Page 61 of Play for Power (Central Sparks #3)

Addison shuts right up with the glare Rosie delivers her.

Rosie and Addison have a conversation with their eyes, and when Noah looks at me, I match his look of confusion while utterly smug at hearing all of the apparently lovely things Rosie has to say about me behind closed doors.

Nice to know I am not the only one tripping over themselves trying to work out why the hell we affect each other so much.

“Okay, I’ll shut up, I was just asking.” Addy raises her hands in the air and then goes for the bread.

Rosie reclaims her seat with a heavy sigh and throws back her drink.

“For the record”—she makes a point to look me in the eye for a beat, then to Noah and back to Addy—“I haven’t broken all my rules for the guy that is, quite honestly, a pain in my ass.

” She emphasizes the end of the sentence but refuses to look back in my direction.

“But I haven’t really seen anyone else since I broke my no-repeat rule.

And that is all I will say on the matter.

” She looks back at Noah and then me again, and the glare is chilling.

Addy, of course, is completely unfazed by it because she chuckles.

“Bitch, what happened to Rage Cage secrecy?” Rosie grumbles to Addison, who lifts her innocent shoulders in response.

“Sorry, babes, doesn’t trump trying to make your bestie see reason. I figured if I got the guys on my side, I could convince you to go steady and then you could invite him out with us and we could get to know him, and who knows, maybe he’s the one?”

“Ugh, yuck.” Rosie grimaces and then stands from the table. “I’m getting another drink.” She heads into the house and I look back to Addy.

“So, what else did she have to say about her mystery man?”

The afternoon flies by. Noah’s mom rejoins us with Rosie and a tray of drinks.

The conversation between Addy and Rosie isn’t brought up again, and Addison refused to give me any more details considering Rosie seemed adamant about keeping it a secret—which was a boring response, if you ask me.

But I accepted it and we ate and drank until we were buzzed and rolling back inside.

One thing I love about the Karvelas household is never going without and never experiencing hunger.

Noah’s sister Evie joins us after dinner, too, having spent the day with friends.

I managed to keep my hands and most of my mind off Rosie as we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon, and once the fireworks were over, Rosie and I shared an Uber back to our hotel, telling Noah and Addy that we were “on the same block,” because apparently even booking the same hotel is too on the nose.

“I don’t think they would have cared,” I tease her as we make our way into the lobby, and she turns a deceptively sweet smile back in my direction.

“Yes, but now they won’t even think of it.

” We silently head to the elevator and then make our way into the apartment, but once we’re in the kitchen, I can no longer help myself.

I grip her elbow and spin her into my chest, letting my hands find her curls, and I claim her lips with mine.

Kissing her until I’m breathless. That feeling of her melting into me is like pure bliss, made even better by the way her arms reach up and twine behind my head and I walk her backward, my tongue tangling with hers.

Tasting the wine and her until she’s backed against the wall.

I let my lips lightly trace over hers in a few playful nips before I pull back, resting my forehead against hers, just breathing her in, letting my hands trace the familiar curves of her waist, the side of her breasts, back to her incredible ass as she pants in my hands.

“So,” I breathe. Distracted by her swollen lips, I reach down and bite, dragging my teeth across before kissing her softly and pulling back again.

“Hmm?” My skin heats at the way her eyes devour me hungrily.

“Smart, sexy, and successful?” I know the moment my tease registers because she blinks out of her lust-filled haze and then scowls at me, pushing at my chest.

“Ugh, Addison is the worst for saying anything.” She tries to push past me, but I grab her and pull her back to the wall, pressing my hard body against the softness of hers to cage her in.

“What?” She crosses her arms and I find those freckles that I love and swipe a thumb over them as I take in the entirety of her beautiful face.

“You telling Addy about how obsessed you are with me?” I know I’m teasing and reaching for compliments, but I can’t shake the giddiness that courses through me at the thought of Rosie talking to the girls about me, in a capacity outside of just being the sex pest. Rosie avoids looking me in the eye for a beat, and it’s almost remarkable watching her expression morph as she pulls down on her perfected mask of apathy.

“The girl is basically in the honeymoon phase. She’s obsessed with love, I had to make up something to keep her occupied.

” She flashes me a snarky, closed-lip smile, settling her focus on anything but my eyes.

I trail a finger up her neck, feeling her pulse flutter like a hummingbird before I let my hand grip her chin and ever so gently redirect her eyes to mine.

“So, it’s all a lie then, Rosebud?” I trail my eyes down her body appreciatively, holding her face still and letting my other hand flick under her tank top, lightly dusting my fingers over her heated skin, above the waistband of her shorts.

“The way you think of me when you touch yourself, the thoughts of my tongue between your thighs, isn’t constantly running through that pretty head of yours?

” Her lips part on a breath, pleased to find the edge fading from her eyes, giving way to pure lust. “Hmm? Is that right, Rosie? I don’t affect you?

You’re not wet right now, just imagining me, on my knees?

” Using the hand on her chin, I guide her face higher, bending down to trail my lips and teeth across her neck until I reach her ear.

“Your legs on my shoulders and my tongue buried in your pussy. Never crossed your mind?”

“Nope.” She whispers the word, or rather, pants, and my smile is instant. I pull back to see the gleam in her eyes, utter defiance and desperation to hold on to her mask. It makes me ache with desire to tear it off.

“I think you’re lying.” I snap open the button of her shorts and she whimpers, closing her eyes, my grip on her chin firming.

“Uh-uh, pretty girl. Eyes on me while I touch you.” I slip my hand to the front of her little scrap of denim and her panties and instantly find her soaking.

Her eyes snap open at the same time her mouth does.

“Mmm, just as I thought.” I lunge forward, slamming my lips on her and kissing her with all the desperate need that is building inside me. “You’re fucking soaked.”

She groans and then her fingers are in my hair and pulling me harder against her.

I circle the tight little bud between her legs, soaking up her whimpers with my tongue.

She is a fucking delicacy; her sounds, her taste.

And even when I fight for control, to bring her to her knees, it’s me who is utterly ruined by her perfection, and yet again I find myself wanting to worship at her altar.

“Fuck, Rosie.” I push two fingers inside her, curling and stroking her in the spot I know sends her over quickly. “Tell me the truth,” I grit through clenched teeth.

“I hate you.” She squirms in my hands as I pump faster, using my palm to circle her clit.

“More pretty lies, Rosebud.” I reach down, sucking on the sensitive spot of her neck below her ear, a little reminder of who owns all her thoughts, who she denies to be crazy about, even as my fingers work faster, driving her closer to the point of no return.

“ Oh shit. ” She moans and I feel her body clench, her nails scraping at my hair, and with complete satisfaction, I wait for the telling response of her pussy fluttering against my fingers before I rip my hand out of her shorts.

Her groan of protest is pained. “No, what are you doing.” She’s perfectly breathless and I let myself take all of her in, committing it to memory, for later.

“Tell me you think of me, that you need me. Tell me that this is something other than just fucking to get it out of our systems. Tell me something other than the lies you tell yourself and I’ll make you come so hard you can’t walk.

” I watch as she nervously bites her lip, her pulse hammering away in her neck, and I take a step back.

“Caleb.” She protests, though she doesn’t reach for me, or close the distance.

“Say what I want to hear, Rosie.”

She grunts and folds her arm over her chest. So incredibly stubborn, and so fucking beautiful.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I can see the internal fight between keeping all her cards close to her chest and actually allowing herself to accept something other than the life she’s always known.

“Hope your imagination is working for you then, Rosebud.” I smile, pleased at her frustration. Good, it’s nice to have someone else feeling the utter misery of being so desperately obsessed. I take a quick step forward to kiss her pretty cheek that is pink with the flush I had her worked up into.

“Sleep tight,” I whisper, my lips briefly brushing hers before leaving her in the hall, closing myself in my dark and lonely room.

I don’t know why I tortured myself this way.

It would be so easy to discard everything I said and drag her into this bed and fuck her brainless, just like we do best. But Rosie has herself wrapped completely around me and I’m a breath from falling off an edge I don’t know how to come back from.

And I need to know she’s right there with me, or at least on her way, before I can leap.

I can hear her quiet Spanish curses and the slam of the door. Satisfied she’s in her room, I take a cold—freezing—shower and thankfully fall into a somewhat restful sleep. It’s not long and it feels like I’ve been hit by a bus when I wake up the next morning.

Determined to tease my little vixen some more, and even just to get a glimpse of those dark brown eyes, I head for the kitchen in nothing but my boxers.

Rubbing away the sleep from my eyes, I stretch and look over to the windows, basking in the early morning sun that lights up the city that I love and miss.

When I search the kitchen again, a little piece of paper catches my attention. And my heart sinks when I read it.

Caught the early flight, see you in NYC.

R

She’s gone.