Even The Weak Can Be Wicked (PLAYBOOK #2)

CHAPTER 3: Pride or Prejudice

ALEKSANDER

Let’s recap, shall we.

The house sitter I didn’t want just exposed her entire chest to me and is currently staring at me in underwear small enough to be a bracelet as water drips down her toned and pierced abdomen.

Heart meet malfunction two.

“Crap!” Jessica pulls off the headphones and her auburn hair falls down to frame her bare face as the pencil drops to cause the only sound around the house.

Crap indeed because I don’t think I was meant to see it in slow motion like some 80’s rom-com movie. But I am pretty sure my groin was supposed to swell because—

“Who the hell are you?” She fumbles with the rag to wipe her chest, no doubt making it worse and I dare admit more provocative.

“The owner of the house.” I turn away to look for my dog.

I really hope Jessica hasn’t been walking around exposed like this because April won’t appreciate her dog being used to another female.

Who am I kidding? April won’t care, I am more worried about me because this can’t happen all week.

“Wait,” Jessica stops patting her chest to look at me. “You’re Alexander?” She sounds frustrated, “I thought Ashton said this was his baby brother’s house.”

I wince and hold my bag handle tightly.

“Mr. Henry” I look at my shoes because I realize she has a n****e piercing too, “Mr. Henry is my older brother and my name is Aleksander, Alek!”

Not Alex, getting it wrong is one of my many pet peeves.

“You’re younger than him?” I lift my eyes to find hers grazing over me, “and you’re a doctor?”

“I have a PHD in neurobiology, yes and I’ll be 27 soon.” I don’t know why I am frowning as I add, “anymore questions?”

I hate how rude her accent makes even the most mundane sentences sound, like she cannot believe a word I am saying even though it is all true.

“Just one,” Jessica folds her arms to conceal her chest. “Why the hell are you back so early?”

“Excuse me?” I click my tongue and release my hand from the suitcase handle. “You do realize I am your boss, right? That you are in my house and that you receive payment from my checking account and that you sleep under my roof?”

Ashton might have done the hiring but I am the one she works for. The one she needs to address with some damn respect.

“Alek—”

I tense and grimace again.

“Dr Henry,” I correct and her jaw clicks. “The name of your boss, is Doctor Henry. First name basis is earned with me and you have not earned it.”

I could care less what people call me but I hate how my first name just rolls off her pouty lips, like she was always meant to say it with her posh and unspoiled accent.

I hate how relaxed—no.

“Dr Henry.” That sounds even worse on her lips. “I just meant that I wasn’t expecting you so soon. I was told to make myself scarce when you are around, I would have never spent the night if I knew—” this is ridiculous.

“I don’t mean to interrupt but do you plan on having a full conversation with me, your boss, while you are barely clothed?”

I follow a droplet down her toned and flat stomach and recoil when it hangs off the lightning bolt on her belly ring. I didn’t even know a pelvic area could be so small and honestly so hairless.

The thong is leaving very little to the imagination and causing my other organs to malfunction. My pelvic area is testing the limits of my self-restraint that are honestly hanging by a thread.

“Yes” she answers but at least she seems to be embarrassed by it.

“Excuse me?” I step forward involuntarily but she doesn’t move back.

Is this how she earned Lori and Ashton’s admiration? By seduction? I want to believe it won’t work on me because of my discipline but I feel like I am under a spell.

The closer I move, the more my body crumbles under her gaze.

“It’s laundry day.” She says it like it’s an explanation. “These are literally the only things I have that are not in the washer.”

I scoff and her face twists in a snobbish way it seems stuck in. Now I remember her resting mean face and it looks ruder in broad daylight.

“What about towels?” There has to be something she can cover herself with.

“I only have one and it’s dirty. So is my robe and anything with fabric large enough to conceal me. I would use one of yours but I was told you are very strict with your stuff.”

That impresses me.

“I am.” I’m glad she at least respects boundaries. “Wait here.” I take my luggage upstairs and when I pass the guest bedroom it seems untouched.

“Here.” I give her shorts and a t-shirt I grabbed off the shelf.

“You went to MIT?” She stares at the burgundy t-shirt and I nod because I want her clothed as soon as possible.

This is a line of professionalism I never thought I would need to draw with my house-sitter but it seems I do. Who is this comfortable being half naked in front of their boss?

“Cool. It was my backup school,” she walks away like she didn’t just blow my mind.

Back up school?

The MIT?

JESSICA

I am half naked in front of my boss!

I repeat, I just exposed myself in front of my freaking boss! Of all the days he had to come back, he chose Laundry Day to be that specific day?

Laundry day?

Really?

How freaking bad is my karma?

I nearly fell over when I turned around to find a man in a black Nike sweat set with a Harvard ball cap turned back to show his brooding and sharp face.

How is he—a man with a full beard and muscles—the younger Henry?

“Here.” Dr Henry turned away after giving me some clothes and I took the opportunity to ogle him.

I knew very few things about the man but I have to admit, none of them match the exterior.

For one, he is apparently a certified genius. He graduated from MIT early and went to some fancy grad school for his PHD and is now at Harvard because he won some grant regarding his research on brain organisms and their effects.

He is also very OCD. He liked things his way which meant if I wanted to keep my job for the few months he was occupied, I had to literally touch nothing but his dog.

This part was emphasized repeatedly which made sense since most geniuses had traits like that. Which explains why he is cold and frigid, he doesn’t even have smile wrinkles which means he doesn’t do it.

The man doesn’t smile people!

According to Lori, the perfect specimen that is Dr Henry has some social dysfunction disorder found in people with Asperger’s too. Which meant, he sometimes didn’t recognize or understand social calls like sarcasm, flirting, awkwardness and empathy.

Which was code to not take anything he said or did personally since we apparently met at the Staff Leaver’s Party at his family camp.

I was lost till they mentioned the rude man in the Mr. Darcy costume and it all came back.

But I wasn’t kidding when I said he was a perfect specimen and that the parts didn’t match the exterior.

Dr Henry has to be the most attractive person I have ever seen in my entire life. It’s the type that literally doesn’t make sense because he is supposedly this huge nerd but looks like the smoking firemen they cast on TV shows.

I dated Felix Vecker so I am used to a handsome face but Felix was a year younger than me and though very mature, he is nothing like Dr Aleksander Henry.

And the only reason I am comparing them is because Felix is the bar I compared all men to and no one has ever been able to come close, let one create their own lane like Dr Henry has.

He is a true alpha man.

A tall, muscular, dark beard, broad shoulders, firm and lean thighs man. Like life wasn’t already playing favorites, he also happens to have the longest dark eyelashes I have ever seen on a human being.

And I lived with Odessa Vecker who never had to use eyelash extensions.

Don’t get me wrong, Ashton is a good looking guy too. Also tall, in shape and has gorgeous dark long hair we are all jealous of but his baby brother, he could be superman with a beard.

He even sounds like a man. Dr Henry speaks with authority and confidence I haven’t heard in anyone ever, not even fully developed adults.

He seems very sure with each sentence he says. It should be showy and annoying but he does it with a bit of humbleness that I don’t think he realizes he possess.

I still can’t believe my boss saw me half naked.

Way to make an impression Jessica, like the first one wasn’t bad enough and now this. I might be proud of how I look because living with girls has really made me confident in myself but the man is my boss and I remember distinctively shaking my ass and kissing photos before I realized he was there.

I really hope he at least missed that part.

“What do you mean MIT was your back up school?” Dr Henry follows me to kitchen and pauses for a second to watch me, “it is MIT.”

His clothes are comically large on me. The t-shirt was big enough to cover me but after seeing my wet breasts I understood why he overcompensated.

“Yes, I know the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” I almost smile but he continues to frown so I don’t. “It was in my top three choices. Oakwood, MIT and Harvard, in that order.”

I walk to the pantry and get the dog food, Holly will be coming back from visiting her boyfriend soon.

“An Arts major got into three of the best schools in the state?” He leans against the counter and his frown deepens.

I notice he has changed into dark plain t-shirt that hugs his arms but is loose on his upper body. It’s weird because he almost looks like a normal human being not some AI generated perfect robot that I suspect he is.

“One, I am a Drama major.” I correct like he did earlier, “and I’ll have you know I got into 7 of the best schools in America including NYU, Duke, USC and something called Stanford. And those 7 are edition to Oxford,” which was the school my father wanted me to me attend.

I’m not really boastful but I am talking to a condescending genius who clearly didn’t do his research on me. I might look like an airhead theatre girl but I am very well educated and proud of it.

“I don’t understand, why apply for those schools just to do Performing Arts? Why not attend Julliard?”

I guess this is the part where I try not to take it personally.

“Because my father is a doctor, so is my stepmother which meant I was supposed to be a doctor till I decided nah, it wasn’t for me.”

I whistle for Holly and open the sliding door.

“That explains why you do so many STEM modules then,” he says to himself.

Maybe he did do his research.

“Would you believe me if I told you I actually enjoy chemistry?” Acting and live theater is fun but so is chemistry.

When I apply myself, I knock it out because though I take hard classes they are mostly beneath my level because I have been doing advanced college level stuff since 9th grade.

Perks of having Doctors as parents.

“I would because you have the frown of a Chemist.” He points at his forehead, “the person I got the grant with is a chemist. She has the exact same frown from to trying to make sense of what I have realized is basically cheberish.”

I bite my lip because that was actually funny.

I clear my throat when Holly walks into the yard and stops by the door. “Come in buddy, I have a surprise for you.”

She rubs her feet on the mat and runs to me but stops an inch away when she sees Aleksander. To my surprise Dr Henry lights up like a child when Holly tackles him and licks every part of his face.

“Surprise,” I find myself envious of a dog because she is able to do the one thing I didn’t realize I want.

To make Dr Henry smile.

“I missed you too baby,” Aleksander rubs her face and I take the opportunity to slip out.