Page 106 of Twisted Play
Her eyes flicked to mine in the rearview mirror, her eyebrows raised in challenge. “Whatever I want?”
I shrugged. Eva was responsible as shit. How much could she spend?
Eva’s grin should have fucking warned me.
We pulled up in front of the house a few minutes later, and she was still on my phone. Head down and utterly focused on the screen, she barely even looked up as we greeted teammates who’d made it back to the house without having to convince their entertainment for the night to come home with them.
“Eva!” Katie greeted her with a big smile from where she sat on Haruto’s lap, playing with his still-damp hair. Eva blinked slowly then slid my phone into her pocket. No matter—I’d retrieve it later.
“Uh, hi,” Eva breathed.
Katie took in the scene, Eva between us. Haruto looked up, his eyebrows raised. “Eva,” Haruto said. He gently dislodged Katie from his lap, brushing his lips over hers, and stood. He cocked his head at me, his jaw clenching.
They all knew her, and worse, they all liked her. Eva worked hard, took direction well, and most importantly, she never looked twice at any of the other players. She’d earned their trust through competence and discretion. Now I was making her stand here while she imagined it crumbling, and fuck if watching her try to hold on to her dignity didn’t make me want her more.
Nobody’d missed the way we looked at her this past week, or the way her cheeks flushed when she watched us play. Or how she avoided touching us at all costs during PTand massage sessions. They all knew we were fucking. They had to.
And the whole team’d be pissed if we upset her.
Fuck. More secrets.
“Hi,” she said, her face carefully blank.
“You crashing here tonight?” Haruto asked her, the big goalie’s voice gentler than I’d ever heard it. I glared at him, furious he was taking steps to make Eva comfortable, hating that she wasn’t.
A knock at the door interrupted the tense moment.
“Are you all expecting dinner?” I asked, opening the door to discover a student waiting outside, a phone in one hand and a small bag from a very expensive department store in the other.
Everyone shook their heads in the negative, and I was relieved—relieved!—to see Eva’s lips curl in a slight smile.
“Delivery for Cole Carter,” the visitor said, shoving the bag at me. Mystified, I accepted it.
“Oh, that’s for me,” Eva said, mischief in her voice. I peeked in the bag. Holy shit, she’d bought luxury skin care. “More’s on the way,” she chirped.
Katie grinned. “What’d he get you?”
Eva tilted her chin up. “I got it for me. And it’s skin products.” She opened the top of the bag so Katie could peek in.
“Oh, good choices,” Katie said, holding a jar up to the light.
“Right?”
Soon, the other girls crowded around Eva.
Haruto continued to glare at me, but his eyes softened when he saw the women surrounding my girl, making her feel welcome.
The doorbell rang again. And again. And again. Soon,all my housemates were openly grinning at the five-figure overnight kit Eva’d purchased for herself using my money.
“You’re playing with fire,” Haruto said quietly. His gaze cut to Tristan, who’d dropped into an armchair so he could watch Eva surrounded by puck bunnies and a couple of girlfriends. “She’s a good girl, not a puck bunny you can drop when you’re bored.”
“I know,” I said, meeting his brown eyes with my own confident gaze. “And she knows what she’s getting into.”
Haruto’s laugh was short and bitter. “She couldn’t possibly. Girls like her don’t, no matter what she’s telling you. You’re going to break her.”
“Maybe,” I acknowledged. “But don’t you think that’s her decision?” The lie was bitter on my tongue. She hadn’t chosen this. I’d cornered her, used her secrets against her. Now I was showing her off to the team like a prize instead of treating her with the respect she’d earned. The satisfaction of owning her warred with an unfamiliar ache in my chest.
Haruto snorted and leaned back against the wall by the door so he could open it for the next courier. “I think you didn’t think about what bringing her here and introducing her to everyone as a puck bunny you and Tristan are sharing would mean.”
