Oblivious to the way my insides were twisting with so many complicated and intense feelings that I didn’t have names for, Milo gave me a confident grin and a bouncy little nod that made me feel like anything was possible, as long as we were together.
“Okay, great. I could use your help. If I’m going to figure out a way to disrupt the signal in the chipsandget the NeuroManipulator working by Friday, I’m going to need all the help I can get!”
“I’ll always help you, Milo. I already told you. I’m not going anywhere,” I whispered, holding his gaze and showing him with just my eyes how much he meant to me.
I wanted to cradle his face in my hands and kiss his lips and tell him how fuckingbraveI thought he was.
When I’d realized what Luke had done, I’d immediately fallen apart… I’d reverted to the young, scared kid who’d just lost his dad and didn’t have a soul in the world to lean on… but Milo hadn’t. He’d sprung into action and immediately gone into problem-solving mode.
He was so fucking smart andsexy.
I was obsessed witheverything about him.
My heart skipped a beat as we stood there, staring at each other, and I realized that I might actually be falling in love with this clumsy boy and his massive brain.
“I’m not going anywhere either, Jay,” he whispered, and my throat rolled as I swallowed back the rising swell of emotion that flooded through me as I realized he meant it.
He wasn’t going to leave me. He wouldn’t leave me here all alone.
Giving him a sharp nod, I gestured to the door.
“Lead the way, then. I’m right behind you.”
Milo grinned at me and nodded before sweeping out of the cube into the night, like some sort of superhero hell bent on saving my pathetic ass from a life filled with nothing but empty days and lonely nights.
The next week went by in a blur. I was in the lab almost 24/7, and Jay diligently stayed with me every second.
Testing the NeuroManipulator was much more difficult now that I couldn’t physically touch him without experiencing excruciating pain. I had to always make sure my fingers didn’t accidentally brush his head when using the device.
Working on dismantling the chip proved to be even more difficult, as every time I tried to run tests on it, it punished me.
Turns out they had wired it to fire if I made any attempts to remove the stupid thing, so Jay needed to handle most of the testing for me—withoutactually touching my arm or the device at all.
“Honestly, I think you might need to just cut it out…” I muttered by the time Friday rolled around.
I was a massive bundle of nerves.
Not only was I expected to do the demonstration in front of the entire campus, but Jay had been able to convince Luke to be our ‘volunteer.’ He’d said it was a show of good faith in the product, and floated the idea of inviting the press to televise the event. If the world saw LukeStevens willingly lie in the chair to have his memory altered, it would go a long way in helping to convince people it was‘safe.’
Seb has backed the idea, saying from a marketing standpoint, it was genius.
We’d gotten the manipulator to the point where I felt comfortable using it to alter Luke’s memories enough that he would be more susceptible to suggestions from us. Even if I could just get him to think it was his idea to have a more extensive session with the manipulator after the demonstration, I would have free rein to work on him until I was able to reverse all the legal bullshit he’d done to make himself the sole shareholder of Neurovance.
The idea of screwing around with the brain of the most powerful CEO in the western hemisphere without his full consent was enough to send my heart pounding out of my chest. Couple that with the restrictive chip that was still implanted in my arm… Well… I was an anxious mess.
The chip was cruel and unusual punishment. For how stressed I was, all I wanted to do was curl up in Jay’s arms and have him kiss and soothe me until I calmed down. But we couldn’t.
I hated not being able to touch him.
I’d only had the privilege of his hands on me for a short while before I’d been implanted, but it had been enough for me to become completely addicted to him.
Imissedhim.
I missed his soft lips and the tender way he used to brush my hair back when he knew I was nervous.
I missed the way he would press his warm, hard body up beside me while we played Stardew.
I missed the way he fucked me so hard I forgot about all the things that made my mind spiral.
