Page 44 of Anathema
Pulling away from him, the bite of the cold air on my cheek from where his warm hand once was caused me to lose a breath. Heading to the door, I quickly turned the handle and pulled it open before Derek could press me further.
“Lex—”
“You know, I’m pretty sure the entire floor heard the two of you.” Dean and his smug fucking face. He stood across the hall, resting his back against the wall opposite the door with his arms crossed over his chest.
I looked up and down the empty hallway.
“Where is Eli?” I demanded, angry that the asshole had already left, and I doubted he would ever want to talk to him again with all that had just happened in under a few hours.
I confessed to Eli that I had killed Monika, only for him to kiss me instead of kill me; then he got punched in the face by Derek, threatened by him, and then Derek went ahead and kicked him and Dean out just to fuck me in his bed. If that wasn’t a whirlwind of unfortunate and fucked up events for the day, I don’t know what was.
“He left for the CIA office. We’re meeting him there.” Dean nodded to Derek over my shoulder.
“And let me take a wild guess… by ‘we’ I am not included?” I scoffed, placing my hands on my hips and rolling my eyes.
“If it were up to me, I couldn’t care less, but after seeing what we just walked in on, I’m pretty confident Derek doesn’t want you within ten feet of Eli right now.” He shrugged, giving Derek a smirk.
I whipped around to face him, “I was here first; I need to—” he pressed a finger to my lips before I could finish what I was saying.
“We need him for an assignment, and if I see him near you again, even standing in the fucking same room as you, I’ll kill him.” Derek was blunt and to the point.
“But I—” I still needed my answers.
Now, what the hell was I supposed to do? Just wait for Adrian to come and get me? Why must all of the men in my life constantly find ways to piss me off and make things difficult?
“Unless you know something that we don’t?” Derek questioned, expecting me to agree that I knew nothing about Eli, no dirty little secrets—nevermind the fact that I murdered his ex-girlfriend as a task in my initiation for Anathema.
I hadn’t the slightest idea as to why they were working with Eli in the first place, and I bet that if I were to ask, Derek would tell me that it was classified and leave it at that. I had to assume they didn’t know about Monika or Eli’s knowledge of Anathema and that this assignment was completely unrelated.
Why did they need him? What was so important that the CIA needed some corrupt computer whiz to help them? It had to have been dark web-related, at least… I didn’t want to bring up Anathema right now, especially not with Derek. Not until I was ready to handle the consequences and fallout that would come with it.
What would he even think if he knew I was working for them? It was the same thought I had regarding Madison and Adrian’s relationship.
Shaking my head, I backed away from the door and headed towards the stairs that led down to the main floor of the apartment building.
“Lex,” Derek called out as I approached the staircase. I stopped and turned my head to face him.
“What is it, Derek?” I sighed, exhausted, running a hand through my hair while placing the other on my hip.
“I’ll see you tonight.” He licked his lips before crossing his arms and dragging his thumb across the bottom one, and my heart fluttered in my chest. I hate that he affected me this way. I wish Icould just let him go instead of clinging to the notion of keeping him.
Sucking in a breath, I nodded and proceeded down the stairs and out of the building to my car.
I could make this work, right?
Enemies with benefits, even though I knew his true feelings for me…
I was so incredibly fucked.
God-fucking-damnit.
Chapter 19
Derek
“Youwanttotellme what that was all about? Or are we just going to ignore the fact that you almost broke Eli’s jaw and then fucked Alexis in his bed shortly after?” Dean’s snide remark made me want to break his.
“Does it matter?” I shrugged, not giving two shits about Eli and his fucking jaw right now.
