Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,188

tone, refusing to turn towards him as I combed my fingers through my hair to hide the just fucked look I was no doubt sporting.

"Is something wrong?" he demanded, turning me around whether I wanted him to or not.

"Nope," I lied, giving him a fake smile that he saw straight through.

His phone started ringing again and he glanced at it as the pizza place called.

"Don't look at me like that," JJ growled.

"Like what?" I asked.

"Like I'm some bad decision or mistake you made."

"I never said-"

"I get paid for sex, sweetheart. Do you think I don't know regret when I see it in a woman's eyes? I just thought I might have meant something more to you than that."

The hurt in his voice made me pause and my expression softened as I looked up at him.

"I don't regret it, Johnny," I said. "I just..." I blew out a breath as the pizza guy started calling again.

JJ answered it with a snarl of annoyance, his gaze staying pinned on mine. "You'll wait there until I get to you or you'll be getting a blade between the ribs as a tip," he snapped before cutting the call again and I raised my eyebrows at his tone. "Just what?" he asked me.

"I just should know better than to screw a guy who broke my heart before," I admitted, forcing myself to hold his gaze and hating the way those words struck him. But at the same time, I was glad he felt a taste of my pain. I really was a fucked up kind of creature these days.

JJ sighed and leaned in to kiss my lips softly and I let him because apparently I was a glutton for punishment.

"It's just a bit of fun, pretty girl. That's all I'm good for anyway. So don't beat yourself up about it. Okay?" He turned and walked away before I could reply and I got the feeling something I'd said had upset him or pissed him off, but it was clear he had no intention of telling me what.

I waited while he headed up the ramp out of the garage to collect the pizzas from the no doubt terrified delivery boy beyond the gates and bit my swollen lip as I decided he was right. We were having fun, playing out a fantasy and giving each other something mutually beneficial. I didn't need to think into it any more than that.

I probably needed to be more concerned about Fox noticing my swollen lips or the scratches I'd left on JJ's back which were peeking out around the shoulders of his tank. And whatever way this played out, I really just needed to stay focused on my goal. I wanted those keys and it was time I figured out how to get my hands on them. Because the Harlequins were starting to pull me back into their net again, and I refused to get myself tangled up in it.

T he bumfuck of a pizza order we received had Fox and Chase ready to burn down Lou’s Pizza Place and I only warded them off by calling up the restaurant and getting us free pizza for the next year. Funny how a few friendly threats of murder could open up gateways like that.

Rogue had disappeared upstairs to shower and hadn’t returned since and I was just praying she didn’t spiral into regret and stop this thing between us before it had even started. I didn’t date girls, never had and never would. But I’d also never expected Rogue Easton to walk back into my life. Because if there was one girl I would have dated all the way to the altar, it was her.

My dick was still buzzing from being inside her, but instead of riding the high of fucking the girl I’d fantasised about since the moment my balls had dropped, I was feeling like a prime asshole. I couldn’t get the way she’d looked at me out of my head. Like I was just one shitty mistake in a string of shitty mistakes. And I despised that. I didn’t want to be a regret to Rogue. I just didn’t know how to make it right.

Chase was picking olives off his pizza which was layered with eggplant and anchovies. Like, what the fuck pizza guy? I may have given him the green light for any toppings, but Jesus. This was taking liberties. No one in the history of the world liked eggplant. Not even eggplants liked eggplants.

“At least