Chapter 6
Piper
Icould say one thingabout Darren. He was efficient. He showed me the laundry room and where each of the masters kept their baskets for when I collected them.
Collecting them was a different matter.
I had no idea whose room was whose. I needed a map or labeling system. Unfortunately, I didn’t think that Darren was going to draw me a map.
Thankfully, I didn’t need one. The hallway Darren pointed me to, the one to the right side of the stairs from the front of the house, had a row of rooms that were in the order of the masters’ ages.
The first door on the left was Antoine’s, which I definitely didn’t want to go into. I didn’t think any of them would be awake by now and really didn’t want to go waking up my new bosses. However, it was on my to-do list. It wasn’t like I had a choice.
Darren didn’t offer me any tips for how to go about getting the laundry from the rooms, so I was on my own against six handsome strangers, two of which I knew didn’t like me. One of them wanted in my pants. And, well, the other three? I didn’t really know anything about them except they were large and Antoine’s warning about the twin tricksters.
Sighing, I decided to start with the last door, Rayne’s room. I knocked on the door, but there was no answer. I waited a moment and then knocked again. Still no answer.
Slowly, I turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. The room was dark, and no sign of life could be seen from where I stood. Inching inside, I glanced toward the bed. Empty.
Of all the brothers I sure as hell didn’t expect the youngest, who looked like he was barely twenty, would be up at the time of day. Man, I remembered what it was like to be that young. Okay, hold up. It was only a few years ago, okay, seven, but it’s not like it was that long ago. However, while I was in college, I didn’t get up before noon unless I absolutely had too. Even then, I made excuse after excuse to make my classes in the afternoon.
Sadly, sleep was one thing I had to give up when I ended up living in my car. It’s hard to sleep when anyone could come by and see me sleeping. I’d been woken up by a cop or two already for being parked in a no parking zone for too long, not to mention the one time I woke up to a homeless man jerking off in front of my window.
I shuddered at the thought.
Not wanting to come face to face with the man himself, I hurried into the room and found his laundry basket. Of course, it stunk to high heaven. Full of basketball socks and wet towels, no doubt.
I dumped his basket into my bag and realized that one bag was not going to cut it. Groaning, I lugged the bag over my shoulder and sat it outside the door. So glad I chose to wear jeans and a t-shirt for this. I was not going to waste my good work clothes for lugging laundry around, especially, laundry that smelled like something had crawled up in it and died.
Pulling out another bag from the pile that Darren had given me, I went to the next room.
If memory served, it would be one of the twins. No idea which one it belonged to though since there were no names on the rooms. I knocked on their door just like I did Rayne’s and once more came up with no answer.
Shoving the door open, I wasted no time crossing the room and finding the laundry basket. Whichever’s room this was, at least they didn’t stink as bad as Rayne’s. Darren hadn’t been kidding about them being tidy though. Not a single sock or pair of jock shorts on the floor. Amused by the concept of a neat man, I dumped the basket into the bag. When done, I started for the door but paused at a side table where some mail sat.
Figuring I could use that to figure out which twin’s room it was, I picked up the first envelope I found. The front of it said it was from some company called Opos Bank. Shrugging it off as some odd named bank, I glanced down at the name.
Allister Durand.
This was Allister’s room. I tapped the envelope on my hand and glanced around the room with a nod.
Good to know.
I returned the envelope to the side table and continued on my way. I went through the rest of the rooms, each one as empty as the last. I wasn’t sure if I was happy or disappointed about that. A small part of me hoped I’d at least catch one of them in their boxers or even coming out of the shower.
I drooled a bit as an image of a wet and naked Wynn came to mind. The tiny towel he was wearing in my mind barely covered anything, and he had a teasing grin on his face as he ‘accidentally’ dropped it.
“You seem to be doing alright.” The very voice of the man I was daydreaming about appeared before me. “And here I thought I’d check to make sure the locals hadn’t run you off yet.”
My face heated, and I ducked my head. “No, I’m alright. Actually, you’re the first I’ve seen other than Darren or Gretchen that is.” I gathered the bags up and started to lug them back toward the stairs. Man, this was harder than it looked.
“Want some help with that?” Wynn tried to help me pick up the bags, but I waved him off.
“No, I got it. It’s my job after all.”
Wynn laughed that delicious laugh of his, and I almost melted right there. “That may be, but you are clearly struggling. I’m just doing the gentlemanly thing by offering to help.”
Smiling despite myself, I let go of the bags and turned to him. “I suppose I could let you carry one.”