Page 118 of Twisted Play

Katie entered with her fingers twined around Linh’s.

Immediately, I felt self-conscious in Cole’s room with all these gorgeous, confident people standing around, looking at me. I shrank into myself, pulling the robe tighter.

Tristan caught the movement and dropped onto the bed, hauling me beside him with his arm around my shoulders.

“Yeah, I have some clothes that’ll fit her,” Linh said before she disappeared. Two minutes later, she handed me a short skirt with a ruffle hem, a bralette, and a sweater.

Okay. Yeah. I could wear these until the guys got me home to pick up a change.

“Thanks,” I said. “I really appreciate it.”

“The Viking’s making breakfast,” Haruto said, “if you get a move on.”

Cole looked me up and down, the light in his eyes wild. “Maybe,” he murmured. “Eva’s gotta get dressed first.”

The moment the room was empty, Tristan was tugging off the robe and lifting the t-shirt off me. I tried to cover my breasts with my arm, but he just laughed and tossed me the bralette.

I slid it over my head then held my hand out for the sweater. Instead of handing it to me, Cole took one of my breasts in his mouth, licking and sucking on it through the fabric of the bralette until my knees weakened with need.

“You’re not in charge, sparrow,” he rasped, but the need in his eyes took away the sting of the reminder.

Tristan slid the sweater over my head, careful not to muss my still-wet braid.

Right. Now the skirt. “I need underwear.”

“The fuck you do,” Cole answered, handing me the skirt.

“The fuck she doesn’t,” Tristan said, his eyes flashing with anger.

Guilt coiled in my stomach about getting between these best friends until I gave myself a mental shake. These two assholes could have just kept my secret. If they were fighting about how best to force me into sexual servitude, that was their problem, not mine.

Cole’s voice turned silky as he turned to look at his best friend. “You’re only part of this deal because I asked you to be. Eva belongs to me.”

Tristan sneered. “Why? Because you saw her first?Because you decided to blackmail her while I was making a fool out of myself, trying to get her to like me?”

Oh.Oh.My heart cracked open.Tristan, I do like you, I wanted to tell him.When you’re not playing these stupid fucking games.

And sometimes, even when you are,the voice in my heart continued.

“Because she’s a conniving little?—”

“No,” Tristan interrupted. “This isn’t about her. This is about you and me.”

“Come here, sparrow,” Cole ordered, and I stepped up to him, wearing nothing more than the bralette and sweater, grateful it fell to the tops of my thighs. “Do you want to quit this game?”

He cupped my cheek, his touch gentle, before he slid his hand down my neck and squeezed softly, his thumb pressing against the front of my throat. “Do you want out? Do you want Coach to find out what you’ve been doing? Dr. Parker? The school administration?”

I shook my head, unable to force the words out as terror slid down my spine.

“Good girl.”

As much as I hated it, his praise made me want to turn my face to him and absorb his warmth, like a flower to the fucking sun. Disgust furled deep in my gut.

“See, Tristan? She likes it.”

“No, she’s terrified she’ll lose her scholarship and the bratva will kill her father,” Tristan snapped. “That’s not the same thing as liking it.”

“Sure, she’s scared,” Cole acknowledged as he stroked his thumb over the front of my throat, pressing it against the bottom of my chin, forcing me up on my toes. “But the humiliation turns her on too, and the pain, I think.”