Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
“I’m not a game, Abriella. I won’t be treated like a game for nothing more than some woman’s amusement when she needs to blow off steam or rebel.” Tommas raised a brow, never taking his eyes off of her as he spoke. “Do you understand that?”
She did.
That didn’t meant she would listen.
And really, he seemed to like her game.
“Could be fun,” she told him.
Tommas groaned. “Ella.”
“Innocent fun between two people.”
“No.”
“Over when it’s done,” she added softer.
Tommas swallowed audibly. “You’re going to get me killed.”
“You’re a smart man, right? I’m sure you’ll figure it all out. I’m not worried.”
He leaned down close enough that their noses almost touched. “You should be. Stupid is stupid no matter which way you twist it to your benefit. It will always be stupid.”
Abriella grinned. “Then why do you keep coming closer, Tommy?”
Tommas frowned, but he almost looked like he was in pain. Abriella briefly wondered if she had pushed him too hard in all of this.
She didn’t think she was wrong in her assumptions about him.
He clearly wanted her.
It was the risk that she wondered about.
Was it worth the reward?
Tommas rested his forehead on the wall directly above Abriella’s shoulder. He stayed still and quiet for a long time, but he also kept Abriella pinned in place when his hands found her waist and squeezed tight.
Hard enough to hurt.
She loved it.
“You were out there tonight with that guy, acting like ...”
Abriella stilled. “Like what, a slut?”
Tommas jerked back up instantly. “I wasn’t going to say that.”
“No?”
“No, I was going to say you were acting like you were trying to push my buttons.”
Oh.
Abriella glanced away. “But what if I wanted to be?”
“Be what?”
She let the words slip out, despite how strange they felt for her to say them. “Be someone’s little slut.”
Tommas groaned in that pained way of his again.
Abriella was quickly learning that she liked it.
A lot.
“Don’t do that,” he warned.
“Say what I’m thinking?”
Tommas tipped his head to the side. “Always do that.”
“That’s what I’m thinking, Tommy.”
“Stop,” he told her.
“I think you like my games,” she whispered.
Tommas shook his head. “You’re wrong.”
“I’m not.”
Sure. Simple. Sweet.
Abriella was terribly good at this. “And if you’re worried that you’re taking something that doesn’t belong to you, or that I’m too innocent to be messing around with a man, I hate to disappoint you. That happened three years ago.”
She asked a boy to stop once.
He didn’t.
The shame from that one encounter left Abriella feeling like it was only her fault. Like the position she had put herself in left her open to be hurt in that way.
Then she met another boy.
She told him to stop.
And he did.
It hadn’t been her at all—it was all him.
“I won’t be some lamb,” Tommas said.
Abriella’s brow furrowed. “A lamb?”
“The sacrificial lamb you bleed out in an attempt to hurt your family and push against the boundaries they’ve set out for you. That’s not fair to me. I won’t let you do it.”
“I just want to have fun,” she said.
Tommas wet his lips, finally let go of her waist, and took a step back.
Abriella’s shoulders sank when he once again shook his head.
“No,” he told her.
She hadn’t even been more mad than she was in that one moment.
“Who’s playing games now?” she asked.
Tommas smirked, sinful and wicked. “It’s not fun, is it?”
Bastard.
Abriella liked it.
He tipped his head back toward the bar. “Go back out on the floor, and enjoy the rest of your evening.”
“Tommy—”
“And if you come back next weekend ...”
Abriella swallowed hard. “What about it?”
“Think it over for the week. But if you do come back next weekend, I’ll be in my office.”
“And?”
Tommas’ gaze found hers, steady and strong. “The door will be open.”
She pushed past him in the hall, and walked back out to the club.
A week, was that all he wanted?
Abriella gave him his week.
And that following Saturday, she was right where he told her to be.
In his office.
On his desk.
Dirty, but awfully good, too.
And a whole new game started to be played.
They Came To Be
“We should do something,” Tommas murmured.
Abriella couldn’t help but shiver at the way his words whispered over her skin like the softest kiss. His lips grazed the back of her neck as he spoke, and she could feel his breath pulsing against her nerves. It spoke to just how close she truly was to him even if his hands were resting behind his head at the moment, and she was sitting cross-legged in his lap.
Naked.
In the back seat of a Mercedes Benz.
Abriella glanced out the window at the darkened parking lot of a hotel that was famous for its two-year waitlist when it came to holding events.
Oh, did she forget to mention they were supposed to be inside at someone’s wedding?
Because, yeah.
That was the thing about Tommas, and her. Ever since they started playing this game with each other a couple of months ago, they couldn’t seem to stop. Things like this—sneaking off when they shouldn’t even be talking to one another—were risky. And yet, they continued to do it every single chance they could.