Entangled

Chapter 19

Theus sat on the side of his bed, a slight draft blew through the empty room cooling the light sheen of sweat that had formed on his bare skin.

The sheets were scattered across the bed in crumpled disarray from the one night stand he had just fucked, and then thrown out.

She was a good enough lay, a leggy brunette who's name he had forgotten. This wasn't his first time with her, she gave alright head but her ability to ride was top tier, so she was a reoccurring character in his bedroom.

A month ago, sex with her would have been a decent way to spend an evening. But now even as he was fucking her his mind was replacing her with Liatta.

Her moans turned to Liatta's breathless gasps. Her pale skin was replaced with Liatta's velvet mahogany.

Visions of Liatta draped over his desk. Of Liatta with her legs spread open to take him deep inside her, were superimposed over every woman he had.

An inescapable reminder of the craving that was growing within him that refused to be satisfied, no matter how many women he bedded.

Theus grimaced. She had only been there for a few weeks and he was already this far gone.

All this time, he had thought he grew up and it turned out he was just looking for the tiniest excuse to be back on this bullshit again. It was laughable.

He should have moved past his childish need to care about other people years ago, but Liatta's constant presence in his mind was proof that he hadn't changed as much as he would have liked to believe.

He couldn't be that vulnerable again.

Cursing, he pulled his phone out to dial the next number.

~℘~

Liatta walked to Mr. Arach's office.

For the last three days she had been working, she supposed, as a sort of unofficial secretary to Mr. Arach.

It turned out the neat state his office was in the first time she had seen it, was not the room's normal state. A fact Liatta discovered when she came back the second day to find the room restored to its previous state of chaos as if she hadn't straightened it out at all.

Throughout the day Liatta had personally seen Mr. Arach double it. At first, she thought he was making a mess on purpose but there was something systemic and practiced about his actions, in spite of the mess they caused.

So Liatta had begun picking up after him, and soon it became a sort of routine. She wasn't just doing it because she couldn't stand the mess, though.

Mr. Arach's files were extensive. Liatta suspected that documents about most if not everything Mr. Arach had ever been involved in were stored there.

Somewhere in them, there had to be some information about Grimm and Anita.

Helping Mr. Arach was just a convenient excuse to investigate them without him noticing.

Liatta tugged at her collar. The cardigan she had layered over her sweater pushed her body's temperature over the edge from cozy to stuffy, but it was a necessary discomfort.

Since she had started working there, aside from that first day, Mr. Arach hadn't done anything to her. He was brusque but cordial and he had even stopped his nightly torture sessions.

Liatta would have loved to count this as a good thing and just assume he had gotten tired of his sadistic games, but sometimes, the way he looked at her...

When he was there, she would glance up and catch him watching her with hungry eyes that she felt on her skin, like too warm hands pressing her down to devour every inch of her-