Page 91 of Beautifully Conflicted

“God, I hate you,” he mumbles against my lips, though since he doesn’t try to hide the fact he’s smiling, we both know what he’s really trying to say.

***

I’m not sure how many times I’ve stood in front of this red door, but I know for certain this is the first time I’ve done it without a tiny flutter in the pit of my stomach.

Wait, that’s not right. The flutter is there, but now it’s more of a jumpy, excited energy than a foreboding sense of dread. I’m a fan.

“Hey Damien,” Jagger opens the door little more than a foot, as if he’s trying to keep my identity from the rest of the house. I guess Bennet hasn’t filled them in yet.This should be interesting.“Did Aiden know you were stopping by, cause he’s not here. He said something about a project in the lab.”

“I’m not here to see Aiden.”

Jagger has just enough time to pull his brows together before the door swings open the rest of the way.

“Hey, come in,” Bennet says. “We’re getting ready to play some new card game Liam heard about.” He grabs my hand, which does not go unnoticed if Jagger’s wide eyes are any indication.

Bennet leads me into the living room with Jagger nipping our heels, spewing rapid fire questions about what’s going on and why we’re acting sus.

Bennet totally ignores him as he marches us in front of the TV, holds up our joined hands, and announces, “We’re a thing. Don’t make it a thing. And don’t tell anyone outside this room.” Then he tugs me to the couch and pulls me down next to him, so my thighs are pressed against his on my right and Liam’s on my left.

They really need more seating in this place.

Every set of eyes in the room is on us, though no one utters a word for a full three minutes, all the while Bennet pretends to be engrossed in whatever he’s doing to get organized for this game. Finally, he tosses a bunch of tiny white squares with words on the table and says, “Fine. Get it out of your systems.”

“Called it.” Jagger fists bumps Cam as Liam and Cruz exchange a knowing look.

“What sort of grace period should they get?” Jagger asks.

“Grace period?” I look to Bennet.

“The amount of time you get to make out in common areas of the house before he reminds you it’s technically against the rules,” Cruz says.

“Oh, right. I sort of remember hearing about this.” I sneak a peek at Liam—who told me about this rule way back when he suggested the hate Bennet felt for me was really something else. I give him a thank you nod since that conversation is the one that made me determined to pursue my feelings.

“We don’t have one,” Bennet says, “because we’ve got enough self-control not to do that shit outside the bedroom.”

Since our boyfriend status doesn’t have to remain secret in this house, I’m tempted to smack one on those full lips just so he’ll realize it’s not a big deal, but he’s already taken a big step by telling them about me, so I don’t put him on the spot.

“Yeah,we’ll see,”Jagger sniggers and bounces his eyebrows. “So, how does this game work, Liam?”

“It’s kind of like Cards of Humanity where the judge picks a prompt card and everyone submits their answer card that’s the best fit, except in this game there aren’t any answer cards. There’s a bunch of individual word tiles with nouns and verbs and adjectives and stuff, and you put them together to create your answer, then the judge picks the one they like best. We can do a practice round first, so you get the hang of it.”

We each grab a bunch of word tiles and spread them out in front of us so we can see allthe options.

Liam picks a prompt card. “Get someone who’s been in a coma since 2014 up to speed,” he reads aloud.

A glance at my words tells me this will be no easy task. My choices include things like lovely, goddess, aircraft, bite, protrude and some. Nothing really sums up the last decade, so I cobble together an answer that at least references some breaking news.

Since we each have a little metal tray to write our answer, and the word tiles are magnetized, we turn them over so Liam can’t tell who wrote what. Turning them over one a time he says, “Acquire beer money… Unlikely weather… UFOs seem lovely… Revolt incident advances fear… Seek alcohol.”

“UFOs seem lovely?” Jagger snorts. “How does that explain the last ten years?”

“They declassified documents where military pilots saw them a few years ago,” I answer.

“You’re not supposed to tell us which answer was yours,” Bennet says.

“I didn’t say it was mine, I said they declassified information about it. Anyone could have given that answer.”

“Yeah, but since you just clarified why that answer fits, we all know it’s yours,” Bennet points out.

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