“I did,” Lexington answers. “I figured it might draw attention were we unable to escape.”
Frowning, I shoot him a confused look. When did he do that?
“So it was just the two of you…stuck in the dark.” Sutton sucks on the hollow of his cheek, suspicion lining his eyes. “Together.”
“Well, there wasn’t time to have my way with her if that’s what you’re getting at,” Lexington snaps. Clearing his throat, he shoves the journal into my chest; I slap my hand against it to keep it from falling.
“What a strange thing to suggest,” Sutton says. “Your mind certainly has no qualms going there.”
“At least I’m allowed to go there if I want,” Lexington replies coolly. “Wouldn’t have to hide the fact that I’m in love with Elle if I wanted to pursue her or make things really fucking weird when she’s trying to tell me she was endangered because I’m an insecure piece of trash who lets his job dictate what he does.”
Sutton’s expression darkens.
Cursing under his breath, Lexington scuffs his shoe on the ground and turns to me. “I’m gonna get back to my dorm before more weird shit happens. Try not to get picked up by Death’s Teeth again, all right?”
I nod, a strange pit opening up inside me as he walks away. Guilt? Shame? I can’t ascertain what it is exactly—just that his leaving unsettles me.
47
SUTTON
I’m pouting.
It’s probably incredibly unattractive, but I can’t seem to help it. Once we’ve snuck away from the Obeliskos to my office, where at least we’ll be able to explain away our sudden meeting late at night, I can’t stop thinking about Lexington Abbott and the fact that he’s always around my girlfriend.
Who looks angelic with some of her hair tied back loosely with a green satin ribbon, matching the tight little sweater she has on. Her thigh-high boots land a couple of inches beneath her pleated, black skirt, and as she leans over my desk to flip through some old notebook for me, I can’t erase the image from Lexington’s point of view.
There’s this effortless charm that Elle possesses, where she captivates people without even speaking. It’s what makes her such a powerhouse performer; the audience feels her presence long before she even steps out onstage.
She’s intoxicating to watch do the most mundane things.
I can’t blame Lexington for being enthralled.
I’m not sure when I became such a jealous fucking caveman, but it’s as if Elle’s very existence has wiped me clean ofeverything. I know she wouldn’t cheat after we established boundaries—I know that.
Yet the fact that he might have entertained such a notion, even for a moment, is what pisses me off—more so the fact that I can’t do anything about it by claiming her publicly.
Elle glares at me over her shoulder. “Are you listening?”
“Yes.”
“What was the last thing I just said?”
I stare into her eyes, scraping the recesses of my subconscious for something. Nothing comes up.
“Fuck,” I breathe, reaching and pulling her into my lap, rolling us closer to the desk. “Okay, I’m sorry. I just can’t stop thinking about your prick of a friend.”
“Pretty sure you were the prick out there tonight,” she mutters into my hair. “He helped me escape the library I was trapped in, you know.”
“Yeah.” I open my mouth on the side of her neck, tasting her with the tip of my tongue. “He just seems so perceptive. It makes me worry he’s paying too much attention to you.”
“So what if he is?” she asks, her fingers sliding beneath my jaw, pushing my face up. “The only man I’m paying attention to is you.”
Smothering a smirk, I give her ass a squeeze and nod at the journal on the desk. “Okay, tell me what this is.”
She hesitates, then flips it shut, moving to show me the cover.
I squint, the air in my lungs evaporating as I read the dates scribbled there.
