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He opens the long, rectangular box and starts pulling out the labeled pieces. The screws are all kept in sealed plastic. “It’s sort of like a road trip. You’re stuck with that person, in a confined space, for an exceedingly long amount of time. Building furniture? It’s the same idea.” He pulls out a small set of instructions, which he then offers to me. When I don’t take it right away, he says, “Unless you’d rather do the building?”
Scoffing at him, I lean over and snatch the instructions out of his hand. “Shouldn’t you, just, know how to put it together? Why do we even need this?” I wave the instructions in the air.
The way Silus looks at me after that makes me feel like I just said the most impractical thing. “When you do something, you have to do it right. I’ve never built these things before. Do you want to be fast asleep and woken up by your bedframe giving way when you make a wrong move? Or your dressers collapsing when you open a drawer and breaking your legs?”
“Call me crazy, but I don’t think that would happen—”
“It came with instructions,” Silus tells me, “and we are going to use those instructions. Is that clear?” The way he says it, there’s no arguing with him. He means business. For a man that gets such a kick out of me, he sure does like order.
I can see there will be no arguing with him, so I resign myself to my fate: the person who reads the instructions. Never thought I’d be one of those people. Then again, I guess Max and I never bought any new furniture for the house—anything we brought home was always second-hand and obviously already built.
Throughout the course of telling Silus what to do, I learn that reading instructions is exactly as miserable as I thought it would be. I also might skip a step on accident, which somehow causes everything to get thrown out of whack, and forces Silus to undo half of what he did to correct the issue.
As much as I wanted to believe Silus was full of shit, I do learn as we slowly get the hang of things—me following along with the instructions and Silus diligently building—that Silus is actually a patient man. He doesn’t get upset with me when I skip a step or when I tell him to use the wrong screws.
Unfortunately for me, his patience only makes him hotter.
Like, what the fuck? Just when I think I’ve seen the limit to how hot a man can be, there goes Silus, proving me wrong. Stupid man. Stupid, ridiculously sexy man.
Once we get the hang of it, we blow through the furniture. The bedframe with the headboard, the dressers, and the desk. Newly-built, Silus arranges them in the room, and then he brings in a new mattress and box spring for me.
“There,” Silus says once the mattress is set up. “Now you don’t have to lay on the floor.”
“Ooh, goody. Lucky me.” The bed still needs sheets. I stare hard at the plain mattress because if I don’t look at that, I might be tempted to look at Silus, and with a fresh bed in the room, I bet my ass I know where his mind is.
Silus smirks at me as he leans on the taller dresser. “You should consider yourself lucky. If I was someone else, you’d be dead already.”
“What time is it?” I ask. I don’t have my phone; it’s at the house. For obvious reasons, I don’t think Silus is going to get me a new one.
“Why? You have nowhere else to be, love.”
Even though it’s a terrible idea, I tear my gaze off the mattress and land it on Silus. “I just… did your men find my brother? Did they hurt him? Is he safe?”
He rolls his shoulders. “And why should I tell you anything, hmm?”
The bed sits between us, and I don’t exactly trust myself to get closer to him, so I settle for placing both hands on the mattress and leaning on it as I say, “Please. I need to know. Max is the only family I have other than my mom—”
“Who’s in prison right now because she got caught in public with an open container and quite a bit of crack. It was her third strike, and they put her away. I do have to say, I’m impressed you and your brother would care enough about helping her when she probably spent your entire childhood helping no one but herself.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “How did you know that?”
“Thea, what did you think I was doing when you were in here, pouting? Ordering you everything you’ll need, yes, but also calling a few friends to see what I can find out about you.” He runs a hand through his black hair, and the action draws attention to the tattoos on his forearm.
Those fucking sleeves are still rolled up and, yes, he’s still way too sexy as a result.
He pushes off the dresser, slow to walk around the mattress and stand next to me. A chill sweeps over me when he says, “I suppose I could tell you of your brother… whether he’s unharmed or not, but why should I? You two did kidnap me, let’s not forget. It’s a price you will both pay in different ways.”
Silus is used to handling his problems one way. He isn’t afraid of getting those hands dirty. It isn’t so out of the question that he’ll have Max tortured while I’m stuck here, but how am I supposed to live with myself if that’s the case?
The only word I manage to say while turning to face him is “Please.”
“If I tell you,” he starts, a slow smile crawling on his handsome face, “I expect something in return. Perhaps—” He lifts a hand to my face and his thumb grazes my bottom lip. “—that mouth of yours. Ever since last night, I’ve wondered how those lips would feel wrapped around my cock. Prove to me you’re willing, and I’ll do you one better than telling you how your brother is. I’ll take you to see him tomorrow, first thing in the morning.”
I want to tell him I hate him, that he’s an asshole and there’s no way in hell I’m going to do anything he wants, and I’m pretty sure I tell him that through my glare. But, regardless, sooner or later he’s going to get what he wants from me, anyway. He didn’t bring me here to keep me as a roommate.
“You have ten seconds to drop to your knees,” Silus warns. “If you do not, I’ll make a call and—say, is your brother partial to all of his teeth? Does he happen to have a least favorite tooth he wouldn’t mind parting with?”
“Fuck you,” I say before lowering to my knees. Between him and the bed, he has to spread his legs so his cock is level with my head, the dude is so damned tall.
