Page 48 of Forbidden Games

Becka got hot water going in an ancient-looking kettle and doled out loose leaf tea into two wire tea steepers. The few minutes it took to get the water boiling was enough to calm Lucy’s racing thoughts a little. “I’m sorry to drop in like this.”

“What are sisters for if not to be there when you need them?” Becka poured the hot water into two mugs and brought them to the table. “This is about Gideon.”

She started to deny it, but what was the point? She’d locked down everything after the Jeff fiasco, and all it had done was completely isolate her from the world. Maybe talking through it with her sister was the right choice.

“I... He changed the rules on me. I had a fully fleshed-out plan, and every intention of following through on it, but I didn’t anticipatehim. Our connection. He showed every evidence of wanting more with me—we even talked about it and he said so in as many words—and then I wake up this morning to find him gone.” She had to stop and focus on breathing for several moments. Even with the break, when she spoke again, her voice was strained. “I thought we were meeting tonight, but when I showed up to dinner, he’d set me up with another man.”

Becka’s blue eyes, so like Lucy’s, went wide. “I think you’re going to have to rewind to the part when you woke up alone. You hadsexwith Gideon?”

She’d left out that part of the plan, hadn’t she? Lucy cleared her throat and stared at the ever-darkening water of her tea. “We’ve been sleeping together since the initial agreement. It started out as a way to get my confidence back sexually, but things...changed.”

“They’ll do that when sex is involved.” She shot her sister a look, and Becka gave her wide eyes. “Not that I would know, of course. Your dear little sister is most definitely one hundred percent a virgin.”

She snorted. “I’d believe that if I hadn’t caught you and...what was his name?”

“Johnny Cash.” Becka laughed. “Don’t look at me like that. I know it wasn’t his real name, but I was eighteen and he was hot.” Her smile fell away. “So Gideon pulled a bait and switch on you? That’s seriously shitty, Lucy. I never pegged him for the type to play games like that, but I’ve been wrong before.”

“We Baudin women don’t have the best of tastes in men.”

“You can say that again.”

She was tempted to let them skirt into safer territory, but the raw feeling inside her only got worse with each minute that passed.

Lucy pulled her mug closer. “I promised myself that I wouldn’t fall in love again—that I wouldn’t even put myself in the position to do so. Feelings and caring on that depth only cause pain. I didn’t expect him. I couldn’t fight against the connection or the way he made me feel.” The burning in her throat got worse. “I thought we had a chance, Becka. A real chance. That maybe I didn’t miss my chance at a happily-ever-after, and maybe it could be with Gideon.”

“Oh, Lucy.”

She laughed, the sound vaguely liquid with unshed tears. “That’s very foolish, isn’t it?”

“It’s hopeful. There’s nothing wrong with hope.”

Except it was hope that had gotten her into this situation. It was because of hope that every beat of her heart felt as if someone were stabbing her. Hope had driven her to lay her heart bare for Gideon, and it’d gotten crushed in the process.

She took a drink, ignoring the way the hot water scalded her mouth. A small pain compared to her emotional wounds. “Screw hope. I want nothing to do with it anymore.”

17

Gideon didn’t look up as the door to his office slammed open. “Whatever it is, I don’t want to hear about it.” Keeping the damn door shut in the first place should have been enough to discourage anyone from coming in—anyone except Roman, that was.

But when he finally looked up, it wasn’t Roman kicking the door shut behind him.

It was Becka Baudin.

He stared for a long moment and shook his head. “No. Whatever you have to say to me has already been said, so get out.”

“It might have been said, but it wasn’t said by me.” She ignored his command and marched over to drop into the chair across the desk. She wore tennis shoes and neon-green workout shorts tiny enough to have him concerned about frostbite. When she shrugged out of her huge coat, she revealed a fitted tank top in an equally eye-searing pink. How it managed not to clash with her bright blue hair was beyond him.

“What the hell are you doing, walking around New York inJanuarywearing that? You’re going to freeze your ass off.”

She blinked and then shook her head. “You have a lot of nerve. I could appreciate that if you weren’t such an overbearing, selfish asshole.” Becka jumped back to her feet. Gideon caught several of the men from the cubicles gravitating toward the windows of his office and stalked over to close the blinds.

“Put on some damn clothes.”

She pointed at him. “Sit your ass down and listen to what I have to say, and then I’ll leave and take my apparently inadequately clothed body with me.” Becka pulled her ponytail tighter. “What the hell are you doing with my sister?”

“Nothing.”

“No, shit.” She looked like she wanted to throw something at him. “You know, Lucy doesn’t get why you pulled that sneaky little trick with the date.”

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