Page 39 of In The Darkness

She tilted her head to the side and chuckled. “The wealthy of this world have a choice to make every day. They can do good with what they’ve been blessed with or they can act selfishly. I choose to do good, and I choose to do it with you.”

He kissed this woman who wanted him to join her in a project that might have been more idealistic than any he’d ever heard of and reveled in the feel of her enthusiasm for doing good as they began to make love again. He had no idea if he could ever live up to who she believed him to be.

But he damn well planned to try every day.

***

Persephone held hishand as she led him through the main building on the Blackmore estate she’d dropped over four million on a few weeks before. In that time, he’d been busy setting up the group with men to fill out the ranks of their group, but she’d spent it getting the house ready for everyone. As he looked around in awe at the mere size of the home around him, she eagerly explained how she planned to add on to some areas of the estate and raze a few outside buildings on the edge of the grounds.

“So at first it might feel a little tight with all the men here and us, along with the assistant I plan to bring in, but the workmen will be starting the new building next month, so it won’t be too bad,” she said in a bubbly voice as Nick tried to take in everything around him.

“Tight?” he asked, stopping in the doorway between what she’d called the great room and another equally as great room in front of him. “How big is this main house?”

“A little over eight thousand square feet,” she said casually, as if eight thousand square feet for ten people would be like them all being crammed into a house the size of a shack.

“Holy hell, Persephone. How many bedrooms does this house alone have?”

“Seven, which means at first some of the men are going to have to share quarters. But once the addition is complete, you and I will be able to move into that, so another few thousand feet will be freed up for some more bedrooms for the men.”

None of this discussion about thousands of square feet seemed to impress her. She talked about a few thousand square feet like it meant nothing. Nick assumed it had to be because she’d always lived like this, but he knew the type of men he’d bring in and thousands of square feet would likely be the biggest space they’d ever lived in.

“I wouldn’t worry about them sharing quarters. Some of them have spent years doing just that.”

“Good. Then they won’t mind doing it here. They’ll have a game room and a place to relax too, along with enough bathrooms for them all, so I think we’ll be able to get started sometime in the next few weeks.”

She moved to walk into the next room on their grand tour, but Nick pulled her back into his arms. Looking down into her face, he saw just getting this first stage of her plan going thrilled her, and he loved that.

“Hey, let’s take a break for a second.”

“Don’t you want to see the rest of the place?”

“I will. I’d rather just be here with you for a moment,” he said before leaning down to kiss her on the lips.

“Do you like the place, Nick?” she asked wide-eyed, like his opinion meant the world to her.

He looked around at the room he stood in and wondered how anyone couldn’t like it. It reminded him of some of those European palaces he’d seen on TV some nights when he couldn’t get to sleep. Sky-high cathedral ceilings made the living spaces feel even bigger than the actual square footage. The walnut hardwood floors, newly refinished, grounded the rooms and gave them warmth. She’d told him all she’d been up to, but until he saw it for himself, he hadn’t believed the estate would be this impressive. It had more bedrooms and bathrooms than all the places he lived in over the past decade combined. For someone like him, this estate or anywhere like it could never be even a dream because it just sat too far out of reach.

“I like it if you like it,” he said, keeping the real truth of how impressed it all made him hidden.

Reaching up, she caressed his cheek and kissed him. “I want this to work, and I’m willing to spend my last dime to see it happen. The men you’re bringing in deserve a nice place to live. People who put their lives on the line to help others shouldn’t have to live in a rundown house. I just want them to be appreciated for the good they do.”

“Have you always been this way?” Nick wondered aloud, curious how a woman who had been given everything in life could be so generous with herself.

Persephone thought about the question for a moment and answered, “I don’t know. All I know is that on the first night back at my parents’ house, all I wanted was two things. I wanted to be with you, and I wanted to help other women like you helped me. Now that we’re here and you’re finding men to work with us, I’ve made both of those dreams come true.”

Taking her face in his hands, he kissed her and wondered how he’d been so lucky to have the love of someone like her. He didn’t know what he’d done in his life to deserve her.

“I must have been a saint in a past life or something because you’re way too good for me,” he said with a smile, knowing how true that statement was.

But she shook her head like she always did when he said things like that. “Come on. Let’s take a look at the game room these guys will get. I ordered a new pool table that was delivered yesterday, and the designer persuaded me to get a foosball table, although I have no idea what that is. Do you know?”

Nick chuckled at how her background sometimes made ordinary everyday things sound so foreign when she talked about them. “Yeah. I’m sure the guys will love it. I might even have to spend some time in this game room.”

“Should I have told her to get two foosball tables?” she asked as she tugged him into another pretty damn great room.

With a smile, he brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. “No. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay. Well, just wait until you see the kitchen. With all those people living here, I made sure to get an industrial refrigerator and two stoves. I still need to find a cook, but don’t worry. I’m on it. But the kitchen is absolutely perfect.”

---