Married to the Devil

Chapter 9

A rustling sound to my right awoke me from my deep slumber.

I blinked twice, my eyes adjusted to the light streaming in through the opened blinds hanging on the window opposite of me.

"I brought you breakfast."

The familiarity caught my attention and I zipped around to stare at him. Derek leaned against my bedroom door, arms crossed, and held a Timmie's bag.

Great. He was back.

I stared at him, almost in shock, and he stared back with an unreadable expression.

It was the first time in a week that I'd seen him. He was finally home.

I eyed the bag suspiciously and then shook my head in disagreement, home?

No. This could never be home.

Not for him anyway.

I sat up, and he uncrossed his arms, walking towards me in slow, tentative steps. He watched me, his green eyes tired from our constant fighting and bickering. It wasn't hard to see why he was acting like this; I was on edge too, after our last encounter had ended in tatters.

He reached out his hand and handed me the bag. I accepted it and was surprised to see the contents.

All my favorites. My fingers crossed over the warm bagel with butter, the double chocolate doughnut next to it, and a Starbucks latte.

This is what I'd loved as a teen. I was surprised and somewhat touched that he'd remembered.

My eyes met his, still suspicious of what brought on the gesture.

"You know, most people in your position would say thank you." He muttered gruffly.

"Why did you come back?"

He shoved his hands in his pockets in one swift motion, "Wow. Nice way to welcome a guy back."

I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he serious?

When I didn't reply he continued after a brief sigh, "As much as you might not like it Katie, I've got to start living here. If Evelyn comes back to check up on us, and she will, we need to pretend to be every bit of the happy couple that Katniss and Peeta were."

I shoved off the covers a little to fold my arms over my chest, "Except that Peeta and Katniss actually did love each other, only, Katniss didn't realize it until later."

He cocked a brow at me, in that look again. Like he didn't want another fight and was trying to be mellow with me.

"So you're saying...?" He trailed off, patiently waiting for my answer.

"I'm saying that we are not like Katniss and Peeta at all. Neither of us can fall in love with each other. It will never happen."

He examined my features slowly, trailing over my messy bed head hair, my unfreshened face and then to my lips pulled into a slight pout. I shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.

"Of course not." He replied finally.

I released a breath that I never knew I'd held, and stood, after carefully placing my breakfast on my night table.

My bare feet on the cold morning floor made me shiver and instinctively wrap my sleeping robe around my body. Derek stood in front of me, about six feet tall, arms folded over his broad chest.

"I'm glad that we can finally agree on something," I said quickly, "But if we're going to live together we need some ground rules."

I walked over to my desk on the other side of the room, opened up a drawer, and pulled out a roll of tape. I ripped out a long strip and stuck it to the floor, in a rough outline of half the room.