Page 68 of Games We Play
“People are already talking about us around town, darling.” Sloan took Leah’s hand on top of the table. She received a happy grin for her troubles. “I’m not afraid to own up to whom I’m dating. I’m not the type of woman to keep you in the dark – well, notthatkind of dark. There’s a lot of fun to be had in the dark.”
Those giggles were melodic. “I still can’t believe this is happening.” Leah didn’t react when Sloan reached into her bag and pulled out a black velvet box. “The way we met… how fast things have been going… this is like a dream come…” She noticed it now. Her face was so white that she almost passed out.
The reporter was likewise excited. His pen flew across the pages of a notepad, and he barely had the coordination to ready his cell phone for an opportune shot.
Great. Everyone thought she was proposing. It was Valentine’s Day, after all, and she had a little black box in her hand.
“Open it.” Sloan slid the box across the table. “Consider it your Valentine’s Day present. No, wait…” She would relish this. “Consider it your reward for thinking about me so much.”
Was that disappointment? Or a glimmer of relief in those gray eyes? Either way, Leah slowly popped open the box and stole a peek at the sparkling diamonds that would make any woman gasp.
Good. She already likes it, and she doesn’t know what it is.Sloan’s plan had worked. What better way to take out the trash from her life than to re-gift it into something splendid and new?
Maybe imbue it with new meaning?
“Oh my God…” Leah pulled out a delicate bracelet and held it up to the table’s candlelight. “This isgorgeous!” Three large diamonds dangled from the top of the bracelet. Leah held out her wrist and allowed Sloan to snap the silver chain into place. “Where did you get something like this?”
“I had it custom made.” It was the truth, too. Sloan personally entered the jeweler’s and went over a design she had kicked around in her head for over a week. Ayla was the one who picked it up, but it was Sloan’s creative brain that brought it to life.
“The settings look vintage.”
“They are,” Sloan said. “They came from my collection. They were sitting around collecting dust, and I thought that maybe it was time for someone else to make use of them.”
Leah held her wrist up, eyes twinkling with delight as she admired the way the bracelet fell against her skin. “Where would I wear something like this?”
“When you’re with me, of course.” Sloan leaned in closer. She barely waited for Leah’s consensual cue before kissing her.
She never intended to keep the kiss tame. Not even in a classy place likethat. Since when am I classy? Ask anyone around Chicago, and they’ll tell you I’m a demonic monster of bad manners.So what if she slipped her girlfriend a little tongue at the dinner table? Leah slipped some right back!
Sure, half the room sent them dirty looks, but Sloan would take them in stride as she sat back, hand still wrapped around Leah’s. “Happy Valentine’s Day, precious. It’s already the best one I’ve ever had.” She didn’t wait for Leah to respond. “It’ll be even better once I tell you that you’ll be wearing that bracelet a lot when I begin taking you to my parties. As my official girlfriend, of course.”
Leah struggled to keep up with everything happening so quickly.Slow down, before you give the poor dear whiplash.That was Sloan’s middle name some days. Not Desiree, as her birth certificate liked to claim.Whiplash.People often said she made them look twice, because one minute she was quiet and content, and the next? Bam! She couldn’t sit still. Didn’t know how. The silence, the stillness – it killed her.
The more silence, the more thoughts in her head. The more stillness, the more likely she was to be caught in another web of deceit.
“Leah?”
She let out her pent-up breath of amazement. “Wow, Sloan, I… this is a lot happening right now.”
“I’m not asking you to move in with me.” Sloan sipped what remained of her wine. “I’m asking you to go steady with me.”
“Still, I thought you weren’t the relationship kind?”
“Sometimes you meet someone who makes you reconsider.” Besides, Sloan often mused, she would need someone like Leah in her corner when she put her plan to leave Giles & Sloan into action. “Maybe it was fate we met that day.”
“On my birthday.”
“Yes, and now I’m asking you to be my girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. What, did you think I flew you out here in the middle of your work week for a mere hookup? Please. I could’ve waited for the weekend for that.”
Leah squeezed her girlfriend’s hand. “Thank you. For everything.”
“Why are you thanking me? You’re the one who said yes.”
“You’re the one who asked!” Leah had both hands on Sloan now. A glimmer of excitement on her countenance conveyed everything Sloan needed to know.She has dirty thoughts on the brain. Because that’s the kind of couple we are.Leah had implied it more than once. She saw sex as more than a biological function, or an intimate way to express one’s emotions. It was a reward. It was raw power that went both ways. An equal balance had to be achieved. Sloan couldn’t always be the one initiating foreplay. Sometimes it was better to let the demurer one take the reins.
What’s wrong with me?Was she kidding herself? Letting someone else take the reins! She might as well ask for a collar around her neck and a leash yanking her across the room!
“You okay?” Leah rubbed the inside of Sloan’s thigh, careful to not disturb anything lurking within those tight pants. “Did I say something?”
