Page 97 of Vicious Little Games

I finger one of her red curls hanging over her shoulder and wrap it around my finger. “So then, what exactly has changed between us?” I can’t help but ask.

“As much as I hate to admit it, and wish I didn’t, I like fucking you,” Cass explains. “And if I outed you, then that would probably stop.”

“Probably,” I agree with a grin. “But not necessarily.”

“Is that the only reason you wouldn’t out me?” I ask as her lips find mine.

“Yes.”

I want to call her a liar. But then Cass rubs her wet pussy along my dick, and I decide to keep my mouth shut.

30

Cass

“Why don't you just give up on trying to beat me and just go back to New York?” I ask the gorgeous man tangled up in my sheets with me again tonight. I hope Cole stays until the sun comes up like he’s done for the past three nights. My bed feels so empty without him in it. I feel empty without him inside me.

It’s pathetic really. I should punch myself in the face. He has to leave. He has to!

But when Cole props his head up on an elbow with a smug grin on his sturdily handsome face, I forget why he needs to go away.

“If I left, who would make you come?” the cocky bastard asks. When I don’t respond to his question, he quickly sobers up, his smirk slipping away. “Wait. You’re serious? You really want me to leave? Like right now? On the next flight out to New York?”

“Yes,” I answer honestly, even if it’s only half of the truth.

“Jesus, Cassie. That's pretty damn cold even for you when I'm still lying here naked with you.”

When he rolls out of bed, getting ready to leave, a surge of panic tightens my chest. I grab his arm to stop him even though I know I should let him go. I need to let him go. I just wish I knew how to tell him the truth. “It's not...that's not how I meant it.”

“Then how did you mean it?” he asks, jaw clenched tight in anger.

“I need this, Cole. You’re about to finish your business degree. You can get any job you want while this life is it for me. This is my only chance to prove to my father that I'm not a silly, stupid, weak girl.”

With a heavy exhale, he lies back down on his side of the bed. His fingers reach up to comb my damp, sweaty hair back from my face. His serious eyes don’t even dip down to ogle my bare breasts. “You're not a silly, stupid, or weak girl. I know you could run this city just as well as I could. Probably even better. But…I can't give up.”

“Then you're going to lose,” I tell him. “I'll do whatever it takes to win.”

His hand drops from my hair. “Are you going to see Alistair again?”

“Probably,” I reply truthfully. The PI is growing on me. As a friend. If I keep seeing him, maybe it could be more. Probably not, but maybe. “You’re not going to kill him too, are you?”

I meant it as a joke, but Cole glowers at me. “Why?”

“Why would you kill him? Do you need a reason? You seem to be on a streak lately.”

“Cassie…” he growls. “Why would you see him again?”

“You know why.”

Cole scoffs. “Because you want to marry him? That’s fucking ridiculous, and I don’t buy it for a second. You and I both know you don’t want to fuck him. And I don't want him to lay a finger on you.”

“This, you and I, is only temporary, remember? You'll be leaving soon, one way or another, and I need to start planning my future.”

“You have plenty of time to plan the future!” he exclaims, sounding angry at me. “And there are other options.”

“Like what?”

Sitting up with his back against the headboard, he stares at the wall and says, “Like…I don’t know. You could ask Dante if you could come back to New York with me.”

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