by ERIN BEDFORD
Glancing over at the alarm clock, it read just after seven, about the time I usually woke for work. Guess some habits were hard to break.
Standing, I moved across the cold wooden floor to the bathroom to shower and begin the day. Halfway across the room, I noticed a slip of paper just inside the door. Cocking my head to the side, I went over and picked it up.
On the paper was a simple list. No greeting. No thank you. Just a list of chores.
1. Gather the laundry.
2. Start laundry.
3. Vacuum the living room.
4. Clean windows on second-floor servants wing.
5. Switch laundry in between jobs.
6. Fold and return to correct room.
Man, they hadn’t been kidding when they said I might have time off in the evening. From this list, I’d be lucky to be able to take a piss or a lunch break without being behind.
Sighing, I threw the list on the side table and gathered my clothes. After seeing the list, I couldn’t very well take a long shower like I had planned. Instead, I quickly washed and then got distracted beneath the shower pressure.
God, forget the thread count. No guy was worth giving up this shower pressure. My muscles sang with delight as the water beat down on my shoulders.
Before I knew what I was doing, my mind had conjured up Wynn from last night, his mouth on my hand and then moving to my wrist. In my mind, he didn’t stop there. Those pouty lips found the bend of my elbow and then finally after several moments of teasing my mouth. My fingers stroked in long needy movements along my skin, cupping my breasts and plucking at my nipples. My other hand dipped between my legs, and my knees almost buckled at my touch.
“Fuck.” I gasped, having never been so turned on in my life. It didn’t take more than a few flicks of my clit before I was bent over, gasping for breath.
My eyes fluttered open, and I stared hard at the side of the tub. Shaking my head to clear the post orgasm haze from my head, I climbed out of the tub and quickly dried off. I didn’t give myself time to think much about what I’d just done as I went about brushing my teeth and hair. I pulled my long blonde hair up into a bun and lightly applied some mascara and lip gloss. I didn’t know why I was bothering, but for some reason, being in a house full of attractive men made me want to look my best. I took a moment to stare at my light brown eyes. Even now they shone like someone who’d just been thoroughly fucked.
“Pfft.” I tossed my head from side to side and turned from the mirror.
Since they hadn’t given me a dress code, I went for jeans and a pale green t-shirt. I slipped my tennis shoes back on and grabbed the list before heading for the door. Glancing one way and then the other, I noticed the hallway was completely empty.
Were my employers even up yet? I huffed and rolled my eyes. Probably not. They probably didn’t know the meaning of the word morning.
Snorting at the lives of the rich, I found the staircase that I had come up the night before and headed down it. The smell of eggs and bacon filled my nose before I reached the bottom, and I found a plump older woman working at the stove.
Thank God, another woman. I thought I was going to drown in all the testosterone around here.
“Hello,” I greeted the woman, already feeling hopeful for the day. “You must be Miss Gretchen. I’m Piper.”
Gretchen turned from the stove with a bright smile. “You got that right.” She pointed the spatula in her hand at the bar. “Have a seat, I’ll have breakfast ready in a moment.”
Taking a seat, I grabbed the pot of coffee off the counter and poured some into the cup in front of me. Searching around for creamer, I moved over to the fridge.
“Creamer is in the door, bottom shelf,” Miss Gretchen helpfully supplied.
I found the creamer and poured a heaping amount into my cup. Sipping deeply from the cup, I sighed. Just what I needed to start the day.
“Oh, dear. If you’re already that dejected, I don’t have high hopes for you to get through the week.” Miss Gretchen tsked as she sat a plate before me. The scent of it made my stomach rumble in pleasure.
“I know,” I breathed, placing my elbow on the counter and leaning my face on my palm. “It’s just so different than what I’m used to.” As I finished my explanation, I scooped a forkful of eggs into my mouth. Suddenly, I was starving and inhaled my food like it was the last thing I’d ever eat.
“Well, I’m glad you have an appetite on you at least. These young masters barely touch anything I make.” Gretchen shook her head, one hand on her hip. “I don’t even see the reason for me being here half the time, but with you here, at least I’ll feel a bit more useful.”
“Well, my mother did always say I was a bottomless pit. She wasn’t sure where I put it all.” I patted my flat stomach and shrugged a shoulder. “Fast metabolism, I guess.” I grinned at her as I finished my plate and picked up my coffee cup. Just as I wondered how to go about asking how long Gretchen had worked there, Darren showed up in the kitchen doorway.
“Are you finished? I’m supposed to show you where the laundry room is.” He didn’t wait for me to answer but disappeared back through the doorway he had specifically told me not to go through.
Glancing at Gretchen, she nodded her head. “Go on ahead. I’ll take care of these.” She took my plate and cup and took them to the sink.
“Thank you and for the meal as well.” I wiped my mouth and quickly followed Darren. It was barely eight, and already they had me on my toes. The end of the day couldn’t come soon enough.
Chapter 6
Piper
I could say one thing about Darren. He was efficient. He showed me the laundry room and where each of the masters kept their baskets for when I collected them.
Collecting them was a different matter.
I had no idea whose room was whose. I needed a map or labeling system. Unfortunately, I didn’t think that Darren was going to draw me a map.
Thankfully, I didn’t need one. The hallway Darren pointed me to, the one to the right side of the stairs from the front of the house, had a row of rooms that were in the order of the masters’ ages.
The first door on the left was Antoine’s, which I definitely didn’t want to go into. I didn’t think any of them would be awake by now and really didn’t want to go waking up my new bosses. However, it was on my to-do list. It wasn’t like I had a choice.
Darren didn’t offer me any tips for how to go about getting the laundry from the rooms, so I was on my own against six handsome strangers, two of which I knew didn’t like me. One of them wanted in my pants. And, well, the other three? I didn’t really know anything about them except they were large and Antoine’s warning about the twin tricksters.
Sighing, I decided to start with the last door, Rayne’s room. I knocked on the door, but there was no answer. I waited a moment and then knocked again. Still no answer.
Slowly, I turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. The room was dark, and no sign of life could be seen from where I stood. Inching inside, I glanced toward the bed. Empty.
Of all the brothers I sure as hell didn’t expect the youngest, who looked like he was barely twenty, would be up at the time of day. Man, I remembered what it was like to be that young. Okay, hold up. It was only a few years ago, okay, seven, but it’s not like it was that long ago. However, while I was in college, I didn’t get up before noon unless I absolutely had too. Even then, I made excuse after excuse to make my classes in the afternoon.
Sadly, sleep was one thing I had to give up when I ended up living in my car. It’s hard to sleep when anyone could come by and see me sleeping. I’d been woken up by a cop or two already for being parked in a no parking zone for too long, not to mention the one time I woke up to a homeless man jerking off in front of my window.
I shuddered at the thought.
Not wanting to come face to face with the man himself, I hurried into the room and found his laundry basket. Of course, it stunk to high heaven. Full of basketball socks
and wet towels, no doubt.
I dumped his basket into my bag and realized that one bag was not going to cut it. Groaning, I lugged the bag over my shoulder and sat it outside the door. So glad I chose to wear jeans and a t-shirt for this. I was not going to waste my good work clothes for lugging laundry around, especially, laundry that smelled like something had crawled up in it and died.
Pulling out another bag from the pile that Darren had given me, I went to the next room.
If memory served, it would be one of the twins. No idea which one it belonged to though since there were no names on the rooms. I knocked on their door just like I did Rayne’s and once more came up with no answer.
Shoving the door open, I wasted no time crossing the room and finding the laundry basket. Whichever’s room this was, at least they didn’t stink as bad as Rayne’s. Darren hadn’t been kidding about them being tidy though. Not a single sock or pair of jock shorts on the floor. Amused by the concept of a neat man, I dumped the basket into the bag. When done, I started for the door but paused at a side table where some mail sat.
Figuring I could use that to figure out which twin’s room it was, I picked up the first envelope I found. The front of it said it was from some company called Opos Bank. Shrugging it off as some odd named bank, I glanced down at the name.
Allister Durand.
This was Allister’s room. I tapped the envelope on my hand and glanced around the room with a nod.
Good to know.
I returned the envelope to the side table and continued on my way. I went through the rest of the rooms, each one as empty as the last. I wasn’t sure if I was happy or disappointed about that. A small part of me hoped I’d at least catch one of them in their boxers or even coming out of the shower.
I drooled a bit as an image of a wet and naked Wynn came to mind. The tiny towel he was wearing in my mind barely covered anything, and he had a teasing grin on his face as he ‘accidentally’ dropped it.
“You seem to be doing alright.” The very voice of the man I was daydreaming about appeared before me. “And here I thought I’d check to make sure the locals hadn’t run you off yet.”
My face heated, and I ducked my head. “No, I’m alright. Actually, you’re the first I’ve seen other than Darren or Gretchen that is.” I gathered the bags up and started to lug them back toward the stairs. Man, this was harder than it looked.
“Want some help with that?” Wynn tried to help me pick up the bags, but I waved him off.
“No, I got it. It’s my job after all.”
Wynn laughed that delicious laugh of his, and I almost melted right there. “That may be, but you are clearly struggling. I’m just doing the gentlemanly thing by offering to help.”
Smiling despite myself, I let go of the bags and turned to him. “I suppose I could let you carry one.”
“Oh?” Wynn arched a brow and moved in closer, reaching out to take the bag. Our hands brushed against each other, and my breath caught.
After I reminded myself how to breathe, I licked my lips and offered him a weak smile. “Well, we can’t have it being said that you weren’t a gentleman, now can we?”
“No, I suppose not.” Wynn leaned toward me, and I was frozen to the spot. His piercing blue eyes locked with mine, his pupils dilating as his nostrils flared. My eyes started to flutter shut, but all of a sudden, Wynn backed away. “Your hand is bleeding again.”
My brows furrowed at his random statement. Glancing down at my injured hand, I could see the red bleeding through the bandage I had replaced after my shower this morning.
“Oh, I guess I am. Probably aggravated it with all the bag moving,” I murmured out loud. When I glanced up from my hand, Wynn was gone.
Staring at the place he had once stood, I wondered what his problem was. He had been nice enough to bandage my hand yesterday, but clearly, I had been right about him being queasy about blood. Although, that didn’t stop him from feeling up my hand and wrist last night.
Snorting, I shook my head. Strange men.
With Wynn gone, I had to take all the bags back downstairs myself, which ended up taking half the morning. By the time I was done, I stank worse than Rayne’s laundry. My stomach growled, ready to eat itself, and I wasn’t even half done with my chores.
I think I’d earned a break. At least, a snack. You know, to keep my strength up.
Gretchen wasn’t in the kitchen, nor Darren when I arrived. However, there was a sandwich sitting in the middle of the island with my name on a sticky note stuck to the edge of the plate. Pulling the plate over to the edge of the counter, I sat down with a sigh.
With no one there to bother me, I took my sweet time eating my sandwich and then putting my plate in the dishwasher. Feeling parched after my sandwich, I opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. Twisting the cap open, I chugged the cool liquid and waited for the clothes to buzz.
What would it be like to live in this house for real? Instead of me doing the laundry and cleaning, I’d be a lady of luxury. No need to work because I’d have millions I’d inherited from my parents. I tried to imagine what kind of parents the masters had. They were each so different it was hard to figure out if they had the same parents or if they were brothers by choice.
All I could say was they had good taste in siblings.
I giggled to myself and tossed my bottle in the trash as the clothes buzzed. I switched the clothes from the washer to the dryer and then headed toward the living room to work on the next item on my list.
It was strange. As I went through one chore after the other, besides the one appearance of Wynn, I didn’t run into any of the other brothers. Darren was the only one I saw, and usually, that was only for him to bark more orders at me or complain I wasn’t doing something right. It wasn’t until the sun had set and I was dead on my feet that I ran into one of the masters.
“Ah, so you’re still here.” Rayne appeared in the kitchen and opened the fridge. He pulled out a bottle with his name on the label and took a deep drink. There’s a bottle in there for each of them, but I wasn’t sure what exactly it was. I just assumed some kind of protein drink.
I watched as the bottle came down from Rayne’s mouth that his lips were stained red. Definitely some kind of health drink. I wanted to gag just thinking about it. No, thank you. I’d take my vegetables the all-natural way, not smashed or juiced to a pulp.
“Did you think I wouldn’t?” I asked, digging my fork into the left-over container Gretchen had set out for me.
Rayne snorted. “We have a bet going actually.”
“A bet?” I choked on the drink I had just taken a gulp of. “Really?”
Beaming at me, Rayne nodded. “Yep. I bet you wouldn’t last a day.”
Rolling my eyes, I turned back to my food. “Well, you lost. I’m still here.”
“Not for long. Night’s fallen.” Rayne flashed his canines at me and walked out the door with his bottle in hand.
“Well, that was cryptic,” I muttered to myself and finished my meal. After I was done, I gathered up the laundry that had finished, preparing to take them back to their owner’s rooms before going to my room for the night.
Taking the clothes back was going to be harder than picking them up, since my chances of running into one of my new employers was high. Thankfully, Rayne was doing whatever college level douche bags did so I could easily drop his clothes off without a problem. The same went for Allister’s clothes. However, when I went to drop Drake’s clothing off, I wasn’t so lucky.
“Why hello there. Miss Billings, is it? Or can I call you Piper?” Drake grinned at me, his body only partly covered in a towel, his skin still wet from his shower. It was like he had read my mind and knew about my daydream earlier today, and as my eyes followed the trail of water moving down Drake’s rippling abs and to the bulge below the terry cloth, I knew I was in trouble.
Astronomically.
Chapter 7
Piper
My brain short-circuited. I didn
’t know what to do. Should I leave or continue with my work? Honestly, I was having a hard time just getting my brain to function. My eyes trailed down Drake’s body, taking in the black tattoo of some kind of bird on his chest before once more landing on the obvious tent in the towel. I swallowed. Such a hard time.
“Are you going to stand there all day or give me my clothes?” Drake smirked and held his hand out. “I don’t really have anything else to wear. Unless... you prefer the towel?”
No. I preferred nothing at all, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
“No, no. I’m sorry, you just caught me off guard.” I shook my head from side to side, making my ponytail hit my shoulders, and hustled further inside to set the bag down. I tried to hurry back to the door, but Drake’s gravelly voice stopped me.
“So, you don’t like the towel?” Drake said in such a strange way that I had to pause and look back at him, just in time to see him drop the towel on the ground. Against my will, my eyes instantly locked onto what had been hidden beneath, and my mouth grew dry. “Ah, I see you like me better this way, huh?”
I couldn’t find my words. What were words? Thoughts? Thick muscular thighs. His cock hung long, hard, and perfect between his legs, and it was coming even closer to me.
Jerking my eyes away from Drake’s perfect equipment, I felt my face heat considerably. Backing up, I held my hands up in front of me as if that would ward off what I’d just seen. Even a priest couldn’t exorcize that image from my head, not that I would want him to. My vibrator and I would relish in this memory later, when it was dark, and no one could hear me scream.
“I’m so sorry. I’ll just go now.” I hated the words even as they came out of my mouth, but if this wasn’t fraternizing, I didn’t know what was. Antoine had already gotten onto me once, and if you counted the vase breaking when I got here, that was already two strikes against me. I didn’t want to find out what happened when I got to three.
