Page 30 of Play The Game

After dinner, Ash and Blaise headed back to their room to change for basketball training, and Harley gave me a long look before going with them to get ready. I had no idea what it meant, and honestly, I wasn’t paying enough attention to the conversation going on to even guess, distracted by Illi’s impending arrival.

The sound of keys in the door startles me as he lets himself in and I frown, confused about his early appearance, but he only smirks back at me, his eyes a little too… sparkley for my liking. He’s up to something and, goddammit, my thighs are already clenching at the possibilities.

Avery stomps out of the bathroom, wrapped in a fluffy towel, and snaps at him, “The keys are for an emergency! If you don’t stop letting yourself in, I’m going to start walking around naked!”

Harley snorts at her. “You’ll only be risking Morrison’s life. I don’t wanna see my cousin’s tits, but it’s not going to scar me for life. Morrison’s the one who’ll get stabbed for looking at you.”

Avery loosens the hold on her towel so it slips a little to call his bluff but he doesn’t falter for a second. Seriously. Even as I’m groaning and slapping a hand over my face, the two of them just glare each other down like some sort of fucked-up game of chicken.

Clearing my throat, they both ignore the attempt to interrupt them, until I’m groaning again. “Can we just go, Harley? Please? Or is there something else you wanna do while we wait?”

He reluctantly looks away, and Avery crows in victory. “Grab a bathing suit, we can go for a swim before the Butcher gets here.”

Any relief I might’ve felt at breaking their stand-off dies instantly, and I’m desperately trying not to show how I really feel about his suggestion. “I’m shit at swimming.”

There’s that fucking sparkle in his eyes again, and the smirk is back, too. “Well, I’m not. I’ll keep you afloat.”

I’m not proud to admit it, but the deciding factor is the very thought of being pressed up against his wet, naked chest.

Yes fucking please.

One small problem.

“I don’t have a bathing suit.”

Harley’s eyebrow quirks before he can smother it, like I’ve shocked him but he’s trying not to make a big deal out of it. “You’re from the Bay, how do you not have a suit?”

I don’t have a good answer for that, at least not one I want to hash out right now.

Being the expert that she is at reading loaded silences, especially from me, Avery breezes her way over to grab me and tugs me into her closet as she pulls her bathrobe on. Once she’s tucked firmly into it, she starts rummaging through her drawers until she finds a tiny scrap of fabric and holds it out to me. I blink at it before scoffing, shooting her a look.

There is no way it will cover even my small tits.

When I finally reach out to take it and start pulling it on with a sigh, she smirks at me. “I knew it would suit you, Mounty. Honestly, that asshole should be kissing my feet.”

A glance in the mirror is all it takes to confirm what I knew when she held it out to me. It’s obscene. It’s truly fucking obscene. I mean, I’ve worn worse to parties in the Bay but I needed to blend in, I didn’t do it because I wanted to. I definitely wasn’t trying to impress anyone, and I suddenly can’t ignore Harley’s presence in our room, a piece of wall between us so thin I heard him huff at Avery’s snide jab.

My entire body flushes as she looks me over, clinically approving like I’m her own personal model, and somehow it’s so much worse than being naked. It’s technically a bandage-style one-piece. Heavy on the technically, though, because micro bikinis have more coverage over the important parts and I’m certain that I’m one deep breath away from a lip slip. I have underboob cleavage in this thing for fuck’s sake! I turn around in the mirror and, oh look, there’s eighty-five percent of my butt-cheeks.

“Perfect! Now, let me find you something to cover up with for the walk down there,” Avery mutters as she moves to a different drawer.

Harley lets out an exasperated sigh and calls out, “We’re not going to get the chance to go for a swim if you turn this into a fashion parade, Floss. Just grab a sweater to wear once our… friend gets here.”

Avery ignores him and winds a silky, shimmery wrap dress around me, tying and buttoning and tucking me in until I’m positive Harley is going to have to bundle me back into it when we’re finished. When she nudges me out of the closet, she snarks at him, “You have no idea of the gift I’ve just given you. If you ran into anyone on the way down and someone else saw it, you’d stab them. You’re welcome, cousin dearest.”

Harley rolls his eyes at her, then kisses her cheek sweetly and tucks me under his arm to walk down to the pool. I wait until we’re in the hall before I burrow into the solid warmth of his chest. The rumbling noise of contentment he makes is loud against my ear, and his hold doesn’t slack the entire way, even when I elbow him for his constant teasing.

He uses his own set of keys to get us into the building, and he disarms the alarm with practiced ease. When he catches my questioning look, he shrugs. “Coach knows I come here when I can’t sleep. He gets an alert saying someone has disabled the alarm and when he sees it’s my code, he ignores it.”

Huh.

I didn’t know that was a thing for him but the more I think about it, the more I realize they all have little rituals, every one of them. Avery cleans obsessively and puts things in meticulous order, Ash runs until he can’t breathe, and Blaise messes around with lyrics and drawings in his notebook. They have all learned how to cope with the dark reality of our world. I guess I have as well, because I study like I’ll die without it.

I also take to my bed and cease existing two days a year.

I’m busy musing over our broken little family when Harley does that move of his and pulls his shirt off one-handed. He grins at me, the absolute asshole, because he knows he has my attention now, and he pushes his jeans down his legs until he’s left in nothing but a pair of swim shorts.

Sweet merciful lord.