Page 103 of Power Play

“We were always going to be over. I’m just putting us out of our misery,” she said. She pushed open the door and stood there, making herself impossibly clear. She wanted me gone.

I told myself this was the best outcome. My favorite outcome. Like when Janice broke up with me. That May right after we lost in the second round of the playoffs.

It saved me all the song and dance I usually had to go through.

Convincing Kit that it was me. Not her. That we were better as friends.

All of this was for the best. Exactly the way I liked it. Casual.

25

Kit

Ihave no idea why I did that. Honestly. I could have smiled and sent him on his way without baring my whole soul to the man.

I think I’m falling in love with you.Honestly. What was wrong with me? Had I believed that Mr. Playboy would hear my confession and say thank God, I’m falling in love with you too?

Maybe.

Okay, yes.

I had been so intensely happy the last two weeks. I wasn’t wrong to think he’d feelsomethingfor me.

It was the sex. Had to be. I would blame the sex for my momentary lack of control.

It was just… that he’d seen me. All of me. Not just my body. But the rest of it. He looked at me and it felt like he saw everything. But that was just him, you know? Charming, affable Liam Locke. All around good guy. Every woman he fuckedprobably felt this way. Like if they just did everything right, he would fall in love with them. Fuck. I was a mess.

I crawled into my own bed and pulled the blanket over my head and wished for sleep. Sleep was the solution. In the morning, I’d get up with Tess and get back to the job I’d been hired to do and I’d keep my hands and my filthy mind off Liam Locke.

In two days I’d head back to Portland and start a new life.

There was nothing to cry about.

Nothing.

So, I wasn’t sure why I was crying. It was probably the sex.

I must have dozedoff because I was awakened by a tremendous thump and a scream.

Tess!

I jumped out of bed and ran, my heart in my throat, to Tess’s room, where I found her on the floor, a hand to her head.

Blood everywhere.

“Tess!” I cried and slid to my knees in front of her. “What happened?”

She was crying too hard to answer me.

Carefully I pulled her hand away from her head to reveal a terrible gash. Dark blood pooling out of it at an alarming rate. Shit. That would need stitches.

“I woke up and wanted to read my books on the top bunk,” she said, huffing and puffing through sobs. “But you were right! I fell.” She wailed.

Liam pounded down the stairs and arrived in her doorway, breathless and scared.

“What? Oh fuck,” he breathed.

“She fell off the top bunk and hit her head,” I said. Without me asking, he pulled off his shirt and handed it to me to press against Tess’s head. “She’s going to need stitches.”

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