Chapter 65

Unacceptable? What the hell does he mean by that?

“I’m allowed to have friends,” I say, parroting what I earlier told Beau. I’m taking a chance, hoping Beau was lying earlier about what’s in the contract.

“Not if they disrupt the usual order of our lives.” Neil’s voice is low and annoyed. Like this, he sounds a lot like Archer – demanding, without giving much in return.

“I’d hardly call a few minutes late ‘disrupting the usual order.’” I use air quotes around the words to emphasize how ridiculous they sound. He’s blowing this way out of proportion.

“This is not relegated to one instance. Your timing has been irregular for weeks now. All the time, you are leaving for class earlier and staying later. Part of your job is punctuality.”

“But it’s only a few minutes…”

“For Mia, a few minutes could be everything.”

Mia giggles at the sound of her name. Neil motions to her like she made a point. He’s really off-base if he’s looking to a baby to be his back-up. Although, Beau didn’t seem particularly thrilled about her choice of friends either, or her tardiness.

Rubbing a hand over his forehead, Neil sighs. “I value order, Chloe. It does not make me a cruel man to want the rules of the house followed.”

“I guess,” I say begrudgingly. I suppose, for the sake of peace, I could make sure I’m back on time. For Mia’s sake, if no one else’s.

“Good.” Neil then turns toward his desk and retrieves a sheet of paper which he passes to me.

As I look at it closely, I see that it’s a list – no, a schedule. But unlike a normal schedule which would detail the more important things and offer some flexibility for the things people can’t control, this schedule lists everything from how long it should take me to dress in the morning to when I’m allowed to go to the bathroom.

“What the hell is this?” It has to be a joke. No one can schedule when to pee!

He matches my outrage tone with flat certainty. “This is your new schedule.”

“Neil, this is impossible. I can’t actually follow this. No one could!”

“You can and you will.” He crosses his arms. “Need I remind you that the last time you were late returning from class, you returned injured.”

He looks at my chin, zeroing in on the smallish bruise I have once again tried to conceal with makeup. It’s gotten uglier since it happened, more green and blue now than red. He frowns at it.

“You have to learn to obey,” Neil says. “You will follow a regimen of absolute order until you prove you can be trusted again.”

Trust? Does he truly see my slight lateness as a breach of trust? That’s insulting. Haven’t I proven my loyalty to the Hayes’s time and again?

Or is there something more to it than just that?

The way he’s acting – though he’s not giving too much away – is almost like he’s… worried. Had seeing me harmed actually upset him?

Aside from Steven, Neil has always been the most reasonable of the brothers. I know he values order but for him to take it this far – to dictate when I pee – feels like something is majorly off.

But he’s being such a dick right now, it’s hard for me to feel much sympathy.

I wave the list at him. “There’s things on here you can’t ask me to schedule. I don’t know when I’ll have to go to the bathroom.”

“You will go when the list dictates,” he says, entirely unreasonable. “You will find Mia’s schedule on the reverse side.”

…Mia’s schedule?

I flip the paper over and my eyes nearly bug out of my head.

Sure, trying to make a schedule for a baby makes a shred of sense, at least when planning eating and sleeping times, but he can’t just expect a baby to need a diaper change at exactly 3:13pm!

“Neil, you cannot expect a baby to keep a schedule like this! She can’t even read a clock. She has no sense of time. She’s going to poop when she needs to and not based on some silly schedule.”

At my use of the word silly, he straightens and glares me down. “It’s your job to keep her on the schedule, Chloe. Any nanny worth her salt could guess when a baby will use the bathroom based off when they ate.”

“’Any nanny worth her salt?’” The insult rankles over my nerves. I’m quickly losing patience with this man. “Weren’t you just saying, not all that long ago, that being a nanny is the only thing I’m good at? So which is it? Am I good nanny or a shit one?”

He starts toward me, and reaches me in three long strides. My instinct is to back up, but I force that feeling down with the full strength of my willpower. I will cower from none of the brothers, especially not Neil, one of the nicer ones.

He’s not as tall as Archer, but he still towers over me. There’s a fire burning in his eyes, not quite like anything I’ve seen before in him. But then, I’ve never really goaded him before. Not like this.

He’s angry, furious even, as he reaches up a hand and clasps it around my bicep. He’s not gripping tight enough to hurt me, but the intention is clear. He has me where he wants me, and I am not to move.

My body reacts without my permission, burning hotter than before. His hand is on my bare skin and it feels like a brand.

Like I am his prisoner and he could do whatever he wants to me.

His eyes are searing into me. His mouth is a hard line. His jaw tense.

“You are whatever I say you are,” he growls, and I shiver.

I didn’t know he has this side to him. I should have, maybe. Whatever else he is, he’s still a Hayes.

I should hate it. I should smack his hand away and call him an asshole, because he is certainly being one. But I’m slowly starting to realize that I have a major thing for assholes. Especially when the assholes in question are in the shape of the four Hayes brothers.

“You will follow the rules, Chloe.” He’s using his alpha voice now, which is what finally snaps me out of my lust-addled stupor.

I make a weak attempt to smack his hand off my arm. He doesn’t move an inch.

“Tell me you will follow the schedule,” he says.

I couldn’t promise that because the schedule is ridiculous. But, for the sake of my embarrassment over my body that refuses to not be attracted to overbearing men, I attempt to compromise.

“I’ll try.”

His frown deepens like he wants to argue. He holds my gaze for a long moment like he can see down into my soul.

Then, he lets me go.

As soon as he does, Mia begins to cry.

Neil’s tough guy act dissolves in an instant as he and I both rush to her playpen.

“No, don’t cry,” he says.

“What? Is it not on the schedule?” I say.

He gives me a withering look. “Please, do something.”

“We went over this in Nanny lessons,” I say. “Maybe you’d like to put it into practice?”

Neil looks down at Mia and a bit of panic makes his eyes wild. It’s so strange, having seen him as a scary Alpha one minute to a nervous worrywart the next.

When he looks at me again, his expression hardens. “Do it, Chloe. This is your job.”

“What is your problem?” Why wouldn’t he even try? Instead of waiting for his answer, I reach down and pluck Mia into my arms. I hold her close to me, and she curls into my warmth.

Some of her tears and slobber gets on my shirt. Neil watches it, his lip curling in disgust.

“Neil,” I say. “She’s just a baby.”

Neil shakes his head. “I need order.”