Page 19 of These Wicked Games (Wicked Sins #1)

eight

Oli

I t’s cold out right now as we walk to the plane.

I am not looking forward to this at all.

I don’t love flying, and my mind is still a mess.

Usually, at the start of the season I have so much energy I can barely contain it.

Instead, I feel dread every single time I have a schedule.

I’m glad to leave New York, happy to leave whatever the fuck happened the other night at The Charm Box.

I need it to fade. I need what happened to leave my brain and not visit any more dreams going forward.

I’d found Atlas an hour later, skin flushed and a happy grin on his face, and Ryker joined us after, but something was a bit off with him.

We’d decided to go back to the hotel and I thankfully crashed quickly.

I don’t know what’s happening to me. Having Andre here is ruining everything.

“Not it.”

“Not it.” I hear behind me .

“Not it!”

Fuck! “Come on! I’m the captain. I should get rank!”

“You get rank when we win games,” Atlas chuckles, clapping my back. I trudge to my seat and drop down alongside Ryker who’s already fucking shaking. Christ . We haven’t even closed the doors yet. Planes are bad, but we’re taking a private plane today and these times are always worse.

“Why isn’t he drunk?” I shout to no one in particular.

“I just sat down.” He’s chewing on his thumbnail, looking out the window, his knee practically drilling a hole through the floor.

I’m not quite sure why he insists on sitting in the window seat and looking out the airplane window when he’s deathly afraid of flying.

I asked him once and he said, “I want to know it’s coming . ”

Fantastic. Now I’m stuck here with Ryker for a three-hour flight.

I glance up just as Andre walks past me and rage spreads through my chest. Thankfully, I haven’t seen him since the club, but while I’m still so pissed about that, I cannot stop thinking about what happened.

It’s taken everything I can not to dissect it.

After I’d walked Danielle to her rideshare and sent her off with a scorching kiss, I’d felt more disjointed than before.

I should have felt great. She was incredible.

Beautiful. I could not have picked a better hookup, which just makes me more confused.

I still feel this pent-up ball of bullshit rattling around my rib cage.

I’m not sure what the fuck is happening.

Rage and lust are equally strong emotions and my body is just confusing the two.

That’s all it is, right? Maybe I’m queer and I don’t realize it.

Maybe the sight of two guys together actually does it for me.

It’s not Andre, just the action. Maybe I should find a guy to try with, maybe I’d get some answers then.

No harm, right? Even as I think it my gut clenches at the thought of it.

I’ve basically lived in locker rooms all my life and have never felt a stir of anything looking at one of my teammates.

Just thinking about Andre the other night . . .

Why does he turn your light on?

Fucking Vanessa! I have half a mind to go down to Virginia and yell at her. She fucked with my head.

Everyone takes their quiet seats next to someone who will not hyperventilate and probably piss their pants mid-flight, and with everyone on board, the plane starts to move.

Ryker tenses, then grabs my arm, lifting it up around his head to bury himself into my side like a rodent burrowing for winter.

“We do this all the time, Kiki,” I sigh, patting his head as he burrows deeper.

“Exactly!” he hisses, practically in my armpit.

“The chances of us crashing get more and more each time we don’t.

Think about it, Kuli,” he whines. “Each time we don’t, it’s closer to the time we do.

Our luck is running the fuck out. This is my fifth season.

My time is coming, I know it!” He whimpers.

I shake my head. I do not have the mental space for whatever this is. We take off, and honestly, even I hate this part. My ears hurt and the grip Ryker has on my arm turns from a slight tourniquet to complete loss of blood flow.

Finally we’re up in the air and allowed to move. I unbuckle and peel Ryker off me. “Someone get me a drink! The strongest drink you can find on this fucking plane,” I yell.

“Thanks, Kuli.” Ryker’s eyes are pinched as he rests his head on the cool glass. “It’s only a twelve-hour drive. Why can’t we just drive?” he whines. “Or a train. I fucking love trains. ”

Atlas stands up behind us now, hovering over our seat. Lucky bastard got to sit with Grey. “There are more train crashes than plane crashes.”

My head practically does a one-eighty, glaring at Atlas behind me. “Not. Fucking. Helping.”

A drink gets put in front of my face, and I go to thank the person handing it to me when I see the source and freeze.

My eyes collide with Andre, whose hazel eyes are bouncing from me to Ryker nearly hyperventilating next to me.

“Hey, Kiki.” Ryker’s confused eyes look up.

“Have you ever been struck by lightning?”

“Huh?” Andre waits for him to answer. He takes a sip of his drink, sitting up a bit straighter. “Uh, no.”

“Are you afraid to go outside while it thunders?” Andre’s eyes slide to mine briefly before looking back to Ryker. Just that one look has my chest sprinkle with heat. “Are you?”

“What?”

“Are you afraid to go outside in a thunderstorm? With lightening.”

“Um, no.”

“What about the beach? You like the beach?”

“I like women in bikinis at the beach.”

“Okay . . . Not what I . . . Ya know what, whatever. Do you swim at the beach?”

“Well, yeah.”

“What about at home? Do you . . . I don’t know, walk up and down your stairs just fine?”

“I . . . Yeah, I don’t understand.”

“You have a greater chance of getting struck by lightening, eaten by a shark, and falling down your own stairs and dying than you do dying in a plane crash. Doesn’t stop you from doing any of those things, does it?”

“Well it will now!” Ryker shrieks.

I roll my eyes. Fucking great. “Amazing. Any more words of fucking wisdom?”

Ignoring me, Andre smiles. “Kiki, relax. The worst thing that’s going to happen to you on this plane has already happened.”

Ryker’s brown brows pinch. “What’s that?”

Andre leans in and I flinch back a bit from the close proximity. He smells spicy and sweet, like fresh earth and citrus. “You have to sit next to Kuli. Can’t get worse than that.” He grins.

“Oh, fuck you.” Andre licks his lips, and my eyes trace the action. I hate myself as my mind goes back to the other night, his fingers with that man’s release on his fingertips. The slow way he sucked them. The way I wish it were my—

What the fuck is wrong with me?

“What’s the matter, Kuli?” Andre says softly. “What are you thinking about?” I do not appreciate the husky tone.

“Go back to your fuckin’ seat,” I snarl. Andre’s eyes search mine for a breath-stealing moment before he concedes, choking back whatever he wants to say.

How the hell did I get here?

Walking into the lobby, we all crowd the shared space, lining up to get our room keys. Ryker is ahead, grabbing his, and I’m trying so hard not to focus on Andre who is quite a few people ahead of me. “Careful on those stairs, Kiki,” Andre laughs.

Ryker gives him the finger before going toward the elevator.

I’m drowning in my thoughts, waiting in line for my turn. Our crowd thins out some and I approach the woman smiling at the desk. “Oliver Kulivov. I should be rooming with Ryker Hale.”

She taps away at her keyboard, her blonde brows pinching. “Um, sorry, it says here you’re rooming with Andre Tavares.”

Excusemewhat? “No, I’m sorry, you have that wrong. I’m always with Ryker. Try looking again.” She taps away, but I can see it’s just for show and she’s working up the courage to disappoint me with the truth.

“I’m sorry. You’re rooming with Mr. Tavares.”

Coach fucking hates me. The hockey gods hate me. The devil truly is working overtime. I’m almost flattered with how much attention he seems to be paying me. “Which one of these dickheads made you play this prank on me?”

“I’m sorry, sir?”

“I’ll give you a hundred dollars to tell me which one.”

“Um, I’m not joking. It says here Andre Tavares and Oliver Kulivov are rooming in two eleven. I can’t show you my computer screen, but I can call a manager.”

“Then get me a different room. Now. I’ll pay whatever I need to. I’ll pay double. I’ll sleep on the fucking roof if I have to.”

“We um, we’re all booked up.” She shrinks a little. “The roof isn’t accessible.”

“Well make it accessible! ”

“What the hell is going on?” My jaw clenches, and I turn to see Coach walk up to us.

“Why are you harassing this poor woman?” he grits at me, then turns to give her a twinkling smile.

“I apologize. Some of my players don’t have manners.

I promise you he just looks scary, though.

He cries during The Princess Journals .”

My head swings to Coach. “It’s The Princess Diaries !” I grit.

“See.” He winks at her. “Real passionate about it.”

My jaw clenches. “Mia is the people’s princess, and a goddamn gift to the people of Genovia.”

“And he cries every single time.” Coach smiles at her, not looking at me.

“No I don’t!” What the fuck. “She beat her fear of public speaking to step up and be the princess Genovia needed! I can’t do this with you right now.” That movie is a cinematic masterpiece! “They made a mistake. They roomed me with Andre.”

“Ah, I see. You’re right, Oli, the only problem is this.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s not a mistake.” Coach glares. “You’re rooming with Andre. For the rest of the season.”

I’ve clearly gone insane because the words coming out of his mouth do not make sense. “What, the fuck, are you talking about?” I hiss. Coach pulls me aside, apologizing to the concierge. “Why do you hate me, huh? What have I done to you in this life or past lives to make you hate me this much?”

“Oli—”