up there with flying pigs and frozen hells.
But it gives us an excuse, a game, a way to circumnavigate our guilt.
“Okay, fine,” I say, once our laughter has passed. “But what if you win, huh?”
He brushes his lips along mine, a rough searing contact. “When I win,” he growls, “I get to take you somewhere private, somewhere nobody can interrupt us. And I get to do anything to you I want. I get to treat you like the curvy sex freak I’m going to make you—but just for me, Sparkplug. You’ll become a come-hungry sex goddess. But just for me, understand?”
“Yes,” I whimper, shivering under the combusting possession in his eyes, my sex just as hot, my everything just as hot. “But how are we going to even go on this date?”
His smirk drops for a moment.
He steps back, considering.
“If you don’t want to tell Fiona …”
“That would ruin the point of the wager, wouldn’t it?” I say quickly, trying to keep this in the realm of fun, trying to steer our concerns away from the messiness of betrayal.
“Okay, then I’m going to have to work something out,” he sighs. “It’s the only way … until we know for sure. But I don’t want to do this for long, Sadie. I don’t think you do, either.”
“No,” I admit shakily. “Of course not.”
We pause, and I think we both know that this is the moment. We could take this silence and fill it with reasonable talk about how this has gone far enough.
We could back down from the parapet of our blossoming affection.
But we don’t.
The wind howls.
The night wears on.
And I know with devastating certainty that my heart already belongs to Saul Sykes.
It’s just a game, I assure myself. It’s just a big fun game, nothing more.
Chapter Fourteen
Saul
“Are you kidding me, Dad?” Fiona squeals when I hand her the ticket to the literary convention, and the plane ticket that will take her there.
The four of us – me, Fiona, Jasper, and gorgeous Sadie – are sitting in the kitchen, the scent of bacon and eggs in the air. Sadie sits at the bar in her bathrobe, as though she doesn’t know better, as though she doesn’t know that just the sight of those thick thighs – thighs that deserve to be covered in our creamy juices twenty-four-fucking-seven – drive me feral.
Fiona glances down at the tickets, her expression shifting.
“There’s only one set,” she murmurs. “Not to sound like the most ungrateful person in the world, but—”
“I didn’t want to go, anyway,” Sadie says quickly, as we discussed.
She stares down at the remains of her meal, and I can tell this leaves a sour taste in her mouth, just as it does in mine.
Just tell her now, a voice urges in my mind.
I would – I swear to God I would – but I remember the way Sadie reacted last night when I told her that’s what I wanted to do.
I remember the fear, the desire to flee that erupted in her eyes.
Whatever happens, I can’t ruin what Sadie and I have.
Even if that means ruining what you and Fiona have? Or what Sadie and Fiona have?
Fuck, this is hard, this is a goddamn minefield.
“Yeah,” I say, picking up my half of the deceit. “I asked her beforehand, just in case.”
“But I want you to go, really,” Sadie says. “I want you to have fun. I—you’re my best friend, Fi. And you always will be.”
Fiona narrows her eyes at Sadie perceptively. She’s looked at me like that countless times over the years, ever since she was a young girl, paying close attention to the world with her budding writer’s eyes.
The crazy thought flashes across my mind that she knows about me and Sadie.
But if that was the case she’d be screaming at us, throwing things, tearing apart the kitchen.
The look passes and she turns to me, smiling. “Well, thank you, Dad,” she beams. “I better go and pack. I swear these tickets were sold out.”
I offer her a casual grin, or what I hope is a casual grin. I have the feeling I might look more like a predator bearing its teeth. “I’ve got my ways,” I tell her.
She hops from the bar and leaves the room, singing to herself as she walks up the stairs. Jasper trailing behind her. Maybe he knows I want to be alone with Sadie.
Sadie and I watch her go, and even stare at the empty doorway for a long while afterward, as though to make sure