Chapter 3 #2
“No, you don’t.” Neo studies me thoughtfully, and it’s an effort not to squirm under his attention. “Even when I annoy you, you don’t look like this.”
“Like what?”
His eyes are almost golden when he says, “Like something’s eating you from the inside out.”
How is it that Neo can see right through me? I need to know so I can make it stop.
No one can know when I’m struggling. Especially not someone who’s determined to make my life as difficult as possible.
A tiny object hits me square in the temple. I turn my head slowly in the direction it came from. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“We’re ready to play when you lovebirds stop flirting.” Harley smirks, unbothered by the death threats I’m promising with my eyes. “You’re the top hat.”
I pick up the tiny playing piece and press it between my fingers. “Fine.”
I can feel Neo’s gaze burning into the side of my face, but it’s easy enough to ignore.
The burning heat of his hand on my thigh? That’s harder to disregard. Especially because I can’t shove it away.
Not without Neo making a big thing about it.
If I don’t acknowledge it, then nothing’s happening.
That’s exactly why I do nothing.
The only reason.
“Here.” Harley’s smirk deepens as he tosses a playing piece to Samson.
I know without looking that it’s the iron.
The iron he swallowed and shit out during one of their annoying fights.
I’ve thrown it out countless times, but it always seems to find its way back.
“We know you can’t play without your precious piece. ”
Samson doesn’t bother to try to catch it. Instead, he just smirks back at Harley as he fishes in his pocket. “Nah. I have a better one now.” He slams it down on the table with a triumphant smile. “Meet the new and improved iron.”
“He sounds like an infomercial, but is way sexier than those dudes,” Neo mutters. My lips tug at the comment even as something hot burns inside of me. Does he really think Samson is sexy?
Samson grins, his eyes flickering, and I turn to Neo and murmur, “This is the happiest I’ve ever seen him.”
That’s true. Samson is generally a perpetual grump. But getting one over on our siblings never fails to raise his mood.
Harley eyes the token in disbelief, his cheeks flushing in frustration. “You call that an iron? It looks nothing like it.”
Samson shrugs. “It’s made from iron.”
Dalton picks it up to study it closer. “Technically, it’s made from aluminum foil.”
“Aluminum is basically the same as iron.”
“It’s not.” Neo pipes up. “They’re completely different elements on the periodic table. While they’re both technically metals, iron is heavier and denser than aluminum. Aluminum doesn’t rust, while iron does. Oh, and it has a much lower melting point than iron…”
I’m not the only one staring at Neo as his spiel tapers off. He shifts uncomfortably in his chair. “What? Am I the only one who paid attention in chemistry?”
“I paid attention to how to blow things up,” Cade says. “Can’t say I remember much about different metals though.”
“Neo’s very intelligent,” Ansel says with a knowing smile. “Much as he tries to hide it.”
Neo slinks down in his chair. “Whatever. It’s not like anyone cares about my brain. Maybe stop telling everyone about it…”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him that I care. That learning he has an intelligence to rival my own is extremely interesting. That I yearn to have someone to converse with on my level.
But I say nothing, because it doesn’t matter. Neo is more interested in using his intelligence to find ways to piss me off than having conversations with me. And that’s fine by me.
I really don’t need to converse with him.
That would be…dangerous.
“Ah-ha!” Harley looks up from where he’s been typing on his phone and snatches Samson’s carefully crafted iron from the table. “Mine.”
Before any of us can stop him, he shoves it into his mouth and swallows it.
We all gape at Harley in silence. He’s unbothered, simply reaching for the fancy French wine that he drinks because it’s Jules’s favorite and taking a sip.
“Have you lost your mind?” I say eventually. “No amount of health insurance is going to cover you willingly swallowing aluminum foil.”
Harley shakes his phone at me. “It’s perfectly safe. The internet said so.”
“Because the internet is such a trusted source,” Samson says sarcastically. “You’ll end up in the hospital with a perforated bowel…”
“Fuck that. I’m young and healthy.” Harley shrugs. “And now you need to either play with the old iron or pick a new token. Or wait until I shit this one out.”
Matthias smirks. “You know, you kind of have to respect the levels Harley will sink to in order to fuck with you, Brother.”
Harley lifts his wineglass in a toast. “To never backing down.”
“Fuck it,” Dalton says abruptly, shoving back his chair, obviously not following along with the current discussion. “I’m going to track Jackson down and see what his deal is.”
Wyatt goes to stand and follow him out of the room, but Matthias’s hand on his nape stops him. “Leave it, Wy. Let them sort it out themselves.”
His lips thin. “Jackson’s just a kid.”
“He’s nineteen,” I point out. “In a few weeks, he’ll be twenty. He’s a legal adult.”
Don’t get me wrong, nineteen is still fucking young. But I think about what I was doing at that age and…
Yeah. I don’t think you can be classed as a kid.
Wyatt cracks his knuckles, glaring at the closed door. “I still don’t like it.”
“You don’t have to like it,” I say, my gaze sweeping over the table. “But trust me, sometimes you have to let your brothers make their own mistakes.”
Harley grins. “Like swallowing aluminum foil.”
I give him a long-suffering look. “You really need to be thinking about what you’re putting in your mouth.”
“Maybe you should put Jules’s cock in there as well as the food he makes.” Cade snorts.
Samson reaches for his phone. “Never thought I’d say this, Cade, but you’re a fucking genius.”
Harley eyes him with suspicion. “What are you doing?”
“Texting your chef boyfriend,” Samson replies, his thumbs flying over the screen. “Wonder what he’ll think of you daring to eat something so vulgar.”
“He won’t care.” Harley sniffs. “It’s not like that with us.”
That might be more believable if Harley’s phone didn’t immediately start to ring. If he didn’t stare down at it, biting his lip, his cheeks flushing pink.
Cade gestures at Neo and me. “Wylder says the same about these two, you know? But, Harley, you upped your bet in the pool to a hundred k last week, soooo…”
I give Cade a withering look. “I’m straight, remember?”
Beside me, Neo laughs and tries to cover it with a cough.
I ignore him and push on. “And I have a girlfriend.”
My mention of Candace has Cade shifting in his seat. “If you say that name again, I may have to do something drastic…”
Ansel leans over and whispers in his ear as the rest of the room erupts into comments on how they’d take Candace apart. I do nothing to defend her; I just sit here, watching it all.
Harley’s phone rings once more, and he stands up quickly, dipping out of the room with it pressed to his ear. So far, we’re down three players and haven’t even started a game.
I’d love to say this isn’t the norm, but that would be a lie.
It’s always chaos, but it’s not what I want right now. I want peace and quiet and order.
Suddenly, Neo’s lips are by my ear again, breaking my focus. “You know, if you’re straight and have a girlfriend, why have you been letting me grope your thigh all evening?”
My mouth goes dry, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. “I haven’t…” I clear my throat. “I didn’t…”
Neo’s low chuckle sends shivers down my spine, and my stomach twists. “Sure you didn’t.”
He removes his hand from me, and I pretend I don’t still feel the searing heat of his fingers pressed against me. Nor the cold that creeps in a few seconds later as my body protests his absence.
It doesn’t mean anything. Neo’s attempts to get under my skin are working, that’s all.
That’s all it can be.
All I’ll allow it to be.