Semua Bab The Playboy Stepbrother's Rules: Bab 41 - Bab 50

Alex noticed it first in the morning.Troy didn’t come down for coffee. That by itself wasn’t strange—he sometimes worked through breakfast—but the house felt off. Bridget had already left for an appointment. Silas was at the office. When Alex passed Troy’s door on the way back from the kitchen, he heard nothing. No movement. No voice on a call.He knocked once.No answer.He knocked again, harder. “Troy.”A low sound came from inside. Not words. Alex opened the door.The room was dim. Curtains still closed. Troy was in bed, half-twisted in the sheets, face flushed, hair damp against his forehead. His phone was on the floor like it had slipped out of his hand. When Alex stepped closer, he could feel the heat coming off him before he even touched him.“Troy.”Troy’s eyes opened slowly. They were glassy and unfocused. “What.”“You’re burning up.”Troy tried to push himself up and failed halfway. “I’m fine.”“You’re not.” Alex stood there for a second, caught between the residual anger o

Alex waited until Troy left the house.It took most of the morning. Troy had a meeting across town with Paxton and two analysts from the partnership team. He stood in Alex’s doorway before he went, keys in hand, and looked at him for a long moment.“You’ll be here when I get back.”Alex was at the desk with his laptop open. “I’ll be in the house or on campus. I’m not disappearing.”Troy’s jaw tightened like he wanted a stricter answer. He didn’t push it. “Text if you leave.”“I will.”The front door closed a few minutes later. Alex sat still until the sound of the car faded down the driveway. Then he picked up his phone and opened the thread with Stolas.**Alex:** I can talk today. Not at the house.The reply came within a minute.**Stolas:** Campus. Old side of the library. The benches behind the east wing. Thirty minutes.Alex stared at the message, then locked the phone and stood. His hands felt unsteady. He told himself it was only a conversation. He had already messaged him.

The silence after Troy’s confession stretched until it became its own presence in the room.Alex sat on the edge of the bed with his hands on his knees and the words still landing in stages. *Real feelings. Not just a sex partner. Scared of losing you.* They should have felt like relief. Parts of them did. Other parts collided with everything that had come before—the deal, the rules, the locked doors, the nights Troy had spent with other people while Alex was at Kevin’s, the way care during a fever had almost been turned into leverage.Troy hadn’t moved from his place near the foot of the bed. He looked like someone who had put something valuable on the table and couldn’t take it back. The usual armor was gone. What remained was tension and waiting.Alex drew a slow breath. “You don’t get to drop that on me and expect it to fix the shape of everything.”“I’m not asking it to fix everything,” Troy said. His voice was quiet. “I’m asking you to hear it.”“I heard it.” Alex looked up at h

Alex sent the message before he could talk himself out of it.**Alex:** Can we meet today.Stolas replied while Alex was still sitting on the edge of the bed with the phone in his hand.**Stolas:** Same benches. One hour. Only if you want to. Not because you feel cornered.Alex stared at the second line longer than the first. Then he got up, dressed, and went downstairs. Troy was in the kitchen finishing coffee, jacket already on. He looked up when Alex entered.“I’m going to campus,” Alex said.Troy’s fingers tightened once around the mug, then loosened. “All right.”No interrogation. No demand for a timeline. The restraint from the day before was still in place, thin but holding. Alex felt the weight of it as both relief and pressure. He nodded once and left before the quiet could turn into a conversation he wasn’t ready to have.---The east side of the library looked the same as last time. Same trees. Same stretch of benches. Stolas was already there, coat folded beside him,

Alex didn’t sleep much after the crack.The living room argument kept replaying—Troy’s voice when the fear broke through, the way he’d stopped himself from taking the phone, the look in his eyes that still wanted to own the exits. Proof and pattern in the same body. Stolas’s messages sat on the other side of it, calm and consistent, offering a life that didn’t start with a deal. By morning Alex was tired of standing in the middle measuring which pain was more honest.He found Troy in the study.Troy was at the desk with a laptop open and nothing useful on the screen. He looked up when Alex came in and closed the door. The tension from the day before was still in his shoulders.“You’re up early,” Troy said.“I didn’t really sleep.” Alex stayed on his feet. “We need to talk. Not about rules. Not about him messaging me. About what I’m doing.”Troy closed the laptop. His attention sharpened. “All right.”Alex took a breath and let the middle finally break.“I’m not choosing Stolas.”The w