“No, let me work it out, because contrary to your belief, while I might be young, I’m not stupid. Hmmm…Okay, so you were the one to pack up my things, and I already figured out that you must have separated them from the things that you let Xavier return to me.” She swivels her head as she thinks before locking eyes with me. “Oh, I know. You kept my things, knowing I would be desperate to get them back, which would force me to talk to you because I knew you were the one who packed my things. But you never lied to me about not packing them.”
I can’t even deny it. “Emery, I—”
“Once I went back and checked, it was easy for me to figure out. At first, I truly thought I was wrong, but nope, that you wouldn’t deliberately withhold my things from me. Not Derek, the man who loves following rules and believes in strict honesty. He would never do something like this. But, it’s all there, in our text messages. I checked on my Uber ride here.” She pulls her phone out of her back pocket and then starts reading from the screen. “Hi, Emery, I’m sorry to hear that your things are missing. I did not forget to pack your sketch pads and graphite set. I know how important they are to you.”
With hardened eyes, she glares at me. “You didn’t forget to pack my things because my things were packed in your bag,weren’t they? That is a rhetorical question—we both know the answer.”
She paces toward me, but I refuse to give up ground this time. I need to find my control, to get this situation back on the rails so that we can have a proper conversation.
“Baby girl—”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Emery—”
“The thing is, Derek, I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t even want to see you again. I thought I did, I thought I missed you, but that was the dickmatization.” She stops close enough that I can feel every single one of her huffed breaths against the bare skin of my chest. “But I was so fucking wrong. I don’t miss you. I hat—”
Before she can utter the words that will rip my chest apart, I lose my fucking mind, lean down and kiss her.
Chapter 82
Emery
I’m not even aware that my eyes are closed until Derek pulls back from the kiss and they flutter back open.
We only get a second of staring at each other before my fury overflows again, and I shove at his chest. “Don’t k—”
But he fucking cuts me off with another kiss, this one deeper than the press of his lips onto mine. His arms come around me,pulling me into him, one hand sliding up my back. My blood burns my veins as his tongue sweeps across my lips, parting them like he owns them.
Like I belong to him.
Fuck. No.
I slap my hands against his bare chest and shove us apart. “No, Derek…”
My voice trails off as his fingers slide up my neck and into my hair, slowly tightening until he has a grip strong enough to make my head tip back. The angle he has me in forces me to look at his stupidly gorgeous face.
Swallowing, I glare up at him. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t,” he breathes, leaning down to press our cheeks together, his nose close to my ear as he brushes his stubble against my cheek, which sends a shiver down my spine. “You’re mad at me, you want to hurt me, but you don’t hate me.”
“Yes, I fucking do. You’re a complete fucking asshole.” I enunciate every word through gritted teeth. “You manipulated me every single step of the way. You never let me make any of my own choices. Everything has always been on your terms.”
Derek chuckles as he pulls back, dark chocolatey eyes full of emotions I don’t want to acknowledge. “Baby girl, if you think the last few weeks have been on my terms, you are incredibly mistaken. We have been waiting for you. Waiting for any scraps you were willing to throw our way.”
“Let me go,” I demand, pushing against his chest to try and get more distance, very aware of the way my body is trying to betray me at his proximity.
“Use your safe word,” he goads, eyes hardening and fist clenching tight, sparking little pricks of pain along my scalp.
This time, I curl my hands into fists and hit him in the chest, but with how close we are, the impact is minimal. “I’m serious, Derek. Let me go.”
“That isn’tred, baby girl.” He tugs me even closer until our bodies are pressed so tightly together that I can feel every single hard inch of him.
And I do meaneveryinch.
My pulse pounds in my ears and my breathing quickens.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
