Page 28 of Twisted Play (Cruel Games #1)

EVA

Why did I think I’d be able to slip into morning workouts late without anyone noticing?

The team was in the workout room, where Dr. Parker and an army of student trainers kept a careful eye on the players as they lifted weights, ran on the treadmill, and stretched.

Players’ t-shirts were already dark with sweat.

Silently, I cataloged the kinesiology tape on Haruto’s knee and the way Rami favored his left side, hating that I was thinking about ways to gather more intel for Carter.

“Jackson,” Dr. Parker hollered, “get your ass over here.”

“Yes, doc,” I said, weaving my way between the players and machines to stand beside her. I breathed in deep, the familiar smell of rubber mats and metal and the rhythmic clink of weights settling the nerves that had kept me from sleeping last night.

Tristan lay on his stomach on a recovery mat, and Dr. Parker knelt beside him with one hand on the back of his thigh as she pushed his foot toward the ground.

“Push here,” she instructed, “while he resists, and then hold here. ”

I knelt and replaced her hands with mine.

“Morning, kitten,” Tristan murmured.

I grunted a reply and began stretching out his quad.

“Sleep well?” he asked.

I didn’t say anything. What could I say? Your best friend and Alek are both blackmailing me for sex, and I’m terrified that when one of them finds out about the other, my father’s going to be the one who pays the price? Yeah, that’d go over well, I was sure.

Cole’s eyes burned into me from where he lifted weights, slamming them down every time my fingers twitched on Tristan’s thigh.

I’d spent the night tossing and turning, agonizing over how to tell Tristan I couldn’t see him anymore.

“Kitten?” He turned onto his side so he could see my face. His brow furrowed at my carefully blank expression. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Tristan,” I said, fighting to keep my voice steady. “On your belly so we can finish this stretch.”

He reached for my hand and stroked his thumb over my knuckles. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

I gave your best friend a blow job last night. I am selling team secrets to Jedediah Carter to save my father's life. And I can’t fucking afford dinner. No, I’m not okay.

Instead, I said, “Yeah, I just didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Let me take you out to breakfast after we work out.”

“How about absolutely fucking not?” I snapped, tired of pretending to be sweet, tired of keeping a smile on my face, tired of placating this hockey star who held too much power over my heart.

“Breakfast, sparrow?” Cole said silkily. “I can think of a few things you can eat.”

My eyes shot to Cole. “This is my workplace, and that’s harassment, asshole.” The words slipped out before I could stop them.

Tristan looked at me intently then flopped back on his belly to look at his best friend. He hummed, as if I hadn’t lost my shit ten seconds before, then waved his hand back at me. “Please, continue.”

“Yes, your highness,” I muttered under my breath, finishing one leg then standing to move to his other side to do the other.

Tristan sat up abruptly as I knelt beside him, our faces inches from one another. “Kitten, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

He raised his hand as if to cup my cheek, and I flinched back. Hurt reflected back at me from his golden eyes, but I knew if I softened, he’d push and push and push—and I couldn’t bear for him to think I was the kind of woman who’d cheat on him.

Tristan would find out eventually what Cole was doing to me. And what Alek was doing. If he was like every other man I’d ever met, he’d blame me.

I couldn’t bear the thought of having him only to lose him. Better to end it now, before I lost my heart. Hot tears burned behind my eyes.

I shoved to my feet.

“Eva!” Tristan shouted after me, but I ignored him, dashing out of the weight room, more concerned with hiding my misery than whether the team saw me run off.

When Dr. Parker looked at me questioningly as I shoved through the door, I shook my head. Just give me a damn minute, I thought, hoping she’d understand my expression.

I leaned against the cool concrete of the wall, pressing my palms against my eyes in a futile attempt to stem the tide of tears .

“Sparrow?” Cole’s voice was low and warm beside me.

I ignored him.

He shifted until he caged me between his arms.

“Sparrow,” he said again.

I looked up at him, sure my defiance was reflected in my expression. “What do you want?”

The cruelty of his answering smile told me I’d regret this encounter.

“You didn’t tell Tristan what you did yesterday?” he asked as he ran one hand up the side of my hip then under the hem of my tank top.

“Fuck you. Of course I didn’t,” I spat back. “I’m not a monster. I know what it would do to your friendship.”

His fingers brushed my bare skin over the top of my leggings then up my side, a ghostly touch under my shirt that left gooseflesh in its wake.

“What are you doing?” I asked him.

“Whatever the fuck I want.”

“Cole, someone could walk out of the weight room and see!” Horror seeped through me, turning my flesh to ice as his lips tilted into a smile.

“Guess I better get a move on, then.”

His fingers wandered across my stomach then under the waistline of my leggings. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.

“What are you?—?”

Cole wrapped his free hand around my throat and squeezed, not so hard he cut off my air, just enough to scare the shit out of me, and then the asshole shushed me . Heat wound its way through my core and my nipples tightened.

No, I didn’t like this. I couldn’t like this.

His other hand continued its path down my belly. “So fucking soft,” he murmured .

The fingers wrapped around my throat held me captive, preventing me from jerking away and ending this travesty.

“Stop, please,” I whispered. “You can’t.”

I searched his eyes for the disgust I knew I’d find there as he ran his fingers over the parts of my body I hated the most, but I found only heat.

“I think you’ll find I can,” he answered. His fingers slid under my panties, further, and then—“Oh, filthy girl. Shaved bare, just for me?”

“For me .”

Cole hummed. “I knew you were a slut.”

I winced at the words, jerking my head back as if he’d slapped me.

“I’m not,” I protested, even as his fingers slipped deeper, diving between my folds and discovering how wet I already was.

My pussy clenched every time he called me a slut, and even now, my hips twitched against the wall, desperate for him to fill me, to fuck me.

If Tristan found us like this—god, he’d never understand.

I hated this. I hated Cole. I hated myself.

He pulled his fingers out and held them up to my face. “We may have to agree to disagree on that one. I think a woman who gives a man a blow job at night then flirts with his best friend the next morning is definitely a slut.”

“I didn’t flirt with him,” I said, disappointed to hear my voice come out like a whine as he teased me with featherlight touches.

“That’s not what it looked like to me,” he growled, sliding his soaked fingers over my lips. “Taste yourself. Taste how much you want this.”

Shame warring with desire, I licked his fingers, tasting myself, surprised at his moan when my tongue brushed against his skin.

“See? ”

“Body betrayal is a whole fucking thing.” And mine was giving in to his expert touch, even as he confirmed how little he, or anyone else, valued me.

Cole hummed again and resumed his exploration of my folds, one hand wrapped around my throat, the other sliding through my pussy until he circled my clit and my hips jerked despite myself.

“And your body’s betraying you now?” he asked.

“Cole, please. We’re in the hallway. Dr. Parker’s going to catch us,” I begged. Tristan might walk out. Fuck! The last thing I needed was for anyone associated with the team to see Cole fingering me like a puck bunny. I’d never earn their respect.

“Do you want me to take this somewhere else?”

“I want you to stop.”

“No you don’t,” he said. “You want me to stroke your clit. You want me to slide my fingers deep into your pussy and fuck you roughly until you come. You want me to find your g-spot and make you see fucking stars. Because you’re a greedy little slut who likes being my fucktoy, who’s getting off on me playing with her wet pussy here in the hallway, where anyone could see. ”

He slipped his fingers up and down my folds, touching me gently, never quite giving me the friction I needed. Cole’s thumb stroked my jaw, sending fire streaking across my skin.

God, maybe he was right. There was something wrong with me, something wrong with the fact that my body responded to his cruelty.

“Such a messy little slut,” he murmured. “Soaked for her tormentor, like you can’t get enough of the cruelty I dish out. Hot and wet and fucking gorgeous like this, with those green eyes full of tears and your cheeks flushed, your lips begging for me to shove my cock between them again. ”

Before I could stop myself, my tongue poked out to lick my lips, the thought of sucking his cock not quite as disgusting as it should have been.

He changed his rhythm, sliding a finger into me.

I moaned, and his eyes widened with delight. “Oh, you like that, you gorgeous little toy?” he breathed. “Your pussy’s strangling my finger, clenching me like you’ll never let me go.”

My hips moved in time with his wrist, pumping against him, and I whimpered as pressure built in my core.

“Beg me for it,” he growled, and it was so fucking hot, I felt an answering throb in my clit.

“Fuck you,” I snarled, except it came out as a whine instead.

“I promise you, I will. But today, you’re going to prove to me you’re my greedy little toy.”

He changed his rhythm, stroking me harder, slower, building up my need but not letting me tip over into my climax.

“You’re going to beg me to slide another finger into this greedy pussy so you can fuck my hand. You’re going to beg me to let you grind your swollen clit against my palm, and you’re going to beg me to come.”