Playing for Keeps (The Game #2)(10)
Author: Emma Hart

“If there’s a girl that can tame me I’ll welcome the challenge.” I lean back. “I’d like to see someone try. Gotta feel to be tamed, boys, and I don’t feel a thing except for whoever it is in my bed on a weekend.”

“I didn’t feel anything. Then I had to play Maddie.” Braden pauses, running his hand through his hair and focusing on me. “Some things are just too real to be ignored.”

“See? Pussy-whipped.” I snort. “Don’t you two f**kers have something better to do than sit here and tell me I need love in my life?”

“Probably.” Ry grins again. “But this is way more fun.”

“What’s fun?” Lila asks, strolling into the room and looking at Ryan.

“Annoying Aston.” He reaches for her, gripping her hands and pulling her down onto his lap.

She groans. “You do realize an annoyed Aston usually equals sex, which means there’ll be a pissed off girl hounding us?”

“Really?” I sit up straight. “Girls do that?” Well damn. I knew I was good, but…

Lila’s eyes are as flat as her voice when she turns to me. “Yes. It’s like they think that because I’m Ryan’s girlfriend, I have a VIP pass inside your head. I don’t, thank God, but they don’t get that. They all want to know why you don’t call.”

“Hey, I never promise to call them. I don’t offer and they don’t ask. Half of them don’t even leave their numbers!”

Lila raises her eyebrows, and both the guys laugh.

“They don’t!” I insist. “It’s not my fault. How the f**k can I call if they don’t leave their number?”

“Maybe they want you to ask for it.”

“If I ask for it, then they’d expect me to call.”

“The problem is–?”

“I won’t call. If I ask for it then they have a real reason to be pissed off when I don’t.”

She sighs and drops her head, looking back at Ryan. He fights his smile. “Is there no way to attach a warning to him?”

“Like what, babe?” Ryan sputters.

“‘Sex addict ass**le who won’t call, so don’t even bother?’”

“That would seriously damage my reputation!” I protest.

Lila rolls her eyes and shoves herself off of Ryan’s lap. She heads toward the door, stopping and looking over her shoulder at me before she passes through. “You hardly have a stellar reputation, Aston. What you need to do is have one night with a nice girl. You never know – you might like it. It might change your ass**le perspective on things.”

“Eh, she’s got a point.” Braden shrugs.

“Assholes.” I stand and follow her through the door, taking the stairs two at a time up to my room.

I’m so f**king done with that conversation.

I nearly had one night with a nice girl. That almost ruined me because I can’t imagine being with anyone else other than her now. I can’t stop thinking about what would have – and f**king well should have – happened after that kiss. Whenever I look at her now, I picture her lying on my bed beneath me and wrapped around my body.

The guys see the Aston I want them to see. They don’t see the f**ked up mess inside – they don’t see the real Aston. I don’t intend to show the real me to anyone. Ever.

You aren’t worth shit.

I let my bedroom door swing shut behind me, pushing back the echo in my mind.

I know I’m not worth shit. I don’t need a ghost from my past to remind me of that.

~

I had shivered in the corner, waiting, wondering. The thin blanket I wrapped around my body did nothing to block out the chill coming from my open window – the open window my six year old body was too small to reach.

She said she’d come back. She’d promised she would, but she took too long and he went to find her. I didn’t know his name, but he said she was gonna get it this time. He was angry.

I rubbed the top of my leg, flinching and trying not to cry at the stinging pain there. It was always my fault. This time it was because Mommy took too long and I cried. I don’t know who he is but I don’t like him. He hurt more than the last one. He had bigger arms to hit me with.

“Mommy?” I whispered into the silent darkness. I was scared. Alone and scared. Where was my mommy? Why wasn’t she home yet? I rubbed at my eyes to stop myself crying.

I wanted Mommy to come home before he did. If he came home first he would hurt me again.

“Mommy?”

Chapter Seven – Megan

“He really is an ass**le,” Kay says, spying Aston across the yard.

He’s standing in front of a girl with more highlights than my e-reader, and she’s doing her best to push up her chest into his face. He smiles slowly at her, resting his arm against the tree next to him. She twirls some hair around her finger, attempting what she thinks is a demure smile, and looks into his eyes.

“I see he took the conversation we had two days ago to heart,” Lila remarks.

“What conversation was that?” Maddie asks.

“I told him he needed to find a nice girl.”

“You obviously have different definitions of the word ‘nice’,” I say, harsher than I mean to. “Because the only thing nice about her will be when she turns around and leaves.”

Kay snorts. “I freaking love it when you guys get jealous.”

My head snaps round. “Who said I was jealous?”

“You’re so green you’re practically blending in with the grass.”

“Right. Because being jealous of anyone with Aston is so likely.”

Yet I am jealous. I’m pissed. I’m disgusted. And I’m even more annoyed at myself for the clenching in my chest. I knew he’d be back to his usual tricks straight away, but seeing him this close to another girl when that was me just days ago pisses me the hell off.

Seeing him with another girl when he was mine, even if just for a few minutes, is like a clawed hand reaching into my chest and ripping out my heart. Even if I walked away from that kiss.

And that’s all it was. A kiss. When will I get this into my thick damn head?

Aston nods to the girls, smirks, and walks across the yard. He drops onto the ground next to me and looks at me.

“What?” My eyes flick over his face.

“Nothing.”

“Did Barbie have to go get her implants adjusted or something?” I snap, shifting away from him. Ugh.