This was such a bizarre situation. Twenty minutes ago,I hada gun pressed against him, and now I was sharing a drink with him in my childhood summer cottage.
I shrugged and padded past aplastic ficus treein the living room. It was only a matter of time before his people discovered where we were located, yet I couldn’t force myself to walk into the gun safe. I took a large sip of my margarita. Surprisingly good.
We wandered into my old playroom. Sebastian settled himself on a blue inflatable kids chair. Not even a bit of air was gone. It was exactly as I’d left it eighteen years ago. As I’dsuspected the housekeeper had been keeping everything preciselyas it was.
I opened up the closet, therewereenough toys in there to entertain an orphanage. I pulled out a longplastictoy withan oversized button in the middle. Absently I ran my finger over the section that said ‘Twist It.’As I pulled on the knob on the opposite end, I thought back to how excited I’d been when my father had gifted it to me after his trip to Ireland. Things had been so much simpler back then.
“Let me try,” Sebastian said, his inflatable chair squeaking as he leaned back.
He set his drink down, and I tossed it to him. Without taking his eyes off me he twisted, pulled, and flicked the plastic toy. My legs squeezed together involuntarily. His nimble fingers pressing against that children’s toy should not have had such an effect on me.
Chapter 20
When the toy called to pass it,Sebastian tossed it to me with a knowing smirk. Relief blew over me that I didn’t have to watch him any longer. When the electronic voice told me ‘you lose’ I remembered why I’d found it tucked in the closet.
Five minutes later, we were sitting on the carpeted floor of the playroom setting upa board game.I’d been delighted when my father had given it to me when I was five. Three years later, some of that childhood wonder had faded when I learned he’d beaten the board game’s previous owner black and blue for falling behind on his payments. Although I guess it was sweet that my father had been thinking of me when he snatched some board games that he knew I’d like.
I looked at the board for a moment and realized what it was missing.
“When I was a kid, my dad used to put candies on all the spaces. Whichever one you landed on you got to eat,” I said, reaching into the closet.
“Hard to imagine,” Sebastian said.
Ignoring that statement, I reachedinto the overstuffed closet, and found my candy stash.
I ripped openabag of rainbow coloredcandyand began placing the pieces on the game board.
“Hmm, how should we do this… What’s your favorite color?” I asked.
“Blue,” he said, leaning forward to tap a finger by my eye. My legs tightened together at his touch.
“Pick either red, orange, yellow or pink.”
“Red,” he said.
“Okay, if you land on a redcandyyou drink,” Isaid, noddingat his whiskey.“And if I land on a pinkoneI drink,” Isaid while raising my glass.
I couldn’t believe I was actually sitting around playing board games with my enemy. A small part of me screamed that I should tie Sebastian up, and stand guard at the door. But a larger part of my brain ignored that. That tempting voice urged me to roll the dice, and ignore the creeping dread filling my stomach.
After I finished my drink, I pulled out another board game.
“Can you make me another drink?” I asked.I still wasn’t feeling brave enough to venture intothatroom. Maybe a drink would help.
Sebastianshook his head.“If you want to keepplayingwith me then you won’t have any more alcohol.”
My body tensed at the waythe wordrolled off his tongue. Was he talking about board games or something else?
A smirk came into his eyes as he continued, “I’ll make you a mocktail if that makes you feel better.”
Before I could respond he left the room. I was the one with the gun; I was the one who had taken him hostage. So how had he taken back control?And why the hell was I allowing it?
Five minutes later, I was sipping on my non-alcoholic margarita while moving myminiaturecar onto the board.
“I didn’t have any siblings, so I always made the guards play with me,” I saidwhileplacing myplasticsedan on the ‘START SCHOOL’ space. “Did youplay this game with yourboarding school buddies?”
Sebastianlaughedbefore he said chidingly,“You and your obsession with my time at boarding school.”Heplaced his car on the ‘START SCHOOL’ space.“My activities in boarding school were a little lesstame.”
I felt thebeginningof a flush on my neck, so I tilted the drink infront of my face before he could notice.When Isetmy drink down on the carpet,thecorner of his lip quirked into a smirk.
