Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 80197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
When I discover my boyfriend Eddie has a side chick, I’m humiliated and furious. But I dry my tears and pull up my big girl panties. I don’t want him back, but I want him out of my head and my heart. Time to turn to every woman’s medicine in a time of crisis: chocolate and cocktails.
But my friends have other ideas. They tell me the best kind of healing is the hot, sweaty, toe-curling, mind-blowing kind.
So, on a drunken night, I take a chance and kiss three hotter-than-sin men until my knees are weak and my pulse is racing.
Dornan is huge and intimidating on the outside, but has a heart of gold behind all that muscle. When I tell him what I need to heal, he’s happy to play along.
I have a history with Elias, the cockiest alpha-hole I know. As my ex’s nemesis, he’s the perfect choice to rock my world and make me forget.
And Travis is my best friend’s hot older brother. He’s sexy and mature, and reads my body and my needs like braille.
The three of them don’t seem to like each other, but they like me and the games I want to play.
It’s all supposed to be fun and lighthearted, but things get real fast and I find myself drawn into a situation I didn’t anticipate.
Is love ever a game worth playing? Or is it all too much of a gamble?
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PLAYLIST
“Can I Call You Tonight” by Dayglow
“Almost” by Hozier
“Unravel Me” by Sabrina Claudio
“U Got It Bad” by Usher
“The Trouble Is” by Bryde
“One of These Nights” by Eagles
“Playing Games” by Summer Walker
“Ride It” by Regard
“Standing Next to You” Jung Kook
“Bad Boy” by Bella Poarch
“Run From You” by Sigma
“Blue” (Armed with Love) by Wham
“Heart Out” by The 1975
“Those Eyes” by New West
DEDICATION
Love is a game of chance.
For all my readers who are still waiting to win their own game of love.
1
CELINE
"Eddie is the biggest rodent in the northern hemisphere." Gabriella rests her hand on my arm and reaches for a tissue from the box on my dresser, handing it to me before I ruin my makeup.
I dab under my eyes, and grimace. I hate crying in front of people. I'm not usually this broken and pathetic, but I invested a lot of time in the relationship I had with the cheating bastard who has now become my ex, and that wasted time makes me mad as hell.
I didn't want to get serious with him. From the very beginning, I told him I wanted to be free at college, not shackled to the first guy I met freshman year. But he wouldn't let me break up with him. Any time I tried to pull back so we could branch out and see other people, he'd find a way to pull me back in. The man had the sex drive of three average men, and I feel like I've spent most of the last couple of years beneath him in one way or another.
Don't get me wrong, he wasn't bad in bed. The asshole could fuck. But pleasure from fucking, and emotional satisfaction are two very different things. I just didn't feel connected to him, and other than wanting to be up inside my body every half an hour, I didn't feel like he really saw the important parts of me.
Then he cheated, and all our time together suddenly seemed so futile.
I'm mad at him, but I'm mostly mad at myself. I want to erase him from my memory and go back to seize all the months I wasted, but life doesn't come with a do-over, no matter how much we wish it did.
I sniff and wipe my nose. My eyes are bloodshot but still passably made-up. "He might be there tonight."
Ellie, who's sitting on my bed with her legs crossed and one foot shaking, meets my eyes in the mirror.
"What are you going to do if he is?"
She's asking the question because we're not just going out for a good time tonight. We're celebrating Dalton getting a place at catering school and it’s an occasion I don’t want to add any drama to.
"I don't know." It's the truth. My rage is a volcano of trapped lava, a pyroclastic cloud ready to erupt and wipe out all in its path. "Maybe just drink cocktails."
"Cocktails and chocolate are the best when it comes to breakups." Gabriella snaps off a square of the giant bar of Hershey’s she brought me today to help with the heartache.
"Cocktails and chocolate are great, but you know what's better?" Ellie's perfectly arched eyebrow raises in question, and she shifts, leaning forward and grinning like she's about to share the most excellent gossip. Her dark hair falls over her shoulder and her tongue darts out to wet the bottom of her lip.
"What?" I swivel on my stool and ball up the damp tissue in my fist.
"Rebound sex." With a slight shrug, she makes her suggestion seem entirely innocent.
Gabriella snickers. "Ellie!"
"What? It's not like Celine hasn't wanted to experience other guys. Eddie smothered her for way too long. It's time for her to spread her wings."
"You mean my legs," I mutter.
I tip my head at an awkward angle to hear Gabriella's response. She gestures openly with her hands. "I mean, good alternative sex can be freeing…like wiping the slate clean. But it can also be messy.” Ellie snorts and Gabriella rolls her blue eyes, crossing her arms across her chest. “You know me… I'm not a one-night-with-a-stranger kind of girl. When I was hungry for sex, I went next door, and Ellie just crossed the hall."
We all laugh at the strange truth of that statement. Gabriella’s in a relationship with three of her neighbors who are brothers, and her brother’s best friends. Ellie’s shacked up with her triplet stepbrothers and she has a little boy called Noah. They might be lazy about where they found their men, but with three each, that’s where the laziness ends!
"Yes," Ellie gasps. "Get-over-the-asshole-ex-sex needs to be safe and satisfying."
Shaking my head, I rise on weary legs to find my shoes at the bottom of my closet. Going out tonight and painting on a smile feels as appealing as entering hell through flaming gates, whilst being pelted by crap, but I'll do it for my friend.