Chapter 2 #2
I slam my phone down and stand up, the looming emails completely forgotten. I stalk from the office and out into the hallway. My brothers are nowhere to be found, the house empty and hollow. But Neo is here somewhere. I’m going to find him and give him a stern talking-to.
I huff a laugh as I take the stairs two at a time. I’m not sure that would work. I think he’d just smirk at me.
Fuck, I hate the things that wicked smile does to me. To my monster.
It craves it in a way that’s definitely not healthy.
After turning a corner, I push open the first door I see.
This house is far too big; it has too many rooms. I’ve always hated it, but with Neo here now, I have a whole new reason to add to my list. There are too many places he can hide.
Sweeping my gaze over each shadowed corner, I close the door and move to the next one.
Most of these rooms are unused and shut completely unless we have large parties. It’s only then that they’re opened up and made presentable. Neo could be tucked away in any one of these. I could see him deliberately hiding under one of the dusty beds just to fuck with me.
I do find him though, after about thirty minutes of searching, my annoyance still a steady drumbeat inside of me. If anything, the search has made the beat louder, harder to ignore.
By the time I locate him in his own room, it’s so loud I almost can’t hear him speak.
“Took you long enough.” He smirks. He’s cross-legged on the bed, and his laptop is on his lap. “Did you get lost? Thought you would know this palace like the back of your hand, seeing as it’s yours.”
Like my brothers, Neo is suffering under the misconception that I enjoy living here.
Here. In the home of my nightmares. The prison I desperately wanted to escape as a child. That I would’ve escaped as a teenager if it weren’t for the others.
I never would’ve abandoned them. Not to him.
Now, he can never hurt them again, but still, I can’t bring myself to leave. There’s nothing keeping me here other than habit.
Habit and fear. Fear of going against his wishes.
Even from beyond the grave, Father is still pulling my strings.
Neo is still smirking up from his bed. I sigh internally. Why didn’t I look here in the first place?
Probably because it was too obvious. Which is likely why he chose it.
I should have known better. But then again, I realize I’m dealing with someone unlike anyone I’ve ever met. An opponent who can match my level.
I shouldn’t like that so much.
“Bet you looked through every room in the house,” Neo drawls, stretching his legs out before him.
My teeth clench as I glower at him. I won’t answer him. I won’t give him the satisfaction.
“Admit it. It will make you feel better.”
His grin widens, and I shift on my feet.
“No more filming me without consent.”
“Where’s the fun in that? And your brothers loved it. Really, it was some of my best work.” He sighs, his hand fanning his face. “And you can unclench your asshole. All of my recordings are on a closed-circuit feed. No one is gonna see it without me giving it to them.”
That makes me feel better, but only mildly. Polite society would likely be shocked seeing such a video of me, but not because I fell for the trap.
Because of how violently I reacted.
Regardless, they wouldn’t mention it. Not to my face, at least.
My brothers don’t bother conforming to social politeness in that way. They were allowed to become who they were meant to be.
Unlike me.
Neo sets the laptop aside and then cocks his head. He leans back on his hands, and my eyes take him in. The torn jeans, the oversized shirt that keeps slipping off one shoulder. The messy state of his blue hair.
Effortless chaos.
“Like what you see?”
My cheeks warm, and I fold my arms across my chest. “Of course not. I’m straight and have a girlfriend.”
He snorts loudly. “Yeah, I’ve heard all about her. Candace. Well, I don’t like her. She was mean to Ansel, so she’s dead to me. In fact, I have a fun little surprise for her.”
Unease washes over me. “What kind of surprise?”
“Well, if I told you, that wouldn’t be any fun, would it?”
My nostrils flare. “Neo.”
He sticks out his tongue. “Fuck off, Wylder. I’m a very important and busy man.”
No one has ever talked to me like this. The disrespect. The way my body warms when he does it.
I tell myself I hate it.
But I’m not sure that’s what it is.
His attention is back on his laptop, making my skin prickle. The brat all but demands my attention with his antics, then refuses to give it to me. “What are you working on that is so important?”
He rolls his eyes. “Answering your emails. You suck at them. Did you know you have some that go back six weeks? That’s unacceptable.”
So, not only is Neo interfering in my business, but he’s criticizing how I run it?
Even for him, this is pretty ballsy.
My nostrils flare, and I stalk toward him, yanking the computer off his lap. He scrambles to reach it, but I shove him back, my eyes catching on the screen. He really is answering my emails—the scholarship ones.
What the fuck has he been doing to these? Is he trying to sabotage me?
I turn away from him and hold the screen up so I can read what he’s written. My eyes scan it quickly, and then I peer over at him in confusion. He’s red in the face, his lips pursed, his eyes flashing.
It takes a moment to find the right words. “This is…decent.”
Neo folds his arms. “It’s more than decent. I’ve seen your other email responses, and they’re shit. You don’t even start with a greeting. You just jump right in. So unprofessional.”
My lips narrow into a scowl. “Yes, well, my assistant rudely went on leave.”
Neo gawks at me. “For a baby. Dude, I can’t believe you asked her to hold it in. Did you not pay any attention in biology?”
My scowl deepens. “Yes, of course I did. Besides, I didn’t ask her to do that.”
He pulls out his phone, his fingers tapping on the screen. “You so did.”
“Chloe, would it be possible to postpone the delivery for a month or two?” He reads the message aloud before looking up at me in exasperation. “You basically asked her to stuff that baby back inside and cross her legs until it was a more convenient time for you. Who does that?”
I sigh. “I was desperate, okay? Right now, I can’t tell if I’m coming or going. Between this, The Firm, Umbra, and…”
My voice trails off, and Neo shifts uncomfortably. “And me. You can say it. I haven’t been making your life easier, and quite frankly, I have no intentions of changing that.”
“So, why the emails?”
“I have limits,” Neo says, his tone clipped. “I’m not about to ruin something you actually care about.”
I blink at him a few times. “I have no idea how to respond to that.”
“Course you don’t,” Neo mutters under his breath.
I don’t know what to say to that either, so instead, I peer back down at the email he’s written. I have to admit, very begrudgingly, that he’s good at responding in a professional manner. Potentially even better than Chloe.
“Give me back my laptop. I’m not sabotaging this. These people need your exorbitant amounts of money. I wouldn’t fuck with that. Now, your socks…”
My eyes narrow. “What did you do?”
He flips me off, and I toss the computer at him, before striding from the room. When I make it to my closet, I pull open my sock drawer and see that they’re not only all in the wrong spots, but a few have holes cut in the big toe.
How he finds the time to do this…
I slam the drawer shut and curl my fingers into the top of the dresser. My head bows, my chin hitting my chest. I breathe deeply through my nose, my mind swirling with everything I could do. What I want to do.
Teach him a lesson.
I should. He can’t keep fucking with me. For fuck’s sake, I was so thrown off by having to search for him and finding him doing my work that I didn’t even berate him for the fucking blow-up doll he left in my office.
It’s too much. I can’t allow this. It’s driving me crazy. It’s doing things to me that I don’t quite understand. It’s fucking with my mojo, making me reckless.
I lost a mark because I was distracted by him.
I need to not let him get into my head. I need to just let it go.
But then I remember his words.
“I’m not about to ruin something you actually care about.”
I lean my head into my hands, willing it to stop spinning. To give me answers that might actually be useful in dealing with Neo.
There’s one thing that comes to mind. An image so shocking that it has me stumbling into the bathroom to splash water onto my face.
I stare into the mirror as droplets run down my cheeks. My very pale cheeks.
“You’re straight,” I say firmly. “Straight. You’re not interested in Neo or any other man. The only reason you thought about him sucking your cock is because you know it’d shut him up. That’s why. The only reason why.”
It’s not that I’d have a problem with being anything other than straight, but I’m not. Never have been. I’ve never had even the slightest inclination or curiosity in any other direction.
This is just because Neo is so good at pushing my buttons and confusing me so much that I have no idea what’s going on.
None of that explains why my pants are tented.
Or why I shove my hand under them, jerking myself hard and fast. I don’t even bother with lube or pulling myself out so as not to make a mess. I just come in my pants like a teenager, my breathing frantic and heart racing.
It’s not because of Neo.
It’s not.
A voice that sounds suspiciously like the brat’s floats through my mind.
Keep telling yourself that, Wylder. Maybe you’ll start to believe it.