“I need to meet up with Seb early today. I have an important meeting with the ELT.”
“Executive leadership? Will Luke be there?” Milo asked, now seeming much more awake. I could tell he didn’t like Luke, and the concern in his tone was so fucking endearing. It made my heart pinch.
“Yeah. I should be back at NeuroWell in the afternoon. I’ll bring us lunch. If you want to start tinkering with the manipulator while you wait for me, I’ve told NOVA to give you access to The Cave.”
“Is everything okay?” he asked, sitting up and looking at me with a stern look that made my dick throb.
“Yeah, baby. I’ll tell you all about it later, okay?”
Making my way into my closet, I picked out an outfit for Milo to wear, and laid it out on the dresser for him to put on later.
I’d grabbed some of Milo’s things from his cube the day before and made room for him in my closet. Now that I had him here, I didn’t have any plans of letting him go back to his own cube. We’d be sleeping together here until he got sick of me and asked for space. My adorable little brainiac had been worried about curfew, but I’d assured him that NOVA would be able to cover for us.
Luke would only see what she allowed him to see when it came to the feeds in our homes, and it hadn’t been difficult to run a loop of old footage that showed us both sleeping alone in our own beds at night.
“Uhm, okay. As long as you’re sure everything is okay…” he said, still sounding concerned. I gave him a reassuring smile before leaning over to drop a kiss on his warm cheek.
“Yes, everything is fine. NOVA will order you breakfast. Please make sure you eat before you leave. I’ve set something out for you to wear on the dresser.”
That got his cheeks burning. I loved that he seemed to enjoy it when I did things like that for him. It was such a turn on. Knowing that what he would be wearing later was somethingIchose felt like an illegal secret. Like we were flaunting our undercover relationship in plain sight.
“Okay… if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.” I dropped one last kiss on his nose before getting up. He eyed me skeptically, even though I knew I was probably just a mass of fuzzy shapes for him without his glasses.
“Go back to sleep, baby. I’ll see you later.”
Imet Sebastian in his office as we’d discussed. Seb’s office was on the top level of NeuroComms and took up almost the entire floor. It was complete with a private bathroom and decked out in sleek, modern furniture that somehow looked both uncomfortable and cold.
The way he’d decorated his space was another representation of how he was always trying to mold himself into what his father wanted him to be. The only pieces in the office that had any ounce of personality at all were the two brass leopard frogs he was using as bookends on the shelves behind his desk.
If someone were to judge him on this space, they would assume he was a pretentious asshole, instead of the scared, lonely little boy I knew he was deep down.
He was leaning against his massive, mahogany desk in a three-thousand-dollar Bespoke suit when I entered, typing away on his phone.
His hair was perfectly styled as always, and I caught him stopping himself from running an anxious hand through it as I entered.
“Hey,” I said, and he glanced up at me. I tried not to wince at how tired and stressed he looked. His face was taut and pale, and his eyes looked haunted.
I wondered again if Luke had hurt him in ways that didn’t just leave mental scars.
“Hey,” he croaked, eyeing me up and down.
I hadn’t bothered to dress up. I’d pulled on oversized black jeans and murdered-out high-tops. My sweatshirt was all sharp lines and zippers today, and the hem was an asymmetrical cut.
“He’s going to hate that you didn’t wear a suit.” Seb sighed, and I shrugged, sliding my hands into my pockets.
“I don’t really care.”
“Must be nice to have that luxury.”
“Seb… you don’t have to do everything he fucking says all the time. He’s your dad, not your master.”
Seb’s tired eyes turned angry, and his lip curled up in a snarl.
“Shut the fuck up, Jay. You have no fucking idea what it’s like to be me.”
I sighed and gave him a curt nod.
