Page 6 of Twisted Play
I googled her name, preparing to hate everything about her, and scrolled by picture after picture, unable to look away. Eva with her friends laughing. Eva at the beach, curves barely contained by a modest one-piece. Eva studying, biting her lush lips in concentration. Eva at a wedding—the same wedding Dmitri invited me to over the summer, where I’d seen her for the first time.
Every image revealed the same haunted look in her eyes, as if, no matter how joyous the setting, she could never truly leave the sadness behind.
My knee throbbed with phantom pain as desire warred with disgust in my gut. She was stunning—all soft curves and vulnerability that made my hands itch to possess her, to break her. I wanted to wrap those curls around my fist and force her to her knees, to mark every inch of that creamy, freckled skin until she forgot anyone’s name but mine.
She was Conrad Jackson’s daughter, the daughter of the man who’d taken everything from me, but my cock hardened anyway as she looked at the camera in another photo, innocent and tortured and absolutely fucking perfect.
No mention of her father in a single caption. Were they estranged? No. Dmitri wouldn’t be sending her to me for any reason but to take my revenge on her father at last. Did he think this was enough? That it would make up for refusing to help me all those years ago, when I laid in a hospital bed, begging for vengeance? Or was it merely a tactic to manipulate me into coming back to the brotherhood?
I closed my eyes, imagining what I could do to Eva if she were part of the hockey program, the strings I could tie around her until I took away everything, using her as the instrument of my revenge.
My jaw clenched as my imagination ran wild. With the right leverage, I could take what I wanted from Eva, force her to submit without the pretense of love or trust. I could use her body and break her spirit and never worry about scaring her away, because she’d never have a choice.
The fact that some twisted part of me ached to earn her submission freely, to have her willingly give me the control I craved, only proved how fucked up I truly was.
This was a terrible fucking idea. I closed out of the window and pushed away from the desk, furious with myself for even considering playing Dmitri’s fucking games. No gift from him came without strings attached. It neverhad, and it never would. He’d denied me vengeance once to control me—this was just another way to drag me back.
I’d built a life from the ashes of my dreams here, at Yorkfield U, away from the bratva. My rage gave me purpose and had driven me to championship after championship.
Eva Jackson could destroy all that.
But I couldn’t resist, not when vengeance was finally within my grasp.
I busied myself with the paperwork that inundated me before the beginning of every school year—rosters, past grades, files of the players, none of whom would have kept up the strict training regime I’d requested since the Frozen Four the April prior.
Last year, we came in second, losing in the finals.
This year, I intended to win.
And maybe I’d take my revenge at the same time.
The fact that I was already hard just thinking about how I’d do it made me sick, but I couldn’t deny the dark thrill that raced through me at the thought of claiming Conrad Jackson’s daughter and making her kneel before me.
Damn you, Dmitri.
“Eva Jackson,”I said, peering over the paper file at the young woman before me. She sat nervously in the plastic chair on the other side of my desk. I could have interviewed student assistants in my formal office upstairs, but I liked to see how they reacted to being in the locker room of the best performing team at the university.
Dr. Parker had already triaged the applications and handed me half a dozen to interview. I didn’t want anyone on my team I hadn’t personally selected—one of the perksof being a championship coach. Oddly, I hadn’t had to put my thumb on the scale to get Eva an interview—her grades were impressive, as were her recommendations, even if she’d slipped in after the deadline.Damn you, Dmitri.She hadn’t worked for a hockey team before, but I trusted Dr. Parker’s judgment. Mostly.
“Sir,” Eva said softly, and my chest cracked open at the innocence in her voice. She had no idea who I really was or the darkness I carried, no idea that every “Sir” from her lips was another nail in both our coffins.
“Why are you here, Ms. Jackson?” I asked, setting her file down and leaning back, letting my thighs spread slightly.
Her lips parted in confusion, and her tongue poked out to wet them before she collected herself. “I applied for the job, sir, and I assume I’m here because I made it to the shortlist.”
I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the desk and letting my eyes roam over her. She had no idea I already knew far more about her than a personnel folder could reveal, and the power imbalance was so fucking heady. “The only work you’ve done for the athletic program is with women’s sports. This is the fucking hockey team.”
Her temper flashed in her eyes, darkening them to bottle green, and she lifted her chin, straightening her posture. “Women’s sports also deserve attention, Coach. My grades are excellent, and I’m more than qualified.”
“Youhadexcellent grades,” I snapped at her, my voice hardening. “Last semester, you barely scraped by.”
Her jaw ticked, and she looked me straight in the eye, her fury barely contained. “My artificial heart valve failed last year, and I needed emergency surgery. The school let me start the semester later, and I worked my ass off to catch up.”
My gaze dropped briefly to her chest, where the faint rise and fall of her breathing strained the too thin fabric of her shirt against her lace bra, her full breasts pushing out, begging for my teeth to scrape against her skin and mark them.
“And you think taking on a forty hour a week commitment is the way to do that?”
I didn’t know why I was giving her a hard time. I was going to take her on, devour this sweet temptation sitting in front of me, so determined not to give an inch, even if I despised myself for it.
