Chapter 6
Rahat
I'd been awake most of the night, my body tingling with everything Rex had done to it, and yet the first thing I did when he went for a shower was open my laptop.
The notification had been sitting in my inbox, same as it had been since half two in the morning.
I'd spent all night thinking about it. About Adam and how he was going to fuck my life up all over again.
I’d stopped looking over my shoulder for him more than five years ago. He was a thing of the past. Done and gone.
Whatever Gabriel had said to him had been enough for him to leave me alone for six years. I couldn't understand why he was back now. Why did he want to screw up my life when I was so happy?
I knew I shouldn't but I opened the attachment sent with the email. It was textbook phishing, but I opened it anyway.
The code was perfectly formatted with proper indentation. It was the syntax of someone who cared about how the work looked as much as what it did. Adam was all about appearances. At the top, in comment format so it wouldn't execute was a simple note:
// still elegant, still perfect, even unfinished
I read it twice before taking a deeper look at the code.
My breath hitched. I wished I hadn't. I knew the code.
I'd written it in a private sandbox project that had never been published.
It had never lived anywhere outside a local backup drive.
I froze. What did it mean that Adam had it now, and why was he sending it to me?
"You good?" Rex asked, emerging from the bathroom, wrapped in nothing but a towel, and looking good enough to eat with the water still sluicing off his body.
I swallowed hard and shook my head. "I think it's time we talk about the man at the club," I said, making Rex's shoulders visibly sag as if the topic had been a weight between us that he was relieved to shift.
"His name is Adam Dexter. We never dated.
It was nothing like that. He just gave me a lot of attention.
Fooled me into thinking he was somebody special. "
Rex sat on the edge of the bed. "I know," he said while looking me in the eyes. "I spoke to Gabriel."
A flicker of irritation washed over me. Rex had gone behind my back.
He’d decided I needed looking after and done something about it.
I wasn’t sure what I felt about that. Angry maybe?
But instead, when I opened my mouth to yell at him, tears came instead.
Rex knew me well enough to know something was wrong and he’d gone out of his way to find out what.
I wasn’t used to anyone caring about me like that.
Rex was next to me, his towel damp against my leg. He pulled me in for a hug within seconds. I buried my head in his chest and relished the feeling of just being in his arms, still warm and slightly damp from the shower, and feeling safe.
"Did he hurt you?" he asked. "Gabriel said that you showed up shaken at Carina's one night. Do you think you can tell me what happened?"
I nodded and wiped the tears from my eyes.
"I was so fucking stupid." I shrugged and shook my head.
"You know Carina warned me about him. She was always good at reading people.
But I didn't listen. I liked the attention, and he treated my coding as something amazing and not something only a geek would do. "
"There's nothing wrong with being a geek," Rex said and kissed the top of my head, making me laugh. He was way geekier than I could ever hope to be.
"That's easy for a fucking Adonis to say."
I said the words lightly, with a slight chuckle in my voice.
But I meant it. Rex was…Rex was fucking devastating.
In his Forever Midnight jacket, he looked like a man built for violence.
But he was gentle and kind beneath the muscle and ink.
And he always felt one step ahead of everyone else, always watching, always putting two and two together and coming up with the right answer.
"Hey. I didn't always look like this,” he said. “I was a skinny, lanky teen, along with the rest of the geeks and nerds in high school."
I wasn't sure I actually believed him since I knew he'd been with Forever Midnight, basically from birth.
His father used to be a member, and those guys didn't breed them skinny.
I sucked in a deep breath and braced myself.
"He did hurt me," I said, my voice losing its strength as I avoided looking him in the eye and studied his chest. "But not in the way you're thinking.
We were working on a project. His project, but it was my code.
It was just meant to be a thought experiment to see what was possible.
I didn't realise he was planning to use it. "
Rex's arm tightened around me as I sniffed and cleared my throat. It was growing so thick I could barely force the words past the lump forming.
"I was finishing the last part of the code.
It was late. I hadn't realised that everyone had gone home and I was alone with Adam.
" I shrugged. "You know how it is. I was lost in the code, in wanting to prove I could do it.
" I gave a hollow chuckle. "Adam liked that about me.
He liked pushing me to show him how clever I was. "
Rex planted a kiss on the top of my head, and I stared at the tattoos on his chest as he gave me the space to speak. Just his being here, gave me a strength I never realised I was lacking.
"He came up behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders." I flinched, still remembering the way he'd dug his fingers into my skin. The pain that followed. Rex tensed as if bracing himself for my next words. "He wanted my work,” I said. “The back-up. Everything. I tried to leave."
Rex froze. Even his chest stopped moving as he held his breath.
A shudder racked my frame and I squeezed my eyes shut.
"He dragged me back by my hair, slammed my head against the door a couple of times.
Not enough to knock me out, just enough that I'd stop fighting.
" I swallowed. "He held my laptop against my throat and told me that everything I wrote belonged to him.
That, I belonged to him. I was just stupid.
It was a stupid situation to get into. The second he let me go I ran, and ended up at Carina's. "
"Why didn't you tell me this when I asked?" Rex said, his voice low and careful, even as his body tensed as if he was keeping himself in check. "I could have--"
"Could have what? Gone back in time and stopped a foolish nineteen-year-old from making a fool of herself."
He brushed his hand over my head and cupped my chin before lifting my head to face him. "What happened wasn't your fault. You know that right?"
"It sure feels like it was. But I'm not that person anymore.” I pulled back and wiped the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand. “I'm not that na?ve."