Milo Ashby Needs A Bad Boy (Princes Take New York #4)

Chapter 1

One

Did wishing Matteo no longer had feet make Elio a terrible brother?

If so, Elio was guilty and the world’s worst brother because he felt sick as he stuffed his T-shirts in a duffle bag. He didn’t just wish Matteo never had feet, Elio was regretting the fact that he had a working pair of eyes in his own head and wondered if gouging them out would help him forget.

“You’re overreacting,” Matteo said as he leaned against the closet door in a robe.

Elio stuck his tongue out, gagging when he accidentally glanced at his brother’s feet.

“No, the fuck I am not.” His jeans followed and Elio glared at Matteo.

“Go to New York and stay with Teo and Truman! You’ll have a bloody wonderful time!

” he mimicked with a sneer around the closet and the guest room beyond.

He had finally given in and moved to Manhattan to be closer to Matteo and keep an eye on the love birds for Leo, but Elio had lasted less than two weeks in Truman’s townhouse. “Ha! I have been traumatized.”

“Come on! You’re never up this early and we got carried away.”

“In the kitchen?” Elio shuddered as he recalled the moment he wandered into the kitchen, bleary eyed and yawning, to find Matteo naked on the marble island. Truman was sucking on Matteo’s toes as he came all over the other foot.

Matteo held up his hands, sheepish and apologetic. “I’m sorry you saw all of that, but sometimes, adults have sex in the kitchen. You’ll understand one day,” he added with just a hint of a grin, making Elio recoil.

“I seriously doubt that. No amount of good dick could make me forget my dignity or do something so unsanitary. I’m not even mad about seeing your taint or worried about why you don’t have a follicle of hair below your neck.

But to be confronted with…that when I was seeking the rejuvenating effects of coffee is intolerable, Teo.

” He snatched tubes of tennis balls and handfuls of socks from the shelves and Matteo laughed.

“Wirklich, Eli?” His head tilted condescendingly. “You’ve never been hung up on a guy? Never needed someone so bad, you couldn’t think straight?”

“No! Why would I want that?” Elio countered, his face twisting at the thought. “Not that I ever think ‘straight,’” he said and they both chuckled.

Then, Matteo clicked his teeth sadly. “I sincerely hope you lose your head and a little dignity over someone special. You deserve what I have with Truman and I think it’s time you focused on something other than your work. What do you want the rest of your life to be about?”

Elio shook his head. “My work is my life. And you and Truman are…uniquely suited for each other. Congratulations,” he said facetiously, gagging again. “I’m not going to fit with anyone and I don’t want to. I have more important things to accomplish,” he said simply but Matteo snorted.

“Most people would say that becoming a professor and winning sixteen awards and medals, including the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics are important accomplishments.”

“I haven’t won the Nobel,” Elio noted but Matteo pulled a face.

“Yet. The Breakthrough Prize is worth more money and look at what it did for Ottavia’s House.”

“See? I still have more to accomplish and who could I possibly be compatible with?” he asked, gesturing at himself. “Anyone who is into this, isn’t going to understand this,” he said as he tapped his temple.

“That’s just armor,” Matteo said with a grimace, acknowledging Elio’s numerous tattoos and piercings. “You’re not even as grouchy as you pretend to be. You just don’t want anyone to know you and you don’t want to know anyone enough to care about them.”

“Exactly!” Elio said with a firm nod. “I have enough people to care about already and I barely care about them. And now I know far too much after this morning. I’m going to the Olympia and staying at Muriel’s.”

“It’s not that far, at least,” Matteo observed, causing Elio to reconsider.

“Maybe I should move to Oslo. Theo and Doobie have an extra room.”

Matteo bit down on a grin, his eyes twinkling with barely-contained laughter. “Do you think they have less sex?” He shook his head. “Doobie’s house is smaller and they’re loud from all I’ve heard.”

“Why? Why is that necessary?” Elio asked, completely baffled.

“One day you’ll understand. Do you really want to commute from Oslo? It’s hours away.”

Elio grunted, dismissing the idea. He’d just signed a contract with the Starlight Institute and working remotely would defeat the purpose of accepting their offer. “Even Poldi has lost his senses and he was supposed to be the serious, sensible one.”

That got a sarcastic hum of agreement from Matteo.

“It struck the worst with Poldi. He’s hopelessly in love and I don’t think he’s ever been happier.

All that sex and the way Jonathon worships him…

Someone should put a stop to that and rescue Leo!

” he said dramatically before throwing a hand at Elio.

“There’s more to life than sex and I don’t require another person’s devotion to feel validated.”

“Good for you!” Matteo held up his hands and clapped like he was at an opera, the arse. “But you should give sex a try, at least once. It’s fun and it might help you realize that other people exist and appreciate them. Despite what you might believe, you aren’t the center of the universe.”

“Then why did our parents name me Elio?”

An even wider smile spread across Matteo’s face. “The sun isn’t the center of the universe, just our solar system.”

“Congratulations, you know the basics of astronomy,” Eli countered as he continued packing. “I’ve had sex. Lots of times. It just wasn’t that exciting,” he said with a shrug, forcing Matteo to choke back a laugh.

“That sounds like a skill issue but I’m happy to offer some tips or send you some links if you need help.”

Elio drew back, scowling. “I don’t need any help. I know how to have sex and how to satisfy a man, I just don’t care about it as much as the three of you do.”

“Or you could be in denial. Maybe that’s why you want to move to Muriel’s,” Matteo said with a lift of his brows.

“You could exclude yourself before and only witnessed our romantic bliss at Schonbühel and over Christmas. You were safely isolated in Cambridge and now that you’re here, you’re seeing that there’s more to life and you’re feeling left out and possibly…

lonely,” he guessed and seemed pleased with himself but Elio let out a cackle.

“Lonely? How could anyone be lonely here? You two barely sleep and when you’re awake, you’re fucking like bunnies or you’re fighting.”

“I enjoy the fights,” Matteo objected and Elio waved it off.

“I know and I’m happy for you.” He rolled his eyes again. “But I’d rather be happy from a few blocks away where I can think in peace.”

“Muriel’s might be too quiet but there’s no one there to complain about your markers and your dry erase boards.”

“Truman is very weird about his townhouse. Everything must be just so!” Elio shook his head at Matteo, irritated. “I could learn to like him but he’s a bitch about his house and his furniture.”

It was Matteo’s turn to glare. “I can agree that Truman is a little extreme when it comes to cleanliness and he is paranoid about some of his more valuable pieces.” He held up a finger.

“But anyone would be bothered if they came home and discovered that a guest had written on every mirror and window and most of the appliances with a red marker.”

“It wasn’t permanent,” Elio replied with a careless shrug. “I had a lot on my mind after the flight and needed to see it to make sense of it. Everything wiped off.”

“Not everything!” Matteo said and gave him a hard look. “The marble in the foyer still has a pink tint. You couldn’t see it on a notebook or one of your many devices?”

“No. That’s not how I work, you know this,” Elio said as he grew more frustrated. “I have always needed room to pace and write and I can’t think here, there’s too much noise.”

“They’re giving you an office at Starlight.

A nice one, remember?” Matteo said hopefully.

Matteo had purchased several large rolling erase boards, hoping to spare Truman’s townhouse and keep Elio happy until it was finished.

“It will be ready in a week and they have all kinds of cool spaces for you and the rest of the super geniuses to think and collaborate.”

Matteo had accompanied Elio on his first visit and tour of the Starlight Institute and their Center for Computational Astrophysics on Fifth Avenue.

The facility had open common areas that were airy and modern with views of Central Park.

There was also a private rooftop garden and courtyard.

It was larger than some of the city’s parks, where employees could work and enjoy catered lunches and cocktails in the evenings.

Elio was begrudgingly impressed and had admired the sleek black floor-to-ceiling chalkboards and the decadently oversized gray lounge chairs and sofas in the offices and common areas.

His office would have a private bathroom, a massive sectional to stretch out and nap on and a computer that would make any engineer or gamer weep.

Starlight was considered the Mount Olympus of American research institutes, where only the best and brightest scientific minds went to work.

Elio would have almost complete freedom to research and test anything he wanted, but really, there was only one feature that made Starlight stand out from the rest.

Elio had been courted by nearly every reputable university and institute once word got out that he was interested in leaving Cambridge.

Most people—his brothers included—assumed that Elio had chosen Manhattan and Starlight to be closer to Matteo, but he had come to New York with an ulterior motive.

While he was interested in his brother’s happiness and welfare, Elio had been watching and waiting until the stars aligned and he could work with Milo Ashby.

Fate had brought them together at Leo and Jonathon’s wedding, almost three years earlier.

They had only spoken a few times but that had been enough for Elio to recognize a spark of brilliance and the glow of curiosity that the rest of their peers lacked.

It had taken years for Elio to achieve the level of success that would give him carte blanche and access to the resources he required.

In that time, Elio had looked but no one had impressed him the way Ashby had.

And it had taken time for the younger man to rise within the field of computational astrophysics and settle somewhere they could both work.

Elio hadn’t encountered Ashby while he was touring Starlight but intended to seek him out as soon as possible.

He also planned to request Ashby as a project partner after they had a chance to catch up.

There was the possibility that Ashby was already engaged in another project, but he’d be a fool to pass up a chance to work with a physicist of Elio’s caliber.

His thoughts veered back to pulsars and Elio rubbed his brow, his patience wearing thin. “I can’t wait a week,” Elio replied, grimacing at Matteo. “I have work to do now and I don’t keep regular hours.”

“You’re right, this won’t work,” Matteo said with a heavy sigh. “Let’s get you moved to the Olympia.”

Elio had only seen the famously exclusive apartment building from the outside but had been impressed with its classical Gothic Revival and German Renaissance architecture and the porte cochère entrance that had once welcomed horse-drawn carriages.

Overlooking Central Park, the Olympia boasted another important perk: the Ashbys lived there.

Not that Elio was stalking Milo and he had no intentions of intruding upon his personal life, though the close proximity could be useful while they were collaborating.

Elio had learned that both of Milo’s biological parents lived in the Olympia.

His fathers, Giles and Riley, lived in 8B and his mother, Claire, lived just across the hall from Muriel in 6C.

With Muriel in Austria with Jonathon and Leo, the Olympia held far more appeal than Truman’s immaculate house of foot horrors.

“The sooner the better,” Eli said as he reached for his other duffel bag, ready to put the disaster of a morning and his brother’s cursed feet behind him.