𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐫 || 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐊𝐰𝐚𝐧

Chapter 15

Vernon didn’t delay at the packhouse. Concerned by how brittle Seungkwan had seemed that morning, he decided it was better not to leave him alone for too long. He returned to the cottage, pausing at the back door when he heard voices around the front. At first, he thought it must have been the delivery of hay bales, but the conversation was too intense for a mere delivery.

He made his way around the side of the house, pausing again when he heard Seungkwan’s voice. Another voice answered him. The infamous Stewart, at a guess. Torn between moving away to give them privacy and interrupting, he opted to say where he was. Seungkwan’s history with Stewart seemed less than stellar, and the anger in the agent’s voice was clear as day. He listened in, learning that the source of Stewart’s anger was what had happened with Simon.

“I told him how attached you are to your non-existent grandmother.”

Stewart’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “It bought us some time, but he’s furious, Thomas. You royally fucked that up.”

“It wasn’t a dinner like you said, Stewart. I was up in his penthouse, there were three other alphas there, drunk and high—”

“Do you ever want to work in the industry again?” Stewart demanded, interrupting Seungkwan mid-sentence.

“You know I do,” Seungkwan said quietly. “This is my life.”

“Really? Because I’m starting to feel like I’m wasting my time and effort on an ungrateful, spoiled omega.”

There was a long silence, broken only by the crunch of feet on gravel.

Someone was pacing, and Vernon would bet money it was Stewart.

“The good news is, this is fixable. Simon is throwing a party this weekend. On the top floor of the Saturn nightclub. Very exclusive, VIP, invitation-only. If you were to be there and be very… obliging, to make up for yesterday, all may be forgiven.”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable after what happened yesterday.” There was clear reluctance in Seungkwan’s tone. “All Simon could talk about was the sex tape and how he wanted—”

Stewart interrupted again, his tone pushy and aggressive.

“Simon is your best chance of working in the industry again. Isn’t that what you want?”

“Yes,” Seungkwan said. “But…” If anything, the reluctance in his tone grew stronger. “You know the kind of movies Simon produces. They’re all R-rated. The only roles he ever has for omegas are basically porn. I don’t do those kinds of films; I don’t play those sorts of parts.”

It was a reasonable argument. Vernon had seen a few of the movies Seungkwan was in—romances, romantic comedies, a thriller or two. A world away from Simon’s playground.

Stewart scoffed at Seungkwan’s objection. “What choice do you think you have now, with an image as tarnished as yours?” He changed tack then, sounding suddenly earnest. “This is a good move for you, Thomas. More scope, more grown-up roles.”

Vernon suspected he didn’t mean the complexity of the roles as much as the sexual content.

“Maybe we could just wait a bit longer for this whole thing to blow over,” Seungkwan said.

Stewart laughed. “Blow over? It’s all over the internet, Thomas. The first thing that anyone finds when they search your name. It’s never going away.”

Vernon took an involuntary step forward, his hands clenched into fists. But he forced himself to stop when Seungkwan spoke again, the omega finally getting angry.