Page 62 of Toy No More

I know that I probably shouldn’t. This isn’t how I should cope with this. After all, I don’t even think of Jasper when I’m working.

Whether it’s what made it pass so quickly or not, the end of the night comes.

The Dollhouse’s heartbeat slows, the clients leave, and the music eventually quietens. Cleaned up and not as exhausted as I normally would be, I make my way upstairs to Jasper’s office to remind him to stop working and come home.

There’s no one around. Not even a guard to stand outside the door.

I walk in without knocking, startling Jasper a little as he’s leaning against his arm at his table. He glances in the corner of his monitor, probably to check the time, and straightens his back with a quiet, “Oh.”

I approach him with a smile, but pause when I see one of the monitors is missing. My eyes find it on the ground next to his desk. The screen is cracked in the middle like a projectile hit it. I feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Fighting my body from tensing up in fear, I take another step toward Jasper. He notices where my gaze went, connects the dots, and lets out a low groan.

Then I notice his right hand, held loosely in a fist beside the keyboard. His knuckles look angry and sore.

I gulp, hesitantly meeting his eyes. “What happened?”

Some anger simmers within them, but clearly not as strong as wheneverthistranspired. Pressing my lips together, I feel safe enough to come and touch his shoulder. It must have been his father. No one ever enrages him as much as he does.

He lets me touch it without groaning, so I brush my hand down toward the damaged skin around his knuckles, touching him softly. Jasper studies me, thoughts flashing behind his eyes. I wait for him to speak, to maybe confide in me, but he doesn’t. Instead, he stands sharply and pulls me closer.

I let him kiss me. He does it in a strange way, like he’s exploring and tasting me for the first time. He must be tired. “Nothing,” Jasper says and grabs my hand. “Let’s go home.”

I don’t fight him on it.

Chapter 17

Kobe

Isitdownonthe bench in the break room, wondering why Jasper has us working such crazy hours recently. There’s a meeting in a few minutes in his office. I don’t know what it’s about, or why I’m even invited. All I want at this point is to go home, but something tells me today is going to be a long day.

Just as I’m about to check out what the guys are watching on the TV to distract myself for a bit, my phone buzzes inside my jacket. I fight hard to suppress the smile that grows the moment I see Apollo sent me a photo.

It’s nothing crazy. A picture of him standing in what I presume is one of those tiny bathrooms downstairs, completely naked in front of the mirror. He’s twisting his waist around to show off his small but extremely lovely ass. My urge to smirk like a teenager who got his first sext intensifies. It’s the second picture like this he’s sent me randomly since we slept together a few days ago. That and some random omega-related memes I would get in the middle of the night sometimes.

I have to stop from thinking about our last time, because every time I remember him riding on top of me, it sends a twitch of arousal through the base of my cock.

As sweet as these messages are, they worry me a bit. I mean…it’s similar to the stuff me and my ex would send each other. I’m unsure where Apollo is going with it. Is it just fun and games to him? Is he bored and that’s it? He can’t share the funny videos about being an omega with Jasper, so is it only that I can relate to him? I’m sure his mind doesn’t make him feel like these little snippets of contact, so mundane yet meaningful, mean more than they do…but mine does.

I inconspicuously take a picture to send back as a proof of how boring my life is compared to his—my boots with some of the break room’s lockers and dirty concrete floor in the background. Then I put my phone on silent, knowing Jasper dislikes the distracting buzzing while he’s talking.

“Hey,” I hear. Lenny is in the door, raising his eyebrows at me. “You goin’ to the meeting?”

I stand sharply. “Yeah, I was heading there.”

He nods, letting me follow him out and to Jasper’s office. The door is wide open, which is kind of unusual. I see a bunch of people there already, and two guards in the hall.

This isn’t one of those meaningless little meetings, is it?

Jasper, who stands leaning against the front of his table, gives everyone a few more minutes to arrive. When there’s about twenty people inside the room, he waves at the guard to close the door. At that very moment, I decide that I very much dislike the atmosphere I’m sensing. It’s like a few of the guys know something the rest of us don’t, and I doubt it’s some pleasant surprise. Definitely not an announcement of a pizza night as a reward for our work efforts, that’s for sure…

I sweep my gaze across those present, quickly realizing that to my best knowledge, the people in this room are the inner circle. Those I heard have worked with Jasper for the longest, and those most reliable. That makes my veins run with ice because…I’m neither of those. I’m still a rookie.

I shouldn’t be here.

Gulping quietly, I looked at Jasper, who’s readying himself to start some sort of speech. His face shows a scary focus as he rubs his palms together.

“As some of you already know, we’ve got a bit of a problem that needs to be dealt with,” he says, resting his hands against the edge of the table. “Our reach and our profits aren’t as great as they could be. There’s a way for this company to go further, and we can’t do that with some rusty ball and chain holding us back.”

Vince, Gibbs, Jones and a few of the big guns make faces I don’t like at all. They’re like fighting dogs eager to be let loose; their eyes dark and set and hungry. The exact same way like Jasper’s has been recently. How long has this been in the works?

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