Chapter 94: Deviant
- LAWSON -
Oh, the waiting is so hard.
I’m not sure if it makes me a deviant that I get so fucking turned on by the notebooks I found of Auraya’s or not, because I’m certain the male cast in this role of her midnight visitor is my brother. The physical descriptions sound just like him, which is strange because the first entries are dated way before he came home.
The only sense I can make of this discovery is that this is Auraya’s brilliant plan to trap Dex into being guilty of fraternizing with an intern—sneaking into her apartment, seducing her... but the dates are wrong. If this was her plan, then we need to talk about it. She’s going to have to change it, and I need to make sure she’s willing to stand by what she wrote as if it’s reality.
How in the hell did she get Dex to take her home with him? I smirk, raking a hand through my hair and trying to ignore my straining cock as I reread, skimming until I get to some of my favorite parts. Auraya is fucking brilliant. I couldn’t have chosen a better sleeper agent to infiltrate my brother’s confidence.
From the looks of it, she has completely made herself at home in the guest house. I showed up one night to get a peak at who Dex had staying back there after Grace told me he mentioned a visitor, and I had to hide in one of the closets when he showed up just a few minutes later.
If Dex would have discovered me, I can’t even imagine what would have happened. I can only thank God for keeping me hidden. But I have to admit I’ve found myself fantasizing now about what could have happened if Dex hadn’t shown up... finding Auraya in the loft, hearing about her plan, maybe acting out one of these scenes that her imagination came up with...
Instead I was left going through her things and finding these gems. Maybe I should have left the notebooks where they were so she could continue writing in them, but they’re mine now. I don’t regret it—except for the possibility that I’m becoming too obsessed with returning to them. And maybe I’m becoming too obsessed with returning to her, thinking about her, wondering why I didn’t just go on that date anyway...
Well, Auraya got into the accident last week, so I guess the date wouldn’t have happened. And thank God for the accident—seriously. That’s how she was able to worm her way into my brother’s heart and convince him to take her home.
But shit, I wish there would be a chance to spend some time alone with her. If Auraya can be this devious, have all of these elicit fantasies in her mind, and maintain such an innocent, sweet exterior, she might just be the woman of my dreams. I never would have seen that coming with how she behaves at work, but we all have images to uphold. As the next CEO, I know that better than anyone.
One of the reasons why Dex is a bad fit to lead the company is because he doesn’t get it. He doesn’t have a professional image. He’s just himself—no cares whatsoever if that doesn’t jive well with industry standards. He shows up with his stupid unruly hair and in whatever clothes he wants and just expects everyone to be okay with it—for the world to change its expectations to accommodate him.
I need to put Dex out of my mind. It’s only going to make me furious thinking again about how father changed his plans and decided to have Dex take over. I had to beg him not to demote me last week when he made Dex COO. And he’s going to be happy he listened, because it feels like Dex has been gone from work just as much as he’s been there. It must be Auraya distracting him—another good tactic on her part.
Fuck, I can’t stop thinking about her. I almost wish I could ask Auraya to make a version of these fantasies with me in them instead, but that would be too risky if anyone stumbled across them. I’ll just have to write myself in in my mind.
Why hasn’t she texted me back? Even just a simple ’okay’ would suffice. I hate being ignored almost more than anything else.
My phone rings, and I quickly grab for it, imagining it might be her. It’s Saturday morning—it would have been less than twenty-four hours since I texted her. That’s not terrible response time. I could forgive her for that.
Instead of Auraya’s name, I see Grace’s. She’s not in town anymore, so I’m not sure why she would be calling. Anything that has to do with the modeling job would be worked out with her agent, and I’d assume any personal concerns she might have would be directed toward Dex. But maybe he’s ignoring her. It wouldn’t be surprising with how he ditched the last day of shooting on the campaign.
"Hello Grace," I say as politely as possible.
"Hi, Lawson. I was just thinking... were you aware that the girl from your company who was hit by a car is staying with Dex?"
I glance down at the notebook in my hand, torn for a moment on my answer. "Oh, is she the one in the guest house?"
"No. I stopped by yesterday, and she answered the door to the main house. And she acted like she lives there. She had a friend over and everything."
"What?" I chuckle.
Is Auraya some kind of sorceress or something? This new information would almost be spooky if it weren’t so hilarious. Dex would never let just anyone stay in his mother’s precious house without him there. Not even I feel welcome to stay there alone, and I actually had a bedroom there at one point in time.
"Yeah. I’m actually worried for Dex. Is she manipulating him? Is that why he’s acting so different?" Grace asks, and I have to smile. Let’s hope so. Let’s hope Auraya has completely hijacked all of Dex’s common sense.
"I will check into it, Grace. Thank you for telling me."
"Of course. I just know that he’s probably in a delicate place right now with your father being sick. He didn’t tell me a lot about his mother, but it was always a source of tension when she would come up. He clearly has a hard time losing people he loves."
’Except you, obviously,’ I think cruelly. I was hoping it would be difficult for him having Grace in town, but it wasn’t. He was annoyed, but that was it. Obviously he never actually loved her.
"I don’t want anyone to try taking advantage of him, Lawson," Grace says with a cloyingly sweet tone, and I try to restrain a groan for the level of concern she has for my brother’s well being—or at least the image of care. I’m not sure if she truly cares for him or not. My guess is that she has never had someone ignore her attention before.
"Dex is not a child, but I will do my best to watch out for him in this case," I lie.
"Thank you, Lawson."
"Did you get back to Paris fine then?"
"Yes, I just landed," she says, and it sounds like that is literally the case when she starts getting harder to hear. Was she thinking about this the entire plane ride and jumped at the chance to call me? Ugh.
"Okay, take care Grace. Thank you for helping us out this week."
"Anytime. I’m glad it worked out."
When we hang up, I stare at the notebook and Auraya’s handwriting and feel a familiar clawing inside my stomach—the desire for the object of my obsession trying to get out. I’ve tried taming these urges in the past with therapy, and I’ve done well so far. But this time it feels stronger.
I’m going to have to pay a surprise visit to my brother so I can get a peek at this situation myself. That way I won’t have to wait to see Auraya until Monday when she gets into work. I wonder if I could find a way to lure Dex out of the house so I can catch her there on her own. If she’s staying with him, that could be why she hasn’t texted me back.
Seriously—how in the hell did she get invited into the guest house and then make it into the main house less than a week later? Has this woman cast some kind of spell over him?
Auraya’s cute and all with that sweet face and those pouty lips, but she’s not more attractive than Grace. Grace is perfection to look at. Her photos don’t need airbrushing or anything when they’re processed. And I know damn well Dex has no trouble getting women when he wants them—he’s not hard pressed for someone like an intern at the company to show him attention.
I drop the notebook on my bedside table, deciding to take a shower and think about how exactly I’m going to go about getting my brother out of his house today so I can pay this little vixen a visit. I won’t have to worry about anyone peering into my office windows while I question Auraya about how she’s managed to pull this off and what exactly her strategy is either. Thanks to Grace’s well-timed phone call, now I have something exciting to look forward to today.
