Playing the Game

by L. M. Reid

  “And lie to my parents. And Hudson. Fuck, there is no way Hudson is going to buy this,” I reply.

  My older brother may be less mature and a complete idiot, but he knows me. And he knows that despite the fact we had sex, Quinn and I don’t get along. He’ll see through it in a heartbeat.

  “Hudson has bigger things to worry about than you – like his wedding and the woman he’s going to be marrying. Besides, he’s your brother. It’s not like he would out you.”

  I glance over at Quinn, my cock twitching at the thought having to share a room with her, let alone a bed. My eyes wander up her long tan legs to where her breasts are straining against the fabric of her tank top.

  How in the hell did this wedding go from bad to worse?

  “You know, now that I think about it, it doesn’t sound like such a terrible idea. Mason’s right. Us keeping our relationship secret makes sense, it explains why none of these people you and Layla have in common knew.” Quinn smiles, clearly keeping her secret hidden is more important than her having to spend a week with a man she hates.

  “What about that guy?” I ask her.

  “What guy?”

  “Shane,” I say drawing his name out. I’m hoping to piss her off enough to get her to back down.

  “He’s none of your concern. This is just pretend, Hunter. Don’t expect any repeats of…”

  Mason holds up his hands. “Stop. That’s more than enough. Christ, this will be easier to sell then I thought.”

  “You hate me,” I deadpan. “Why would you agree to do this?”

  After all, this is Quinn that we’re talking about. I wouldn’t put it past her to agree to this just to screw me over in the end. Out me and this whole charade to Layla.

  “Because Mason isn’t giving me a choice. Besides, I have had to spend my whole life tolerating you. At least now I can do it in the Bahamas.”

  While Quinn does sound like a much better option than calling an escort service or wrangling a complete stranger into this charade, I have my concerns. One being I find it unlikely anyone will believe us and two, I’m afraid I might start to. If my never-ending thoughts of her and our night together are any indication, I might actually end of liking her.

  Without any other viable options, I feel defeated. It’s Quinn or no one. I can’t believe what I’m about to say. Agreeing to this has to be the stupidest thing I have ever done.

  “Fine,” I say throwing my hands up in the air.

  “Really?” Mason asks, his voice filled with surprise.

  I’m just as fucking surprised. This is not me. This is not something I would do. But the idea of running into Layla and her new boyfriend has me more than a little on edge.

  Quinn squeals. “I’m going to the Bahamas.”

  She does this little dance in her seat that causes her breasts to bounce and my body to have a reaction that it shouldn’t. Christ, this trip is going to be more torture than I originally thought it would be.

  “We’ll need a story,” I say turning my focus from Quinn’s bouncing breasts and onto the task at hand. I mentally prepare a checklist of all the things we’ll need to know about each other to make this work.

  “A story about what?” she asks.

  “Everything,” I tell her. “How we met, when things changed, different…”

  She holds her hand up to stop me from talking. Bringing her phone to her ear she begins to chat to the person on the other end. “I am going to the Bahamas for a week. Yep. And Hunter is my date.”

  Quinn bats her eyelashes at me.

  Christ. What have I gotten myself into?

  “Relax, man, it’s going to work,” Mason says. I’m sitting next to him with my head in my hands. “Besides, what’s the worst that can happen? You two end up having sex?”

  His laughter infuriates me.

  “Not funny.”

  Clearly, he disagrees. “Or, who knows, maybe you two will even end up friends.”

  “Friends? Me and Quinn?” I start laughing. “No way in hell.”

  Chapter 9

  Quinn

  I throw my sexiest bathing suit into my suitcase.

  “What are you taking that for?” Claire asks. Her eyebrows are raised and there’s a smirk on her face.

  “Because I’m going to the Bahamas and I’m plan on spending all of my time by the pool. Or in the ocean. Or relaxing in the sun.”

  Even though I’m going to have to spend time with Hunter, I’m looking forward to the trip. Lord knows I could use a little rest and relaxation after everything that went down with Shane.

  “Or in Hunter’s bed?”

  I bust out laughing. “There is no way in hell that’s happening.”

  She raises an eyebrow at me. “Didn’t it already happen? A few times from what you’ve told me.” She giggles at her own comment.

  I did happen. And it was the best sexual experience of my life. However, that doesn’t mean it’s happening again.

  “It was nothing more than a temporary lapse in judgment.”

  “Maybe,” Claire says. “Or maybe it was you exhibiting good judgment for a change.”

  I would be pissed at her comment if it was even off base in the slightest. But she’s right. I don’t always make the best decisions. Hunter included. As amazing as our night together was it isn’t going to change what I think of him or how I feel about him.

  Mason and I grew up having to fend for ourselves. Our parents were rarely around and when they were, they sure as hell didn’t bother with us. Hunter was our target, a means to an end. Nothing more than a source of food and shelter, sometimes even fun. But that’s it. Hunter’s family has money. A lot of it. The kind of money that you can’t help but wonder if they even know what to do with all of it.

  But that isn’t how things worked at all. Sure, Hunter had us over. Sure, we got meals all the time and stole when we didn’t.

  The problem was, the fake friendship Mason forged with Hunter turned into a real one. They became real friends and bonded over football. They even made some stupid pact about making it to the NFL and playing on the same team. Both of which they succeeded at.

  Then there was me. Where Mason fit in with Hunter and his family I didn’t. I saw how they looked at me. Like I wasn’t good enough. Like I didn’t belong.

  That was fine by me because I didn’t need them or anyone else for that matter. The only one I needed was Mason. We were a team. We were all we had.

  As we got older, Mason spent more and more time with Hunter. Their bond continued to grow leaving me on my own more often. Not only did Hunter not like me, he was stealing the only person I had. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have been alone in that house so often. Maybe things would have been different. Maybe I would be different.

  Or, maybe I need to quit reliving the past and just move on. And up. Like to the Bahamas.

  “This is strictly a business deal.”

  “If that’s the case, I would be more than happy to do business with that man any day.” There is a waggle of her eyebrows. “Especially after the rave reviews you gave him.”

  “He is not the only man in the world capable of satisfying a woman.” Though I did momentarily wonder if he was the only one capable of satisfying me. Because good heavens I have never been that satisfied before. And I’m already dreading sex with another man knowing it won’t be nearly as good.

  “Yeah, but… have you seen him? Really, Q, I don’t get why you dislike him so much. If I were in your shoes, I would be making a go of whatever it is that happened between the two of you.”

  “Sex, Claire. It’s called sex. That is all that happened between us. All that will.”

  “You’re going to be sharing a bed with the man. And you don’t think anything is going to happen?” She scoffs. “You’re kidding yourself.”

  I think of his hand on my thigh. The way my body instantly softened for him. How from a mere touch, I was primed and ready to go. Then there were his lips. They set every piece of skin they t
ouched on fire.

  “It would still be nothing more than sex,” I argue.

  Claire’s words register. Will Hunter and I be sharing a bed? The idea of it suddenly has me nervous. The idea of being close to him again, feeling his body against mine already has me getting all hot and bothered. How the hell can I share a room with him, let alone a bed?

  I grab my phone and pull up his name.

  “Who are you calling?” Claire inquires.

  “Shhh…” I say with my finger pressed firmly against my lips to silence her.

  “Yes, Quinn?” his deep voice says into the phone. There is a slight hint of irritation in it, but all I can focus on are the goosebumps it gives me.

  All the more reason I need to find out the sleeping arrangements.

  “Are we sharing a room?” I ask, my tone urgent and demanding.

  “Uh… yes?”

  “And just how exactly do you think that’s going to work? I am not sharing a bed with you. And I am certainly not sleeping on the couch. Because if that is what you were thinking, you are sadly mistaken,” I state.

  “Are you finished?” he asks. I can hear the frustration in his voice. When I don’t answer he continues “You’re welcome to the bed, Quinn. I will take the couch.”

  My shoulders slump, the argument I conjured in my head dying on my lips. “You will? No arguments?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why would you do that?” I ask incredulously.

  There’s a slight chuckle through the phone. “Because it’s the right thing to do? The nice thing to do. You can think whatever you want to about me, Quinn, but I assure you my mother raised me to be a gentleman.”

  He sure as hell wasn’t a gentleman that night in the hotel. And he definitely wasn’t gentle. I squeeze my thighs together, my panties soaked at the mere memory alone.

  “If you quit dating losers, you would already know that.”

  “You know nothing about my love life,” I argue. In fact, he doesn’t know anything about me at all. Nothing except how to make me scream out his name that is.

  “I know that when he called you, you chose to stay with me.” I can practically see him smirking through the phone.

  “Go to hell, Hunter,” I say as I disconnect the phone.

  “What did he say?” Claire asks.

  I toss the phone onto the bed. “Nothing. It doesn’t matter. He’s taking the couch.”

  I should be happy. I got what I wanted without even having to make a fuss. I return to packing, or rather throwing items into my bag in a fury.

  “Still no chance? Does that mean the flush on your cheeks is from something else?” Claire laughs.

  “Shut up. He just… he gets under my skin.”

  “If I were you, I would let him get under my skirt again instead.”

  He’s right though, I chose to stay with him. I could have run to Shane. I could have tried to make things work. Between the sexual and emotional gratification that Hunter gave me that night though, no part of me even wanted to try. I didn’t want Shane. I wanted to be with Hunter.

  “He said if I quit dating losers that I would know he had no intention of sharing the bed or making me sleep on the couch.” She swooned and if I wasn’t so damn angry with him, I would too. It is a sweet sentiment. “Then he reminded me that when Shane called, I chose him, not Shane.”

  “What? You never told me Shane called,” Claire exclaims.

  “It was after Hunter and me… I had just been with another man. I didn’t think it was a good idea to try to rekindle things with Shane at that exact moment.”

  “Have you reached out to Shane since?”

  I shake my head. The nonverbal communication is more than enough to provide her the fuel needed for the attack.

  “So, what you’re telling me is that because of Hunter Adams, you passed up a chance with the man you put everything on the line for?”

  “I was in a sex drugged haze. His hands were on me and… yeah, I did.”

  “And you don’t think that means something? Anything?”

  It can’t. Because at the end of the day Hunter is still Hunter and I’m still me. We don’t mix. We don’t make sense.

  So how the hell am I supposed to convince and entire island of his friends and family that we do?

  Chapter 10

  Quinn

  “Now you want to do this?” he laughs.

  His laughter jostles him, his arm brushing against mine. The slight touch sends my mind exactly where it doesn’t need to be. On him. On his body. On the way they make me feel. Onto the inappropriate dreams that I’ve been having about him and me and a can of whip cream, among other things. This is the exact reason that every time Hunter called me over the past week suggesting that we get together so we can “get our stories straight” I ignored his calls. I mean, how hard can it be anyway?

  All we have to do is smile, hang all over each other, and throw in a few kisses to make it look believable. That’s when the panic set in. The realization that I am going to have to touch and kiss this man, the one who makes my toes curl, and my body quake. How the hell am I going to manage to keep this under control? Make sure that we don’t cross the line again?

  “We really don’t know anything about each other. There are things a girlfriend knows, or at least should know.”

  “I agree. That’s why I suggested we do this a week ago. Not on a four-hour flight.”

  “Do you want this to work or not?” I huff out.

  “Are you… nervous?” he teases me.

  “Don’t be absurd. I just don’t want to screw this up for you.”

  “Since when do you care how this works out for me? I thought you were just looking forward to the trip?” He quirks up an eyebrow, his eyes studying me.

  While I might not like Hunter, he still didn’t deserve what Layla did to him. No one deserves that. I’ve been in his shoes more times that I would like to recall. Making this woman pay is definitely my pleasure.

  I cross my arms over my chest and turn my head from him. “You know what, just forget it. When no one buys this, it’s on you. I tried.”

  “Oh, come on, I’m just teasing you.”

  I hate the boyish grin on his face and how it makes me want smile back at him even though he’s infuriating me at the moment. “Whatever. I knew this was a mistake.”

  “You?” he laughs. “You knew this was a mistake? I told you and Mason this was a stupid idea. We can’t even manage to be civil to each other during a flight. How we’re going to manage over the course of a week is beyond me.”

  I sigh. “We’ll manage, I promise.”

  The moment of softness that I offer him causes the side of his mouth curls up. “What else do you promise?”

  I swat his arm. “I already told you, that isn’t happening.”

  “It’s the one thing we know we’re good at.”

  Him teasing me this way, being suggestive and sexual, it takes me by surprise. Hunter’s never really seemed this open before, this lighthearted. I have to admit, I kind of like this side of him.

  As soon as I think it, I remind myself again of all the reasons why I don’t like him. Then I tell myself to stay on task. “Tell me something about you that I should know.”

  He clears his throat and leans toward me. His voice is hushed, and I become anxious about whatever secret he’s about to bestow upon me. “The number one thing you need to know is…” His eyes dart around to make sure no one is looking. “I play for the Red Devils. I’m pretty damn good too.”

  He returns to an upright position a broad smile on his face.

  “Forget it. Just forget it,” I say, but I can’t stop the laughter that comes out.

  He gasps. “She laughs?”

  I press my lips together and shake my head trying to hide every ounce of amusement I can even though I know he’s already seen it.

  “Okay, how about this? I love playing football, I hate watching it. I drink my coffee black. I’m a superhero nerd. If I could t
rade places with anyone in the world, it would be Captain America. The character, not Chris Evans, though that wouldn’t be a bad gig either.”

  “If you’re not going to take this seriously,” I begin. But when I look at him, he isn’t kidding. All those things he just told me are true. “I never would have guessed.”

  “I’m an enigma, what can I say. What about you? What do I need to know about Quinn Ford?”

  I hesitate. Part of me wants to tell him something about me, the other part of me, the part that always wins out is terrified of letting anyone in even remotely.

  “I’ll go with whatever you say. No one there will know the difference anyway,” I tell him.

  “So, you get to know all my dirty secrets, but I don’t get any of yours?”

  I fake a yawn and rest my head against the back of the seat. “I’m suddenly so sleepy.”

  “I’ll get it out of you, Quinn, one way or another.” Even with my eyes closed, I can feel him moving closer to me. “I know a few things you like that might make you talk.”

  My thighs clench at his insinuation. Christ, this man – his voice, his fingers, his everything – he knows how to play me. That might prove to be dangerous for me. Oh, so dangerous in the very best possible way.

  ***

  I hate admitting it but am in awe of the man walking next to me. At his insistence he is carrying all of our bags into the hotel by himself. All while keeping a hand on the small of my back in a touch that feels so reverent. It’s unlike anything I’ve experienced.

  A soft “wow” falls from my lips as we enter the lobby. “This place is amazing.”

  “Why don’t you check the place out while I get us checked in,” he suggests.

  I look up at him and find myself lost in his gentle eyes. Everything else seems to evaporate around us and, for a moment, I’m lost in him.

  His fingers graze against my cheek as he moves to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “You okay?”

  I nod. “Yeah. I uh… What if Layla shows up and…”?

  “I can handle it. Go. Look. Explore.” He gives me a quick wink before he heads to the front desk. My body instantly feels cold without Hunter’s hand on me. The warmth that his touch brought me dissipated all too quickly and leaves me wanting it back again.