Obsessed With My Husband's Step-brother - Chapter 47: Chapter 47

LEILANI.
After dinner, I walked into our bedroom to see Neil in a towel, ready to go take a relaxing shower.
His eyes followed me as I walked over to my dresser to drop my phone, my head still in the clouds with thoughts of Adonis.
“Babe, I’m going in the shower.” Neil stalked closer to me, wrapping his arms around my waist as he pressed his lips to my bare shoulder in a slow, sensual kiss. “Take off your clothes and come join me?”
Those words jarred me out of the clouds and I wriggled, laughing uneasily. “Go shower, Neil. You need to relax since it’s been such a long day.”
“I need you to be able to relax, babe.” He said softly against my skin and placed another soft, lingering kiss on my neck.
I closed my eyes, fighting a sigh. How do I get out of this?
I wriggled softly out of his arms and turned to face him. Tonight, his eyes lacked that natural light they seemed to always have. Was he really upset or just exhausted? I knew I only wanted myself to believe he was just 'exhausted' but he wasn’t. He definitely wasn’t.
I shouldn’t tell him this now. Too late. He was waiting for me to say something.
“I have something to tell you,” I said, my voice calm and gentle.
“Alright.” He said easily, crossing his arms in front of his naked chest.
I shrugged slightly. “Go have your shower first. I’ll wait for you, Neil.”
He sighed. “I’m mad curious now and I can not focus on anything else unless I know what it is you’re about to tell me, Leila.”
Here goes nothing.
“Okay then.” I moved to sit on a couch. “Come sit. It might take a while.”
He looked at me for a moment, like he was trying to guess what it is I was about to tell him, but then he moved towards the other couch and sank into it, leaning back in it to regard me intently.
I licked my bottom lip as apprehension suddenly bathed my nerves and I tried to quell the panic threatening to bubble within me if this goes wrong.
“So, I was offered this huge, amazing contract…” I launched into the story, trying not to leave any necessary part out and recounting the terms of the contract to him, listing out the benefits, opportunities that would open for my business. My lingerie and bikini line, DELEILAH. And of course the profit, cash inflow, and global impact this one opportunity would make.
I got excited as I spoke, feeling really good about saying how my business had even come across an opportunity so big, so fucking massive that people would literally kill for it.
Neil was nodding slowly as he processed my words in his head. “You have to be in the pictures.”
“Yeah. It’s mandatory, I even tried to tweak it so I wouldn’t have to…”
“Wait.” Neil sat up, catching onto my words almost at the same time as me. I nearly bit my tongue. Fuck. “Why would you want to bend and tweak the terms, are they asking you to do something unpleasant?”
I blinked. “Um. It’s about the designs and types of lingerie they want the photoshoot models to wear. It’s kind of… um, very revealing.”
“That’s not news. Lingerie is revealing, what’s new about that?” Neil was not getting what I was trying to say with as little words as possible.
I groaned. “Neil. It’s my exclusive nasty, naughty and nude design edition they want as the main design for the models. And I don’t want you to be taken aback by all of it when it goes global. This is a huge, multinational company and the event will be over international grounds.
“There might be some nudity. This company believes in all kinds of art. All kinds. So I need you to be comfortable with this so everyone is happy, Neil.”
Neil was silent for a moment before he said quietly. A bit too quietly. “Nudity?”
Fuck.
“No. That’s not what I meant-”
“Leila, why the fuck would you want to do something like that? The whole world sees you naked because of some goddamn shit company and some perverted event?” He looked very upset now.
Hell no. He’s completely seeing it the wrong way.
“Neil, I’m not going to be naked!” I tried to sound as convincing as possible. “It’s just going to be a little different and more public than any fashion photoshoot I’ve ever done before.”
“How can you even consider a contract like that?” He scoffed.
“It’s my job! It’s what I do for a living, when you met me, you knew this is my passion so why is it a problem now?” My voice sounded saddened. “It’s all strictly professional and do you know how much I’ll gain from this? My competitors will fight tooth and nail for this!”
“I bet it’s run by perverts.”
“Neil!” I exclaimed, my eyes wide. What in the fucking world was wrong with him tonight?
He straightened up on the couch. “Listen, Leila. Tell me how much they’ll pay you for this. I’ll give you double of it. Just don’t do this.”
I frowned at him. “That’s disrespectful, Neil. You can’t fucking pay for every non-monetary thing I’ll gain!”
“It’s disrespectful? I’m not trying to offend you but don’t do it. You’ll get better contracts that don’t have to do with men who just want to see naked women live.”
My mouth dropped open. Did…did Neil just say that?
I was speechless for a moment but then anger blazed through me, utterly and completely disappointed. “I don’t need permission from you to do anything, Neil. I already signed the contract. I just wanted to explain it all to you like a good partner but you’re just being a fucking jerk about it!”
He stood up from the couch. “What?”
I stood up too, mad at him, mad at myself, and mad at the organizers of the event for making Neil and I have such a horrible misunderstanding. “Yes. And if you don’t want to support me in this, it’s fine. I’ll find someone who will.” I snapped and walked away, and out of the bedroom.