Page 47 of The Game

And why is that, Adam?

It’s the same reason I don’t ask Janus for help. I’m embarrassed. I’m thirty-two, living in a tiny, rented apartment, and my business is going under. I studied electronics and computer science. I could be on a fat salary working for a bank, squirreling money away, and already sitting on a tidy sum. Am I such a sad sack that making breakfast for someone else is a thrill?

When did I become a hermit? In the conversation about the first event I attended with Anna, Janus told me I should get out more. But as my company has struggled, I’ve put more and more time into it and less and less time into anything else. It’s been a long slow slide. I haven’t even seen Janus and Fabian much over the last couple of years. Although Fab does turn up every so often to check on me.

When I arrive at Anna’s floor, she’s in a gap between interviews and I lean in to kiss her cheek inhaling the familiar smell of roses. I dump my bag on the floor and follow her into the kitchen.

“You went home for your clothes?” she says, smiling at me.

“Susie went to my apartment and got a load of stuff for me and brought it to the office. She told the wolves I was going away for a few days to avoid their bullshit doorstepping tactics.” I laugh. “Those were her actual words.”

Anna takes a beer from the fridge, hands it to me, and starts making herself a ginger tea.

“So … you’re stocking beer now?” I grin at her, and she flaps a hand at me.

I gesture back toward the elevator. “Have you thought any more about getting a bodyguard for yourself, Anna?”

She makes a face as she fills her mug with boiling water. “It restricts your life quite a lot because you have to decide if you want twenty-four-hour security, and then whether you’re ever going out without them.” She grimaces again.

I can see that, and I don’t want to push her. I don’t feel like I have the right to do that. A book is sitting on the counter next to her tea:Anna Karenina.

“A bit of light reading?” I say, picking it up, and she flashes me a grin.

“I’ve never read it, and Tolstoy is kind of compulsory in Russia. I never had the time.”

Her yoga pants and a soft top are draped over all her tight muscles. I’ve watched some videos of her matches, my jaw slack at the power behind herthumping shots over the net and the hundred-and-thirty-mile-an-hour serves. How strong is she?I said I’d teach her jujitsu.

“How about I take you to a jujitsu class while I’m here?”

“Oh! I’d love that!” She swings around beaming, then wrinkles her nose. “A class? Do you think that would work?”

I think of the club where I train in Midtown. Yeah, she’s right: It would be a shit show if the two of us went there.

“Perhaps you can give me a private lesson? I’ve got a gym here.”

I laugh. Of course she has. Hidden behind the myriad of doors.

I rub my hands together. “I can do that.” I’m not sure why the idea of throwing her around appeals so much, but I haven’t had the chance to work out for a few days. “What’s happening with your tennis training at the club? Is the press there, too?”

“Yeah. It’s a hassle. The paparazzi have been here and there every morning. Fortunately, the tennis facility is fairly impregnable, and the management has been very accommodating. I’ve given them some money for extra security.” She shrugs. “We could employ some security for your place, too, you know.”

I blow out a breath. “The security is poor, but I don’t know how it would work at the building I live in. There’s no lobby space, nowhere where a security guard could sit or stand, apart from outside the door.”

Part of me doesn’t want to talk about what my apartment in the Meatpacking District is like, and I certainly don’t want her funding security for me. It’s bad enough that Janus is paying for my PR, although Carly has been an absolute godsend. What would I have done without her?

“Someone got into the building yesterday. They tried to jimmy my front door open. Fortunately, the guy who lives next door caught them and called the police.”

She swings around, eyes wide. “Oh God, Adam, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want to worry you. Susie sorted it out. She got some man in to put better locks on my door. She’s talked to all the neighbors, who are pissed off, but more with the press than with me. I’ve been a good neighbor to a lot of them. I’ve lived there a long time.”

“I’m so pleased I persuaded you to stay here now. I’m sure I’m sounding like a broken record, but I’m so sorry.”

I reach out, curling my fingers over her arm, just stopping myself from jerking back at the hard muscles and smooth skin under my hand. “We both went into it with the best of intentions. It seemed logical to me after that first event. Neither of us could have foreseen what’s happened since.”

She nods. “I know. Doesn’t always feel like that when you’re in the thick of it, though.”

“True. Have you eaten?”

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