Page 59 of Twisted Play (Cruel Games #1)

COLE

When we walked out of the locker room, freshly showered and changed, we found Eva leaning against the wall, her attention buried in her phone. Her long red hair dangled down her back in a braid, curls escaping to frame her face, her lips moving softly as her thumbs slid over the screen.

She was so goddamned beautiful, so goddamned smart, so goddamned giving , and she was ours . And when she looked up and smiled like she was happy to see us?

Fuuuccckkkkk. I shouldn’t like this so much, shouldn’t ache to see more of her smiles.

I should be focused on punishing her for that stunt with Haruto’s jersey, but instead, I smiled right back at her, delighted, ignoring how my chest tightened at her joy.

She sauntered over, her hips swaying with every step, and I cursed Tristan’s jersey for being so long it hid her legging-clad thighs from my gaze.

“Congratulations,” she purred as she wrapped her arms around my neck, surging up on her toes to kiss me.

I’d thought Eva on her knees and crying was all I ever wanted, but Eva with her curves pressed against my chest, her lips moving against mine, her tongue slipping into my mouth because she wanted to kiss me fucking destroyed me.

I held her tight, letting her lead, tamping down the adrenaline rush from our win and the need to slam her against the wall and devour her like a conquering warlord.

She pulled back, her eyes luminescent with an emotion I didn’t understand.

She smiled at me, sweet and perfect and somehow still unsullied, despite our efforts to corrupt her.

I leaned forward to take her lower lip between my teeth and nipped hard, half teasing, half punishing, and she moaned, her breath rushing out of her in a sharp exhale.

My cock hardened underneath my jeans.

She kissed my jawline then pulled away to congratulate Tristan.

“Hey there, pretty girl,” he said to her. Unlike me, when she surged up to kiss him, he took control, lifting her leg and driving his pelvis into hers as he conquered her mouth, turning her into a panting, whimpering mess.

I’d never wanted to blow off the post-game press conference more, but I was committed to being less of a fuckup. That meant playing my part. It was bullshit. We won because we were the best. Tristan scored a goal, I scored two, and the team had never played better.

But I had to go, and that meant tearing my eyes from the scene in front of me and putting a hold on my desperate need to slide my fingers between Eva’s legs to see how wet she was.

“C’mon,” I said, tugging her hand and raising it to my lips before twining my fingers between hers, refusing to question the instincts that had me treating her with unusual gentleness. I wanted to, and I did what I wanted, even if Tristan grinned like a fucking fool as he watched me.

My lucky charm stood behind the glass at the back of the room, her cheeks pink and those gorgeous green eyes shining. Her thighs were pressed together, and her lips were swollen from our kisses.

Everyone who scored a goal tonight stood for a minute to say our piece—that it was a team effort, that we respected the other team, that we were grateful for everything going our way.

The moment we could, Tristan and I slipped away. I dragged Eva back to the locker room with us, unwilling to let her out of our sight for even a moment. Tristan laughed at my possessiveness, but the glint in his eye wasn’t any less manic.

Fuck, I couldn’t bring her into the locker room—some of the guys were still changing, and she was mine .

“I’ll grab your bag,” Tristan promised, understanding my quandary like only a best friend could. He pulled Eva against him for a frantic kiss that had her squirming in his arms then pushed her away. “Two minutes.”

As he walked in, the celebratory clamor in the locker room leaked out, followed by the captain, who looked at the possessive arm I immediately wrapped around Eva’s waist with amusement.

He dropped a hand on my shoulder. “We’re going to Pour Decisions after this to celebrate.

You should join us.” When I hesitated, eager to get Eva home, naked and crying on her knees, Massi rolled his eyes. “Bring your girl.”

My girl. Our girl. Tristan burst out of the locker room so fast, he slammed into Massi.

Massi’s eyes narrowed, looking first at Eva, then the two of us, then back at Eva, who flushed with delicious embarrassment.

I wondered what it was—that she was dating two of us?

That Massi knew? That the only thought in any of our heads was getting her home and sinking our cocks into her?

God, I couldn’t wait to see how soaked she was, to wrap those thick thighs around my head and feast on her.

“Something we can do for you, Massi?” Tristan said, his jaw clenched, misinterpreting the tension.

His loyalty, and his defense of me, even if I were every bit the fuck up that Massi thought I was, was fucking hot.

I bit my lower lip, and Tristan’s eyes slid away from Massi to watch.

The urge to drag my hand along his scalp and yank him in for the same sort of kiss I gave Eva tempted me.

Fuck.

Massi rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Come get drinks with the rest of us, like the team players you are. And bring your girl.”

“What do you think?” I asked Eva.

Her eyes widened as she looked up at me. I’d drown in the depths of the emotion in them if I wasn’t careful. “Is my answer going to change your decision?”

Massi frowned, his eyes narrowing as he watched us. Did she think we were cruel dictators?

I scoffed internally. Yes, of course she did, because that’s exactly the deal we had with her, no matter how sweetly she’d given herself to us the night before or how enthusiastically she’d just greeted us.

“Kitten,” Tristan said, tilting her face away from me and toward him. “If our girlfriend says she wants to go out, we’re going to take her out.”

Eva stiffened so visibly, even Massi saw it. His gaze sharpened. I held my breath, waiting for her reaction. If she gave our deal away, there’d be hell to pay for all of us. My heart pounded as she tilted her head and considered her words.

“We’ll join you in a little bit,” she promised Massi.

The moment he left, I dragged Eva back to me .

“Girlfriend?” she snapped, and I couldn’t tell if she was amused or pissed.

“Fucktoy,” I teased against her neck where I nibbled.

“Goddess,” Tristan said, pressing into her back and shoving his hands between us to cup her breasts.

“Princess, what’s wrong?” I asked when she didn’t melt into us like she usually did.

Eva stepped away. “I’m not your girlfriend.” She clenched her jaw, every line of her body stiff with anger.

“Pretty sure you are,” Tristan said.

“Pretty sure girlfriends have a choice,” she snapped back.

Fuck this. Even if I wasn’t above using a little blackmail to keep her bound to me, she wanted this. She liked this.

“Girlfriend in public then,” I conceded. “Toy in private.”

She twisted her lips, her expression annoyed, and the pressure in my chest tightened. I wanted her to want this. I wanted her to want me .

I strode over to her and captured her lips with mine, tugging on her braid like I’d wanted to since I saw her in the stands before the game, angling her face so I could plunder her with my tongue.

“Stop,” she whispered, pushing against my chest.

Tristan hovered behind her, his eyes pleading for me to respect her wishes. Fuck.

“I don’t know how to do things halfway,” she said. “It’s not fair to hold my future, and my father’s life, over my head in private, and then expect me to act like your girlfriend in public. You have to make up your fucking mind.”

Tristan didn’t say a word, just wrapped his arms around her from behind and nestled his chin on her shoulder, waiting for me to make my pronouncement, as if he were confident he’d be in her life no matter what .

Jealousy, mean and insidious, wound through me.

I wanted her. I wanted them . And if I gave her a choice, she’d leave.

Eva healed something inside me, smoothing over the jagged edges my parents had left, the emptiness I’d tried to fill with pills and alcohol, and the thought of losing her, giving her up—the pressure in my chest tightened until I couldn’t breathe.

Eva was mine, and I wasn’t letting her go, even if she hated me for it.

“The deal is, you do whatever the fuck I want,” I said, lifting my chin so I could stare down my nose at the gorgeous, angry little sparrow in my arms. “And I want you to act like our girlfriend in public.”

Eva blinked, then blinked again, her eyes shimmering in the fluorescent light of the hallway. Her breath shuddered against my chest as she failed to control her hurt.

Tristan’s expression was unreadable, but he didn’t unwrap himself from her. A tear streaked down Eva’s cheek, and I swiped it up with a finger before licking it away. It should have delighted me, but instead, I wondered if I was making the wrong decision, if I should be seducing her instead.

No.

When she rolled out of my bed the first time we hooked up, gorgeous and mussed and dressing so she could leave before I kicked her out, she’d said it—girls like her and boys like me didn’t mix.

Except that I hadn’t wanted her to leave.

I’d wanted to wake her up with my mouth on her pussy, take her out for breakfast, and bring her home for seconds, thirds, until I satiated my obsession with her.

Instead, she’d pulled on her dress and left.

Then she showed up as our medical assistant, and fuck, I couldn’t get her out of my head. If I let her walk away now, I’d never get her back, and I’d rather have her with me and broken than not have her at all.

“Come on, sparrow,” I said, my heart heavier than I expected. She’d wanted to play after the game, and I’d found a way to ruin it, just like I fucked up everything in my life. “Let’s go get a drink with the rest of the team.”