Page 247 of The Bluffing Game

“Well, I’m not going to do anything.” She pauses and looks at me with a secretive little smile. “So, wait a second. I could do anything I wanted to you, and you still wouldn’t touch me?”

“Not unless you asked me to.”

“Okay. You want to put money on it?”

“Why? What are you planning on doing?”

“I don’t know. Maybe nothing. Maybe something.”

I’m playing with fire. I should turn the lights off and go to bed, but I can’t resist her, and I can’t resist a little temptation or a bet. “What about fifty dollars?”

“Fifty dollars? That’s nothing. A hundred.”

“You got it.”

She grins. “So, here are the rules. I can do whatever I want to you, and you can’t touch me. You can’t do a damn thing.”

“I wouldn’t even want to do a damn thing,” I say, “no matter what you do.”

“Okay. Well, let’s see, shall we?”

“Wait,” I say. “Do I have to have my clothes on or clothes off? How far is this test going?”

“You can wear whatever you want to wear to bed. It won’t bother me, Dalton.” She gets back up and grabs the remote. “I’m just watching TV and hoping that Parker is locked up soon so I can go back to my regular life.”

“And what does your regular life look like?” I ask. “What’s so special about that, aside from not having to be with me?”

“I don’t know actually,” she says. “Maybe just a little more peace and quiet.”

And that’s all she has to say because those words are poignant. They say so much, even though they also say so little.

I pull down my pants, drop them to the ground, and then I get up on the bed. I’m wearing black briefs, and I debate taking them off. I’m curious to see what she would do if I were naked, but I don’t want to make her uncomfortable, no matter if she’s teasing me, no matter what she’s planning to do. If she wants me naked, she’ll have to get me naked herself.

I see her eyes on my chest, and when I look up at her, she looks away quickly. I can’t help but smile. She’s beautiful, wonderful. I want to make her happy.

I wish Jimmy the Fish would be a stand-up guy. I wish he would be there for her, but then I don’t even know if that’s a good idea anyway. I wonder what she would think if she knew her dad was a made man in the Mafia. It’s not my place to tell her.

I lean back, grab a pillow, and turn to face her. “Whenever you want to start your little test, I’m ready.”

“I’m not going to tell you, Dalton. It may be tonight, it may be tomorrow, it may be never. I find the anticipation is the sweetest part.”

Chapter 31

SAGE

The heat in the room is palpable. Dalton lies on top of the bed, stretched out. He’s only wearing a pair of black briefs, and they’re leaving nothing to the imagination. I can see the curve of his cock pressing against the material. He’s not doing anything to let me think that he’s not willing and waiting for me.

I know if I were to pull down his briefs and take him into my mouth, he wouldn’t say no. I’m throbbing in my panties at the thought of getting on top of him and riding him. I can still remember the way his cock twitched in my pussy, the way he grabbed my hips and bounced me up and down on him, and I feel hot just thinking about it. I turn over on the mattress and stare at the screen.

The King of Queens is one of my favorite TV shows, but I can’t concentrate on the antics going on.

Even though Dalton is a mere foot or two away from me, it feels like there’s an ocean between us. There are so many things I want to tell him, so many hurts I want to express, so many fears, so much pain, and yet I don’t want him to feel like I’m a burden. I don’t want him to feel like I can’t handle my emotions. And even worse, I don’t want to feel like I’m losing control and power. The way I felt when my mom told me about my dad broke me. When I knew that he wasn’t my biological dad, all the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place, and I haven’t found that missing piece. My dad doesn’t want to know me. He doesn’t even want to talk to me.

I want to scream and shout into the pillow. I want to bang my fists against the wall and ask: Why? Why am I not lovable? Why don’t you want to see me? Why don’t you want to have a conversation with me? Am I not a piece of you? Am I not a piece of you that exists in the universe?

And he doesn’t even want to lay his eyes on me.

I sneak a glimpse at Dalton, and he’s staring at me. There’s an intensity in his gaze that makes me want to cry because this is a man who cares, protects, loves, who is a solid block of rock, and yet I can’t trust him in the way that I want to. He has so much going on, and I know he has so many people he needs to put first. And while he cares for me, he sees me as a little princess, as someone who needs protecting, someone he wants to lock in a tower so that no one can harm me, and that’s not the life I want.