Page 30 of Playing for Keeps

“I’m... gonna go change.” Without another word, I grabbed my sweatshirt off the floor and ran for my room. I was pulling on a clean pair of jeans when my door creaked open and Aaron came in.

“Hey.” His eyes trailed down my body as I yanked my pants up my legs. By the time I had them buttoned, he was laying across the end of my bed, his right cheek slightly red.

“Hi?” My hands shot to my dresser, tucking the silky lingerie I’d bought in the Bahamas back into my drawer. I fiddled with the hem of my shirt, then motioned to his face. “Sorry about that.”

A smile tugged at his lips. “Don’t worry about it,” he told me, then yelled, “It’s all O’Connor’s fault!” Aaron swung his legs over the edge of the bed and sat up. “I should probably get going. My dad, he’s expecting me this morning.”

“Oh, sure, of course,” I stammered, tucking a hair behind my ear. “Thanks for coming over. I had fun.”

“Thanks for letting me come in.” Aaron grabbed my hand, yanking me to the bed and draping me over his knee. Then, like he had when he first came into my apartment, he sank his teeth into my neck.

I squealed and thrashed, but he just held me tighter, the heat of his mouth making my head swim. “Aaron!”

With a chuckle, he pulled away, dragging his teeth across my skin before tossing me on the bed and falling on the mattress beside me. “I had fun, too,” he told me, chucking me under the chin. “We should do it again sometime.”

“I’d like that.”

After seeing him out, I turned to the kitchen to get a coffee, only to be startled by Kelly sitting at the table, giving me that smirk.

“What?” I asked, head down as I grabbed a mug and filled it from the coffee pot.

“You didn’t sleep with him, huh?”

“No, I didn’t.” The girl didn’t believe me. I rolled my eyes, taking a seat at the table and sipping at my drink. “We just watched a couple movies—”

“And fell asleep wrapped in each other’s arms?”

“Yes,” I said, “do you have a problem with that?”

Kelly leaned forward and took my hand, that smirk falling from her lips. “It’s a start,” she said, squeezing my hand. “Now, tell me everything.”

7

Vinny

“The fuck is this?” The deep rumble of the man’s voice was like a freight train thundering by as I slid into the booth across from him. I shrugged out of my leather jacket and folded it neatly on the bench beside me without answering. The whole time, Lee stared at me, his emerald eyes flashing with anger, then confusion, then blatant curiosity. A wicked sneer cut across his face. “You some kinda fuckin’ spy now? All cloaks and daggers and dress up shit?”

I raised my chin as I relaxed back into my seat. “Don't assume you know a thing about me,” I offered as a response.

Because he didn’t.

Couldn't possibly.

There were so many sides to me no one knew, so many hidden truths, at times I felt like I didn’t know myself.

Like the sick little boy I always was growing up.

Like the teen who convinced his father he wanted to go to Disney World for his sixteenth birthday, alone.

Like the man who hid behind computer screens and cameras, righting wrongs while simultaneously stacking the deck against his enemies.

This “costume” Lee thought I was wearing, it was just another part of me. A part that few knew, few saw, and one that was as necessary as the air I breathed.

This was the real me.

Other than Thatcher, Jen was the only one who’d been close to knowing the real me. I wanted her to know me, every piece of me. Though I feared if she knew what I'd done to keep her, she'd run far, far away and never look back, and nothing I could do would ever bring her back to me.

Shit. Jen.