Page 24 of Twisted Play (Cruel Games #1)

COLE

After practice, I hurried out of the locker room, eager to flush thoughts of Eva and Tristan from my mind. Eva on her knees, sobbing for mercy. Tristan fucking her while I fucked his mouth. The two of them twined around me as we slept.

I needed more than a cold shower. I needed some sweet puck bunny pussy to wipe these thoughts from my head.

“Katie,” I snapped, seeing the flash of blonde hair around the bend.

“Yeah, Cole?” She turned around, her bright smile making me feel an instant’s guilt for using her like this.

But that’s what the puck bunnies did. We crooked our fingers, and they came running, eager for our cocks and the status that came with fucking us.

“You gotta moment?” I flashed my teeth and gave her my famous panty-dropping smile.

“For you? Of course.”

Katie had been hanging around the team all semester, showing up to practices in short skirts and too tight tank tops, hooking up with the whole goddamned team so she could piss Rami off. He’d dumped her, and she was going to make him pay.

Unlike the other puck bunnies, Katie didn’t expect a goddamned thing from her hookups, just a good time and no drama in the morning—unless she wanted to hurt Rami, in which case, fucking bring it.

Katie slid her backpack off her shoulders, allowing me to cage her against the wall. Her lips tilted into a seductive smile. “What’s going on, baby?”

“Don’t call me that,” I muttered.

“What should I call you?”

“Cole,” I said quietly, and then, inspiration struck me. “Sir, if you’re so inspired,” I continued. Fuck, the thought of Eva on her knees, calling me Sir, obeying my every command—my cock hardened.

Katie’s brown eyes widened, but her fingers crept up my shirt anyway, and another fantasy of red hair and green eyes flashed through my mind. No, that’s exactly why I wanted Katie. Right now.

“Okay, Sir,” she said.

Holy fuck, had it always been this easy? And why did I have qualms about it now?

“Good girl,” I murmured, and she raised up on her toes to kiss me. I turned my head so her lips hit my jaw, hiding my aversion by leaning in to nibble on her earlobe. She smelled like cheap fruit candy, and?—

Fuck. Fuck!

There was nothing wrong with Katie. Nothing wrong with the way she smelled. Nothing wrong with the way her hands stroked my cock through my sweatpants, nothing wrong with?—

Fuccccckkkkkk. Her hand slipped into my pants, delicate fingers sliding along my cock, and all I could think of was Eva doing the same.

A flash of red hair caught my attention. What?

“Hey,” Katie said, resting her hand on my cheek and turning my face toward hers. “Where’d you go?”

Suddenly, I felt like shit.

I pushed away, gently removing her hands from my cock. “I’m sorry,” I muttered.

“Let me help with whatever’s bothering you,” she murmured, stroking her hands up my back, soothing and gentle.

She could. I could shove her down to her knees, she’d suck my cock, I’d come, and I’d still feel like absolute shit for wanting my best friend and his girl. Together. On their knees in front of me instead of Katie.

Katie’s lips twisted in frustration for a moment as my attention wandered.

I stepped back and closed my eyes, annoyed with myself. “Sorry, Katie. I?—”

“It’s Eva, isn’t it?”

I didn’t answer—couldn’t answer—because Eva was slipping around the corner toward the locker room. What the fuck was she doing at this hour?

“She looks at you too, when you’re not looking,” Katie said, her face an expressionless mask. I would have felt worse if I didn’t know she was going to grab the next single player to walk by and get exactly what she’d been looking for. “Cole, she’s got it rough. Don’t fuck with her like you?—”

I was already gone, prowling down the hallway on silent feet. Eva walked with her usual measured grace—shoulders squared, head high. She didn’t see me behind her as she slipped into the locker room and then into Coach’s office.

The overhead lights were off, but Coach’s desk lamp cast enough light for me to watch her through the glass—his blinds were up. She lifted the first file with steady hands, set it aside. Opened the second. Her fingers ghosted over the tabs, searching.

A single page slipped free. She snatched at it, her usual grace deserting her. I watched her shoulders rise and fall with one deep breath. Another.

My first instinct was to burst in, to demand answers, but something held me back.

Eva pulled out a phone—not her usual one with the cracked screen—and started photographing documents.

Eva moved with care—the way she wrapped players’ ankles, the way she arranged the med kit, every motion exact—but now, she could barely hold the phone steady enough to take pictures.

Betrayal hit me like a body check, driving the air from my lungs. Rage and a darker, hungrier emotion coiled in my gut.

Eva’s head snapped up, already turning toward the door as I shoved it open.

The phone slipped from her fingers, skittering across the floor to land at my feet.

For a heartbeat, she froze, and then her body snapped into that perfect posture she always maintained.

But everything else betrayed her—her uneven breathing, the way her fingers splayed against her thigh, pressing so hard I could see the dents in her skin through her leggings.

My cock hardened, and I hated myself for it.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I growled, not taking my eyes from Eva, who nervously straightened a stack of file folders.

“N-nothing.” She wet her lips. Such a terrible liar for someone hiding so much. She played with the files, trying to cover what she’d been doing, but her hands shook too badly to be effective.

I bent down slowly to retrieve the phone, never taking my eyes off her. The screen was cracked worse than her regular phone, the cheap plastic case scratched to hell. How long had she been doing this?

“What the fuck are you doing?” I repeated, advancing on her. Eva retreated until her back hit the wall. The scent of her fear—vanilla and terror and something citrusy—made my head spin.

“Looking for something,” she said softly, her eyes downcast.

I stared at the cracked screen, my jaw ticking with frustration. She’d been rifling through our fucking files. Why?

“What are you taking pictures of?” I asked her. When she shook her head, I pressed closer, using my body to cage her in.

“Nothing,” she muttered.

“Liar.” The word came out like a caress. “What’s Coach going to think when he finds out you’ve been doing this?”

Her breath hitched—just once, but it was like watching a crack spread through glass. “Please don’t.” The word was barely audible. Her eyes darted to the door then back to me. Another crack in her composure. “I need this job.”

Eva trembled so hard, I could feel it where our bodies almost touched.

Idly, I entered the passcode I’d memorized when we’d hooked up before the semester began. To my shock, it worked.

The Devil

I want copies of the players’ files.

Don’t make me wait.

Eva

I was at work.

The Devil

Unacceptable. Get me those files.

“Who’s the devil?” Each text I scrolled through was like a knife in my gut. I’d thought the way she looked at me meant something. She’d been playing us all along, playing me . Was this why she’d hooked up with me at the party? “Who are you sending this to?”

“Please.” She tried to twist away, but I caught her hip, pinning her in place. The soft curves I’d dreamed about felt too good under my fingers, even now, after her betrayal. “Please don’t do this.”

“Stop. Making. Me. Repeat. Myself.” I punctuated each word by pressing closer. She felt small like this, fragile. I hated myself for how much I wanted her, even now.

“I have to.” The words spilled out of her. “My father, he—” She pressed her lips together so hard they went white, but her whole body shook. That perfect control she always maintained was shattering, piece by piece.

“Your father what?”

“He owes money.” Her eyes flicked to the door, as if looking for an escape, then back to my face. “ A lot of money.”

“To whom?”

She shook her head. A curl escaped her braid, brushing against her neck. Who the fuck was I kidding? I wanted to wrap it around my fist and fuck her raw, watching my cock plunge into that tight, perfect pussy.

“To. Who?”

“I can’t.” Her voice cracked. All that careful composure—gone. “They’ll kill him. They’ll kill me. I don’t have a choice.”

“You always have a choice.” My voice came out rougher than I meant it to. Betrayal and desire warred in my chest as she squirmed against me.

Eva’s laugh was bitter, bordering on hysterical, so wildly out of character, it twisted inside my chest. “Choices? Like what?”

Too much truth in those words. And fuck me, I wanted to protect her even as I wanted to punish her for her betrayal. I had to find a way to satisfy my jonesing for this woman and keep her under my thumb at the same time.

My mind raced as I considered and discarded my options.

I needed to keep an eye on her to protect the team—to protect Tristan , who didn’t deserve for his season to be ruined because some bitch thought she could sell our secrets.

Either her father was a scumbag, or Eva wasn’t as innocent as I desperately wanted to believe.

I needed to keep Eva closer. She might be a lying, perfidious bitch, but she was my lying, perfidious bitch, and I wanted— shit.

“Okay, sparrow.” I caught her chin, forcing her to meet my eyes. Her skin was soft under my fingers, and I could feel her pulse racing. Fear made her eyes huge—fucking stunning. “What will you give me to keep your secret?”

She didn’t understand yet. I watched confusion war with terror on her face, watched her shoulders straighten as she tried to gather the scraps of her control. Always so careful. The thought of breaking through that facade made my cock twitch.

“What do you want?” Her voice barely carried, even in the silent office.

I leaned closer, drinking in the way she shivered.

“Everything.” The word came out like a threat and a promise.

I slid my thumb across her bottom lip, remembering how she’d begged me that night, how sweet she’d been before she turned out to be a lying snake.

“I’m going to unravel your secrets, one by one, take away your control until all that’s left is your need for me.

And this time, I’m not going to let you run away before I’m done. ”

She tried to turn her face, but I tightened my grip.

“You played me.” My voice dropped lower, rougher. “Now, it’s my turn to play with you.”