Page 75 of The Enemy

When we got to my living room, he didn’t sit on the couch. He used the back of the love seat to lean on, and he turned toward me.

“Did Tatum press charges against you?”

Neo scoffed. “Of course he did.”

“Well, that sucks. There goes your friendship,” I mocked him.

He didn’t take the bait.

“Our friendship ended the moment he laid a hand on you.”

“Bull—”

“The deal with his company was a venture meant to ruin him,” he told me, and my eyes widened. “I knew the moment I punched him, he would retaliate with the law. A beating wasn’t enough for me…not when he dared to lay a hand on you. God, baby, the way you looked at me when I found you that day…it fucked with me for a long time. What if I hadn’t gotten to you on time? What would I have done then? That consumed me with a vengeance.”

My stomach was in knots at his revelation that I couldn't move away from his piercing gaze, even if I wanted to.

“Once Wes took you home, and I knew you were safe, I forced myself to let it go. Beating up Tatum would make me feel good for a moment, but destroying everything he had would be close to calling it even. So, I went to see your father the next day and told him what happened. He was just as angry as I was that he needed no convincing to help me with my plan.”

I bit my lip, waiting for him to continue.

“Ask me what I did, baby.” His voice was soft, and the use of that stupid word did funny things to my insides.

“What did you do?”

“For the last three years, we have bought stocks through a shell company in Park Technologies. If you call your dad’s stockbroker, he can verify that it all leads to your name. Tatum is a dipshit who could care less what his dad’s doing as long as it keeps his lifestyle funded, and I used that to my advantage to give every little piece of insider information to their competitors. When the time comes, you will have enough power to help destroy them.”

“You did that for me?” I whispered.

He didn’t answer my question. Instead, he kept going.

“The deal I was working on, the one you felt betrayed by, was so that Tatum could invest his trust fund, and when we fucked him over, he would lose that too…” Neo stopped talking, and he took a step toward me, and for the first time, I didn’t step back. “I didn’t know if I wanted to fuck you or spank you when you threw all my hard work down the drain.”

Mierda.

“The morality clause,” I mumbled.

Neo nodded as he stood right in front of me.

“So, since that part of my plan fell through, I figured there was no reason for me to keep holding back.”

“Neo,” I whispered his name, something akin to forgiveness.

He brought his hand up and cupped my cheek. Now that he was closer to me, I could see that the red cheek had scratches on it, the kind that was made by longer nails.

“Did Tatum scratch you?” I asked as I reached to touch his cheek with my fingertips. Neo closed his eyes and leaned his face toward my touch.

“No, that was Pricilla.”

I noticed he didn’t call her his mother.

“She didn’t take kindly to me calling her a whore.”

My eyes widened in surprise. Neo wrapped his free arm around my waist and pulled me flush against him.

“You asked me that if I could have you, would I pick you,” he breathed as he pressed his forehead against mine.

My heart thumped loudly as I waited for his response.

---