Page 50 of Magical Academy for Delinquents
Malcolm didn’t answer me right away. His blue eyes grew dark as he studied mine, and I didn’t see any of his earlier humor. There was something eerie and fierce about him. But instead of repelling me, it just intrigued me. How could he make me nearly come, then be completely unaffected by it? Most guys would smirk, be self-satisfied, be telling me to beg. Zavier would have made himself a paper crown and tossed confetti in the air if he’d had that kind of control over my body.
Malcolm simply stared at me. He kept our gazes locked as he undid his watch strap. The way he unfastened it felt like a strip tease, agonizingly slow and full of longing as he slowly unbuckled and bared his wrist. He laid one side of the strap and then the other on the table.
He flipped over the watch. “We’re going to play a game called Bullshit.” He dragged over a paper and pencil, setting it beside him. Then he grabbed the cards and started to shuffle. The silence was long and intense as we traded breaths across the tabletop. When he started dealing, I rubbed my legs together in anticipation.
“You know the rules?” he asked.
I nodded. “We lay out cards face down in order, Ace through King. If we don’t have a card in order, we lie.”
“If you lie, I call Bullshit … and…”
“If I’m lying, then I’ll have to take the pile.” I bit my lip in a false show of nerves. My nerves were actually singing from Malcolm’s presence, but I was pretty fucking sure I could pull this off. I’d faked out all the dickwads at my former academies.
Malcolm set his elbow on the table and pointed at my face. “Bullshit. That face.” He put a mark on the paper and checked the time on his watch. “Couldn’t go twenty seconds without trying to lie to me.”
I scrunched up my face. “Isn’t that the point of this game?”
He just gave me a smirk, quirking up one corner of his lips in a delectable way that made me want to lean across the table. “I’m leaving twelve cards off to the side, so we don’t know exactly what one another have.” He stacked a little pile neatly face down. “You start, Hayley.”
I pulled a single Ace from my hand and slid it facedown to the middle of table. “One ace.”
Malcolm watched me for a second, then slid two cards to cover my ace. “Two twos.”
I checked my pile, eyeing his expressions over them. I had two twos in my hand. Did he have the other pair or was one of them in the offset pile? His face was set like a stone. Impossible to read. I flipped my vision over to infrared to try to see if his body heat was rising.
“Are you using your power on me, little Darklight?” he asked.
“No.”
“Bullshit.” He made another mark on the page. Then he clicked his tongue. “It’s going to be a very long night if you keep trying to lie to me.”
“If you knew I was using it, why did you ask?” I returned my vision to normal and studied him again.
“I wanted to see if you’d lie.”
I laughed. “Oh, okay. So, you just expect me to admit to cheating?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” I shook my head. He made no sense.
He paused and waited until he had my full attention before he answered. “Because I want you to.”
A shiver coursed down my spine and a flutter passed through my chest. I was scared and turned on at the same time. My heart thudded several times before I got up the courage to ask, “Why?”
“I think you know why.” He gestured toward my cards. “Your turn.”
I swallowed. I stared at my cards for just a second, then pulled two threes and a four from my hand. “Three threes,” I said, sliding them over.
“Bullshit.” He shook his head. Then he pushed the pile toward me.
I glared at him. “How can you tell?”
Malcolm didn’t answer, just plucked some cards from his hand and laid them down. “Two fours.”
“Bullshit.”
He flipped them over. They were fours.Motherfucking dammit!How was he so good at telling when I was lying? He was totally getting under my skin. And that was making me screw up. I didn’t do that. I was the one who fucked with everyone else, not the other way around.Get a grip, Hales,I lectured myself. I tried a few deep breaths before I grabbed the fives in my hand and tossed them down on the table. But I threw them too hard and one of the cards flipped face up.
