Page 58 of Hate Me Like You Mean It

One four. One six. One nine. One jack.

All hearts.

I took another sip, sinking a little further into the warm, cozy embrace of the whiskey buzzing through my blood. “I’ll draw again.”

Dom peeled the tape back off. “Overruled. You have more than three cards in your hand. You have to play something.”

“We can just change it,” I said, fingering the edge of one card.

“Either play something, Lice, or forfeit.”

I pinned him with a half-hearted glare. “You’re doing a lot of talking for someone without a tongue, Dom. Remind me what the rules are around not following through on assigned consequences? Something about it being grounds for disqualification…?”

“You may draw,” he conceded before putting the tape over his lips again.

I smirked, pulling another card from the thinning deck.

The two of hearts.

Darn.

Chewing the inside of my cheek, I played the card, placing it next to my delegate. “My king is bored and demands a two-minute break. Entertain him.”

Dom scribbled on his notepad.Be more specific.

I sagged deeper into the squishy cushions, resting my cheek against the buttery leather as I tried to think. It wasn’t easy, what with all the heady contentment floating through me. “I don’t know,” I muttered, closing my eyes for a moment. “But make it good. He’s so bored he might fall asleep.”

Something nudged at my forehead, prompting me to open my eyes.

It’s almost 4. Forfeit so we can sleep.

I sighed, studying him. “I only have hearts left.”

He gave a slow, lazy blink, then flipped his hand to show me. All hearts.

“Okay, so then you forfeit.”

He tossed the cards to the side and picked up his pen.All I’m asking you to do is keep the bandages on. That’s it. Just quit.

“Not unless we agree on a draw. I really need that night off.”

He wrote something, then scratched it out, opting instead for:What’s Thursday night?

“Why does that matter?”

Because if you’re planning on spending the evening popping balloons at the children’s hospital, I’ll need to suck it up and take one for the team.

I’d have tried a little harder to swallow my smile if I weren’t so exhausted. “Nothing that exciting, unfortunately. Rachel’s been asking me to do drinks with her coworkers for months, and I’m running out of excuses as to why I can’t go.”

He snorted.Why? Is she trying to get herself fired?

My eyelids drooped again. “The opposite. She thinks they’ll love me. Her boss, especially.”

The silence that followed stretched for so long, I almost lost my grip on consciousness before a low, silky voice pulled me back. “So it’s a date.”

My eyes barely opened; they’d grown so heavy. “Kind of. Rach thinks we’ll hit it off, and she knows me better thananyone, so here’s to hoping…” A small smile tugged at my lips. “Maybe we’ll go back to my apartment after drinks, and I’ll bring out a deck of cards… this game’s more fun than I thought.”

More silence. “It’s our game.”