Silence Reveals Hidden Answers’ by Michael Anderson novel Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Harvey Prescott.

Jennifer exhales and sets her hand on my chest in unconscious relief.

“Be careful. That turns me on.”

Her hand flies off instantly and I can’t help chuckle when her face goes bright red.

“Stop playing.” she whispers.

“If you say so.”

“What the hell, Baxter!?” Nisha’s screeches and I grit my teeth.

Of course, they’re here. I swear under my breath.

7

55 vouchers

First, what the hell are either of them doing in my home? Baxter knows damn well he’s not welcome here. I don’t open this address to family. There’s a reason it’s called a private address. And now, he’s fucking his joke of a fiancée on my custom pool table.

An action that is not only disrespectful but genuinely repulsive.

“It was a mistake.” Baxter says.

“A mistake is not saying Jen while you’re fucking me from behind! Are you kidding me!?”

“Hey, drop it. It’s not like we’re official. And I said Yen, not Jen.” Baxter lies so lazily it’s so bad.

Jennifer visibly relaxes, thinking it wasn’t her name he moaned but my hearing is excellent. I heard ‘Jen‘ clear as day. I heard

my brother moan my best friend’s name while screwing the fiancée he doesn’t even respect.

When I came upstairs and didn’t find her where she was supposed to be, I knew she had wandered. I pulled her away from that door before she had to hear more.

Now I end this pathetic argument.

“What the hell are the both of you doing here?” I snap.

Baxter rolls his eyes at me with his typical insolence as I come out of the corridor. However, when he sees Jennifer step out too that’s when color drains from his face.

“Jennifer…. what–You’re here?”

“I knew I saw someone looking. So you’re the creep?” Nisha scoff’s at her.

“Creep?” I defend Jen with a temper. “You are in my house. Without permission. Fucking on my customized pool table like a pair of goats.”

Nisha blinks as she needs a full minute to process what she was just doing spread over my property.

“Why did you bring her here? Why are you here?” 1 face Baxter.

“Why is Jennifer here?” Baxter defends as if I have to give him an explanation.

“Because she’s my…” I almost say best friend, but after everything, I’m not sure I still get to call her that. “…she’s my stylist.”

Feb

Chapter 7

“Oh, at 10 p.m.?” Baxter scoffs.

“Has absolutely nothing to do with you.” I look over my shoulder. “Elio?”

“Yes sir.”

55 vouchers

“Henceforth, you are not to allow Baxter onto the property unless I give you direct, personal confirmation. And that includes his… plus–ones. Remove the pool table from the gaming room and burn it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Are you kidding me?” Baxter sputters.

“No. Are you done fucking?”

“Harvey, watch your mouth!” Baxter snaps, stepping forward. “Let’s not forget your place here.” Baxter spouts, but I face Jennifer who’s just watching.

“Let’s go.”

When we get back to the living room, My hand drags through my hair before I even realize it that I’m furious. Baxter always manages to sabotage me. Always. And tonight of all nights when I wanted privacy with Jennifer… a real conversation… a continuation of what we started-

When I notice her eyes on me, I drop my hand.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“Harvey, really? I think I’m used to Baxter being with other girls.”

“Yeah…and you’d come crying to me.”

Jennifer stiffens. She frowns.

“I’m not that person anymore. I don’t… have feelings for your brother. Anyway, what did he mean by ‘let’s not forget your place here?”

I groan. Loudly. Of course she’d pick that to question which is one thing I avoid and hate talking about. Anything involving my family, the hierarchy, the scandal of my existence. I’d rather burn than explain.

“You’re groaning.” Jennifer crosses her arms. “But imagine how I feel. Harvey… it’s like all this time we were best friends, you had a completely different life-”

Just before we can even get into the conversation, Baxter slams his foot as he comes down the stairs. He curses under his breath before barrelling toward me.

“Burn the table? Are you freaking kidding me?” he yells, loud enough to split the room in half. “What…trying to act cool and tough for Jennifer so she forgets you used to be a nerd? The tattoos and the nightlife don’t change that, you know.”

“You’re confronting me about a table I bought with my money-”

“No, with my dad’s money! This whole fucking house you have is my dad’s money, so I can come whenever I want. That table was bought with my dad’s money. Those clothes on your back? My dad’s money.”

“You’re drunk.” I say, making up a reason so he can step back. It’s the only warning I’ll give him.

“Am I?” Baxter laughs. But I know exactly why he’s spiralling. He’s never been embarrassed in his life. The golden son, the golden crush, the golden ego. I humiliated him in front of Jennifer and Nisha. Commanded my butler to burn his pool table he used. He has no idea how to process that, so he falls back on the one thing he thinks can still cut me: “saying his dad to

15:05 Tue, Feb 3 M

Chapter 7

(31

55 vouchers

poke at the fact that I’m illegitimate.”

He leans in hot against my ear. “Using my dad’s fame to steal my spotlight at the reunion. What’s next? Are gonna use it to get under Jennifer’s skirt so she can ride you till you cum-”

That’s when I release the tight coil of my control. My arm shoots out, and I shove him hard in the chest. Nisha screams as Baxter staggers back, stumbling at least five steps before catching himself. He stares at me like he’s seeing someone entirely

new.

Yeah. I’ve never had to use the strength or the skills I learned in the army on him before. He’s never stepped on this particular line until now.

“What did you say to me?” I stalk toward Baxter, ripping the buttons off my shirt and tearing the whole thing from my skin.

Baxter yanks his own shirt off too and Nisha disappears from between us the second the tension snaps. He throws a punch but I deflect it easily. My knuckles pound his face. His head snaps back, and I watch a dark bruise form instantly around his

eye.

“Are you crazy!?” Nisha screams.

“Sir!” Elio wedges himself between us before I do worse, catching Baxter as he clutches his face.

“No. No. No…leave your master!” Baxter shouts, shoving Elio off. “Let Jennifer see the monster he is!”

That’s when I look at her. The horror in her eyes is enough to stop me.

“Get out of my house. Get them out.”

Elio is already getting him away before I finish the sentence. I can’t look at Jennifer right now. Tonight was supposed to be productive, and I’ve turned into an animal. There’s nothing I can say to her that won’t sound pathetic or empty.

I take the stairs two at a time as I walk off. Elio knows to escort Jennifer out too.

“Ma’am, please… you need to leave.” I hear him say as I disappear.

Instead, I hear footsteps on the stairs not retreating, but following me.

“Harvey?”

“Ma’am-” Elio tries to stop her.

“Harvey!” Jennifer calls again.

Even though this is the last version of myself I’d ever want her to see, I turn back. When she faces me, her eyes lands on my bare chest, and her breath hits my lips like a confession.

“Can we not do this right now?” I ask, looking down when her lashes lower cause she’s nervous to face me after that.

I start to leave again.

“Then when?”

“When am I going to know you? When am I going to know the real Harvey—”

“You do know the real me, Jen.”

“No, I don’t. it’s obvious there’s some tension in your family which must have been happening since we were friends. I don’t know how you can just keep that part of yourself hidden. You knew me from the inside out. You knew about my parents‘ messy breakup, but you told me nothing about the core of who you are! While I spoke about irrelevant things, I didn’t even

15:05 Tue, Feb 3 M.

Chapter 7

know you were illegitimate-”

“Don’t.” I whisper.

E55 vouchers

“You look different. You act different. Covered in tattoos. Gone for years. And you expect me to just accept that you also had feelings me in the middle of all of this-”

I close the space between us in one breath. I take her chin, tilt her face up to mine, and shut her up with my mouth.

Jennifer’s lips tremble. I stop just long enough to look into her eyes.

“If you don’t believe anything else,” I murmur, “believe that I had and….still, have feelings for you.”

I go to her lips again. This time, her lips part to meet mine. They are impossibly soft, tasting faintly of berries. I feel the delicate bob of her throat as she swallows a gasp. I coax her tongue, and my head seems to combust with the reality of this

So this is what it tastes like to kiss Jennifer Marie.

It’s a hundred times better than I ever imagined. Jennifer presses her palm against my puffed naked chest and her fingers curls to scratch lightly at my skin. I haul her against me by her waist when she does that.

My mouth abandons all the pretence. I start kissing her neck. My hands don’t ask. They take. They drop to her hips where I palm her ass. Soft as warmed butter and so fucking big I can’t get all of it. I squeeze and sink my fingers into that impossible give.

IM

HI

14

Jennifer moans, looking at me in half–surprise, half pure want. It’s a sound that goes straight to my cock. I know her nervous face, and this is it. She’s looking at me like our kiss just erased every doubt she had about whether I wanted her or not.

Surprisingly, Jennifer opens her mouth to kiss me again but her phone buzzes in her bag. So I release her.

“I.I have to go.”

She turns, walking slowly until she disappears down the hall.

Make sure she gets home safe.” I tell Elio, who’s waiting at the other end of the corridor.

y phone buzzes at the same time. It’s a text from David.

The store of J’s father was turned upside down, but the boys went crazy and burned the entire place to a crisp because they think he’s lying about not knowing where J is.

I rub my jaw. I said break, not burn.