Page 70 of A Game So Reckless

But what if that ruin is the one thing that can save me?

What if, by giving Darragh my virginity, I can escape a future marriage I don’t want?

Or at the very least, maybe I can buy myself some more time while Papà decides what to do in the fallout.

My stomach flips. My palms sweat.

It’s an insane idea. Absolutely batshit crazy.

It would mean giving more of myself to Darragh than I’d ever seriously considered before.

But it also might be the first time in my life one of my own choices actually means something.

By giving him my body, I could be gaining back some small slice of control over my own destiny.

I stand up, trying to clear my head. I’m so overwhelmed with questions and possibilities that it feels impossible to think straight. Standing up doesn’t really help, so I walk shakily to the edge of the pool, take a deep breath, and dive.

Cool water surrounds me. I don’t move my arms. I don’t swim yet. I just let momentum carry me down, down, down. When my body begins to float back up, I kick, propelling myself to the surface and sucking in a huge breath. I tread water for a moment, then swim to the ladder.

Pulling myself out, I think that I need God or fate or the universe or someone to give me a goddamn sign. A clear indication of if I’m irredeemably insane, or just a little bit reckless.

I look up at the clouds, but I don’t see anything that could be considered a sign up there.

I look down at the droplets of water dripping from my body on the flat stone that surrounds the in-ground pool, but I don’t see one there either.

I look straight ahead towards the glass doors that lead inside the house.

And there it fucking is.

Thereheis.

Darragh Gowan is standing in my kitchen.

I remain utterly motionless, apart from blinking pool water from my eyes. Because, surely, I am so far gone now that I am hallucinating things.

But no matter how hard I blink, he’s still there.

It makes no sense. Did he break in?

He couldn’t have. We have fences and weapons and a guard at the gate.

He can’t be here.

But he is.

Apparition.

He’s dressed in his usual jeans and a tight white T-shirt. His arms hang loose at his sides, but there’s tension in him as his gaze tracks slowly down my body, all the way to my painted toes, and then back up. My nipples go hard beneath the soaked fabric of my bikini.

I’m so stunned by the sight of him that I almost don’t even notice my father enter the kitchen behind him. Papà says something, and Darragh turns to follow him deeper into the house.

He doesn’t spare me another glance.

Like he never even saw me at all.

Chapter28

Darragh

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