Kissed by Shadows: A Forced Proximity Dark Mafia Romance (The Shadowmen Book 1)

They guys show me around the space and it’s really nice. Like, so much nicer than I thought it would be—which yes, makes me sound like a posh twat. The walls are all coloured with amazing street art that apparently gets refreshed once a year when they redecorate. The walls outside also have artwork, the ones that are full windows that is.

There are several rooms, all with kitchens so having some kind of snack should be doable as well. Kids like to eat from my experience, having taken part in many volunteer groups as was expected of us when we were at Wyndhams. I make a list of other things we might need, settling on one of the rooms that would be available every Wednesday for the craft club.

“We’ll need to make some posters maybe, to let everyone know,” I muse out loud, Hunter’s phone in my hand as I note that down.

“I can help with that, sweetheart,” Roman tells me, all of them standing off to one side while I walk around and think. I glance up at him, my lips splitting into a wide grin.

“Thanks, Ro.” His own smile almost makes my steps falter, because it’s so beautiful it’s unreal. “And we’ll need some snacks, kids always need snacks.”

“I can make something for them, something nutritious,” Hunt offers, and I switch my gaze to him.

“That would be perfect.” His chest swells and something inside me warms at the fact they’re helping me with this project. They really do want to help the people, their people as they call them. I turn to Rowan, wanting him to feel involved too. I’ve noticed he often holds back, observing before taking part, and by the way his jaw clenches, I think maybe he feels like he doesn’t have much to offer. “And you can be my assistant.”

His eyes widen, looking terrified, and I have to bite my lip to stop the laugh from escaping.

“I…” he cuts himself off, swallowing. “I’m not very creative and haven’t really been around children much,” he confesses quietly, and I take the few steps that separate us before reaching out and cupping his cheek with my palm.

“I’ll teach you, and I’m sure the kids will love you.” He watches me intently, his honey-amber eyes never leaving mine as he drinks in my words. It’s always thrilling to be under his scrutiny. There’s just something exciting about it rather than it being something that worries me. “Plus someone has to be in charge of the glitter, and I feel like you’re that kind of person,” I tease, and a rare grin splits his plush lips, stopping my damn heart.

“I could do that,” he says softly, and I can’t help myself. Leaning up on tiptoes, I press my lips against his, loving how soft they feel when the rest of him is so hard and unyielding.

His hands come up and tangle in my hair, tilting my face to the side so that he can sink deeper into me, his tongue demanding entrance. I give it to him readily, sparks flying across my nerves as he kisses me. It’s like embracing a live wire or stroking a tiger. You know that it may end your life at some point, but damn, what a fine ending it would be.

I cry out when he bites down on my lower lip hard enough that copper fills my mouth, a deep groan sounding in his chest, but he’s soothing the hurt moments later, the sharp pain becoming a dull throb as he caresses the wound with his tongue. Slowly, he ends the kiss, my lip still smarting as he pulls away, a drop of my blood on his lips.

“You taste incredible, Little Lamb,” he rasps, licking the blood off, his eyes practically rolling. “And shit, having my mark on you…” His thumb comes up to stroke my throbbing lip and I hiss a breath. “One day soon, I’m gonna carve up this skin so good, you’ll see my touch every time you look in the mirror.”

Fuck. That shouldn’t be hot. Nope, that should be scary as fuck and I should be running, but instead, my knickers are drenched and I want to lay down on one of the tables right now, letting him do whatever he likes to me.

“Only if I get to mark you too,” I find myself saying, the idea of leaving something permanent on his skin appealing more than it has any right to. I never knew I’d like the idea, but I want the world to know that he belongs to me.

“I will hand you the knife myself,” he vows, his pupils wide and chest heaving as a hardness presses against my lower stomach. Yeah, he likes the idea as much as I do.

“Well, as hot as that sounds, it’ll have to wait,” Hunter states into the quiet, and I tear my gaze from Rowan to look at him with a pout. “We need to train, and you need to work on your cardio, Peaches.”

A deep groan leaves me as Roman barks a laugh. “Told you,” he singsongs, sauntering over to us and pressing up against my back. “But I want in later. I want to leave my mark on you, have yours on me too,” he whispers in my ear, sending a shiver down my whole body.

“Deal,” I breathe out, then I’m being tugged from between the twins, who both growl as Hunter pulls me against him.

“Later,” he states, and I grin.

“Yes, Daddy,” I purr, loving the way his nostrils flare and his pupils blow with just those two words.

“Fucking Christ, now I’m walking into the gym with a boner,” he groans, his arm tight around my waist as he pulls me towards the door.

Sounds of agreement come from behind us as the twins follow, and we walk down the wide corridor to some double doors at the back of the centre. As soon as Hunt opens them, I’m hit with a blast of throbbing bass that settles in my chest, the clink and grunts telling me that the gym is down the stairs.

We descend—I feel like stairs are now part of my life in a big way—and soon, enter into a vast underground space full of gym equipment and people. There are a mix of ages, with some who are definitely older. I like the fact that it’s clearly a place where all ages feel comfortable.

I spot Dayton, who gives me a shy wave, the guy he was talking to looking curiously over at us. Like Hunt and the twins, he’s covered in ink, although unlike them, he’s quite a bit older, later forties maybe. He pauses his conversation, gives Dayton a clap on the back, and then makes his way over to us.

“Boys!” he greets, grabbing Roman and pulling him in for a man hug, all back slaps, then doing the same to Rowan, who surprises me by returning it. He’s been affectionate with me, but no one else, not even Roman, so I didn’t expect him to be okay with hugs from others. “Been a while.”

Letting go of Rowan, he turns to Hunt, who has hold of my hand but gives the guy a one-armed hug anyway.

“You know what it’s like, Dave,” Hunt responds, releasing the older man.

“I know kid,” Dave says, giving Hunter’s shoulder a squeeze before turning to me. “Pleased to meet you, Iris.” He holds his hand out, his knuckles gnarled and scarred.

I startle, my hand tightening around Hunter’s, who squeezes it back reassuringly. “Pleased to meet you, Dave, but how did you know about me? I’ve not left the flat.”

His face splits into a wide grin, a gruff chuckle rumbling from his chest. “Not much stays a secret on the World’s End, love,” he tells me, the corners of his eyes crinkled. “Especially when our fearless leaders are holed up for days with a Chelsea princess in their lair.”

Roman punches him in the arm, but they all laugh as my cheeks flush a little. “I’m not a princess, though I suppose many kings have sold their daughters throughout history.” It’s meant to be a joke, but the stony faces around me and the way Hunt pulls me closer tells me that it fell flat. I guess it’s not really all that funny.

“We don’t support the skin trade, love,” Dave assures me gently, his blue eyes a washed-out colour, like he’s seen too much in his time on this earth. “And we’re all proud of our boys for taking you in, keeping you away from those Russian scumbags.” His lips curl and my heart twinges, knowing that he’s including Nikolai in that even though he was the one who helped me escape and took two beatings to keep me safe.

“Heard anything about our Soviet friends?” Hunter asks, and I straighten up, even though he refuses to let me go. Dave huffs a sigh.

“Rumor is that they’re the ones behind our guys getting targeted, lots of eagles being seen around the ends,” Dave informs him, and honestly, it’s like he’s speaking in code, but I get the impression that perhaps the Russians haven’t been as quiet as we, I, have thought.

“You’ll let us know if you hear more?” Hunt asks, and Dave nods.

“Of course, son. Now, time to train!” He claps his hands, others in the gym whooping and dispelling some of the tension the last part of the conversation wove around us. He stalks off around the gym, offering encouragement and words of praise to everyone he passes. I see the way the younger guys look up to him, the older people also giving him appreciative nods.

“Changing rooms are over there, Peaches.” Hunter points towards the far side of the gym, two doors with signs for male and female changing rooms over them.

“I don’t have any stuff with me,” I tell him, my heart picking up as I glance up at him. “Plus, I may have never actually been inside a proper gym before. The one at Wyndham’s was kinda…girly. It’s not seemly to be a hot, sweaty mess.”

His eyes widen a fraction, then his lids lower, and something tells me that he just thought of something dirty.

“Then I get this first too,” he whispers just loud enough for me to hear and flush scarlet if the heat in my cheeks is anything to go by. Then he drops his arm from around me and hands me the bag he brought with us. “Your stuff is in there.”

I take it, my brows lowered. “My stuff?”

“I got you some, guessing that you wouldn’t have ordered any. We need you to be fit and start some self-defence training. You need to be able to protect yourself, Peaches,” he says, all traces of naughtiness gone, replaced by a serious expression. “Just in case.”

A shiver falls over me, like someone just passed over my gravestone as one of the girls at school used to claim.

“It’s just a precaution, we will always be there to keep you safe, Princess,” Roman tells me, coming up and taking my cold face in his. “We made a promise not to let you out of our sight, but sometimes we have to deal with shit, and I for one would feel better knowing that you were taken care of.”

“O–okay,” I agree, trying to draw the warmth from his palms into my soul. I’ve never been in danger before, never had to fear for my life. I’ve also never had to worry about more than what I might like to wear to this party or what I wanted to do after finishing school, but now I’m in this dark world where people buy others for god knows what, and I may have to fight them off.

Pulling my big girl panties up, I decide, fuck it. If this is my life now, I’m going to make the best of it. I don’t want to be the weak link that the guys always have to worry about, and it would be nice to know that I can hold my own if it comes down to it. Plus, it will definitely be fun to get all down and dirty with each of them.

He dips down and presses a sweet kiss to my lips, catcalls and whistles causing me to blush, the heat from my reaction dispelling the coldness of moments before.

“Go get that fine arse in some tight gear, we’ll be waiting,” Roman orders, and I yelp as he slaps my arse when I turn to do his bidding. Wanker.

The changing rooms are nice with lockers and showers, and there are a couple of women getting changed. I give them a small smile, then head to one of the benches before placing the bag on it Inside is a riot of colours, and I smile when I pull out some super colourful patterned leggings, a matching sports bra, and a hot pink vest with large armholes. There is also a pair of coral pink trainers, and I quickly change out of my boho-style dress and boots, placing them in a locker with the bag and getting into the fitness gear.

There was also a padlock with the bag and a note telling me the combination—the date and month of my birthday, which is kind of cute in a stalkery way, right?—so I lock it all up, and taking a deep inhale, head back out into the gym.

I spot the guys instantly, my mouth going dry when I see they’ve stripped down to shorts and vests, their muscular, inked-up arms and legs on full display. Damn, those boys are fucking pretty. They’re talking to a couple of guys by some machines, and Rowan’s head snaps up the moment I start walking towards them, his eyes burning a path across my body, leaving me feeling naked.

The others soon spot me too, the guys they were talking to, looking over their shoulders, eyes appraising before Hunter growls something and they scurry off, giving me nods but not looking at me again.

“Hunt, you’re trying to fucking kill us, I swear,” Roman groans, his gaze roaming up and down my body, much the way his brother’s did.

“I severely underestimated how fucking hot she’d look,” Hunter replies, his own green eyes heated, and Jesus, how can a look leave me trembling?

“I’m standing right here, you know,” I chide, trying to shake the lustful thoughts from my brain. As much as it pisses Evangeline off, I can’t spend all day, every day fucking them. They’re right, I need to train if I’m going to survive.

“Oh, we know, Little Lamb,” Rowan states, his voice low as he stalks towards me. “And thanks to Hunt, so does every fucker in here. I should have brought more knives.”

“More knives? How many do you have on you?” I ask, looking over his gym clothes.

“Three,” he answers, as if firstly, that’s normal, and secondly, there is a way to hide three knives while wearing shorts and a vest.

“Three? Where?” My eyes trace over his body again, pausing at his dick, the outline of which isn’t exactly hidden.

“That’s for me to know and you to only find out when you’re tied and at my mercy, Lamb,” he casually says, and I almost choke on my own saliva. Jesus fucking Christ.

“Time to warm up, Peaches,” Hunter declares, and I swear my brain spins with how quickly I need to adjust from sex fantasies to a workout. “Have you done any kind of exercise before?”

“Yoga,” I answer, excitement filling me at the idea of getting in some stretching and losing myself to just breathing.

“Show me,” he orders, and I can’t help the eye roll at how bloody bossy this man is sometimes. I should have known though, because Willow moaned about it all the time when we spoke. I really must, at the least, text her soon.

I look around and spot some mats in the corner, so making my way over to them, I sink down into a cross-legged pose and close my eyes. It takes a couple of minutes, but with some focused breaths, I’m soon able to tune all the noise from around me out, and I start to move through some stretches, my muscles loosening the more I do.

“Fuck,” Roman’s hissed curse breaks my trance as I’m on my back, pulling my leg closer to me.

“Help me get deeper, Ro?” I ask, my lips twitching with how fast he rushes to me, kneeling down between my legs and placing his large palms on my calf. “Push when I breathe out, okay?”

“Sure thing, beautiful,” he replies, and when I give him a nod, he pushes, my muscles burning as my knee almost touches my chest, my ankle resting on his shoulder. “Shit, Princess. I didn’t know you were so damn flexible.”

I give a shocked giggle when his hardness pokes into my core, but ignoring it, I breathe through the stretch. Then commanding him to let go, I switch sides.

“So, what do the Shadows do? I mean, aside from running the estate and building community centres?” I ask, looking at Hunter as Ro helps me get deeper on this side.

He sighs, rubbing the back of his neck before doing some stretches of his own, Rowan having moved to one of the rowing machines next to us. “I suppose you’ll find out sooner or later,” Hunt muses, his green eyes tired all of sudden, his forehead pinched.

“I won’t think less of you, Hunt. I know that you’re not lily-white, but you’re not the bad guys either. You’re good men,” I tell him, tapping Roman on the arm so he eases off my leg. Sitting up, Roman still between my thighs with a very distracting outline of his cock against his shorts, I straighten my legs and stretch down one side, my face level with his crotch. I smile when he groans, but he doesn’t move.

“Our crew runs drugs around the West End, not the hard shit, but coke, weed, pills, that kind of shit. And we never sell to kids,” Hunt tells me, and I lift up to stretch the other side. “But our main gig is stealing high-end cars from the pricks around here and then selling them on the black market.”

My brows raise, my eyes widening when I recall the incident a couple of years ago when someone stole our Rolls. Straightening up, I look at Hunt, who’s stopped his stretches and there’s a flush on his cheeks that I’m damn sure isn’t due to the light exercise we’ve been doing.

“Did you have anything to do with my dad’s Rolls going missing a couple of years back?” I ask, watching as the blush deepens and he rubs the back of his neck.

“Shit! I’d forgotten about that,” Roman exclaims from in front of me, and I whip to face him, my eyes narrowed. “Made a pretty penny from that one too.”

“Bastard!” I hiss, whacking him on his rock-solid pec, pain shooting up my hand. Fucking double bastard with his stupid muscles.

“Awww, don’t be salty, Princess. You got a new one the next day,” Roman teases, and I huff, though he’s standing up and pulling me to my feet in the next moment. “Time to train.”

I pointedly look down at the massive boner he’s not even trying to hide, then back up at his face.

“Seems like you’ve got an issue, Ro. Shame that you’ll only have your right hand to sort it out,” I tell him, deciding that leaving them with blue balls for a bit is a fitting punishment for stealing my dad’s car.

He gives me what can only be described as a devil’s smirk, using his grip on my hands to pull me flush with his body.

“You forget that I don’t need your permission or consent, Princess. I could fuck you right here, in the middle of the gym, and there would be nothing you could do to stop me,” he whispers in a low purr that does terrible things to Evangeline. The threats really shouldn’t be hot, there are so many red flags with what he just said I should be running a mile away.

Instead, I practically melt into him, my lips parting as heat fills me up from my toes to the top of my head. His gaze darts down to my hardened nipples, and his smirk widens before he releases me and saunters off, erection bobbing for the whole world to see.

I stare after him, shivering when a hot body presses against my back.

“He’s right, Peaches. You gave us permission to use you whenever and however we like, so your threats are empty,” Hunter murmurs, his large hand landing on my waist and squeezing.

“I–I have a lock on my door,” I stutter out, licking my lips as I try to reclaim some sort of upper hand. He huffs a laugh, his warm breath fanning across my skin and making my core tighten.

“If we can steal a high-end Rolls Royce from your driveway, do you really think a lock will stop us?” Pressing a kiss to my temple, he lets go of my waist, taking my hand and pulling me in the direction that Roman went, the sound of Rowan’s footsteps following behind us.

I am so fucked with these men, and I really don’t give a shit.