Ivy’s pov
It took three days for the hype of being my father’s spy in enemy territory to melt into the soul-crushing reality of being a housekeeper, and it was INSANE.
I was used to taking care of the house especially after Mom’s accidental death when I was twelve had shattered my father down to the bones, so he threw himself into work and didn’t exactly have time for anyone or anything else.
The responsibility of taking care of our home had fallen on me. It didn’t change when Dad adopted Jake because all he did was make me pick up after him and throw me in trouble.
A bitter taste filled my mouth at the thought of Jake. It hurt even more that he and Angel were acting like everything was normal. As if they hadn’t been fucking each other, or probably still were.
My blood boiled as I stormed through the east wing, the skirt of my black housekeeping uniform swaying around my knees while my grip tightened on the handle of the cleaning cart.
My uniform was a dress with a fitted upper bodice that had buttons up to the neck, opening up into a white collar. An apron was tied around my waist, and it swished with each step of my flats, sounding noiselessly against the brown carpeted hallways.
Whoever had designed this huge freaking mausoleum must have really liked the color brown and a ridiculous amount of gold.
This place was a robber’s dream and a housekeeper’s nightmare. The rate at which every corner accumulated dust, the ridiculous number of rooms I had to clean, meant that finishing cleaning the entire mansion would take at least three weeks. I needed to have found that ledger before then.
For three days, I had perfected the art of avoidance at this rate.
Roman and Malachi, it turned out, were like glitter; you couldn’t get rid of them if you tried, and they showed up in the most inconvenient places.
If I didn’t walk into the kitchen to find Roman rummaging through the cupboards, I would turn a corner and nearly collide with Malachi, who had to be a freaking ghost because he would just materialize out of nowhere, a smug grin on his face that I both wanted to smack away...or kiss.
Too far. That was too far. I refused to think about them like that. Any of them. But my body didn’t seem to have gotten the memo, tightening with a very confusing mix of dread and desire every time one of them was near.
I pushed open the huge wooden oak door to the next room I was supposed to clean, beads of sweat rolling down my neck into the white collar of my uniform as I wheeled in the cleaning cart.
Unlike the rooms before this that I had cleaned, there was a four-poster king bed, huge enough to be a room all by itself, but that wasn’t what had my feet stumbling over each other when I walked in.
In the gigantic bed was a huge man. A very beautiful, otherworldly, naked man.
Oh, you have got to be kidding me.
My lips parted as I crept closer, trying to hold my breath.
He was asleep, one powerful muscular arm thrown over his head, the other resting on his naked, tanned chest.
He was huge, not just tall like the twins, but broad, a mountain of a man reeking of raw power. His dark brown hair was slicked back from his face, showing off his angular jaw, so sharp it could slice like a blade. This had to be the brother Roman and Malachi had been talking about.
Their eldest brother and the CEO of Knight Industries.
Gideon Knight.
"Hot damn," I whispered, gazing at him in awe.
He was hotter than the file photos gave him credit for, a raw, masculine authority radiating from him that was so potent it had every single part of me awake and thrumming like a live wire. I licked my lips, moving closer to the bed like a moth to flame.
My eyes tore away from him briefly to glance around the room. The walls were a dark grey with wooden panels covering the ceiling.
His tanned bronze skin contrasted hard against the deep grey sheet that hung low on his waist, showing off his gorgeous upper torso.
My gaze drifted to the nightstand, where a digital alarm clock blinked the time-9:59 am. Under that, a timer was counting down.
00:47. 00:46. 00:45.
I tried to look away. I really did. I took a step back towards the cleaning cart. I should have cleaned somewhere else, but instead my legs took three more steps forward, shuffling across the thick white fur rug under the bed, until I was right next to him.
My eyes, the traitorous things that they were, drifted down his torso, and that’s when I saw it.
The thin grey sheet barely covering his body had a huge tent under it.
"Sweet host of heaven," I whispered, my throat suddenly feeling dry at the sight of the huge boner under the sheet.
He was naked down there. I knew that because the sheet was tented over his hips, straining against a ridge so thick and long it looked like a fucking weapon, outlining every ridge and vein of his morning wood as it lay against his stomach.
I shouldn’t be looking. I knew I shouldn’t be looking. But I was only human, and my pussy clenched, a hot, liquid pulse of arousal flooding my cunt.
My nipples ached, and a nasty image of that massive cock buried between my tits filled my head. I was full-on, shamelessly ogling my enemy’s massive cock. I bit back a moan, fighting the urge to cup him. If the sheet just slid down a little, I could see his-
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
The alarm clock went off, a shrill, piercing sound that shattered the silence and sent my heart rocketing into my throat. I yelped, jumping a foot in the air and flinging my hand out in a panic.
My palm connected with the clock, sending it flying off the nightstand. It hit the polished hardwood floor with a sickening crunch, plastic and metal pieces skittering across the carpet like spiders.
Shit, shit, shit! What the hell was wrong with me? I glanced over my shoulder and yelped when my eyes connected with deep, intense sapphire-blue eyes narrowed at me.
Gideon Knight pushed up on his arms, flexing his drool-worthy muscles as he sat up in bed. My entire body trembled at the sight of the sheets barely hanging around his waist, teasing and mocking me.
"Miss Harpley," A low, cold, and dangerous rumble vibrated through the floorboards and straight into my clit. "Is that correct?"
"Y-Yes sir," I rushed out, taking several steps back, putting as much gap between us as possible. This man was too fucking terrifying.
"I expect an explanation." I couldn’t tell if he was mad or not. His face was a smooth blank slate with only those sapphire blue eyes boring into me.
My brain short-circuited. "I... it... the bee- I...ah...so sorry." I stammered, taking several steps back, ready to flee, when I walked straight into a wall behind me.
A wall that smelled of dark coffee and oud.
"Now come on, little miss Harpley," a familiar, mocking voice purred. "You weren’t running a minute ago."
Two arms wrapped around my waist, bringing my body flush against a hard, solid body. My eyes snapped up to meet Malachi’s amused hazel ones, a smirk playing on his lips.
Oh no. He had seen everything.
"You know," Malachi murmured, his mouth brushing shockingly close to my ear, "I don’t think you were looking at my brother’s cock by accident, little Miss Harpley."
His grip tightened, just slightly.
"I think I know exactly what kind of girl you are."