Me:What the fuck, Xavier? This is so not okay.
Xavier:I know.
Me:Either you take them down, or I will.
Xavier:No, that won’t be happening, little dove.
My heart tries to defrost at the pet name, but I force myself to remain strong. This asshole thinks he can fuck with me like this? Watch my every move while he isn’t physically in my space?
Fuck that.
Once everyone else is gone, I’ll go on a hunting spree until I find them all. But for now, I’m going to give him a reason to be as pissed off as I am.
“Hey, Will?” I ask, changing my phone over to my camera app and swapping it to the front camera.
Will breaks his stare with his phone to look at me, the frown pulling at his features smoothing out when he sees my smile. “What’s up?”
I take his water and place it on the coffee table. “Is it okay if I send a photo of us to my friend? I was telling her about you.”
His lips quirk into a smirk. “Been talking about me, Ems?”
I huff out a fake little laugh, pretending like I’m a little embarrassed at having been caught. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
He grins, blue eyes twinkling, but drops it. “How are we doing this?”
Taking his arm, I drape it over my shoulders again and snuggle all the way into his side. Literally. I can feel his chest expanding with each breath.
“Smile,” I order as I hold the phone up and snap a selfie of us.
Then I look up at him, making sure my smile is still in place, and take another one. Will looks down at me, and we are so close, I can feel his breath on my lips. My thumb taps the screen to get that photo too before I slowly lower my arm as Will’s eyes flick down to my lips and back up again.
Alarm bells blare in my head, but before he can lean down and actually kiss me, Vinnie calls out to him. “Alderidge, we gotta go. Dushane needs us.”
Will drops his head back onto the couch and inhales deeply as Vinnie comes back to the couch and starts packing up his stuff. I blink furiously and turn away from him, trying to calm the fuck down.
Will stands, taking his things with him and quickly packs his backpack before he turns to me and crouches down by my knees—again—one hand landing on my thigh and giving it a squeeze. “Message me if you need anything, okay?”
With how tight my throat suddenly feels, I don’t trust it to work the way I want it to, so I nod.
He stares at me for an extra second, starting to say something else, but Vinnie’s already at the door. “Dude, we gotta go. Now.”
With a sigh, Will heaves himself up and takes off, closing the door behind him. Oakley must have disappeared back to her room.
Why does it feel like I went through a washing machine on a spin cycle?
I raise my phone and go back into the messages with Xavier and send him the pictures of Will and me. Then I lock my phone, grab my sleep things from my bedroom, and head into the bathroom to get ready for bed.
If there are a dozen missed calls when I get back to my room, I wouldn’t know, because I click the button to clear all the notifications and then put my phone into Do Not Disturb mode.
Chapter 22
Derek
“Is he still there?” I ask as I hand Xavier his refilled glass, taking my place back at the poker table.
“No.”
That is all Xavier provides me with, and with how tightly clenched he has been for the last hour, it’s what I’ll have to be happy with. As much as I feel that the cameras in Emery’spersonal space are a breach of her privacy, having her study group projected up onto my TV as we play cards is mostly reassuring.
