Page 117 of Kings & Chaos

Poor me.

The door opened and we filed in after Neo. The foyer was dim and a little dusty, and Rock moved past me into a room on the right. A few seconds later, the foyer was flooded with light, and I peered into the next room — a living room — and saw that Rock had pulled back the curtains on a wall of giant windows overlooking the water beyond the trees.

He started removing the sheets covering the room’s furniture, revealing a giant sofa and two overstuffed chairs over a big patterned rug, a driftwood coffee table with a glass top, and end tables that looked antique but were probably what my mom would call “vintage,” which just meant old.

Books lined three small bookcases, and a sheepskin rug sat in front of a fireplace almost big enough to stand in.

“It’s dusty as fuck in here,” Rock said, swiping at the air. “We need to shake out the rugs and sweep before it gets dark.”

I looked to my left and saw a formal dining room with high ceilings and crown molding, another sheet-covered behemoth in the center of the room that I assumed was a dining table and chairs.

“I’m sorry it’s not…nicer.” Neo’s voice surprised me, and I turned my head to find him standing close to me, almost brushing my shoulder. “We just bought it earlier this year. I haven’t had time to do any renovations.”

He sounded almost worried. Like he cared that I liked it.

“I love it,” I said. “It reminds me of the house my mom and Emma and I moved into after my dad disappeared. It feels… cozy.”

It felt like a home.

The silence between us didn’t feel heavy. It feltnice.

Then, all at once, he turned away, like he didn’t want me to see his face. “Let’s get moving. It’s going to be dark soon.”

Chapter45

Willa

Oscar showed me to my bedroom, a small room with a sloping ceiling at the center of the long upstairs hall. The bed was large and soft, covered by several old quilts and tucked under the steep pitch of the roof, creating a sheltered sleeping nook.

There was a chair next to the windows, which looked out over the trees and water. It would be a perfect place to read, and for a minute, I allowed myself the fantasy that I was on some kind of retreat or getaway and not running for my life.

I unpacked my clothes and set them in the old dresser, then used one of the two bathrooms — no private bathroom here, although there was a deep, gorgeous claw-foot tub — to wash my face and pick the tangles out of my windblown hair.

Then I went downstairs and went to work removing the rest of the sheets from the furniture and shaking out the rugs while Rock started dinner. Oscar turned up the heat and got a fire going in the giant fireplace and Neo went outside to make sure everything was secure for the storm that was obviously incoming.

It was dark by the time we were settled around the fancy old dining table, candles lit in the center, rain just starting to pelt the windows.

“This smells so good,” I said, peering into my bowl of beef stew. My stomach rumbled and I laughed a little. “I’m actually starving.”

“No wonder. We haven’t eaten since we stopped at the diner for lunch,” Oscar said.

It was true, but it felt like more than that, like the boat ride across the water and the cold sea air and the labor of shaking out rugs and making a place ready for living had made me tired in a way I hadn’t been since I was a kid.

The Kings talked about the house while we ate the hearty stew, full of tender meat, potatoes, and carrots, along with the homemade rolls Rock had thrown together like it was nothing. I slathered them with butter and listened, feeling safe between Rock and Oscar while they organized the things that needed to be done and the things they wanted to do in the future.

They were beautiful in the candlelight, their faces cast in shadows, and I felt a stab of sexual hunger at the realization that we were alone here for the foreseeable future.

All four of us.

Neo had mentioned sharing when he’d ordered me not to talk about another man when we were alone. Would he join Rock, Oscar, and me in bed?

Even the thought of it just about blew my mind. Fucking Rock and Oscar had been an exercise in erotic gluttony. Fucking Neo had been like being consumed by a supernatural force.

What would it be like having them all at once?

I clamped my thighs together to stop the throbbing that had started in my pussy. I mean, we’d just gotten to the house a few hours before.

She needed to mind her manners.

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