Chapter 8 - Ivan

I walked up the stairs that led to my bedroom. Oops, did it again. Our bedroom . Excitement bubbled through me like I was a fucking kid at Christmas or something. Not that we ever did that shit in my old house. Still, the feeling was electric, and the memory of being so close to Adley in her old room was still burning in my mind.

I was desperate to taste her again, and now that she was here, well, the hard part was over.

Sure, I still had a bit of explaining to do when it came to house rules and what exactly was going to be happening regarding my "work," but dammit, I wanted to enjoy this. We were here, and that tight little body of hers was going to be mine soon enough.

Though teasing her is so damn fun.

As I approached the door leading to my private suite, I reached into my pocket for the key. We didn't lock the front door much, but each of us had keys to our own rooms, which were a comfortable distance away from the others for noise reasons.

Being the oldest, I got the top room, and both Abrahim and Vlad had to suck it. They'd been pretty pissed about it at first, but I knew what I had to do to buy them off—and it didn't hurt to remind them that I encouraged my nighttime visitors to be loud.

"This needs a key? Seriously, you guys make no sense."

"Don't worry, your pretty little head, sweetheart. We keep the house nice and safe."

I pushed open the door and stepped inside. As I walked to my bed, which sat on the right-hand wall, I tossed down Adley's duffle. She would be getting her things unpacked, and I wanted to see them all mixed up with my clothes, cementing her presence here.

It was an odd thought, but I wasn't going to question it. Not now, anyway. Like I'd already told myself, I wanted to enjoy this.

Adley climbed the last stair into the room, and her lips parted gently as she gasped. The tiny sound was barely loud enough to reach me, but there was no mistaking the awe painted on her face.

There wasn't much to this room aside from my bed and the dresser on the wall straight ahead of the door. Still, the bed itself was massive: a low platform with black wood as the base and deep gray sheets.

It sat on the only solid wall, red bricks spaced between the metal I-beams; the rest of the walls were all glass, like downstairs. From here, you could look out and see the entire valley where the house resided, nestled right against the lake in a sea of green and blue.

I loved it up here. Coming home after a long day to this made me feel like a person again. There was no point sugarcoating it to myself, and I had to admit that on most days, my job was messy and violent and a downright slog. This view? It made all the difference.

And you still have to explain a bit more about that to Adley.

"Well, I'll admit," Adley said quietly, walking up to the window across from my bed, "the view is spectacular."

I smiled. "Ain't it just. But we'll have time for that. Right now, why don't you get unpacked."

As much as that would typically be a suggestion, I knew that both Adley and I understood the command that it really was.

She glared that cheery expression on her face dying as she walked over to the bed and began to take out her things from the duffle. When she'd gotten through the first two shirts she brought, Adley looked over her shoulder at me, her brows knitted together.

"Are you just going to stand there and watch me dick around with clothes?"

Smirking, I folded my arms over my chest, leaning against the taller dresser next to me. "Yup."

"Ugh," she grumbled, returning to her task.

What Adley pulled out from the bag was far from girly. The growing pile of clothes was mostly black, with a splash of red plaid and blue denim. I noticed the way she kept the jeans and leggings folded but opened the shirts. She was clearly going off motor memory, which was an odd little window into who she was.

Adley hung her shirts and folded her pants—it was just a dumb thing to know about a person, but it felt weirdly intimate.

"Where am I supposed to put these, then?" She turned to me, her arms full of folded pants.

I knew the dresser likely made more sense, but it was full of tactical gear, and the bottom drawer held weapons, so that was a no-go. I leaned over, opened the closet, and gestured inside.

Inside was a sizeable island-like counter in the center of the space, which was decked out in a similar deep wood across all the walls and floor. It had a few drawers, only one of which was being used for my socks and boxers.

"Second drawer down."

Adley nodded, her eyes still narrowed on me as she stepped in. When she reached the counter, she pulled out the second drawer and laid her pants inside. I was half-tempted to shut the door behind her and trap her in there for a while, just for fun.

But "good sense" got the better of me, and I let it go, allowing her to exit and grab the shirts waiting for her on the bed. As she went back for them, I scanned the remaining contents in her bag from where I was standing. It looked like she'd brought another pair of shoes—sneakers that had seen better days—and that was it.

Two pairs of shoes? There goes that myth about girls and footwear.

Still, I had to remind myself that Adley was coming from meager finances prior to my involvement.

Adley walked past me as I regarded her and went straight to the racks of hanging tees of my own. There was a section at the far left that wasn't as full as the others, and she took a few of the hangers there and hung up her shirts. Shoving them to the side, Adley was sure to maintain a healthy distance between her stuff and mine.

No, no, no.

Stalking up behind her, I reached over her head, smelling the remnants of her shampoo, and slid the two halves of clothes together, getting things good and snuggled.

I could feel Adley bristle as my chest brushed across her back, and she spun around, suddenly boxed in by me, and met my eyes hard.

"Seriously? Are you really expecting me to just be so damn thrilled about this and melt for you? Because it won't happen."

Gripping the pole that held the hangers, I looked down at her with a smirk. I stood quite a bit taller than Adley, and as she stared at me, those soft blue eyes blazing, I sensed how my sheer presence pressed down on her. She swallowed, refusing to duck her gaze away, and my cock twitched at the defiance.

Fuck, I'm looking forward to giving that ass a good spanking.

Leaning in a hair more so that my lips ghosted over Adley's skin as she turned her face away, I lowered my voice, knowing that the only person in the world who could hear me was her.

"I promise you, sweetheart, you'll melt. But I have no problem breaking you beforehand."

I could feel her shiver against me, a sweet blush filling her freckled cheeks as those full, full lips parted just enough to let out a shaky breath. She had a tiny dimple on her chin, barely a thing at all, but each part of her seemed to combine to make this insanely appealing package.

Her wavy locks fell across her shoulders and down her back to her waist, her fucking button nose, the delicate sheen of tan to her skin that contrasted with the darker brows that sat above her denim blue eyes.

Fucking masterpiece.

"I…" Adley still wasn't looking at me, and I was more than happy to stand right here, towering over her. "I…I have a few more things to put away."

She quickly ducked under my arm and went straight to the duffle she'd been working on. I could practically see the steam coming off, and I could guess how much she tripped between those slender thighs of hers.

I have never had so much fun in my life.

As Adley took out the last little pouch from the duffle bag, the shit she'd grabbed from the bathroom, I stepped out of the closet, shutting the door and taking up my place next to the dress as I flicked off the light inside.

It surprised me a bit that the contents she'd brought for the bathroom were nearly as extensive as her clothes altogether. But I could guess that taking care of all that hair took some doing.

It looked like two smaller bags, and I watched Adley fumbling with them to keep a hand on both. I could have obviously lent a hand, but watching her struggle with that was too much entertainment to pass up.

I chuckled quietly, and her eyes landed on me over her shoulder in a stern glare.

"Sure, just stand there. It's not like I couldn't use—"

From between the two smaller bags, something tiny slipped to the floor. I wouldn't have made a deal about it, but then I saw the look in Adley's eyes. They went wide, her eyebrows shooting up to her hairline. More of that pink flooded her cheeks, and I could tell she was embarrassed. Mortified even.

She scrambled to pick the thing up before I could see it. Unfortunately for Adley, I was quicker than she was, and I wasn't trying to manhandle two full pouches of bathroom shit.

Snatching the small box from the ground, I pulled up what looked like a thing of over-the-counter medicine. But then I looked closer, reading the description until the brand name, Opill. I pulled open the top flap and took out the only remaining sleeve pills. A neat set of rows were all lined with that typically aluminum backing, a few pills already punched out.

"And what do we have here?"