Brightly Burning Bridges: A Bully Romance (Kings of Capital)

by Ivy Wild

  For the first time the entire morning, she kept in stride with me as we exited the elevator. Those pale lavender eyes of hers opened wide as she looked around. This unit’s views of the Potomac were partially obscured, but they were still pretty decent. I’d had the place decorated a year ago, thinking I would turn it into a rental, before I realized I didn’t want someone being on the same level as me. So, except for a monthly cleaning, it’d sat vacant all this time.

  But, I’d hired the best interior designer and by that I meant one that listened to my suggestions, so the place was well appointed. I watched as Skyler walked through the kitchen, running her hands along the white quartz and stainless steel appliances. I made my way over to the living room and past the beige leather sofa. I motioned for Skyler to follow me and another first for the morning occurred when she followed instructions without talking back.

  “It’s a two bedroom,” I explained. “The first door is your office, the second your bedroom.”

  She peered past me into the office before standing up straight and fixing me with an intense stare. “Did you plant cameras in this place?”

  Her question caught me completely off guard and I let out a genuine laugh. It felt strange, but not in a bad way. “No,” I said, finally catching my breath. “I did not plant cameras in the place, Skyler. Quite sure if I did, you could haul my ass to court for all I’m worth. Your dignity is safe.”

  She hesitated a moment, as if considering what I’d said, before nodding her head. “I’m sorry I had to ask.”

  “I never said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind,” I teased and she rolled her eyes with a shake of her head.

  We made our way back out to the living room and she pointed to my building across the street. “So you’re really intending me to live right across from you?”

  “Yep,” I said, taking a seat on the leather sofa. I looked up at her with a shit-eating grin. “Objections?”

  She let out a dramatic sigh and took a seat opposite me on the sofa. “None for now. So, where is your office?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, pulling my phone out of my pocket to check emails. Three back to back emails from Bob were sitting at the top of my inbox and I internally groaned.

  “I mean, where do you go to do work every day?”

  I furrowed my brow. “I don’t have an office, Skyler.”

  “How can you not have an office?” she exclaimed. “Where does all your mail get sent?”

  I didn’t look up but I waved my phone in the air. “To various receptionists at the various companies I own who scan and email it to me.”

  “So where do you get work done?”

  I continued scrolling through the rest of my emails, nothing else catching my eye. I looked back up at her. “Wherever I happen to be.”

  “No wonder you need an assistant,” she muttered under her breath.

  “Well, now that your office will be so close, I imagine I’ll be getting a lot more work done here,” I said coyly. I wondered if she’d take the bait.

  “Here?” she replied with an audible gulp.

  “Yes, here.”

  She closed her eyes briefly. I could almost feel how frazzled her nerves were and I figured I’d had my fun for the morning at her expense. “But, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I’m generally quite busy with meetings and conference calls I have to attend.”

  I saw her sigh and nod her head. We sat in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, before she finally spoke up. “Can you tell me what sort of work I’ll be doing for you?”

  I shrugged. “If I need something, I’ll email or call you. I’ll have the company receptionists start forwarding documents to you so you can organize them, instead of me.”

  “Oh, okay,” she said, her attitude seeming to perk up a bit at my description. I wondered just what she thought I was going to ask her to do that had her so worried. My guess was that the last real “executive” job Skyler had was actually when she was doing homework for me. Maybe she was just nervous and a part of me wanted to put her at ease.

  I started scrolling through emails on my phone again as the silence stretch on between us.

  “Why are you doing all this, Silas?” she finally asked, breaking the quiet.

  I didn’t look up at her. If I met her gaze, I’d have to be honest. And I hadn’t really figured out why I was doing half the things I was doing right now. And that made me immediately uncomfortable. Because I always had a reason for my actions. I cleared my throat, trying to cover up my delay in responding. “Because I need an assistant who is available to me at all times.”

  “You could have hired any number of women to fill that role, Silas.”

  I smirked. “You’re right. I did briefly consult my Binders of Women, before deciding to go with you. So congrats on that.”

  “Yeah, but,” her voice shrank. “I guess, just never mind,” she said, giving up on her question.

  Her attitude shift had me wanting to comfort her and that was my red flag. I needed to be as far away from Skyler as possible at the moment. I stood abruptly and made my way to the elevator. She scrambled to her feet to try and follow me but I put up my hand. “I’ve got to get going. Go ahead and hire a moving company to get your stuff sent over. There’s a company credit card in your desk drawer you can use to cover the costs.”

  “Silas—” she tried to call out after me, but I was already inside the elevator, pressing the “close door” button and trying to remain calm.

  When I stepped outside into the cool, fall air, I took a deep breath and tried to calm my beating heart. I clutched at my chest, in complete shock that it was still there.

  * * *

  I stood alone in my new penthouse apartment, completely at a loss for what to do next. I had clearly said something that upset Silas. Either that or he’d read something on his phone that was alarming. I slapped the sides of my face with my hands and scrunched my eyes shut in frustration.

  Silas was the definition of frustration and even after all these years, I still hadn’t figured him out. For a time, I thought I understood him, his motivations, his flaws, his needs, pretty well. But he’d proven to me back then just how wrong I’d been. And I guess he was still trying to prove it to me now.

  But, if there was one thing I’d learned from being around Silas, there was no use wallowing in his actions and I was way past waiting around for him to come back and apologize. That ship had sailed ten years ago and it still hadn’t made its way back around. I gave myself another second to feel sorry for my situation and then made my way to the Master suite I hadn’t had a chance to explore yet.

  It was obvious this place had been decorated by Silas. The entire thing screamed minimalist bachelor, including the bedroom. The chrome and black leather platform bed faced a large television mounted to the wall and the dresser and nightstands were a glossy black with giant chrome handles. How very Bruce Wayne of him.

  I let myself fall onto the black bedspread and looked up at the oversized ceiling fan which had an array of mirror tiles built around it so I could see myself clearly. I rolled my eyes, realizing just what those were probably for.

  “You confuse and frustrate me, Silas Jenkins,” I said to the non-existent camera I was ten percent sure existed somewhere in that ceiling fan.

  Past

  I looked down at the worn pair of sketchers on my feet and twisted my lips. I hated that I’d gotten myself into this situation and even more, I hated that I wasn’t entirely keen on making my way out.

  Sure, doing Silas’ homework was an annoying addition to my evenings, but since we were both seniors, we were taking the same classes for the most part so it wasn’t really too much of a time suck.

  Of course the pink elephant I’d tried to squeeze into the closet was the fact that a small part of me had been looking forward to dropping his homework off this evening. Which was dumb. He was a bully and not a nice guy. He’d used my somewhat depressed circumstances to his own advantage, which was entirely
uncool.

  Even still, I couldn’t help but like the attention he gave me. It was a completely different sort of attention than I’d ever received. Especially from guys. Curious, shocked and pitiful stares was the sort of attention I usually attracted. But there was no trace of any of that when Silas turned his brown eyes on me.

  Interest.

  Intrigue.

  And something else I refused to acknowledge were what I saw when I looked back at him.

  “Are you just going to stand there looking at your shoes all day or were you planning on knocking?” a deep voice asked, startling me out of my reverie.

  I looked up to meet those brown eyes and pushed down a smile that still made its way onto my face in the form of a blush.

  “Well, come on,” he said, turning around and leaving the impressive oak door open behind him. I stepped inside gingerly, moving to close it and looked up at the lavish home. I didn’t know why I was surprised at how overdone it was. The Touper’s residence was similar, if less grand.

  Polished marble stretched out beneath my feet, climbing its way up into columns lining the foyer. A large white grand piano was to my left and an intricate dining room set was off to my right. I looked up as I followed him further into the house to marvel at the large crystal chandelier that hung above me.

  “Your house is, um, nice,” I said hesitantly as I walked into the kitchen. My sneakers squeaked against the polished floor, as if the entire house was voicing its objection to my presence.

  “It’s hideous and it’s not my house,” he retorted, grabbing something out of the built-in refrigerator. “Drink?” he asked, holding up a bottle of Fiji water.

  I shook my head. “No, thanks. I don’t drink bottled water,” I let slip.

  He closed the doors and turned back around to face me, raising a slender eyebrow. “Weird.”

  I stayed quiet, curling in on myself slightly.

  “Knock it off,” he all but snapped at me and my eyes widened in shock.

  “Knock what off?”

  He rolled his eyes. “You acting pathetic. I know it’s not you. So stop doing it around me.”

  My heart fluttered. I couldn’t tell if I was confused, angry or excited by his words. “Um, okay. Well,” I paused, turning my backpack around and fishing out his homework. “Here’s this for you,” I said, holding up the pieces of paper like a kid peddling newspaper.

  “Come on,” he said, breezing past me, the scent of his cologne seeping into my carefully constructed defenses. “We’ll review it upstairs.”

  “Review it?” I asked, turning around with a shock.

  He chuckled as he began walking up the staircase I’d climbed a week earlier that had led to my downfall. “Yes, review it. I have to establish I can trust you and your work.”

  I rolled my eyes. “How long will that take?”

  I could see his shoulders move up and down as I walked behind him. Even at my height, he seemed like a giant in front of me and I was all caught up in his shadow. “Not sure,” he admitted. “Can’t say it’s happened before.”

  “What? Reviewing homework or trusting someone?”

  He threw me a coy smile over his shoulder as he reached the top of the stairs. “Which do you think?”

  Whichever I thought, I didn’t like my chances. I reached the top of the stairs and watched him turn right, into the room where he’d caught me the night of the party.

  “Since you’re so fond of my mother’s library, I thought that’s where we’ll go. Unless,” he paused, “you’d prefer my bedroom?”

  That damn blush warmed my cheeks again and I looked down to try and hide it. “I’d prefer the library,” I lied aloud.

  He nodded and pushed another heavy oak door open and I followed sheepishly behind him. I surveyed the room a little clearer this time. He’d mentioned it was his mother’s library? “Where are your parents?” I asked, suddenly realizing it was odd that I was in their home without being introduced.

  Silas froze at my question for a brief second before clearing his throat and saying, “They’re on business.” His response was completely at odds with his normal persona and I knew there was something there that he wasn’t telling me. “I’m sure you remember the table,” he said, referring to the surface that was previously home to a fifty thousand dollar crystal vase.

  I grimaced and stayed quiet, not knowing how to answer even if I’d wanted to. Instead, I dropped my backpack to the floor and pulled out a chair, curling into it quietly.

  Silas flashed me a grin of white teeth and mischief before pulling a chair a bit too close to mine and taking a seat. I tried to scooch myself sideways a bit, but he noticed and tisked. I watched his hand reach out and grab the leg to my chair, dragging me even closer to him this time. The scent of him overwhelmed me at this range and I pulled my legs up onto the seat and wrapped my arms around them, twisting myself into a ball.

  Tanned, callused hands reached for me and I tried to withdraw further, but was entirely unsuccessfully given how close together we were sitting. A finger brushed against the crease between my calf and thigh and I shuddered, my body releasing slightly. “That’s better,” he teased.

  “I, uh, thought we could start with the calculus homework,” I said, quick to try and divert the attention away from me.

  “Sounds riveting,” he said with raised eyebrows, his eyes not leaving mine. I flustered over the pages on the table as my mind tried to understand what was happening.

  “Okay, here it is,” I finally said after passing over it three times as I leafed through the pages. “Do you understand derivatives at all?” I asked, desperate to get his attention off of me.

  It seemed to work, because he let out a long sigh but finally turned to look at where I was pointing.

  “Yeah, mostly,” he said as the moment between us passed and we spent the next several hours going over all the homework I’d prepared for him.

  “You know,” I said, as I packed up the rest of my belongings. “We agreed on one hundred dollars per assignment. You never said anything about tutoring.” The last three hours had passed easily between us and as the clock ticked further and further to my inevitable destruction, I found myself feeling more and more at ease with Silas.

  He raised an eyebrow and the corner of his lips simultaneously. I tried to tell myself it wasn’t sexy. I was lying to myself a lot lately.

  “Were you trying to renegotiate the terms of our deal?”

  “I’m trying to make sure you don’t get in trouble for paying someone less than minimum wage,” I replied with playful snark.

  “How incredibly thoughtful of you,” he said. “So, what’s your proposal?”

  I kept my head down, trying to buy myself time as I packed my bag slowly. A fifty thousand dollar vase at one hundred dollars an assignment would take me a lifetime to pay off, even if papers counted as a grand. Our assignment load seemed to be about ten per week. Even with papers factored in, it would take me an entire year to pay off the debt. I idly wondered if Silas knew that when he’d chosen the terms. Sly bastard probably wanted to milk this all the way till graduation.

  “Five hundred per tutoring session. And I’m cutting you a deal,” I said, staring at him with a nail polished hand on my hip. “Cause if we go over time, you don’t get charged extra.”

  His chest heaved with a bit of laughter. “I have no reason to agree to that,” he said with a cocky attitude. “We’ve already agreed to an arrangement. What’s in it for me?”

  I bit the inside of my cheek and tried to think about how I could convince him to agree. “Well, if I’m not being adequately compensated, I can’t make any guarantees about the quality of my work.”

  “You’re saying you would knowingly provide me with substandard service?” His eyes twinkled as he asked the question.

  “No. But people try harder when they feel valued. That’s management 101.” I let the smallest smirk pull at my lips and fixed him with my best “Try Me” look.

  “You
’re not the type of girl to half-ass something, Skyler. Your eyes told me that from a mile away.”

  I sucked in a breath at the idea that Silas had paid any sort of special attention to my eyes. I wasn’t going to let him distract me. “You don’t know what sort of girl I am, Silas,” I retorted, trying to play it cool, but he just laughed.

  “Oh yes, yes I do, Skyler.” His chair squealed against the floor as he stood and time seemed to move in slow motion as he made his way toward me. We’d played this game before and I’d lost—badly. So this time, I stood my ground.

  But that didn’t seem to matter to him. In fact, the glint in his eye told me he much preferred it this way. “I know exactly the sort of girl you are,” he said in a hushed breath. He was almost on me now.

  My feet shuffled backward slightly and I tried to feel behind me to make sure I wasn’t going to knock over another priceless artifact. My hands met the bookcases and I realized that I must have backed up without realizing it and now he had me trapped against the walls of shelves. He took the final step, his knee brushing against my thigh as he lifted a hand to press against the shelves next to me.

  His shadow cascaded over me. It was dark and edgy and the complete opposite of everything that was me. I stayed quiet, biting my lip, looking up into his intense brown eyes. Most of me hated Silas.

  I hated how confident he was.

  I hated how effortless his life seemed to be.

  I hated how he wasn’t afraid of being the center of attention.

  But the smallest piece of me didn’t know what to feel about him. And that was apparently the piece that was in charge and drunk on his cologne.

  “And what sort of girl is that?” I finally found the courage to ask.

  “You want to be liked, but you don’t want to be noticed. You want to be understood, but you don’t want anyone to get too close. You’re bright eyed and dark souled. A beautiful contradiction.”

  My breath caught and my heart began beating out of my chest at his words. Did he just call me beautiful? But, a contradiction? What did that even mean?