Page 105 of Let the Game Begin

“Selene, are we going?” Logan drew my attention, and I turned to find him right next to me. I hadn’t even heard his footsteps echoing down the hall. We’d agreed to meet up that afternoon because we were going to spend some time in Matt’s private library. We intended to do some research and try to solve the riddle that Player 2511 had sent us.

“Yeah.” I followed him to the library, and as soon as I walked through the door, I was amazed. The smell of paper and books overwhelmed me, drawing me deeper into an environment I preferred above all others. The dark wood of the floor gave the room a magical ambiance. A ladder leanedagainst the high shelves to allow readers to retrieve the volumes placed up near the ceiling. Daylight filtered in through an enormous window, lighting up the sleek mahogany desk where my father usually sat to read his medical periodicals. Not far away from it were some Gothic-style armchairs with sage-colored cushions and a wooden table with a vase of fresh flowers on it. Undoubtedly, it was replaced every day by Anna.

“How many books are in here?” I asked, visibly shocked as I gawked around the room, tilting my head back.

“More than six thousand. There are also a number of first editions,” Logan told me, giving me an amused look.

“Damn! It reminds me a little bit of the library at Hearst Castle,” I noted with a smile.

“Whose castle?” He asked.

“William Randolph Hearst’s. A newspaper magnate who lived in California.” I continued to gaze admiringly at the incredibly high shelves all around me, slowly rotating to see them all. This had officially become my favorite room in the house.

“So, what are we doing here?”

I jerked when I heard Neil’s voice, and all at once, the books were no longer the center of my attention.

“Thanks for being on time,” Logan chided, but Neil remained unmoved. He leaned against the edge of the desk and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for a real answer.

He didn’t pay me any attention, so I decided that I could be indifferent as well and made myself comfortable in one of the armchairs.

“Okay,” Logan began, putting on his black eyeglasses. It gave him a scholarly look. “We’ve got a library full of books here, and I’ve already identified some that might help us.” He grabbed a volume and handed it to me before doing the same thing to Neil. “Look at these carefully and try to find anything you can about the music box: its origin, its function, possible stories or legends connected to it… Basically anything that helps us learn more about it. It’s the same sender as the first one, so just as the choice of the raven wasn’t random, the music box probably wasn’t, either,” he finished gravely, sitting down in the armchair opposite me.

“Agreed.” I opened the book he’d given me and began leafing through it. The pages were marked by time, with tiny characters so faded in places that deciphering the writing was difficult. Neil was turning the pages of his own book, an unlit cigarette clamped between his full lips. His pack of Winstons sat on the desk next to him. The pack was never far away from him, and I wondered just how much he smoked per day and how old he’d been when he started.

His eyes were lowered to his book, his powerful shoulders pushing him slightly forward. A messy forelock hung over his forehead, and his stubble punctuated the contours of his perfect face. His long eyelashes dipped downward.

He took the cigarette between his index and middle fingers, and with that same hand, paged through the book. He never took his eyes off it, the way I should have been doing, if I wasn’t sitting just a few feet away from him. Even the way he held his cigarette was beguiling.

Logan cleared his throat, and I looked up immediately. Logan was staring at me with his brows furrowed. I blushed violently and ducked my head back into the book.

After Logan’s nonverbal scolding, I didn’t have the courage to lift my nose out of the books or to divert my attention to the gorgeous human disaster to my left.

About thirty minutes of intense silence passed, during which I genuinely committed myself to searching for anything that might help us.

“Find anything?” Logan asked, taking off his glasses to rub his eyes.

“No,” I sighed and he nodded, as though willing himself not to lose heart.

“What about you, Neil?” He turned toward his brother, who had opened another book, abandoning the first.

“Fuck all,” he answered, blunt and impatient, and kept on ignoring me. He didn’t even so much as glance in my direction. It was like I wasn’t even in the room.

“Okay, let’s keep looking then. Onward!” Logan encouraged us as he pushed his glasses back on and resumed his desperate search.

Another twenty minutes of silent concentration passed. The only sound was the occasional faint rustling of paper whenever one of us turned a page,hoping to find something of interest. Suddenly, I huffed out a breath and took a break to stretch my arms, which were starting to feel sluggish. As I did so, I turned my face to Neil and caught him watching me.

He was looking at me—just me. I could hardly believe it. I lowered my arms awkwardly and returned his stare intensely.

Then Neil did something unexpected: he inserted his right index finger between the abandoned pages of his book and made an opening there. Then, he slowly glided his finger back and forth, as if he were petting the smooth paper.

I watched him from under my eyelashes and saw how his chest rose and fell. Seconds later, I realized that he was making an obscene gesture and concealing it with the book. I gulped and turned red.

He quirked a corner of his mouth, delighted by his filthy simulation, and I tilted my face down in embarrassment. But not before checking to make sure that Logan hadn’t noticed anything.

I cleared my throat and gave Neil another sideways look, keeping my face tilted down. I could feel his golden gaze hot on me, and I struggled not to fall into its trap once again. Had he lost his mind? Right there in front of his brother he was…trying to provoke me? Seduce me? Mess with me? He had been ignoring me for two weeks, and just then, I was wishing that he’d kept that up.

“Hey! I think I found something!” Fortunately, Logan interrupted the intimate moment, drawing our attention to something far more important.