Page 27 of His Coveted Obsession

“You would never let yourself be driven by instinct, I can tell.”

“I have once, but it was necessary. I also don’t have empathy; not how you experience it, anyway.”

I hover a strip of bacon over my mouth. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “It’s just how I’m built. Does that bother you?”

Was this a test? I felt he was testing me for some reason. “What do you mean? Like you don’t care whether people live or die?”

“Death doesn’t bother me. But if someone died who belonged to me, I would burn the world to the ground. There would be no end to my revenge.”

I dropped my bacon and cupped my hands over my mouth. “Oh. My. God. Why is that so hot?” Was it bad that I totally swooned over that? Maybe. I didn’t care. I wanted to belong to Easton and have him protect me like that.

“You like that?”

I nodded slowly. “I think I would feel the same way if that happened to someone I loved. Like if someone hurt Annie… but I’m not a fighter like you.”

“You should learn. I could teach you. Everyone should know some defensive moves.”

“Okay!”

I smiled as I popped a strawberry into my mouth. Being with Easton was going to be amazing.

Therewasnoneedfor me to be at work since I didn’t have an assignment, but I was bored, and I’d already visited Thomas at work, needing to see him, so I sat on the leather sofa in the lounge, scrolling through my phone, looking at Thomas’s social media.

HisInstagrampage didn’t have a lot, and he hardly had any followers, but there was enough to look at with all the selfies of him, full of smiles and dimples, while at work or at school. He had a lot of his sister, who looked like him, but her hair was a bleached-wheat color.

Then I froze when I saw the other man in Thomas’s selfie. He had brown hair and soft brown eyes. He was taller and too attractive. I didn’t like him at all, especially with his arm wrapped around Thomas.

I gripped my phone and read the caption. ‘Justin & me, chem class.’

Was this the boyfriend he had talked about? Were they seeing each other on the side? Did Thomas lie to me all this time? Thomas wasmine!

As the rage consumed me, I rushed out of the office without my coat and walked the single block it took to get to the coffee shop. When I entered, the place was quiet, being late morning. Thomas was leaning against the counter, chatting with one of his female co-workers.

When he heard me approach, he turned around to take my order before his eyes widened and his smile grew large. “Hey, East. I didn’t expect to see you back here. Another chai?”

“No. We need to talk.”

“Okay, give me a second.”

Thomas turned to face his co-worker. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

I walked over to the tables, but I didn’t sit, and instead paced as the anger consumed me. He headed my way, and I had to use all the control in my power to keep myself from choking him. Howdarehe lie to me. After I dealt with Thomas, I would deal with this Justin.

Thomas wasn’t smiling and now looked at me warily. “Hey, is… something wrong? You look upset.”

I opened my phone and thrust the image in his face. “Who thefuckis this? I was clear when I said no boyfriends.”

He scanned the picture, but instead of being apologetic and scrambling for lies, he chuckled. “Oh, that’s just Justin. He’s only a friend from chemistry class. He’s not even into dudes, not thatI’m interested in him at all. Justin’s cool and all, but there’s no love interest, East. There aren’t any men in my life. I swear, you’re the only one for me.”

The anger started to dissipate when I read no lies on his face and in his words.

“If it makes you feel better, I can delete the image.”

“Do it.”

Thomas pulled out his phone from his back pocket, opened hisInstagram, and removed the picture before showing me his screen. “Done.”

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