Page 9 of A Lethal Game of Trust

“Eh?” I found myself asking.

“In my head, we’ve been over for a while. I haven’t been attentive, hoping she’d end it.”

Issy and I shared a quick glance, eyes wide.

“You’re staying here until Monday,” Issy said quickly. “You can take my room and I’ll go in with Leonie.”

“Fine with me,” I said, hesitating to look at the text that came through to my phone. Through my lashes, I saw Dom look over, too.

“Or we can go into my room?” she continued. “I have a king-sized bed.”

DO NOT ANSWER: Just one more night. Let me taste you one last time.

DO NOT ANSWER: Are you already with someone else? Cosy night in with a new man? So soon, Leonie.

“Yeah,” I said without thinking, my stomach churning.

There had been no one else. I’d contemplated texting Sam Yun — we’d been on and off since I was sixteen — but couldn’t put myself out there after two years.

“Right. That’s sorted,” she said, patting her thighs and standing. “I’m getting in the shower. Order my usual, please, Leo.”

And, again, she left me and Dom alone.

“What’s he said?” he asked, shuffling an inch closer.

“Nothing,” I said and opened up the internet on my phone. “What pizza do you want?”

He grabbed his wallet from his back pocket and chucked me his card. “Anything with a barbeque sauce base.”

I placed the book on the oak coffee table and scrolled through to order the food. I gave him my phone for him to pick his own pizza. He’d only question whatever I picked, even if it was exactly what he wanted.

But then he lifted the phone higher, gave a large grin and started typing away. It took me a moment to question him,taken aback by the smile again.

“What on earth are you doing?”

He dramatically tapped the screen once and handed it back over. “Answering Mr Do Not Answer.”

My heartbeat amped up as my breaths shallowed. Before me were our texts, the picture Dom had just taken at the bottom above the sign that it had been delivered. And read.

Jared’s question asking if I was with a new man so soon was high on the screen.

LEONIE: Wasn’t soon enough.

I gripped the phone tight. Fuck sake. Trying to keep him onside, desperate to please, hadn’t been easy. I hadn’t put years into this for Dom to ruin it in one text.

And JareddespisedDom.

“What the fuck have you done,” I mumbled.

He reached his arm along the back of the sofa, his hand twirling a strand of hair at my nape that had escaped my hair tie. Despite the anger, I still felt the tingle of his touch.

Wrong. He’d fuck me over like he did all those years ago.

“I saved you from making a mistake.”

You’re the mistake.

But with his fingers still in my hair, I wanted to make the mistake. Wanted his hand to knot in my hair and pull me to him.