“Then maybe he shouldn’t be working on the fucking project.”
“W-wait—” I stammered, putting down my soldering iron and nervously smoothing my hands over the shirt Jay had picked out for me.
His eyes tracked the movement, and a soft smile curled on his lips as he took in the fact that I was wearing what he’d chosen for me.
It made me feel slightly better.
“Please don’t remove me from the project. This is… I promise I’ll do a good job. You don’t have to tell me anything if it’s a problem.”
“I know you’ll do a good job, ba—Milo,” Jay said, nearly calling me baby in his rush to comfort me. “That’s the issue. It… It’s complicated.”
Seb’s eyes narrowed, and I swallowed, feeling my cheeks flush.
I needed to get myself together. The more upset I got, the more Jay wanted to comfort me, and it was messing everything up.
Forcing down my anxiety, I clenched my fists at my sides.
“I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m here to help, in whatever capacity that entails. Please just let me know what you need from me, and I’ll do my best to make it happen,” I said firmly, proud of myself for keeping my voice from wavering.
“You can help by leaving. Go talk to the floor manager and see if they need any help with software optimizations for the extractor. We need to clear Jay’s plate,” Sebastian snapped, his expression stone cold.
My lips parted, and a cold shot of panic shot through my chest.
That was ahugedemotion.
What was happening?
“You don’tgetto dismiss a member of my team, Seb. You’re not his direct report. That was a massive overstep,” Jay snarled, and I glanced at him, frowning at his sudden change in demeanor.
Jay was always laid back and smiling. He had a strange, predatory look on his face that I’d only ever seen him use on me in bed before.
This wasn’t hot. It was scary.
I shivered and glanced at Seb, expecting him to stand down.
He didn’t; his own mask continued to peel away, and the air between them was sparking with tension.
They were like two wolves, circling each other, looking for a weakness before committing to an attack, and I was caught in the middle of them.
“You’re making a mistake, involving him in this. Youknowyou are. This is fucking dangerous, Jay,” Seb growled, and Jay’s jaw clenched so hard I could see a muscle pulsing in his neck.
“He’s already involved. I need to tell him,” Jay finally bit out.
Seb looked like he wanted to punch a wall.
Suddenly, the anger on his face twisted and turned to a sort of pleading desperation.
“Please don’t do this, Jay. Don’t do this to me.You don’t know what he’s capable of. What he might make me do. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.” There was a crack in his voice that made my heart break.
“I’ll just go upstairs,” I said, making the snap decision that whatever was going on here was serious enough to make Sebastian look like he was going to freakingcry.
“No. I haven’t dismissed you,” Jay snarled, grabbing my wrist and tugging me back into him.
“Jay…” I frowned up at him, clocking how pale and tight his own expression was. “It’s okay. I don’t want to come between you two. Why don’t you guys talk, and we can meet up later?”
“No. We’re done here, Sebastian. I’m sure you have a lot of paperwork to do. Please go so Milo and I can decide how we’re going to proceed.”
Sebastian was staring at where Jay was clinging to my wrist, the sadness in his eyes gone now.
