Page 72 of Playing Dirty

“Ah, shit.” His gaze lifts to me and he purses his lips. “We’re gonna have to put in a rain check for this.”

A laugh slips out, and I shake my head. “Nice try. You’re not going anywhere.”

“As much as I wish I wasn’t, I really do have to go downstairs.”

I’m about to call him out for being a tease or playing hard to get, but there’s a seriousness in his expression while he types out a text that gives me enough pause to entertain what he’s saying.

“You have to gorightnow?”

“Right now,” he confirms before taking a long, deep breath. “Apparently, Holden decided to bring home a stray, so now we all get to deal with it.”

My brows crash together. “Like a dog?”

“Human.”

“Does that happen often?” I ask slowly, unable to hide my skepticism.

He shakes his head, thumbs still flying over his phone screen. “This would be a first.”

If he wants to talk about inconvenient, now would be the fucking time.

“So what am I supposed to do?”

His teeth sink into his lower lip in thought while he steps toward his bedroom door. The pensive expression is still there when he flicks open the lock and rests his palm on the knob.

“Um… Well, the way I see it is you have two options: You can either start the fun without me, or you can sneak out the window while we’re all downstairs.” He smirks before adding, “I, for one, hope you choose the first.”

“You’re kidding,” I say dryly, and he arches a brow.

“Does this face look like it’s cracking jokes?”

And with those parting words, he slips out his bedroom door and heads downstairs to his roommates.

I’ve been waiting in Theo’s bed for an hour at this point, hearing the faintest distortion of voices and footsteps floating up from downstairs, but they’re not enough to keep my mind occupied while he has his little house meeting.

It’s a good thing I didn’t take him at face value with his wholeyou could start without mecomment, though the thought did cross my mind to be naked and waiting in his bed for when he got back.

Except, with the door being unlocked and everyone clearly moving around the house, I thought it better to be safe than sorry. So instead, I’ve been doing the thing I actually came here to do: study.

My phone buzzes with a text notification while I’m neck deep in reading about The Federalist Papers, and I glance over to read the message from one of my teammates.

Dillon: Was picking up new batting gloves at the sporting goods store. Wanna guess who I just saw?

I roll my eyes at his mind games before writing back.

Me: Save me the brainpower and just tell me.

The sound of footsteps approaching draws my attention back to the door just in time to catch the handle move. I have half a mind to hide under the bed in case it isn’t Theo, but then I hear a second set and a slightly muted “T, hold up” from Phoenix on the other side.

The door remains shut, but I can overhear Theo’s sharp “What now?” without much difficulty. And, as it turns out, the topic Phoenix wants todiscuss is one of much interest to me.

“Wy’s working on putting a raid together,” Phoenix says, his voice low and serious. “He’s already gathering guys, supplies, all that.”

“Do we know when?” There’s a brief pause where Phoenix must give a non-verbal response, because Theo quickly says, “Okay. I’ll keep an eye on the team chat then.”

“Good, ’cause he wants you to lead one of the groups.”

I can hear the irritation in Theo’s tone when he replies, “Okay, yeah. Whatever he wants. Just let me know when.”