SUBJECT: Your Soul Requires Saving
The filth you spread is a cancer on society. Polyamory, fornication, perversion—you champion SIN and call it education. God sees your wickedness. Repent or face His wrath. This is your final warning.
Final warning. That was… ominous. My throat closed up, and for a moment I couldn’t breathe. Then I swallowed hard, pushed down my fear, and deleted the message with a too-forceful thumb jab and shoved the phone in my pocket. I didn’t know why I was letting these get to me. I got weird messages from men all the time. There was nothing I could do about an internet troll, anyway.
“Everything okay?” Karl asked.
“Yeah. There’s some guy trolling me. Apparently I’m a champion of sin.”
Karl laughed. “You know, that sounds like a good trait to me.”
I buttoned my coat and beamed up at him. “You’re right. We should prove my bully right.”
He held the door open for me, shaking his head. “Thankfully, internet trolls rarely get out of their mom’s basement to see the light of day. So you probably have nothing to worry about, right?”
“Let’s hope not. All I want is a relaxing evening.” I stepped closer to him as we walked toward my apartment, something about his response sitting the wrong way. It wasn’t how I imagined Rhett and Troy would respond, but maybe it was a relief to have someone treat it like what it was: a stupid joke from a guy who was too afraid to do more than write weird emails.
I needed a good, old-fashioned dicking down to help me forget. With any luck, I was about to get laid by a handsome actuary. And I liked him, even if his jokes were a little nerdy.
As we walked, Karl’s easy chatter and corny jokes eased the tension in my shoulders, making me forget about Troy and Rhett’s antics. Having a guy who helped ease my worries would be nice. Karl’s reassurances reminded me that these internet creeps were a dime a dozen and never did anything about their threats.
As we approached my door, I strained to hear any sounds of plumbing disaster or firefighter bickering from within. The hallway was quiet, and Rhett and Troy’s door was closed. That was a good sign, right? Surely they’d finished and left, like normal human beings with boundaries.
“This is me,” I said, stopping in front of my door.
Karl stepped closer, his cologne—something woody and expensive—enveloping me as he leaned in. “Looking forward to that nightcap,” he murmured, his breath warm against my ear.
My body responded with an enthusiastic yes as I fumbled with my keys. It had been too long since I’d had a man’s hands on me, and despite his corporate bravado, Karl had good hands—strong fingers, neat nails.
The lock clicked, and I pushed the door open, stepping into my apartment with Karl close behind. The living room was empty, which sent a rush of relief through me. Maybe they really had—
A crash from the bathroom, followed by a string of colorful curses that could only come from Troy’s creative mind, shattered my brief moment of optimism.
“Fuck,” I muttered, dropping my purse on the entryway table.
“Everything okay?” Karl asked, eyebrows raised.
Before I could answer, the bathroom door flew open, and Troy emerged backward, carrying what appeared to be my entire sink, pipes and faucets still attached. Water sloshed from the drain pipe and the one in the back of the porcelain basin, dripping onto my hardwood floor.
Troy was soaked from chest to knees, his dark skin glistening under the hallway light, t-shirt clinging to every ripple of his abs. I tried to ignore the coil of heat in my belly at the sight of his gorgeous body.
Behind him came Rhett, equally drenched, his light brown hair plastered to his forehead as he supported the other end of the sink, thick shoulder muscles flexing under a nearly transparent t-shirt.
“A little farther,” Troy was saying, “then we can—”
Rhett stopped as he spotted me and Karl, throwing Troy a little off balance. “Oh. Hey, Aims. You’re back.”
Karl froze beside me, his hand dropping from my waist as he took in the scene: two dripping wet, incredibly hot and muscular men carrying bathroom fixtures through my apartment.
“What the fuck?” I managed, gesturing wildly at the sink, the water, and the two idiots holding both.
“Minor complication,” Rhett said cheerfully, as if this were all according to plan.
Troy cleared his throat, shifting the sink in his hands. “Turns out the leak was coming from inside the wall, not the sink itself. So we had to—”
“Detach the entire sink?” I finished, my voice rising. “Are you kidding me?”
Rhett had the decency to look sheepish. “We found some pretty serious corrosion in the pipes.”
