Page 45 of Dark Little Game

A guilty heat pools in my body when Weston talks to me.

Nope.

Not looking at the birds.

Thinking about your brother.

And how it feels to kiss him.

And his sad story that he’s never told another soul.

“I’mcooked, if you want the truth,” I mutter. “I need to go take a nap.”

I’ve been in the front room for a couple of hours with Noah and Wes.

I was pretending to be studying, staring out thewindow and gazing at the neat stone flowerbeds full of wildflowers.

Beyond the row of leafy green hedges that surround our yard, I can see past the iron fence into the end of the Luros House yard, where they have dozens of red rose bushes.

I’ve been thinking about everything.

Thinking about nothing, too.

I wasn’t able to sleep well again last night.

Again, my dreams were about Hunter.

I stand up from the sofa and stretch my body. I’m sore as hell, too, because I’ve been hitting the gym harder than I ever have before.

I’ve suddenly been feeling an urgent need to keep my body strong and conditioned, even more than usual.

Like I need to be prepared.

For my attacker, or… for Hunter?

I don’t even want to fucking know.

Oliver comes into the front room as I’m on my way out.

He’s shirtless and covered in a sheen of sweat, and he clearly just finished a workout himself. He’s holding a bottle in his hand.

Noah drops his jaw like a cartoon character, reaching out a finger and giving Ollie’s bulging bicep a poke.

“Obscene,” Noah says. “Rayne. Wes. We’ve got to hit the gym harder if Ollie is giving us competition like this. Fuckingmonsterbiceps.”

I’m not sure I could hit the gym much harder than I have been, but Ollieislooking ripped, and certainly doesn’t seem as shy as he did his first night in Onyx.

“How would you say that in Latin, Noah?” Weston says with a grin.

“Magnus,” Noah says. “Absolutely fuckingmagnus,bro.”

Weston laughs.

“They’re notthatbig,” Oliver protests.

Noah rolls his eyes. “You have no idea how hot you are, Ollie. You’re the kind of person who can’t recognize how good you look. We’ve already established that.”

“Meanwhile you think you’re God’s gift to the Crimson campus,” Wes jokes, flicking Noah’s thigh.