Chapter 20 Lexie #2
A low-grade headache starts to pound against my skull. I need water. Between the sugar and wine, my entire body is probably severely dehydrated. I grab a coconut water from the fridge and slam half down, but I need aspirin. It’s a doctor’s office… he must have some, right?
The nurse said I could help myself, so he can’t be too upset if I dig around for aspirin.
I open drawer after drawer, finding office supplies, the snacks the nurse mentioned—if gluten free, organic protein bars even count—and a stethoscope.
But no aspirin. With my headache pulsing, I yank open the last untouched drawer and rummage through more notebooks and supplies, until my fingers close around a crumpled-up Post-it note. Curiosity gets the best of me.
“Olivia, Feb 13, 1pm, Silver Crescent Hotel, Financial District.”
Olivia. The date clicks—it’s the same day I saw Theo and that woman at the hotel.
Who is she? My hands scramble, reopening the drawers with new intent, searching for any scrap of buried information. There has to be something else in here.
But at least I have a name now.
It’s not much to go by, but it can help narrow down the online search a little more.
My headache already forgotten, I hastily pore through his notebooks, hoping something will reveal itself. I’m so focused on what I’m doing that I barely notice a presence in the room—until they clear their throat. I look up, jumping out of my skin when I see Theo.
He’s deathly silent and I can hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears. I offer what I hope is an innocent smile. “Oh, ah, hey,” fuck, fuck, fuck. “The, um, the nurse said I could grab a snack from your drawers if needed.”
My face is on fire. My chest even more so. If I look him in the eye any longer my irises might scorch. “Hope that’s okay.”
He crosses his arms, and I know he sees through my lie. I’m literally gripping a notebook in my hand with no snack in sight. I clumsily stand up from the chair, and it rolls back on its wheels until it hits the file cabinet.
“And, um, sorry I was sitting in your chair. Is that weird? It just looked so much more comfortable than the other one.”
I need to shut up.
Flames have taken over my entire body. His fingertips wrap around the notebook and I release it immediately. “This doesn’t look like a snack.”
His tone gives nothing away. The room feels suspended, as if time has stalled. He rests the notebook on his desk and takes a step towards me. I back away. He follows. “Lexie.”
The harsh sound of my name on his tongue sends fear running through me, and my heartbeat thuds louder.
I’ve seen a lot of versions of Theo. Overly charming, considerate, raging, heated, maybe even possessive.
But this one is different. This is calm.
Stern. Calculated. I step back until my ass meets the file cabinet.
“Lexie,” he says again, inching so close to me that I feel the static between us. I plant my palms behind my back to brace myself. I can’t run. There’s nowhere to go. I can’t scream. And I can’t fight him off. He’s too strong.
A heavy swallow rolls through my throat.
He scoops the hair cascading down my shoulder and lays it behind my back.
And leaves his hand. One second, two seconds, three.
My heartbeat shoots to my neck. His handprint carries the buzzing vibration of a dirty hymn sung by a church’s rejected sinners.
I know he’s a doctor and touches bodies all day. Maybe he’s desensitized.
But I’m not.
“You know what I think?” he says, calmly, his breath warming my ear, his palm pushing into me, and God these terrible, Judas tingles spread across my skin. “I think you were sneaking around my office, touching things you shouldn’t.”
I shake my head, pressing my ass even further into the cabinet to create more space between us. “No, I wasn’t. I told you… I was looking for a snack.”
God, I sound pathetic. He absolutely knows I’m full of shit.
There’s the smallest hint of a grin at the corner of his mouth. He pulls in a breath and slowly releases. His palm is still pressing against my upper back, pushing up my chest, and my breasts brush against him.
“I want to know why you’re so curious about me.
” His voice is steely calm, and I hate, hate, that my core tightens with his touch.
I want to run and scream and hit him, but unwanted moisture pools between my legs instead.
His body is too close. The air turns heated, as his fingertips begin to dig into my flesh.
“If you had a question for me, all you had to do was ask.”
He puts his mouth back to my ear, the quickest brush of lips meet my earlobe, and my head involuntarily tucks against him.
I shiver with the sensation, hating myself, my body, hating him.
How dare he? Heat rushes to my core. I can’t stop it.
My chest is lifting and lowering quickly, my heart is pounding.
His mouth is still right at my ear. “So go ahead, Lexie. Ask me your questions. I’m dying to hear what was so important to you that you’d reduce yourself to a thief.”
Fuck him. Like I just plunged into an ice bath, my body screeches to a halt.
I push at his chest and he steps back. “I was trying to find a snack, asshole.” I yank my jacket and purse from the chair, trying to ignore the imprint of his palm branded into my skin.
“Listen, I really appreciate what you did for my mom. But if you ever corner me like this again, I’ll slam my elbow into your nose, and you’ll be the one who needs to go to the ER. ”
I storm out the door.
But somehow I know that whatever this is, is far from over.