Page 56 of Twisted Play (Cruel Games #1)

TRISTAN

Cole didn’t deserve a girl like Eva. Neither did I. And we were assholes for blackmailing her when we could be helping her instead.

I slouched on the couch, watching Eva run her hands over the clothes on the rack, looking up at Cole like she didn’t know whether to fuck him or kill him.

Both, maybe. When she turned again, I caught a sliver of that delectable ass.

“Panties,” I rasped. “She needs underwear if she’s going to try on clothes.” Before Cole could say something cutting, I stood. “What’s your name?” I asked the salesgirl.

“Nina,” she said.

“Nina, my girl here needs lingerie—not just the kind that’ll make a man sit up and notice her, but the kind she can wear all day.”

“Budget?”

“Unlimited,” I answered. Might as well use Cole’s billions for something useful.

Cole’s eyes shot to mine, but instead of annoyance, his expression softened as he looked at me. “That’s right,” he agreed. “Anything she wants. And anything he wants,” he added, nodding at me.

Nina pulled an armful from the rack and then gestured to Eva. “If you’ll come with me?”

“She can try them on right here,” Cole said. “Give us the room.”

Nina, bless her fuckin’ heart, raised an eyebrow. Her fists clenched in the pockets of her slacks, but she didn’t move. “Mr. Carter, this is a clothing boutique, not a strip club. Ms?—”

She turned and looked at Eva, who was unsuccessfully concealing a grin. “Miss Jackson.”

“Miss Jackson,” Nina continued, “will change in a dressing room.”

“Lead the way,” Eva said as Cole scowled.

He grabbed her arm as she walked by. “But we get to see everything, sparrow.”

“Everything I like,” she corrected. Her eyes flicked downward as she continued more softly, “I’m not showing you shit that doesn’t look good.”

“Everything that fits,” he conceded. “Whether you like it or not.”

I watched Eva kick off her sneakers through the space under the door, imagining her sliding the skirt down her thighs then lifting the sweater above her head and revealing her rosy nipples, hard and poking through the white lace of her bra.

Cole dropped into the sofa beside me, laser focused on the door that hid our girl. Nina hovered just outside Eva’s dressing room.

When the knob turned and Eva stepped out, wearing an emerald-green scrap of lace that didn’t fucking hide anything and a matching bra that served her gorgeous tits up to me like fucking dessert, I was ready to drop to my knees and worship.

Fuck.

“Sparrow,” Cole rasped. “You look—fuck. Come here.”

She hunched in over herself, one arm over her soft stomach and the other over her chest, covering the shadow of her nipples that peeked through the lace, as if she were ashamed of her body, afraid of what we’d find in the harsh light of the dressing room.

But when Eva squared her shoulders, muttering softly to herself, her lips moving as if telling herself, “You can do this,” I kept my damn mouth shut.

Eva walked to the dais, her fingers twitching at her sides, a nervous habit I’d noticed whenever she felt exposed.

She lifted her chin and straightened her back, putting on confidence like armor.

That’s right, kitten. Fake it till you make it.

The urge to wrap her in my arms warred with my need to see her bloom.

The material in the back of her panties was practically see through, showing the welts from the night before. I bit my knuckles to keep the groan of need in. I wasn’t into pain, and I definitely wasn’t into hurting Eva, but the thought of her wearing physical marks of our ownership?

Fuuuuuuccccccckkk.

Cole’s breathing turned ragged beside me. “Turn around,” he rasped, and Eva pirouetted, letting us see every gorgeous inch of her. Her eyes fixed on mine, and I could see her hands twitching, as if holding back the urge to cover herself.

Reassurance. She needed reassurance. “You look good enough to eat,” I gritted out, trying to keep my voice steady and failing.

Her eyes flicked down to my cock, hard against my leg, and then back up to my face, a little bit more confident than before.

“We’re getting that. Fuck, Eva, if I didn’t have plans for you today, I’d turn you over my knees and turn that ass pink just for looking that good,” Cole said. “God, those fucking stripes on your ass.” He groaned.

She flushed, and I loved watching the pink spread from her cheeks down to the soft curves of her breasts.

The saleswoman cleared her throat, and the sweet rose covering Eva’s soft skin deepened.

The silence stretched, charged with everything we couldn’t do to her here. Eva’s breath hitched when she caught me staring, her pupils dilating as she held my gaze. The space between us crackled with promise—for later. In private. No matter what Cole might want.

“Go try on the next one,” I told her, a smile gentling my voice.

Eva looked at Cole and furrowed her brow. “Can I—” She stopped herself and squared her shoulders. She was so cute when she was brave. “I’d like to wear these to try on the clothes.”

I tore my gaze from her to look over at my best friend, whose eyes had narrowed. Before he could say something fucking stupid, I told her, “Sure, kitten. Go ahead.”

Cole glared at me but didn’t say anything. His cock was as hard as mine, poking up in his slacks.

Eva strutted over to the racks of clothes, and I swear, she put an extra sway in her step just to make us miserable.

Cole shot to his feet and crowded her against the clothes. “Let me pick.”

I watched Eva’s body language shift, her tension melting under his dominance even as uncertainty flickered in her eyes. Without thinking, I moved closer, providing the steady presence she needed while Cole pushed her limits.

“Is that an order?” she whispered.

“Do you want it to be?” he murmured back, as if he were genuinely curious, so quietly I almost couldn’t hear.

Eva remained silent for a beat and then nodded. “I need it to be.”

Fuck.

Was Cole right? Did she like what we were doing to her as much as she hated that she didn’t have a choice? My breath caught in my chest at the thought of Eva on her knees for the two of us because she wanted to be, not just because we were forcing her. Did she like giving up control?

Oh, fuck. Of course she did. Eva kept a vice-like grip on every part of her life lest it spin out of control and leave her starving, her father dead, or worse. Letting go for a moment had to be a fucking relief for her.

“Okay, sweetheart,” Cole said, running a hand up her stomach to her throat, holding her against him. “You’re going to let me dress you like the filthy slut you are, or you’re going to pay for your disobedience. What’s it going to be?”

“Dress me,” she said, and the hope in her eyes destroyed me. She wanted this.

He skimmed his hands down her sides. “Can’t play with you here, but I bet you’re absolutely soaked right now, aren’t you?”

Precum leaked out of my cock. Fuck. If I didn’t get myself under control, I was going to embarrass myself. Again. I might anyway. Jesus, how were those two so fucking hot together?

Nina cleared her throat, drawing all our attention to her, exactly as she’d intended. “What are you looking for?” she asked, her eyes carefully on Eva’s flushed face.

“She’s a fuckin’ goddess,” I said. “Make her feel like one.”