Page 50 of Twisted Play (Cruel Games #1)

COLE

Coach’s whistle called practice to an end. “Game day tomorrow,” he reminded everyone. “Keep your sleep, your nutrition, and your schedule dialed in. Call time is two hours before the game.”

Eva disappeared into Dr. Parker’s office and didn’t come out for too fucking long. I was tired, my muscles were sore, and all I wanted to do was bend the sweetest piece of ass I’d ever had over the end of my bed. I wanted to fuck her then collapse into exhausted oblivion.

By the time Eva and the doctor walked out, I was fighting back yawns. Dr. Parker locked the door behind them, looked me up and down, then at Eva, and shook her head. I could have sworn she muttered “young love” under her breath, but I couldn’t hear clearly.

“See you tomorrow, Dr. Parker,” Eva said, stopping beside me, and my exhaustion disappeared.

I needed Eva, and I needed her now. Heedless of our potential audience, I yanked her head back by her glorious red hair and devoured her, slanting my lips against hers and invading her mouth with my tongue .

Our tongues twined together, and she melted against me. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard her heavy tote hit the ground before her hands crawled up my back to tangle in my hair. Her soft body pressed against mine, and I needed more. Closer.

Fuck.

Eva moaned, and I slid one hand down to cup her ass, pulling her closer to me. I spun us around until I could press her against the wall, consumed by my need to touch her, to have her on my skin.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

“Cole,” she whimpered, and I released her mouth so I could kiss down her jaw, nipping her skin and leaving marks for Tristan to find later. She arched her back, pressing her breasts into my chest. I slid one hand to her thigh, allowing me to press my aching cock straight into her core.

She moaned. Fuck, I didn’t want to wait.

A throat cleared behind me. I ignored it, reveling in the feel of her hot cunt sliding over my cock. Even separated by fabric, it was heaven.

“Kids,” the voice said again. Fucking Tristan. “Let’s take this back to the house, shall we?”

Instead of stepping away from Eva, I yanked her closer, shoving myself deeper against her core. “What do you think, sparrow? Should I leave you wet and wanting while we drive home, or should we pop back into the locker room and fuck right now?”

Eva jerked her pelvis against me. “Locker room. I’m not going home with you.”

Her easy acquiescence shocked me so much, I almost missed the second half of what she said. “The fuck you’re not,” I growled .

Eva shoved at me, but I refused to move away. “I don’t want to spend the night,” she snapped.

“Why the fuck not?” I asked. Where the fuck was this coming from?

The whole team knew we were fucking—we played with her whenever we got a chance, and we were always together.

We’d given her space this week, fucking her around campus every moment we could, but we hadn’t asked her to come home with us, outside of the time I lured Tristan into catching her spying on the team.

And maybe that had been our mistake.

Tristan leaned on the wall beside me, boxing her in.

She pressed her lips together then looked up at me, her green eyes shining fiercely. “Because when you’re sweet to me, it makes me forget why we’re doing this in the first place.”

My fingers stilled on her jaw. Fuck. The vulnerability in her voice pulled at something dark inside me. I wanted her to forget, wanted her to melt into my touch and pretend this was real. But it wasn’t. She was mine because I owned her secrets, and no amount of gentleness from me would change that.

“Oh, Eva,” Tristan breathed, gently turning her face toward his so he could kiss her. He brushed his lips over hers. “Don’t make this complicated. Just come home with us and let us give you what you deserve.”

“Please don’t make me,” she whispered. “I don’t want to have to wake up to half the team knowing I spent the night. They’re my colleagues.”

Her voice cracked, and the vice around my heart tightened. I’d watched her earn their respect—the way she stayed late analyzing game footage, how she remembered every player’s injuries.

“You’re coming home with us,” I said firmly.

I wouldn’t beg, not like Tristan. She belonged to me—to us —and she’d do as she was told.

I was the one who set the parameters of our deal—sex in exchange for keeping her secrets—and her insistence on not blurring those lines pissed me off.

I wanted her, and I would have her. The team all knew we were fucking anyway.

“I don’t have anything I need at your house,” she said. “Once was bad enough, but?—”

I pulled out my cellphone and unlocked it, opening it to a delivery app. “Order whatever you need.”

“Cole,” she pleaded. “This isn’t what I want.”

I slid my hand from her ass up her side, noting her gasp when my palm scraped against her nipple, then up to wrap around her throat. I squeezed gently. “You’ll do it anyway,” I growled, and half dragged her to the car, ignoring how she had to jog to keep up with me.

Eva’s resentment in the car burned me up. She hunched in the back seat, her arms crossed over her chest, the phone on the bench seat beside her, ignored.

“Eva,” I snapped. “I said order what you need to spend the night.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want anything,” Tristan said. “After all, the first time she spent the night, we just raided her closet and panty drawer for her.”

Eva flushed and closed her eyes, and, god, her embarrassment was so delicious. Why did I like humiliating her so much?

“We’ll take you shopping tomorrow,” I purred, my cock hardening at the thought of parading her through shop after shop, making her model clothes for us, leaving her soaked and needy as we played with her. “But get what you need for tonight.”

“Or what? ”

Tristan’s laugh was a bright contrast to her resentment and my frustration. “Or you won’t have it, silly kitten. Why punish yourself?”

“Because I don’t want to stay the night.”

He twisted around and met her eyes. “You’re staying. End of discussion. The deal was, do what we tell you, and we’re telling you that you’re spending the night at the hockey house.”

“Why are you doing this?” she whispered.

Because I hate the idea of you sleeping in that shithole of a house with your shithole of a father. Because you haven’t fixed that fucking hot water heater yet. Because I need you more than I ever needed my next line of coke.

“Because we can,” I said instead. “And if you don’t order your shit, I’m going to punish you for it.”’

“Punish me?” Eva squeaked. God, I loved it when I scared the shit out of her. Her thighs pressed together. No, I wasn’t scaring her—I was turning her on.

“Turn you over my fucking knee and teach you what happens to bad little sparrows who don’t obey their owners,” I growled.

Eva’s lips popped open in that cute “o” that had my cock hard in an instant every goddamned time.

“Order,” Tristan said. “His unlock code is 2014.”

“I don’t have anything on there you can’t see,” I said. Except maybe my chat with Tristan, where we planned out exactly how we were going to fuck her on a given day.

“He’s richer than god,” Tristan said. “And your skincare routine is shit. So fucking get what you need.”

Eva’s jaw ticked. “Why do you think I don’t have a fifteen-step skincare routine, Tristan?”

“Because you’re broke and you can’t even afford ramen,” I snapped from the front seat. “Christ, woman, just get what you need for the fucking night.”

Her eyes flicked to mine in the rearview mirror, her eyebrows raised in challenge. “Whatever I want?”

I shrugged. Eva was responsible as shit. How much could she spend?

Eva’s grin should have fucking warned me.

We pulled up in front of the house a few minutes later, and she was still on my phone. Head down and utterly focused on the screen, she barely even looked up as we greeted teammates who’d made it back to the house without having to convince their entertainment for the night to come home with them.

“Eva!” Katie greeted her with a big smile from where she sat on Haruto’s lap, playing with his still-damp hair. Eva blinked slowly then slid my phone into her pocket. No matter—I’d retrieve it later.

“Uh, hi,” Eva breathed.

Katie took in the scene, Eva between us. Haruto looked up, his eyebrows raised. “Eva,” Haruto said. He gently dislodged Katie from his lap, brushing his lips over hers, and stood. He cocked his head at me, his jaw clenching.

They all knew her, and worse, they all liked her.

Eva worked hard, took direction well, and most importantly, she never looked twice at any of the other players.

She’d earned their trust through competence and discretion.

Now I was making her stand here while she imagined it crumbling, and fuck if watching her try to hold on to her dignity didn’t make me want her more.

Nobody’d missed the way we looked at her this past week, or the way her cheeks flushed when she watched us play. Or how she avoided touching us at all costs during PT and massage sessions. They all knew we were fucking. They had to.

And the whole team’d be pissed if we upset her.

Fuck. More secrets.

“Hi,” she said, her face carefully blank.

“You crashing here tonight?” Haruto asked her, the big goalie’s voice gentler than I’d ever heard it. I glared at him, furious he was taking steps to make Eva comfortable, hating that she wasn’t.

A knock at the door interrupted the tense moment.

“Are you all expecting dinner?” I asked, opening the door to discover a student waiting outside, a phone in one hand and a small bag from a very expensive department store in the other.

Everyone shook their heads in the negative, and I was relieved—relieved!—to see Eva’s lips curl in a slight smile.

“Delivery for Cole Carter,” the visitor said, shoving the bag at me. Mystified, I accepted it.