Tor reached out and pulled the bag of dirty rags from my hand, dumping it on the floor. Then he snatched my fingers and began to pull me after him.
A thrill ran up my arm, around my neck, and down my chest at his touch. Skin tightened, and the ends of my nipples began to push into my bra with extra force as they hardened.
Tor barely noticed my reaction. He was too focused on dinner. Typical, a man and his stomach. Not that I should be saying much, considering how he just had to touch me and my body began to prepare itself to accept his cock, completely unbidden.
He was, after all, gorgeous as always in his black button-up, which shimmered with silver pinstripes, and his form-fitting black pants. I could see his firm posterior quite easily as he walked, hauling me behind him.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked, feeling weird, and not just because he was crisp and clean, looking like a million bucks, while I was all sweaty and ugly, my hair a mess and covered in cleaner. We were such polar opposites. How could he be comfortable eating with me around?
“Dead certain!” he said with emphatic force. “You’ve worked hard, Mia. You have to play hard, too. Which, in this case, means having dinner. With me.”
With him. Yeah. Maybe then, we could discuss how he’d kissed me in the theater store. Something he had been willing to completely and totally pretend hadn’t happened.
It certainly would have been a lot easier to stop thinking about other things if it hadn’t actually happened.
Ally had told me I should get laid, but I didn’t think she’d meant like this. And even if she had, regardless of how hot Tor was—and I couldn’t deny that—I wasn’t interested. Even friends with benefits ended with feelings, which resulted in someone getting hurt.
And I vowed, then and there, that I wouldn’t let myself get hurt by him.