Page 43 of Playing the Player

“Unbelievable.” Sash mutters, walking on ahead of us. “Don’t think we’re not having a talk about all of this when we get home.” She calls over her shoulder, marching faster up the street. She needs a minute to herself, I get that, so me and Liam stay behind. She was worried sick about him as soon as she got that text. Her emotions are running wild right now and Liam not seeming to care about what he’s done is driving her insane.

“Your sister was really worried about you, you know?” I say to Liam when Sasha is out of earshot.

“Why?”

I stare at him. Surely he’s not that clueless. “Because you’re only a kid and you travelled across the country by yourself without telling anyone.”

“I’m fine though. She worries too much.”

“I don't know about that.” I tell him, “If I was her and you were my brother, I think I'd be a hell of a lot more worried and a hell of a lot more angry right now.” Liam looks up with big round eyes, realization finally coming to him. I hate that I was the one to make him understand and not his sister, but it’s good that someone can. “Just apologize to her, okay?”

“Yeah, alright.” He hangs his head in shame.

“Good.”

We get back to Sasha’s place five minutes later and Liam is already back to his normal, hyper self. “I’m gonna let you two talk. I’ll call you tomorrow.” I tell Sasha, leaning over to plant a gentle kiss on the top of her head.

“Oh my God. Conor Matthews just kissed you!” Liam shouts.

Sasha glares at her little brother but all I can do is laugh. “Get in there. Now.” Her voice has that unmistakable ‘don’t fuck with me right now’ tone. He does as he’s told, rambling under his breath that this has been the best day ever. Granted it’s only been about thirty minutes and that makes me laugh even more. “I’m sorry about him.” Sash says, running her hands down her face. “He can be a lot.”

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind.” Her gaze softens at my words. God, I wanna kiss her again. It was stupid of me to ask her for a kiss because now I never want to stop kissing her. I knew after that last kiss that if it happened again, I wouldn’t be able to get enough and now look at me, ready to get on my knees and beg her to kiss me again. Her gaze travels to my lips and hers twitches, fighting back a smile. She takes her bottom lip between her teeth, biting down hard. My entire body goes still.

“You can stay if you want to.” I can see her pulse racing on her slender neck, her eyes flaring, her body leaning closer to mine.

Fuck, I want to. I would love nothing more than to stay here with her, but I can’t. “Not tonight.” I step closer until there’s barely any space left between us. Her chest brushes against mine every time she breathes. Eyes up, Matthews. “I just think he would listen better if I wasn’t there.”

“Yeah, okay.” She says on a breathy whisper, those deep brown eyes staring into my own.

I take her face in my hands, tilting her head up. “Goodnight, beautiful.” I lean down, placing a quick kiss on her forehead this time and pull myself away. It would be so easy to pin her against that door and take her lips again. To kiss her until neither of us remember why we ever tried to keep this thing simple.

But I force myself to walk away and I don’t look back. Because if I do, I’ll turn around, and I’m not sure I’ll have the strength to leave a second time. I am so fucking gone for this woman. And I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to pretend I’m not.

Rejecting her at the party was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. She told me she wanted me and I said no. Not because I didn’t want her. God, I wanted her too much. That was the problem.

The need to bend her over against the bathroom sink, kneel on the floor and taste her pussy was so fucking strong. The need to carry her back to the bed and fuck her until she screamed my name was all I could think about.

I hate myself for turning her down. But, I would have hated myself even more if we’d gone there and she woke up the next morning with regrets. I said no for my own ego, but also for her. She was drunk and I wasn’t taking advantage of that.

Once I have this woman, I want it to be because she chose me. Without any hesitation and with no regrets. And someday she will. I know it. Because the moment she does, I already know one thing for certain.

I’m never letting her go.

18

Sasha

I am exhausted. My apartment only has one bedroom so I let Liam crash in my bed while I took the couch. He’d been through enough the past twenty-four hours. It wasn’t fair on him to spend the night folded in half on a cheap couch.

Unfortunately, since my apartment is so small, I had to get a small couch. I’m not a big woman. Some people would call me pocket sized and by some people, I mean Conor, but I still struggle to fit on the cheap, uncomfortable couch.

After tossing and turning and waking up every hour with a spring digging into my ass, every muscle in my body aches. I would sell my soul for a hot bath right now. Too bad I don’t have one. That’s the one thing I really miss about Max’s place. The bathtub was amazing.

Liam and I stayed up most of the night. I had very stern words with him, which kept his attention for about ten minutes. To be fair, it’s longer than I thought he’d listen for. I do think he understands why I was so worried about him, thankfully. And I do have to thank Conor for that. Liam told me what he said to him when I walked off.

I’m still angry, but not at Liam anymore. I’m angry at our parents. Liam didn’t tell them he was leaving and it’s been over thirty-six hours since he left home. I haven’t received one call or text from either of them and worse, neither has Liam.

I had the best parents growing up. They would call me if I wasn’t home even five minutes after curfew. The parents Liam has, they’re not the same as the ones I had. I know that sounds strange because they’re the same people, but they are different parents. Somewhere along the way, they stopped seeing the little boy who needed them and started seeing him as a problem they didn’t know how to fix. I just didn’t realize how bad they’d failed him until now.