Page 1 of Velvet Corruption

Chapter One: Kieran

Shit with my family was about to get even more complicated.

Fuck.

It was six o’clock in the morning, and my brother wouldn’t stop calling.

For the third time in as many minutes, my phone buzzed with a notification, each one harder to ignore than the last. Tristan was in the middle of some…arranged marriage dealwith one of the Orsini girls, and I knew I’d hear him rant about it when we saw each other that night.

If he was calling at this hour, odds were he hadn’t slept—or worse, he’d been drinking all night. If it was urgent, he would’ve texted. My family didn’t do “urgent” over a single phone call. Urgency for us came as an avalanche: calls, texts, voicemails piling up until they became impossible to brush aside.

Right now, I wanted to keep ignoring it all and just keep lifting. The weight room had a way of simplifying things. No Orsinis. No Callahans. No family drama. And best of all, no expectations. The clang of iron plates and the grunts of early-morning regulars drowned out the chaos in my head. For once, the gym’s sterility—bleach and synthetic rubber—felt like a reprieve.

As long as I wasn’t dwelling on how much of a disappointment I was to my father, the day counted as a win in my book.

I only vaguely noticed the girl using the leg press next to me—at first. But once I did, it was impossible not to. Her messy bun looked like an afterthought, but the freckles on her nose and the way her dark eyes flicked to the mirror caught me off guard. She was cute. Gorgeous, actually.

I…didn’t look at her face for long.

Her legs flexed with every press of the machine, her form annoyingly perfect. I wasn’t even pretending not to stare when she glanced over and caught me.

Shit. She raised an eyebrow, a hint of a smirk playing on her lips. “Thought you were too busy on Grindr to check me out.”

I bit back a smirk. “No. I keep all my gay hookup apps on my burner phone.”

Her laugh was low and husky, sending a shiver down my spine. “Smart man. Wouldn’t want to mix business with pleasure.”

I leaned against the barbell, matching her smile. “Who says I’m not mixing them right now?”

She rolled her eyes, but her cheeks flushed, and I didn’t miss it. A victory. Small, but sweet. “Smooth talker. Bet you say that to all the girls at the gym.”

“Only the ones who ask if I’m gay.”

“I never asked you,” she shot back, playful.

I tilted my head, letting the moment hang between us. “Don’t you want to know?”

Her gaze flickered to mine, and she hesitated, just for a second. Then, her lips curled into a smile. The kind that could start wars or end them. “Yeah. I do.”

I stepped closer, my heart racing. “Well, I’m not. But I am very interested in getting to know you better.”

She tilted her head, sizing me up. “Is that so? And what makes you think I’m interested?”

“Well, you’re still talking to me, and you haven’t mentioned a brother or best friend…”

“So you’re smart, cute and have that accent? You must have a girlfriend.”

The Irish accent did help most of the time. At least my parents had donesomethingright.

“Nope, can’t commit,” I said. “But I’m really good in bed.”

“You’re forward.”

“I’mforward?”

She laughed. Her laughter was infectious, and I found myself chuckling along with her. I stepped closer, close enough to catch the faint scent of her perfume: vanilla, mint and lavender.

“I’m Kieran,” I said, extending my hand.

---