“Sure, if you want. But I was thinking more like as in clothes.” Ellion’s eyes widened, and his cheeks went red. He was definitely not the flirt of thegroup.
I had the sudden urge to push him to his limits. I wanted to see what those bodies looked like. Curious by nature, I couldn’t help my inquisitiveness. Besides, knowing Griffin would definitely not approve made the game all the moreenticing.
“I think I’m okay with that,” I said in a purring voice. What they didn’t know was that Rummy was my game. I always trounced my family when we played athome.
The first hand I was dealt was beautiful. Three aces off the bat. I worked my way through the deck until I had a great rummy and called it. “So you both owe me one article of clothing. That’s how this works,right?”
Chandler grinned, leaned over, and handed me ashoe.
I wrinkled my nose at him. “Something lessstinky?”
“No way. That’s how this gameworks.”
Ellion’s eyes darted from Chandler to me before he reached up and took off his necklace. He placed it carefully on the table then chuckled. “Will that do?” heasked.
“Sure.” I gave him a warm smile. The game wasyoung.
The next hand was more difficult, but I managed to win again. Chandler paid up by putting his other shoe on the table, and Ellion put up a sock—he hadn’t been wearingshoes.
Three rounds later, Chandler had lost both his socks, and Ellion had taken off his other sock, a braided leather bracelet, and his shirt. Unfortunately for me, he was wearing anundershirt.
I still hadn’t lost any clothing. I was wearing a tee, sweatshirt, yoga pants, and socks—three layers I could remove before I started to feel exposed. The next round, luck was against me. Ilost.
I stared Ellion straight in the eyes as I slowly removed my sweatshirt. I hoped he thought I was pulling it off slowly for his benefit. In truth, it twinged to lift my arms above my head, but he didn’t need to knowthat.
Griffin stood at the doorway to his private rooms, facing us, his face full of doom and gloom. “Now what the hell is goingon?”
Ellion’s back stiffened. “We’re playing cards.” he said, anger in his voice. “Either join us or leave usalone.”
I raised my eyebrows at how he spoke to his boss, old friend or not. What if Griffin firedhim?
Griffin looked shocked. Based on that expression, Ellion wasn’t one to normally beaggressive.
I walked over to Griffin. “I’m sorry that I’m here. I’m sorry that I’ve intruded on what’s obviously meant to be a hermit life. When I can get away, I’ll send a check to cover any expense I may cause you. In the meantime, can we try to make this experience as pleasant as possible? I promise I won’t bite.” I held out my hand to shake his. “I’m Linda. I’m a traveling nurse, can’t drive in snow, and I hate countrymusic.”
He stared at my hand before dragging his gaze up my chest—I’d forgotten the shirt I was wearing said “Nurses do it with masks on”—before resting on my face. I could see a war raging behind his eyes. He was tormented, inpain.
“I can’t,” he said. He turned and retreated into his darkhallway.
My shoulders sagged. I turned to the guys. “At least he didn’t yell this time.” I sat at the table, dejected. After seeing the intensity of the pain in his eyes, all the desire to play strip rummy was gone. “How about amovie?”
Chandler and Ellion nodded at each other and pointed me over to pick out one of the DVDs. I settled on an action movie I loved and was usually a dude-pleaser. We sank into the couches to while away a couple of hours. Chandler clicked out the lights so the only illumination came from the fireplace and the TVscreen.
About ten minutes into the movie, movement caught my attention. Griffin walked out of his rooms and sat on the couch opposite me, as far away from me as he could. Determinedly, he stared at the TV screen, and his gaze never strayed my way. He was bored, then, but not bored enough to acknowledge myexistence.
I tuned out, distracted by the movie. During one particularly funny scene, I was shocked to hear Griffin’s deep, booming laugh. The entire room became a few shades brighter when he was merry. I couldn’t stop myself from staring at him, entranced by his face. It was beautiful. The side facing me was the scarred side, but so much personality and joy escaped him when he forgot to be miserable that I was sucked into him as much as I had been themovie.
I needed to know what happened toGriffin.
Luckily, I’d seen that particular film a half dozen times, so it didn’t matter that I couldn’t focus for the remaining hour. My eyes kept straying to Griffin’s profile. He had a strong jaw line and a heavy brow. Every angle of his face screameddomination.
The movie ended on a cliffhanger—to make sure you stayed tuned for part two—and Griffin turned on thelights.
He looked at Chandler and Ellion. “Want to watch parttwo?”
“Sure,” I replied, even though he clearly hadn’t been talking tome.
Everyone but Griffin looked at me with laughter in theireyes.
