Page 6 of Why Cheese?
“Found ‘em!” A man cries out from deeper in the cellar. He comes jogging back with a large trunk that the others reach into before he has a chance to set it down.
“Here you go, Roq,” the soft-spoken one says. He drops a pair of wire-framed glasses in the blue one’s hand. This Roq nods his thanks, then hooks the glasses around his ears. He blinks in the low light and zooms in on me.
His stoic, granite face shifts to sunburn-red in an instant, and he gulps. Twitching his nose like he’s about to sneeze, he demands, “What are you doing down here, young lady?”
“I was…um, looking?”
“Careful there.” A man with ebony locks to his shoulders peers over at me. As he speaks, he buttons up a tight leather vest. “The sight of us has been known to cause uncontrollable madness.”
“Really?” I cry out and reach to cover my eyes.
“Ignore him,” Roq says, catching my wrists. “He’s a fool.”
“But a gorgeous one,” the vest man calls out. He leaps to tug up a pair of skin-tight trousers, then pauses to display the side of his ass.Oh, I shouldn’t be seeing this. Certainly not noting that flat divot before all those hard muscles curve out.
Vest guy gives me a devious grin, then smacks his ass.That’s very… What am I doing?When I turn away, he laughs. I try to hide my blush behind my hair, but as the ends are still dyed pink, it doesn’t work so well.
“Who are you? How did you find this place?”
It is a strange feeling to be grilled as three other men dress around me. I keep trying to focus on the nude-except-for-his-glasses one, only to be distracted by the other three slipping on shirts, tying strings, buttoning jeans, and adjusting themselves.
“I’m Violette,” I whisper.
One of the men, blond and sporting a scruffy beard, drops a shirt over Roq’s head. Roq reaches an arm up through the sleeve without taking his eyes off of me. “What was that?”
“My name, it’s Violette.”
“Enchante.” The dark-haired man in all black leather leans over and reaches to take my hand. He pulls my knuckles to his lips, his honey-brown eyes peeling all of my clothes off without a care. “Nothing compares to the blush of a French girl.”
As he puckers up, my whole face burns. Roq slaps his hand away just before he can kiss mine. “Will you contain yourself?” he chastises the dark-haired man.
Pouting, he saunters away to the trunk of clothing. “Isn’t that what we just broke out of?”
Broke out of? Are they prisoners? Did they tunnel out of jail right into my great uncle’s cheese shop basement?“Who are you?” I ask.
Roq glares, or maybe he redoubles it. It seems like all he does is glare or sigh in exasperation. “We’re doing the asking—”
“I am Lord Cam, my wide-eyed pixie.” The dark-haired one takes a deep bow, his locks swinging in front of his face.
To my surprise, Roq starts to laugh. I half expect the attempt to shatter his face. “Lord of the Ditch perhaps.” That causes the dark-haired one to snarl. “He is Cam, nothing more.”
“Hi.” An exuberant man wearing an old-fashioned button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows jerks a hand out to me. He’s got caramel blond hair and eyes to match. Smiling from ear to ear with perfect teeth, he says. “I’m Cheddy. Sir Cheddy, if we’re being formal. We’re not, right?”
Rather than take my hand to kiss it, he slaps my palm. The pop echoes through the basement. He clenches his fists in celebration of that single touch.
“Ah, no. I don’t think so.”
“Good, 'cause I haven’t seen my armor in…” He blows air through his luscious, Tom-Hardyesque lips. “How long’s it been, Roq?”
“I haven’t the foggiest,” the blue-haired one groans.
“This is Roq,” Cheddy chimes in, then he clasps his hands around the man’s neck and lays his head on the man’s shoulder. “He’s our leader.”
“I never agreed to that,” Cam stews, leaning against one of the vats with a nonchalant air. I half expect him to blow a ring of smoke from his mouth.
Three men introduced themselves, but there’s still one left unaccounted for. “Who’s that?” I ask, pointing to the lithe one hiding behind not only Cheddy but his own hair.
“This…” Cheddy slaps two arms around the startled man and pulls him to the light. Blindingly blue eyes blink at me from below tawny hair. “…is Bree. He’s a little shy.”
