A week after the party and Jules is still upset in thatmercurialway of his, sullen moods and fiery silence.Lachlan suspects he’s building up to a new escape; half wants to let him at this point.Lachlan tries numerous times to apologise, although forwhatis better left unspoken.
Lachlan isn’t a genius but he’s not stupid either.
He knows he’s jealous.
Unfortunately, whenever he tries, Jules curtly demands to know what exactly he’s apologisingforand then Lachlan falters and Jules glowers smugly and the whole thing resets.
Word has spread about him and Fenwick(they weren’t exactly discreet)and now, Lachlan has fresh reasons to regret all two and a half minutes of it.He thinks of what happened between them as mutual masturbation, something that occurred a lot in boot, but accepts it’s probably not how it looks from the outside.Blaire isn’t upset, but he can tell she’s a little disgusted and probably thinks less of him now.Carrigan is now someone he either actively needs to heal the breach with or reassign to the outer rings.Lachlan has a secure circle he trusts, Blaire firmly in the centre of it but he needs Carrigan back or he needs her gone.Fenwick, for his part, remains a consummate professional.Nothing is changed, nothing ischarged.
Mimi knows nothing and remains perfectly content spending her afternoons outside with Lachlan, Mari and her brother, sometimes Blaire too.
It’s been nine months since he signed that contract while it poured rain outside and the crows cawed loud.
Nine months and Lachlan Tanner’s whole life has changed.
As the tenth month creeps in, Jules does something truly shocking.
?
It’s not like Lachlan didn’t notice it.
He noticeseverythingabout that boy.
Where he goes, what he does, what he’s reading, what he eats, what he drinks, how often he uses the restroom, what he wears, who he talks to.
It’s Lachlan’s business.
Jules Penhalyx is his business.
So of course he notices Jules starting to flirt with Fenwick.
The kid has some sort of crush on Lachlan, upset about what was blurted out that night involving Fenwick and the hate sex.It makes sense that he’d do exactly this because this is how Jules operates.He’s way too fucking smart, and justsoddenwith feelings, cascading storms that stir dark seas.
He’s the brokedown God of this small world.
Powerful and powerless,ruler and prisoner.
So in the weeks leading up to what Lachlan walks in on, he notices the flirting, he notices Fenwick’s rejection of it…crumblingover time.Lachlan is preoccupied with Mimi whenever he’s not managing safety and security for this mammoth Estate, so he doesn’t have spare time to devote, but he sees it.
Jules flirting with Fenwick is grating enough to be sufficient punishment for Lachlan anyway.It’s exactly how he was in the ballroom that night, only much worse, whispery and targeted.‘You’d make a better bodyguard than he ever would,’and all that shit.Lachlan doesn’t want this kind of battleground for Jules.He wants cartwheels and sunshine and friendships for him.He wants exercise, training, teaching Jules to fight.He wants to give those extra five minutes of dancing if and when he breaks out.
Lachlan is starting to wish he would.
But in the weeks leading up, Jules Penhalyx’s focus is well and truly on the head of household, Mason Fenwick, and Lachlan can’t do anything about it beyond trust that Fenwick is a decent man at his core.
It’s a mistake hard-learned.
Lachlan walks in on them inhis own room, his private quarters.
Jules is standing upright with his pants around his thighs.Fenwick is kneeling before him; movements and noises leave no doubt whatsoever as to what Fenwick isdoing, what’s happening.Jules’ cheeks are brushed with delicate, pink heat and he looks drunk, but not on pleasure.Power, maybe.
It’sgrotesque.It shocks Lachlan to his core.
Lightning strikes somewhere it never has before.
He counts the rings in a cut-down tree.
One.
