Page 70 of These Wicked Games
I let it go, but still, I’m a bit hurt. “Does Atlas know?”
“Yeah.”
Well, now I’m fucking pissed. “Why the fuck does he know!?”
“Does he know about Andre?”
My lips purse. “No. No one does.”
“How long has this been happening?”
“Months.”
“So what, the fighting was all foreplay?”
“Fuck off.” I take another shot.
He chuckles to himself, taking one more shot before getting up and going to my fridge to grab a water. “How? How did you go from thinking he betrayed you to this? Whatever the fuck this is.”
“I don’t know, shit just happened.”
“When did shit start to happen?” He leans his elbows on my island with the biggest shit-eating grin on his smug face. “I need details, Kuli. I think I’m owed.”
“You’re not owed shit.” I push off the bar stool to grab a water of my own. We have a game tonight, and my mind is a mess. I need to clear it. He waits for me, and I know he won’t let it go. “The game we got ejected from. We hooked up at the hotel. One minute we were fighting, the next we were—”
“Fucking.” He snorts. “Nice.” Whois this man?
“What? No lectures on how this is a horrible fucking decision and it’s going to blow up in my face? Where’s the look of judgment? If there was ever a time for the look it’s now, Grey!”
He straightens, taking a sip of his water. “Look, I don’t know. I think sleeping with a teammate is a shit idea but . . .”
“But what?”
“We’ve been winning a lot of games, Oli. I’m not too mad about it.”
I laugh. “You know Andre thinks it brings us good luck? We hook up, then we win games.” The way I talk freely about him makes me smile. He makes me smile.
And I just hurt him.
“You guys put the drug test thing behind you?”
“I found something out that makes me believe he didn’t do it.”
“What?”
“On the day we were tested, my mother called and I gave my cup to him. He said he’d passed off the cups to the doctor, but the thing is, while he was waiting for me he was drawing little black hearts all over his cup. When they pulled me into the office, they had his cup with the hearts but with my label. That’s why I thought it was him, but he said he didn’t know the cups had been switched.”
“And you believe him?”
I think for a moment, and what I’m afraid to admit is, I’m so happy. I’ve been happy for a while. It’s not just the sex—although fuck me, ten out of ten—it’s everything else as well. It’s having my friend back finally. I hadn’t realized just how much I missed him. “I want to,” I admit. “More than anything.”
“This is so fucked. You know that, right?”
I take a shot. “Yeah, I know. I just didn’t know how totell—”
“I mean kicking him out like you just did. I don’t know what either of you are doing, but the look on his face when he left here . . . I don’t know. Not sure how you feel, but that was a hurt man.” Grey smirks. “A fine, gorgeous hurt man.” My eyes narrow on him. “Whoa, calm down, killer. Hands off. I get it.”
I feel like shit. My finger itches to call him. “At The Treasure House, with Monica? You whispered something to her.”
