Chapter 8 Levi's POV

Someone gasped and the sound dragged me back to reality.

I stepped away from Lucifiel. I turned around and began to walk towards the entrance. He didn't even try to stop me. He just walked majestically behind me.

When we got outside I turned around to look at him.

"What the hell is all this?"

"It is exactly what it looks like."

The way he sounded so nonchalant, so confident, pissed me off.

"I signed an NDA," I said slowly, like I was laying out the facts for myself as much as him. "Not a contract that says I'm okay with whatever that was."

"Nobody asked you to be okay with it."

"Then what exactly did you ask me to do?"

He stare at me for a moment, studying my face the way he did in his class.

"Come inside," he said.

"I'm not going back in there."

"I didn't say we were going back in there."

He turned and walked toward a separate entrance on the side of the building. I hadn't noticed it before. It blended into the wall almost perfectly, no handle, just a flat panel that responded to his card.

I stood there for a second. This was definitely a bad idea. I reminded myself again, but then I followed him.

The hallway on the other side was completely different. Nothing like the chaos from the other end of that glass door.

He led me into a room at the end of it. An office, maybe. There was a desk, a couch, a small shelf lined with books that looked like they had actually been read. The room was different from the first one he was in when I arrived.

He moved to the desk and sat on the edge of it, arms crossed, watching me.

I stayed near the door.

"Talk," I said.

"Close the door first."

I considered leaving it open just to be difficult. But the hallway being empty made it pointless, so I reached back and shut it.

"The job," he began, "doesn't require you to do what you saw in there tonight. Not unless you want it."

I stared at him. "Then what was the point of showing me?"

"Context."

"What the hell does that mean?"

His expression changed a bit.

"You're smarter than you look," he said.

"Thanks. It's a low bar, apparently."

He didn't smile. But he didn't look annoyed either. "You're right. It was deliberate. I wanted to see how you would react."

"Are you satisfied with my reaction now?"

"You didn't run as soon as we entered. That was something."

"I almost did."

"But you didn't," he said. "That tells me something."

I didn't like the way he said that.

"What exactly does this job involve?" I asked. "And don't give me another non-answer. I'm not signing anything else until I know what I'm actually agreeing to."

He was quiet for a moment. Then, "You would accompany me to events, meetings, Private gatherings. Nothing more than that."

"Who do I accompany you as?"

" As mine. Or whatever I choose to call you."

He sounded like there was no option left.

I let out a short breath. "This doesn't make any sense."

"It makes perfect sense."

"Not to me it doesn't."

He tilted his head slightly. "You need money. I need someone by my side in specific environment. It's transactional, nothing difficult."

"It doesn't sound as simple as you're saying it.."

"Because you're overthinking it."

"Or because the job sounds fishy."

He looked at me for a long moment. "There are always parts that come later. That's how these things work."

"These things," I repeated. "What things? What does that even mean?"

He pushed off the desk and walked toward me slowly.

I didn't move back. I shouldn't be scared of him.

He stopped a few feet away. "It means you don't need all the information right now. You need enough to make a decision. And you already made it."

"I signed a paper. That's not the same thing."

"Isn't it?"

I opened my mouth, then closed it again.

He was right, in the most infuriating way possible. I had signed it. Knowing something was off. Knowing I didn't have enough information. I had done it anyway because I needed the money.

That was on me.

"Fine," I said. "Then tell me the rules."

He raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Every job has rules," I continued. " I know you have them. You just haven't said them out loud. So let's hear it."

He studied me for another moment. Then he walked back to the desk and opened a drawer. He pulled out a smaller envelope and held it out.

I crossed the room and took it.

Inside was a single sheet of paper. Not a legal document this time. Just a list.

I read through it slowly.

Some of it was straightforward. Availability windows. Dress requirements. A general schedule.

You will not discuss the nature of your arrangement with anyone outside of it.

I already knew that part.

You will follow instructions without public contradiction.

That one made my jaw tighten.

You will present yourself as mine, in appearance and conduct, for the duration of any engagement.

I looked up. "Weird. It's definitely a weird job."

"I never said it was or wasn't."

"This is basically asking me to pretend to be your..." I stopped, not finishing the sentence.

"My possession, maybe a pet, call it whatever you feel comfortable with," he said calmly.

The air in the room felt different after that.

"I'm not anyone's possession."

"Whenever you're working you're mine.."

"I said no.

"You said no to what exactly," he replied. "I'm talking about appearances. Image. Nothing happens that you don't agree to."

"And I'm supposed to trust that?"

"You're supposed to read the last line on that paper," he said.

I looked back down.

At any point, you may withdraw. No penalty. No consequence.

I read it twice.

"That's a lot of trust you're asking for," I said quietly.

"Yes."

"From someone you barely know."

"I know more than you think."

I looked at him sharply. "What does that mean?"

He didn't answer. He just watched me.

"I need time," I said.

"You have until Monday."

"It's Friday."

"Then you have a weekend."

I folded the paper and shoved it into my pocket. "I want my phone back."

He gestured toward the door. "It's with the attendant at the front."

I walked to the door, then stopped.

"One more thing," I said without turning around.

"Go ahead."

"How did you know my name before class? At the fundraiser, you didn't introduce yourself. And then you walked in like you already knew exactly who I was."

Silence.

I turned to look at him.

He met my gaze steadily. "Because I did."

"That's not possible."

I stared at him. He didn't look away. He didn't shift. He just stood there with that same certainty he carried everywhere, like the ground underneath him was never going to move.

It made me want to ask more. It also made me want to leave before I did.

I chose the second option.

I walked out, got my phone from the attendant at the front, and stepped back into the night air. The city noise hit me immediately. Cars, voices, distant music. Normal things.

I stood on the pavement for a moment and exhaled slowly.

My phone had three messages from Jamie.

You okay?

Text me.

Levi I swear if you don't reply in ten minutes I'm calling the police.

I almost smiled at the last one.

I'm fine, I typed back. On my way home.

His reply came immediately. Thank God. What happened?

Tell you when I get there.

I put my phone in my pocket and started walking.

The job was strange. That wasn't new information. What was strange was that I was still considering it.

I tried to break it down the way I always did when something felt too complicated. What did I actually know?

He had money. That was obvious. He ran some kind of private club. Also obvious. Or maybe he could be a co owner

He knew who I was before we ever spoke. That part I couldn't explain.

And the way he looked at me, it didn't feel like how people usually looked at someone they wanted to use. It felt like something else. Something that sat under the surface of everything he said. Something I wasn't equipped to name yet.

You will present yourself as mine. I pushed the thought away.

When I got back to the apartment, Jamie was sitting on the couch with his arms crossed,

"Sit down," he said.

"I just got in."

"And I've been waiting for two hours. Sit."

I dropped onto the couch across from him.

"Talk," he said.

I leaned back and looked at the ceiling. "It's a job."

"A job," he repeated.

"Yeah."

"Involving what?"

"Accompanying someone to events. Professionally."

Jamie was quiet.. He was probably wondering whether to believe me or not.

"Who?"

I looked at him. "A guy from school."

His expression didn't change right away.

"Levi, people don't pay the kind of money this man is apparently offering just for someone to stand next to them at parties."

"I know."

"Then why are you still considering it?"

I didn't answer immediately.

Because the truth was I didn't fully know. It wasn't just the money, although that was part of it. It was something about the way he spoke to me.

"I have until Monday to decide if I want to do it ," I said.

Jamie stared at me for a long moment. "Whatever you decide, just be honest with yourself about why you're deciding it."

I didn't have a response for that.

So I didn't give one.

I went to bed that night and stared at the ceiling again for what felt like hours. The paper was still in my pocket. I hadn't taken it out.

 "Nothing happens that you don't agree to." I didn't know if I believed that yet.But I kept thinking about it anyway. When I fully know I shouldn't.