Page 129 of Forbidden Game

I roll over, facing the wall, and will myself to fall asleep.

But that’s the thing; when you want to fall asleep, your body won’t let you. My brain just keeps playing through what the next forty-eight hours will entail.

The only way I’d been able to distract myself today was by streaming with the lads. Now that I don’t have a game in front of me, my brain won’t shut up. It keeps running through every scenario.

Eventually, I hear the snick of my door opening again.

I should have locked the damn thing.

“Aleksander, I’m trying to sleep,” I growl. “Come near me, and I’ll kick you in the balls. We’ll see how much Stevie likes you with a purple dick.”

“He’s just looking out for you. Which is why he texted me.”

I still at Sydney’s voice. A cool breeze grazes my back as she lifts the sheets and climbs in behind me. It takes her a second to scoot all the way across the large bed, but, finally, I feel her next to me. Her cherry scent washes over me, and I take a deep inhale, letting it flood my system.

She lines her chest up with my back and conforms her body around mine. I lift my arm so she can wrap hers around me, and then I clutch her hand in mine.

The contact of her skin against mine quiets the buzzing in my brain.

She doesn’t say anything. She just lies there. And somehow, it’s exactly what I need. It’s the reassurance that she’s there for me.

I focus on the feeling of her chest rising and falling against my back. The soft rhythm paints a pattern that I follow.

“My family is going to be there,” I tell her.

The text from my grandfather earlier had been a confirmation that he was heading over from Kensington with my parents and Paige.

“And so will thousands of other people.”

“Yes, but those thousands of people don’t know that if I lose, the board will eat my shares like the Last Supper.”

She’s quiet for a beat, and I can’t help but fill the silence this time with something. Everything feels too real.

“I’m going to be poor if I lose.”

“You’re never going to be poor, Parker,” she snorts.

“If I lose my inheritance, I won’t be a multibillionaire. I’m not even sure I’ll still be a billionaire.”

“You won’t be poor even if you’re a millionaire, Parker; that’s not how the world works. And I’d like you regardless, unfortunately.”

“For the record, I would never be a millionaire, love. I’d at least be a multimillionaire.” I wrinkle my nose in offense. My streaming income and the revenue I make off this apartment complex guaranteed that.

“So dramatic.” I can feel her rolling her eyes at me, and some of the tension releases.

“It’s not about the money,” I whisper, my voice threatening to crack.

“I know.”

“You know?”

“Yeah, Parker, I know. I haven’t spent the last five years with you to not understand you.” She lets out a sigh, and her chin nuzzles against my shoulder. “It’s your pride.”

Her accuracy is on point, her shot sniping me right in the heart. I struggle to speak for a second, panic rising at how naked I feel. It feels like all my cards are on the table, and she’s just flipped them all over, revealing every part of me.

“I don’t want to disappoint them.” I don’t want to disappoint myself. “I want to prove that I can still be a Covington even if I forge my own path.”

“And you’ll prove that,” she whispers. “I’ve seen how much you’ve improved in just the last twelve weeks. Imagine where you’ll be in a year.” There’s such reverence in her voice. Such belief. “You could take over the world, Parker, if you wanted to. Your family will see that.”

---