Page 4 of Heartless Game

“No.” I shook my head, heading toward the locker room. “You really don’t.”

2

Isaac

Iwas this close to being free and clear of Tovah, when I felt a tug on the sleeve of my jersey. Even in the cold, I could smell her: lemon and sugar. I’d never been able to identify the exact brand of perfume she wore, even though I’d once embarrassingly spent an hour in a department store sniffing so many perfumes, I got a headache.

Stopping, I turned, making sure to loom over her.

“What do you want, little snoop?” I asked.

She glared, but flipped her hair like she didn’t care about the insulting nickname, or the way it questioned her honesty and integrity. Close up, the pink color was even more distracting.

“You never responded about the interview.”

Goddamn it, that fucking interview. She’d emailed me three times to schedule it, and I’d ignored every single email. I wasn’t giving her an interview. That would require spending time with her, facing her, being surrounded by her sharp and sweet scent and having to look into those daring brown eyes. There was no fucking way.

I moved my eyes to the right, like I was trying to remember. “Didn’t I? I’m sorry, I thought I responded. My bad. The answer isno.”

I winked again, just to annoy her.

She shook her head, like I was a silly toddler. “Isaac, this interview is to help your team. Don’t you need some good press? Why would you turn something like that down?”

I hated that she wasn’t wrong. Last fall, Aviva had transferred to Reina to get revenge on our coach on her brother Asher’s behalf. In the process, she and Jack had met, fought it out, and fallen in love—and our coach, who’d turned out to be an abusive asshole, died. The team had been shrouded in scandal ever since.

But I doubted that Tovahreallywanted to help the team look better in the public’s eye. No, I called bullshit.

“Doesn’t the offer of ‘good press’ go against your journalistic ethics? I’m ashamed of you, Ms. Kaufman. I expected better. Maybe you’re a hackanda snoop.”

This time,sheraised an eyebrow. This time,shesmirked, like she’d caught me.

“So youdon’twant me to write a piece that features the Kings in a good light? Interesting. Is that on the record?” she asked.

Damn it.

“Why are you doing the interview, anyway? You’re the editor. Shouldn’t one of your underlings be doing the interview?”

Her cheeks colored. “The editor-in-chief wants me to do this one. Lucky for both of us.”

Interesting.Once again, her blush distracted me. Captivated me. I wanted to see that color all over her. Particularly on her delectable heart-shaped, curvy ass as I delivered hard slap after slap to it. In fact, I’d turnthosecheeks redder than her current blush. My cock stiffened from that thought alone. Fortunately, she wouldn’t notice. Unfortunately, it hurt like hell in my cup.

My breathing had picked up. So had hers. I wasn’t sure when it happened, but the two of us had moved in closer, narrowing the distance between our bodies so her big, juicy tits brushed against my chest.

Were her nipples hard?

Fuck, I wanted to bite them until she shrieked from the pain—and pleasure.

I shook it off, taking a step back. I’d never had these dark, almost violent inclinations with other girls. Sure, I’d played a bit—some light spanking here, some easy bondage there. But I’d never wanted to make a girl scream from pain as she struggled to get away from me, but I just pulled her closer and made her take whatever I fucking wanted to give her until she?—

Holy fucking hell. Get your head out of her pussy, Isaac, I scolded myself, alarmed by my dark fantasies. Ididn’t, couldn’twant her. She brought out my worst instincts, and not only sexual ones. I wanted to bruise her soft skin, spank her until she sobbed…and some part of me wanted to protect her from harm from anyonebutme.

“Tovah Kaufman,” I mused. “What is it about you that makes me fantasize about doing such fucked up things?”

“Oh, Isaac,” she batted her eyes at me. “Because I’m the only one who sees the real you—and that scares you.”

I stilled. “And why do you think there’s a ‘real me?’”

“Because I know what it’s like to have to hide who you really are,” she murmured, like she didn’t even realize she was saying it, so lost in the daze of this intense…energy between us.

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