“Like I said, it—”
“And you certainly weren’t going to the bathroom, so what were you doing in here?” he cut me off, his eyes predatory.
The remembered nail drilled through my breastbone, pinching a pressurized cry dead center in my chest. “I don’t know what the fuck broke in your brain to make you think it’s okay to barge in on a woman when she’s in the bathroom, but you need to back up right now.”
Derek hummed through a tight-lipped, lazy smile before releasing a breath of humor through his nose.
“Reyes told me to keep an eye on you, so that’s what I’m doing.”
“I don’t think he meant to follow me into the bathroom,” I grit out.
“And you know what he meant, right? Because you two are so close?” He leaned a shoulder against the door frame, crossing his arms. “Tell me, Scarlett, just how close are you and Reyes?”
Pushing my shoulders back to try and appear unphased, I snapped, “Why, are you jealous?”
His eyes turned glassy, the tilt of his head vulturous.
“Maybe.”
This new look about him flipped my stomach in on itself. No. The fire inside roared, screaming with flames of fury to run. Now. Run now and don’t look back or else.
‘Or else’ unfolded his arms and tested a foot inside the bathroom, narrowing the space between us. I swallowed, or at least tried to swallow, past the lump in my throat as his black shoes fell across the white tile floor.
Though my voice shook, I tried like bloody hell to hold onto my confidence. “I’ll be sure to tell Reyes you want a closer relationship with him when he gets back.”
Derek gave a half-laugh. Then he took another step.
“You’re funny. Not my kind of humor, but I can tell Reyes likes it. I think he likes a lot about you.”
“Do you have a point you’re trying to get to in this creepy fucking analysis or can I go?”
My eyes felt like they had a heartbeat of their own as they cut to where Derek settled a hand on the counter, his palm laying flat as he used it to anchor himself another step inside.
Has it been fifteen minutes yet?
“Yeah…” he drew his voice out, his vocal cords grating a low, ominous note against each other.“I guess it’s more of a question than a point.”
His stare started on the floor and rose like a tracing finger up each inch of my body. Suddenly, the jean shorts and V-neck shirt I was wearing felt invisible, and I felt exposed in ways I never wanted to be ever again. It was as if his stare was touching me, leaving trails of slime and perversion sticking to my skin.
Anxious breaths wrecked my lungs as he violated me with his eyes alone, sick pockets of sunken filth finding my face.
“Exactly how long into this honeymoon road trip before you fucked Reyes, and how much longer do I have to wait for my turn?”
Derek’s features morphed right before my eyes to something wolfish and sharply cut, his stance prowling and readying to pounce. Nightmares I’d tried to forget rolled forward, crashing up against walls I’d put around them and spraying out over the top. Each splash of memory seared and sizzled the pain of them so deeply, I thought I might die before Derek ever even touched me.
“I’d rather choke to death on a limp hairy dick than touch yours,” I managed to bite out.
Derek’s mouth popped open, his chin tilting up just so before he closed his lips. He shook his head while I watched his hands by his sides turn into shaking fists.
“You are such a bitch.” He threw his curse down between us, bouncing off the bathroom walls to smack against my chest as he tossed his hands up too. “I was joking. I didn’t expect you to actually sleep with me. I was just teasing you about sleeping with Reyes, for God’s sake.”
“Excuse me?”
His ugly mug pinched together in disbelief.
“Oh, don’t try to even lie. I’m not going to report either of you to your dad if that’s what you’re worried about.”
My head was a whirlwind of confusion as I tried to keep up and pay attention to the changing course of this conversation while dealing with that nagging nail still poking at my chest.