THREE
On the forty-ninth floor of the fifty-story building, my apartment was indeed luxurious, with marble flooring throughout, a sunken marble tub in the master bathroom, and gilded mirrors everywhere. I kind of hated to admit it, since this apartment was now essentially my prison, but I really loved the place.
After seeing to it that my couple of suitcases were delivered up to me, Sheila informed me that Mason and Alex would be by to pay me a visit shortly. She didn’t say anything specific about the visit, and then immediately left, leaving me to wonder just exactly what kind of a “visit” I was soon to receive. It just maybe seemed a bit strange to me that Mason and Alex would be meeting me in my own apartment first, and not in a public place like a restaurant or something. Unless the commander has banned me from leaving my apartment, I thought, which didn’t seem implausible at all.
If this visit with Mason and Alex was just a brief visit to make introductions, I was ready for it, or at least as ready as I would ever be. After all, since I was forbidden from going back home, I was kind of curious about the two men I’d be spending the next three months “getting to know.” However, if Mason and Alex thought that I was going to hop right into bed with one of them during this visit to my apartment, they had another thing coming. If my meeting with the commander had illuminated anything, it was that I was pretty sure he wouldn’t condone his grandsons trying to pressure me into anything like that.
After unpacking my suitcases, I decided to change into something maybe just a bit dressier than the jeans and sweatshirt I was wearing, and I peeled both these items off. I’d just begun rifling through my dresser drawers when I thought I heard a loud knock on the front door in the distance.
“Oh, great.”
I continued rifling through my drawers, not really finding what I wanted, and soon a knock sounded in the distance again. Even though I was in my bedroom and the apartment door was down a short hallway and across the vast living room, the knock had been plenty loud enough for me to hear it. This knock had clearly been the knock of a person who was insistent on being let into my apartment and who wasn’t used to waiting.
I jerked open yet another drawer, wondering if I’d happened to pack a semi-dressy fuchsia top that I liked. However, I didn’t find it, and I just couldn’t remember if I’d grabbed it or not. “Dammit.”
The loud, insistent knock sounded again, and I darted out of my bedroom in my bra and underwear, thoroughly irritated. “Just a minute, okay? Just a minute! I’m trying to get dressed!”
After jogging back into my bedroom, uncertain whether or not I’d even been heard, I began rifling through my drawers again, wondering why I even cared about finding something nice to wear in order to make a good impression. After all, it wasn’t like I actually wanted to try to find love in my current situation. I just wanted to serve my three months and go the hell home. This is what I told myself, anyway.
After going through two more dresser drawers and not finding anything I wanted to wear right then, I gave up, grabbed my jeans from the floor, and began pulling them on, heaving a sigh. A moment later, the loud, insistent knocking sounded in the distance again. It was so loud, in fact, and it started back up again so suddenly, that I jumped a mile, startled.
“Just a minute! I’m getting dressed in here, okay? Just give me one damned minute!”
Although I had no way of knowing who, exactly, was doing the knocking, I was beginning to seriously dislike both of my suitors already.
After throwing my sweatshirt back on, I’d just dashed out to the living room when another knock sounded, followed by the sound of a deep male voice.
“Miss Wakefield, if you don’t open this door soon, we’re going to assume you’re trying to make some sort of escape attempt by taking the service stairs at the back of your apartment.”
I hadn’t even been aware that I had any “service stairs” at the back of my apartment.
“You should know that if this is what you’re thinking about doing, it won’t work, because our grandfather has guards posted at several points along the stairs to make sure that you don’t escape. So, it’s pointless for you to try anything. Now, as a courtesy to you, we’re going to give you ten more seconds to open your door yourself before we’re going to go ahead and let ourselves in. Your door is already unlocked. Ten seconds.”
Suddenly, my attire was the furthest thing from my mind.
With my pulse accelerating, I grabbed the doorknob and yanked the front door open. “Oh, you’re allowing me to answer my own apartment door as a courtesy to me? Well, thank you ever so much. How very courteous of you, not to mention….”
Unsure of what I’d even been planning to say, I swallowed and fell silent. The boiling lava that had flooded my veins at what had been said to me had quickly cooled upon me getting a good look at the speaker.
Tall, dark-haired, impossibly handsome, and extremely well-built, he stood with a hand on the door frame, expression somehow expectant, as if waiting for me to continue on in my rant. “’Not to mention’ what? Please continue. I’d really like to hear what you have to say.”
Some ways behind this man, out in the hallway, another impossibly handsome, tall, dark-haired, extremely well-built man looked up from his phone, as if also interested to hear what I’d been going to say next in my rant. This man’s eyes were a pale, icy blue, and the man who’d spoken to me had gray eyes the color of dark, angry storm clouds.
Having seen pictures of them in magazines, I knew these two men were the Iverson brothers. I hadn’t been expecting anyone else, obviously. However, even though I’d seen pictures of them before, I hadn’t expected them to both be so devastatingly handsome in person. And now, I had no idea what to say anymore. I had no idea what I’d been trying to say just a few seconds earlier. All I knew was that my heart was rapidly thudding in my ears, and I just wanted these two devastatingly attractive men to leave and never come back.
With one of my hands seeming to move almost of its own accord, I began slowly closing the door. “Sorry. Sheila told me the two of you would be coming and everything, but I just don’t want any visitors right now, and maybe not ever. So, if you don’t mind…please just leave.”
The gray-eyed man stuck a black-booted foot in the doorway to stop me from fully closing it. “I’m sorry, but we’re not going anywhere. For whatever absurd, silly, superstitious reason, our grandfather wants us to meet you, and we’re not in the habit of disappointing him. So, please just let us in. Right now.”
With my heartbeat accelerating with anger now, I began trying to close the door on his foot. “No.”
Glowering, he jammed his boot a little further in the doorway. “Yes.”