Page 36 of Reckless Games

“I need to go right now, Adam. I just need to think.”

He clamps his mouth shut, his jaw tight, and I sense him wanting to fight me on it, but he doesn’t. He’s silent as I walk away. As I leave his room in nothing but a robe, not caring who I cross paths with on my way back to my own.

And when I make it there, I lean against the closed door inside for what feels like hours. Because Adam’s been watching me. He’s always known who I am. And everything I thought I wanted has just been twisted into something sick that I can’t deny.

11

Lakeyn

“That’salotofinformation.” Stella stares at me with wide eyes, processing everything I just told her.

It’s impossible to keep it to myself, and since my phone was confiscated before I arrived at Midnight Manor, I can’t talk through my feelings with Ivy like I normally would.

Stella, being my closest friend here, was the next best option.

“And your name is actually Lakeyn, not Ivy?” Her eyebrows pinch in confusion.

“Ivy is my twin sister.”

“Okay, let me wrap my brain around this.” Stella pinches the bridge of her nose. “You’re telling me, you showed up thinking you were taking Ivy’s place. But really, Adam invited you on purpose because he’s been watching you for the last six months?”

“Basically.” Hearing my story boiled down makes it sound even worse. Especially considering it’s all true.

Stella laces her arm through mine. “All right. I think I get it now, and I see the dilemma. It’s a little stalkerish.”

She holds her thumb and forefinger an inch apart and scrunches her nose.

“A little?”

“Okay, maybe more than a little.” She shrugs. “But you’ve got to give the man some credit for knowing what he wanted. I mean, it’s not like he kidnapped you and forced you to be here. He sent you an invitation.”

“To his holiday sex party.”

“Which you accepted.”

She’s right. And I’m not sure where that puts me on this moral barometer of all things twisted.

“I mean, heisthe host of these things. And you knew that when you first met him, right?”

I nod.

“Exactly.” Stella squeezes my arm. “When you fell into bed with the man who runs the show, did you really expect whatever dirty kinks he enjoys there to be the extent of his dark side?”

“I don’t know, maybe?”

Stella ticks an eyebrow up at me.

“Okay, no, I didn’t,” I admit. “But that doesn’t mean I thought he was the kind of person who would spend six months stalking me before secretly luring me in.”

“Fair point. It's definitely not the traditional meet cute.”

“Understatement of the century.”

“But Lake, you also haven’t left yet.” Stella spins me to face her, pausing. “If you’re really that freaked out, then tell me why you’re still here. Because I get it, the invite says no one leaves until New Year’s, but we’re not actually being held hostage. If you wanted to go, I’m sure he’d let you. Yet you haven’t tried.”

“What’s wrong with me?” I bury my face in my hands because she’s right.

Stella loops her arm through mine and continues to tug me along with the rest of the group, as we’re ushered to one of the many unseen living rooms.

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