Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,68

of here.

I swam all the way to the far end of the pool before coming up for air beside the wall and gasping as I found Fox there waiting for me. His green eyes were stormy with anger and his strong jaw was locked tight in a way that told me he wasn't used to not getting his own way.

He didn't even say anything, just reached down, caught my wrists and hauled me straight up out of the water.

"Let me go," I demanded as my feet landed at the edge of the pool in front of his.

Fox kept hold of my wrists, pinning them behind my back and leaning right in so that our chests were touching and water was seeping through his white shirt from my bikini clad body.

"I'm starting to lose my patience with you, Rogue," he growled. "You show up here looking like death warmed up, keeping secrets, telling lies and then you have the audacity to fight against us at every turn. Have you forgotten who I am? I'm not your friend, I'm not some desperate dude with a hard on for you and no fucking hope. I'm Fox motherfucking Harlequin and if you don't start showing me some fucking respect, then you're going to end up seeing the man who everyone in this town fears."

I swallowed thickly and for a moment I wasn't even standing there in front of this man who had grown into the role his father had laid out for him and instead I was looking at a boy with blonde hair and dark green eyes as the rain pounded down on us and I shivered before him.

"We're Harlequins now," Fox growled firmly. "And you're not. There isn't a place for you amongst us. You were just…a way for us to pass the time. A girl we could all try and win, but the game got old. We don’t need you anymore. We don’t want you."

Those words were like a direct knife to my heart, twisting and squeezing and crushing the life out of me as my gaze skipped between him and the other three boys who had promised to always have my back, always love me, never abandon me. And not one of them said a single word against him.

The pain of the Harlequin boys destroying my entire world and taking the only good thing I'd ever had from me that night was almost enough to overwhelm me and panic welled up within my soul as every muscle in my body coiled with the need to run and run and run until I never had to see this place or these boys ever again.

"Get your fucking hands off of me, Fox," I snarled, trying to yank my wrists out of his grasp but only succeeding in pressing our bodies together even more firmly.

"Get your ass inside and get ready for the party. If you test me on this, I'll take your little mutt to the shelter and you'll never see him again,” Fox threatened.

I yanked on my wrists again and Fox released me so suddenly that I fell backwards with a shriek of fright, crashing back down into the pool and sinking beneath the surface with my heart pounding a frantic beat in my chest.

I sank to the bottom and kept myself there as I tried to fight off the urge to cry over the memories Fox had just brought to the forefront of my mind. If I got lost in them now, I didn't think I'd ever recover again.

By the time I swam back up to the surface, Fox was already disappearing inside and I cursed him beneath my breath as I heaved myself up and out of the water, wrapping myself in the towel from my sun lounger and stalking back inside.

My hair dripped all over the hardwood as I went and I left footprints too, but boohoo. This wasn't my house, so I didn't care about damaging the fittings.

Mutt was curled up on the end of my bed as I pushed open the door to my room and I grunted a greeting at the pup as he wagged his tail and rolled over, hoping for a belly rub.

Fox had left the dress he'd bought me draped over the armchair in the corner of the room and I growled at it as I stalked over to get a closer look. It was tight, short, black and the tags said it was expensive too. I had half a mind to