Page 58 of Covenant

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I take my time in the shower. I use every minute to pull myself back together. To try and remind myself of why I hate Matthias.

He’s the reason you got arrested.

He almost cost you your scholarship to Yale.

He didn’t speak to you for years.

He took over your firm.

He was given the promotion meant for you.

He did fuck all to stop you from being fired.

He insisted you marry him, despite knowing you hate him.

I square my shoulders, reminding myself of all of this. Matthias is not my friend. He hasn’t been for a very long time. We aren’t children anymore. The Matt and Wy who could read each other’s minds don’t exist.

He doesn’t have my best interests at heart. This is all part of an act.

I’m a means to an end for him. Nothing more. What happened tonight doesn’t change anything.

Then why can’t you stop thinking about how he tasted? How he pressed on the front of his pants while watching you get off?

I twist the handle of the shower and let the ice-cold water blast me. I force myself to stand there until I’m shivering, until I can’t think about anything other than stepping out from the spray and getting warm.

Brain finally quiet, that’s what I do. I go through my nighttime routine, dragging out each individual step as long as possible. Teeth. Water flosser. Moisturizer. Hopefully, if I take long enough, Matthias will be asleep when I finally head back to the bedroom. I even rub some of his fancy body cream all over my body, anything to stretch out the time a little longer.

I regret it almost instantly. His scent surrounds me now.

I smell likehis.

I’m tempted to get back into the shower and scrub myself clean again. But that’d be weird. Matthias would hear it and wonder why.

Maybe he’ll think you’re jerking off again. Perhaps come in for another viewing party.

That thought is enough to have me tucking the towel firmly around my waist and heading for the door. The last thing I need is to play any more games with Matthias tonight.

It’s fucking with my head more than I’d like to admit.

Matthias seems to be of the same mind. He’s not asleep, but he’s not jerking off either. No, he’s propped up on a pillow, his brow furrowed as his eyes race over the book in his hands. My lips twitch as I notice the glasses perched on the end of his nose. I didn’t know he wore those. He didn’t when we were younger.

He doesn’t look up as I go to my suitcase. The one I hadn’t emptied yet. It’d been missed by whoever put away the rest of my stuff, which is good considering it held all my underwear. I’ve been living out of it, clinging to the reminder that this was temporary. Flipping open the lid, I frown. “Where’s the stuff from this case?”

“In the drawers,” Matthias sounds distracted, turning another page. “And in the closet.”

I whirl to face him. “Why?”

“You’re going to be here for a year. You may as well be comfortable here.”

There’s too much logic in that for me to argue with. “You didn’t need to do it for me.”

He finally looks up from his book. His eyes sweep over me before settling on my face. “Well, you weren’t doing it.”

“I was getting to it.”

“It’s been a week, Wy.”

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