How to Fake a Love Story

17:Of s****l Harassment

With the end of the phone conversation, Jared was left thinking about what she said. Myra was the last person he expected to scold him over such a silly thing—especially after what the guy did to her. Shouldn't she be feeling some sort of triumph? Some sort of revenge? Passively at least? Even though she wasn't really the one exacting the revenge?

Although getting Myra's revenge hadn't been Jared's intention with Ryan, it happened as a result in a roundabout way.

It was an unsettling thought and Jared didn't know how to deal with it. Up to now he hadn't thought whether this was right or wrong. He had to concede Myra's point though—he wouldn't appreciate someone saying things like that if they didn't mean it.

Wait.

Didn't Amelia mention something about this before giving him advice?

Something about messing with Ryan's heart and how that was wrong?

But Ryan was doing the same so it was alright.

Right?

Right?

Jared groaned.

His rebuttal back then sounded so much better than it did now.

It felt like his guilty conscience was finally catching up to him.

He just wanted less mail. And more entertainment.

Now that he was thinking about it, he supposed there was a third reason. What he didn't tell Myra was that he also liked spending time with someone his own age for once, as opposed to thirty and forty-year-old men, since graduation. It was a nice change, one he especially didn't want to lose even if it meant pretending to be gay.

So when Ryan said he wanted to end it, Jared started pounding on the panic button and pulled out the trump card, hoping it would work. He didn't even really know the reason why Ryan wanted to end the faked relationship between them.

Did he know Jared was actually straight? Did he run into some kind of trouble and need to go home?

More importantly, why did Ryan cave to him wanting to keep it going?

Was it really just because he saved him from a homicidal maniac or was it—

Oh God.

Ryan wasn't actually falling for him was he?

Somewhere in the back of his mind he could see and hear Myra and Amelia laughing their socks off.

Glancing at the clock, he blinked. It was nearly time for lunch.

Loosening his tie, Jared pulled it off his collar, signalling the end of his personal work day and left it on the desk. It wasn't work without a tie for him, and consequently, it wasn't relaxation if it was with a tie.

When he opened the door to his smaller, personal dining room on the ground floor, he noticed Ryan standing with a tray in his gloved hands. Seeing Ryan standing by the decently sized table wearing the pink apron with a matching pink headband and pink gloves, he couldn't stop his lips from stretching into a huge grin.

Not only that, but seeing Ryan thoroughly pissed while wearing it also made him forget all about his recent and sudden guilt trip.

It was also a good deal of reassurance to see so much hatred built up on Ryan's face that Ryan was not in love with him.

Very reassuring indeed.

Ryan stood beside his chair, positively glaring death from those grey orbs of violent intent. The silver tray he had brought the meal in on was held conservatively in front of his lap with both gloved hands.

When Jared sat down without a word, he slipped in a tug at the knot on Ryan's apron and enjoyed the small shriek of protest from Ryan as he reflexively took a step away.

Unable to do otherwise, Jared laughed. "I really could get used to this. Waking up every morning seeing you dressed like that serving me breakfast in bed. Won't you marry me, sweetheart?"

A hiss of anger bubbled at the back of Ryan's throat as he placed the tray on the table and didn't go unnoticed as Jared started eating, fanning out the paper next to his meal for his perusal.

Silence reigned for a few moments as Jared's attention was focused on the paper. "I rearranged all the books in the Library according to their genre and titles." Ryan spoke, his voice barely hiding his irritation.

Jared glanced at his hands where the oil had earlier splashed. He still felt a chill when the memory of what had transpired in the kitchen was bought to the forefront of his mind. He didn't know what had made him do it but the more discomforting fact was that it wasn't with the thoughts of humiliating Ryan that he had done so. He had done it because he wanted to.

"Okay," Jared acknowledged, pushing the memory to the back of his mind to be examined later. He made a mental note to harass Ryan about his home-making skills later on in the relationship.

His cooking really was good.

Jared glanced at the boy once again, wanting to ask him to eat something too. The frown of disapproval on Ryan's face stopped him.

"You're... not going to check it over? See if I did it right?" Jared knew that his Library was a huge one and it might have taken hours for Ryan to just finish one block. Not to mention the various spiders as well as the dust that clung to the books that would have made the job even harder.

"No." He turned back to his food as he replied, continuing to eat.

It was delicious.

"Then why did you ask me to do that useless task?"

Jared placed his fork down and dabbed his mouth with the napkin.

And then, he smiled as candidly as was possible. "Because I wanted to."

A moment of perfect silence.

Ryan growled and Jared was—"You stupid ass!"—caught off-guard as Ryan lunged for him with intents to kill.

Jared had to give him some form of credit. For being so weak he sure had a lot of skill in cultivating his violent intent and adrenaline. It was impressive and reminded Jared that even the weakest of kittens had very, very sharp teeth.

Even so.

Kittens were still primarily cute and Ryan was still very weak.

Ryan was pinned underneath Jared in more than just a compromising position within two minutes. Jared smirked at the look on Ryan's face after the realisation sunk in that he couldn't fight Jared off him.

It most probably paled in comparison to the fact that he was now trapped under Jared with Jared resting comfortably between his legs.

When Ryan stopped panting, catching his breath, he struggled a bit more before finally giving up and declaring defeat as his body went lax. "You win. Now get off me."

Jared grinned. He liked winning. "You sure? We could always take this back to the bedroom. It's a big bed."

Cue look of sheer terror. "Jared Winston, if you—"

"If I what?" Jared challenged, tugging a little on Ryan's apron again. Ryan was helpless to stop it with his arms pinned above his head with Jared's one hand. "There isn't anything you could do to stop me if I did."

Ryan swallowed and glared at him threateningly. "You wouldn't—"

"Wanna bet?" Jared cut in, feeling his alpha-male genes start to kick in as he descended on Ryan's stricken face as grey pupils dilated.

It was a little closer for comfort than Jared would've liked, but the look of panicked disgust, horror, and everything in between on Ryan's face made it all better.

Besides, despite the sexually suggestive position, his mind reasoned that Ryan was probably more horrified than him right now and that made it alright.

Ryan inhaled sharply.

"You wouldn't want to repeat what happened in the mall do you? Your lips were so soft after all."

He stopped playing with Ryan's apron and lightly trailed his hand along Ryan's torso.

"Jared—"

"Yes?"

Jared felt just like those axe-murderers in the horror films. The feeling of control and knowing someone else was terrified spitless of him sent a thrill down his spine he never knew existed. All his life he had played the nice guy-simply because he had no reason not to. He had been terrified of others before, but no one had ever truly been scared witless of him.

It was kind of a satisfying feeling.

Even if it was thoroughly wrong.

"G-Get—"

"I'd like to see you make me," Jared returned sharply, feeling every bit the knife pinning the butterfly down. Leaning closer over him, he grinned triumphantly. "Can you?" he whispered.

Jared idly noted that Ryan smelt a lot like pizza. With only a few inches between their faces, Jared noticed the flecks of blue in Ryan's grey eyes. Unconsciously, Jared's gaze flickered to Ryan's lips. He didn't really recall the kiss they shared before and he wondered what would Ryan do if he bent down and—

A look passed over Ryan's face that clearly showed he was afraid of Jared right now.

It would be a good time to point out right now that Jared Winston has next to no social limiters that regular people do.

"Can't, can you? You couldn't even stop me if I—"

And then Ryan did something Jared never would've expected.

He started crying.

It was enough to bring Jared back to his senses.

Now he started to feel really guilty.

Maybe Myra was onto something about this whole 'karma' business. Maybe this charade really had gone long enough. Maybe it really was time to end it.

Sighing, he backed off him a bit and felt his shoulders slump. Jared sat back on his heels and Ryan closed his eyes in order to control the tears. Jared felt a lump form in his throat at the thought that he was the reason for the tears.

It made him feel terrible.

Gold digger or not, Ryan was still a person who deserved to be treated with respect. What Jared had done was unacceptable and most probably a serious s****l harassment if Ryan's response was anything to go by. The other times he had stayed in his limit and made sure that Ryan never felt trapped. He had never gotten.... physical.

He had to end this once and for all.

"I'm sorry, Ryan, I... didn't mean to... I should let you know that I'm not actually—"

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Jared turned to look at the door. The house was empty with the exception of him and Ryan. The banging continued. A bit of dust fell from the ceiling. It sounded like someone had taken a battering ram to the doors.

He frowned. Just who on earth would—

The door flew wide open on its hinges.

Jared had only a second to think before he felt himself tackled to the ground—and off Ryan—by a white-gloved hand seizing around his throat threateningly. The wind was knocked out of him as was pushed on his back. He had less than a second to see the sharp end of a knife coming down on him and he closed his eyes for impact.

THUNK.

Slowly, when he realized he was still alive, Jared opened his eyes, one by one, slowly. The first thing to swim into view was the ceiling but it didn't take him long to focus on the person behind this.

A smiling demon stared down at him, bending down only to stop inches away from his face. Her long black hair was piled on top of her head elegantly. Satanic brown eyes flashed and he could see the reflection of sharpened steel in them—ridges, grooves, and all. One hand remained on his throat while the other stayed on the impressive—looking skinning knife against the side of his head.

He gulped.

She twisted the knife in the ground slightly and he felt the slight flat of the blade press against his head.

For the first time in his life, Jared Winston thought he might just die.

A grin slipped over her rouged lips. "It is very nice to meet you, Jared Winston. My name is Ruby Aurora. I am Ryan's mother."



Upon entering the expansive mansion through the front doors with her key of the house, Mayuri quickly took note of a few things out of place. She had been gone for half the day and the place looked like it had been through hell.

While there was no glaringly obvious faults, Mayuri's sharp eyes didn't miss the various holes in the walls.

With a small hum, she pulled out her handy pad of crisp, pink Post-It Notes and began to make notes on them. Kneeling down next to the slivered hole in the polished hardwood of the entryway, she stuck the pink note to the ground next to it.

This process continued so on and so forth until all thirty-eight rooms of the Winston estate had been properly inspected and marked accordingly.

She did spare a thought for the curious case of various holes appearing all around the estate but brushed it off as one of Jared's eccentric ideas that she didn't want to be particularly aware of.

Though what kind of idea involved misshapen holes in the walls was something anyone would be curious about.

She was only his maid afterall; she wasn't paid to question him.

As she laid a hand on the polished, brass handle to her own private quarters—which looked untouched—Mayuri paused, realising her error in not inspecting the largest room of the estate: The Banquet room. It was an easy room to forget as the Master rarely used it except to entertain parties or important guests—and even then on very rare occasions.

He preferred to eat at the Headquarters and even when he was home, he ate in his study. So it was easy to say that the room was rarely used.

When the door to the dining room opened, a polite gasp came to her lips and Mayuri covered her mouth delicately—although it lacked a look of surprise.

Jared Winston, CEO of the Pioneer Group and one of the wealthiest man alive, had been tied and gagged to a chair with several knives sticking out from the table in front of him. She idly noted that there was a knife sticking out from the chair right beside his head too.

At least that explained the disfigurement to the various walls in the estate.

When her Master's eyes widened and lit up at the sight of her, she could hear muffled screams coming from behind the gag tied around his mouth as he wiggled a bit—but not enough to loosen his bonds.

Mayuri tutted silently and shook her head at him before making the rounds around the room and cleaning a bit of dust here and there and attaching a few more Post-It notes.

She then left to retrieve the large garden clippers from the shed in the back before cutting the rope around his waist in a single snip. Taking a knife from her belt, she cut the ties around his hands and ankles, leaving the rest for him.

She then stepped back from the table, held her hands together politely, bowed to her Master, and left without a single word to him.

The very next week she noticed a remarkable increase to her salary with no particular reasoning attached.

And she was okay with that.