Page 52 of Double Down

“Did you get their number when you walked them out?” she asks Mav, bringing me back to the present.

He stares at her, then looks at me. “How many punishments did she earn from you?”

“Three,” I say.

“Good.” He nods. “The fourth is mine, for daring to doubt me. She doesn’t come until I say so.”

“Agreed.” My phone rings again and I roll my eyes. “I have to take this, but I don’t want any more interruptions. HaveAtticus search for cameras. Once that’s done, princess, you’ll be punished.”

12

Phoenix

The look Mavgives me makes my heart ache. I think my question actually hurt him. There’s a small part of me—tiny—that revels in that pain.

It makes me feel like he’s mine just as much as I’m his.

But then the truth comes crashing against my mind, bringing me back to reality.

Under the table, Conrad’s phone slipped. I caught it in the dark, screen still bright.

The first thread I saw—his crude little exchange with Maverick about the “good little secretary,” the rewards and punishments—that barely registered. That’s our game, and I can live with it.

But curiosity is a vicious cat. I scrolled up and saw a group chat that I wasn’t in.

“How about something more interesting? Storm wants us to share her. That doesn’t work if she chooses one of us over the other.” … “Whoever she chooses wins.”

The bottom dropped out of me so fast my eyes watered. I didn’t mean to. I swear I didn’t. My teeth grazed him—just once—because the hurt needed somewhere to go.

Then I tucked the phone back against the chair leg like a secret I wished I could unknow, and I went on being his good girl.

They all feel this way about me, don’t they?

Conrad didn’t let those women touch him, though.

That has to mean something.

Maybe it was because I was under the table and it would have messed with his game, but I doubt it. The way he talked to them might have sounded flirtatious to anyone who doesn’t know Conrad. But I know him. I know all of them. How he spoke to them isn’t how they talk to women who interest them. It’s not how they get those women to give them everything. It’s how theymanagewomen they want to back off. Kind on the surface, a little sweet even, but dismissive.

When Con and I were kids, he explained it once. Being hostile in the face of unwanted attention only draws more. Either the women try harder to prove they’re “good enough,” or they make a scene. Scenes mean headaches from their parents. But if they’re sweet—borderline apologetic—and redirect to someone else, an available Titan or a visiting team, there’s no fallout.

I understand it. I don’t like it.

Giving in to the urge to rip out their extensions and claw out their eyes is more appealing, but I don’t know if I have that right.

He told them he had a girlfriend. He was talking about me…us. Is that what we are? Or did he just avoid labeling our relationship as anything else because it’s embarrassing?

Do I even have a right to be jealous?

I did, for the brief time Con and I dated…but now? Are we dating? Am I datingallof them? Can this be exclusive if there are four men? Is that fair to them? Any and all of them could date three other women and things would be…balanced.

Am I selfish for wanting all of them to myself?

Do I care?

Does it matter?

Because if that “bet” is real, if “whoever she chooses wins,” then choosing means losing everything.