Page 35 of The Wicked

My eyes snapped up the moment she raised her eyes from the board.

She smiled before saying, “Checkmate.”

“Fucking diabolical,” Upper said, heaving a breath.

She relaxed back. “This is fun?” A grin split across her lips, and Devil scoffed in amusement. “I’m having so much fun,” she continued, ignoring the look on my face. “Last game, champ?”

After the last round, I sat upright as the briefcase was handed to the hollering demons behind her.

She had won.

Not for one second did her eyes leave mine to celebrate her victory with her friends; there was a taunting smile playing at her lips as she raised a brow at me, extending her hand for a handshake.

My gaze dropped to her hand, before lifting to her face again.

I swallowed my immature pride, joining my hand with hers and…

Warm and small.

Her hand was warm and small. It held a sense of delicateness that didn’t suit her abrasive character or the foul words that fell from her lips each time she opened her mouth.

Her fingers were long with chipped red nail polish.

Messy. Like her.

She visibly took in a breath, her smile faltering a little, an action that made me wonder what had passed through her mind at that second.

“Good game,” I told her, and her smile widened at the comment.

“Of course, this thing called luck, right? It’s been blowing my mind all night, and now this? I don’t—I still can’t—wow.”

My jaw clenched. “You are twenty-six, you shouldn’t be this annoying.”

She frowned. “I didn’t know being annoying came with an age limit. I thought anyone of any age could be annoying, did I miss something growing up?”

“Oh, I’m sure you missed a lot of things growing up, common sense being one of them.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, probably, it’s why I get myself in these situations, you know. But honestly, if we truly look at it, in a way, you came to me for a game, and you said it was going to be nothing serious, so you shouldn’t be too beat up about it, right? It’s just chess. Some people are better than some. It’s unfortunately the way the world works.”

My gaze flickered between her eyes. “I truly don’t like you.”

Her eyes twinkled and her lips twitched in a smile. “But you sure do like holding my hand.”

I stilled. My attention dropped to our hands, still held together. I lifted my eyes to meet her purposeful stare before jerking my hand back and shooting to my feet. I buttoned up my suit, righted my tie, and cleared my throat, looking everywhere but at her. “Come with me; let’s see about that renegotiating you discussed.”

“Gladly,” she said, and I watched from the corner of my eye as she stood, her bare stomach on display for a second before she pulled down the half-shirt-like cloth she wore.

Someone cleared their throat rather loudly, and I tore my eyes from Zahra to find one of her friends… the Dog one, staring at me with a slight frown. It was obvious he’d caught me staring. “Just to be clear, we’re not getting in trouble for this, right?”

Zahra’s attention was on me once more before she looked at Dog with a frown. “Of course not. What are you doing? Trying to remind him that we should be in trouble?”

Ignoring them, I moved to leave. “Someone will bring you up. Don’t keep me waiting.”

“I’ll come with,” Elia said.

“No.” I pinned him with a stern look. “She’ll come alone.”

Elia frowned; there was a warning in his eyes that had me grunting another addition to my statement. “She’ll return alive,” I said with a twinge of disinterest, but he didn’t budge. I almost groaned when I added, “Unharmed.”