Page 15 of Embracing Darkness


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I nodded, stepping out of the way so they could enter, hating the way my body shivered at the mass amount of testosterone that had just entered my home. The worst part wasn’t even how fucking sexy they were—it was how they owned it and not in a haughty way but in a way that literally screamed power and intrigue and darkness.

In a way Owen had tried and failed. Miserably.

I watched in interest as they donned blue booties to protect my carpet but I wasn’t sure I cared. I’d let them walk all over my house for me. I’d let them walkall over me.

Fuck. Head in the game.

I threw them a smile as I gestured to the kitchen, remembering Owen had said something about it. I should have told them no, that I didn’t need their business especially since I knew I wasn’t doing a great job of hiding the fact that I fucked two of the trio. God, this was going to turn out horribly, wasn’t it?

Nothing could happen again—not when I caught Valentyn’s hand resting against the Frenchman’s back, a small but sweet gesture that I felt like I was intruding on. My cheeks flamed as I quickly looked away, trying to hide my jealousy and disappointment.

“Nice,” the French one mumbled, eyes surveying the area that needed just a little more love than I had been comfortable doing myself. I knew before I bought the place that there were several renovations I wanted to tackle but Owen had been the one that insisted that the kitchen and bathrooms were to be done first. He needed to be able to relax in his own home.

The fact that it was now just me left a bitter taste in the back of my throat.

Not because I wantedhiscompany but because it made me realize that I had enjoyed—in some part—coming home to someone.

Wouldn’t mind if it was these guys.

Valentyn stepped into the kitchen, frowning as he stared at the project ahead of him, his deep blue eyes darkening as they fell on me when he turned around. “This is quite a job. And you didn’t budget?”

Shame flooded my expression as I thought of the best way to answer that question, Gianni giving me a comforting smile as he pushed me into the living room. “Leave him alone,” he joked. “Let me talk to him for a bit while you two get started.”

I said nothing until Gianni pushed me far enough down the hall that we had a little privacy. “I thought you said you had a job!”

He snorted. “And I had no idea it was your house. Dmitri only gave us the address this morning.”

“I don’t… this isn’t my project. Well, it was but-”

Gianni cut me off with a simple kiss on my forehead. “Babe, it’s fine. Give us some time to give you an estimate, alright? Valentyn won’t say anything unless you want him to but I’d change out of his shirt if I were you.”

“What, why? This isyourshirt.” I pulled it away from me and sniffed it like a lunatic, realizing that it really did smell more like Valentyn than Gianni. Not even my fucking detergent had been able to fully wash it away. I wasn’t mad.

Gianni smirked, “Uh huh, see? That’s why I was wearing it. He smells amazing. Seriously, though, Rhys… Val gets a little feral seeing things he deems are his.”

“We fucked. Once,” I stated firmly.

Gianni raised an eyebrow as if he counted last night as more than just ‘once’ but it wasn’t supposed to mean anything, right? By the expression on his face, I realized that it might not be the case.

Gianni managed a shrug. “That’s all it takes before he claims someone. Now, go change and leave the rest to us.” This time he pressed a kiss to my lips, my fingers curling into his shirt at his waist. I tried to take more than he was giving, Gianni chuckling as he pushed me toward my room. “Change.”

I disappeared obediently, my entire body alive with need all over again. Gianni was going to be the fucking death of me and I’d let him.

Chapter eleven

VALENTYN

The kitchen was a disaster, however, that’s not the thing I was focusing on at the moment. It was the fact that we had somehow picked up a job including the same man from last night, a man I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about. I knew now why Gia was so fucking obsessed every time Rhys Knight stumbled into his place. I would have been as well and it wasn’t just his body. It was everything about him. How he was somehow both fragile and strong. How he was intelligent but could be brought to his knees with a little bit of sugar.

The fact that I had caught him in my shirt a few moments ago, a disheveled and rumpled Rhys staring at us as he opened the door made me want to bend him over the nearest surface and pump into his sweet little hole. I grunted, reaching down to adjust myself, and tried to think of literally anything else than Rhys.

“How the fuck did he not budget? This isn’t a simple renovation,” Dmitri called out, sticking his head in one of the cabinets. It pained me how empty the kitchen was—even the fridge was sparse of any real food. My gaze darted down the hallway, wondering how Rhys survived. I had seen my men fall down a rabbit hole of research and it took effort to pull them back into the world.

But if everything Gia had told me over the years was true, then I could only imagine how much of an extra push Rhys needed. And I assumed that for a while Gia had been that sweet spot.

I managed a shrug, leaning against the entrance of the kitchen as I waited for Rhys to reappear. We had a lot of fucking things to talk about, mainly yesterday and whatever the fuck we were doing here. Either Rhys was playing a game or we weren’t meant to renovate the kitchen. After all, the first half of the deposit currently hanging out in my bank account wasn’t a small one.

Kolas Renovations was mostly just a cover for some of the shadier handymen work we pulled off. We were good with our hands and while on the upside, we fixed up houses and small businesses, on the less legal side, we fixed problems. Give me a hammer or a gun, it didn’t matter—the job would be completed. Under the disguise of a renovation and purely by word of mouth, we were hired, given a job, and paid for our work upon completion.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com