Page 51 of The Spice Play

But she hadn’t said a word to me.

She was testing me, and I was losing my patience.

So, when Matty finally went down after a long day of school and hanging out with Nelly while I hit the rink for extra practice, I poured myself a single glass of whiskey to calm myself down and gather my thoughts while I mustered up the patience to trek across the lawn.

Every single interaction I’d had with Nelly over the last few days had been tense and quick and angry. I’d been distant with her as much as I could allow for, tried to keep things contained to the moments where Matty couldn’t hear, but it was horrible and grating and I was starting to lose my mind. I needed her to be civil with me.

And I was starting to need her in far more nefarious ways.

I was smart enough to know that it wasn’t good or safe or right to carry my frustrations into the bedroom with her, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t touched myself to the idea of shoving her down into the pillows and burying myself in her until she screamed my name over, and over, andover. It didn’t mean I hadn’t thought about painting her ass bright red and purple from slapping it, didn’t mean I didn’t crave the sound of her gagging around my cock.

Fuck.Even when I was angry with her, I couldn’t get enough.

I knocked back the rest of my whiskey and made sure that the little bit of blood pooling between my thighs wasn’t obvious through my pajama bottoms before I stepped through the glass sliding doors and walked across the stepping stones outside. I even gave a courtesy nod to Carl the House Goalie.

She saw me coming, though.

Relaxed on the couch with a mug of whipped cream in her hand and her feet up on the coffee table, I could see her through the glass doors of the guesthouse, her eyes locked on me despite the reflection of the glow of the television.

She hadn’t moved by the time I got to the door. Pushing aside my irritation at her reluctance to even get up and let me in, I tried it anyway — and it slid right open.She didn’t lock it?

“You’re usingyourcar tomorrow,” I said, throwing the keys into her lap as I shut the door behind me.

She picked them up and inspected them before letting out a disgruntled huff. “These aren’t my keys.”

Oh my God.I forced myself to take a steadying breath. “They are the same keys you have been using since you moved in.”

“Oh, you mean the keys toyourcar?”

My hands tightened into fists, and I shoved them into my pockets to keep them at bay. “Nelly, please. You know I have an away game tomorrow.”

She looked at me silently, the keys jangling in her hand as she lowered them. “I know.”

“I need to know that you can handle drop off and pick up tomorrow. And if you can’t… If you genuinely can’t, then I need to arrange for Dani to get him. And we’ll need to discuss this. All of this,” I swallowed.

Her gaze drifted down to the mug of whipped cream, her eyes focusing intently on it.

“Look at me,” I said, the words barely more than a breath. But she listened, and her head snapped right back up. “I need us to be civil enough to look after my son. Whatever that entails.”

Slowly, she lowered her feet from the coffee table and sat forward, setting her mug down. “I can’t accept the car, Sebastian.”

“I need you to.”

She sucked her teeth for a moment before she finally spoke again. “I can’t afford the payments on it or the insurance for it.”

“It’s already paid off, and I’m covering the insurance. You don’t need to worry about either of those,” I sighed,leaning back against the glass door and forcing my hands to unfist themselves. “Please just accept it.”

Scrubbing her face with her hands, she groaned again, and I tried not to react in a way that wasn’t appropriate for the situation. “It’s a whole car.”

“You told me to buy you one. Did you not? I didn’t even spend money on this, Nell, I’m giving you aspare.”

She glanced at me for a moment before she found something far more interesting in the whipped cream. “Fine,” she breathed. “I’ll take it.”

Thank God.“Great. So you can take him tomorrow?”

She nodded.

“And we can try to be civil, please?”

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