Page 33 of Playing Hard to Get

“Sometimes. When she gets busy, she can go a week or more without talking. But she always texts me back.”

Shit.

Couldn't help but think I did something. The way she ran outta that restaurant, ran away from me. I didn't get it. She was hot one minute, cold the next. Seeing that jealousy taint her beautiful face when she thought I went home with that friend of hers? Made me want her so fucking bad. Still did. But she went from acting like she needed me the night I took her home, to flushing bright red and running away when I told her I wanted to taste her pussy. Woman didn't make any sense to me.

That not knowing made my nightmares worse.

Before I could make heads or tails of what was going on with Vivian, Cael came back in, and Frankie shortly after. Frankie called ahead to the restaurant to reserve us a table while Vinny called his driver. We all loaded into the Town Car when it pulled up out front and headed off toward the restaurant.

The food and company were great. For growing up rich, Frankie and Vinny sure were down to earth. Neither of them acted like you’d expect, though Frankie didn’t bat an eye at the bill and Vinny had his driver on standby. It was a good night, a fun night. But I couldn’t shake the feeling Viv ran away because of me. It was in the back of my mind, nagging at me like hunger, the whole night. Viv had a lot to deal with, if the stories I’d heard from Frankie and Corey were any indication of what Marco’d been like since last year. Last thing I wanted was to add to the crazy.

But I was craving her. Craving her body, craving her taste. Wanted to see that look of ecstasy on her face when she came around my cock. I needed to make things right.

Vinny’s driver dropped me and Cael off at the parking garage next to Frankie’s building. After I saw the kid off, I headed to my car. Once inside, I slid my phone out of my back pocket and pulled up the last text I sent to Vivian. I read it over and saw how it had added to the crazy. I started the car and spent the whole ride home trying to think how to make it right, what to say to get her to talk back.

In the end, I settled on the only thing I could think of. Just two little words.

Me: I’m sorry.

* * *

“So, what’s with the babysitters?” Anna’s friend, Melody, asked it like it was a secret, but like she was a three-year-old who didn’t understand the concept of being quiet. The music was loud, bass booming, but not so loud she needed to yell for the girl sitting next to her to hear.

Anna shrugged and took another hit off her joint. “My father…” She laughed as she exhaled and lifted the joint in front of her friend. The tip burned red, a tiny curl of smoke coming off the end like a lazy snake. “I got caught smoking on my balcony.”

“No!” Melody said, loud enough to attract the attention of a pair of guys sitting on the couch on the other side of the dark living room. She saw them, tugged her bleach-blonde hair off her neck and nearly lit her strands on fire with the embers of her cigarette.

“I told him,” Anna said, leaning back on her own couch while she stared at the little white roll between her fingers, “that my friend, Sarah, gave it to me when she spent the night. That she insisted I try it.”

The laughter that bubbled out of her made me think her cigarette was laced with something stronger than some high-grade Mary Jane. I stole a glance at Cael and caught the raised eyebrow he threw my way.

“He believed me,” Anna said, leaning closer to her friend. “But get this. I don’t have a friend named Sarah. I haven’t had a friend spend the night since I was thirteen.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” the girl said. She puffed her chest up at the guys across the way, and they smiled appreciatively.

“Thing is, I had another kilo of the stuff under my bed. Nowhere near as good as this shit, but it cost me a pretty penny and made me quite the profit at the clubs the next week.”

“I’ll bet.” Melody snuffed out her joint on the ashtray on the end table, then uncrossed and re-crossed her legs, inching that short little skirt of hers up her thick, pasty thighs.

“So,” Anna continued, more to herself than anything because Melody was barely paying attention, “Father hired a security company to keep an eye on me, make sure none of my friends cause me any trouble.”

The two guys eyeing Melody stood and crossed the wide-open space between the two couches. Anna abandoned her story as the tall, dark-haired one stopped in front of her. She held her hand out to him and he pulled her up in front of him. I averted my eyes when he started groping her, whispering into her ear and getting giggles in return.

“You get enough?” Cael asked, quiet so no one near us could hear.

Nodding, I jerked my chin toward the side of the room. We left Anna and her new friends to their activities, stepping away from our high-top table behind the couch, but taking our bottles of water as we stepped off and stood over in the corner. I handed my cellphone to Cael. Pulled my other one out of the back of my pants and checked for the text I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get. When I saw nothing, I stashed it away and returned my eyes to the small crowd.

Never been more uncomfortable than I was right now. The people at the party, at the mansion in the middle of the Mojave Desert, were not the kind of people I wanted to be around. Saw more drugs switch hands in the last ten minutes than I had in my lifetime, and my childhood wasn't exactly innocent. Worst thing was, the dealer and his guys were eyeing me and Cael. Making it known we weren’t welcome.

But what were they going to do? Kick out one of their bankrolls? Anna made it clear when we got here, she wasn’t staying without us. Like she was worried about being here on her own. Like she got the same feeling I did the minute we drove up to the gates of this massive desert home.

I hated that Cael was here, wrapped up in this deal with me. Hated the risk he was taking by helping me out. Especially hated that we were standing in a house full of drugs, where the dealer’s security team was walking around with Uzis strapped to their chests, while Cael’s wife was at home carrying their unborn baby. While my gun was locked in my safe back in my bedroom. But Daginger refused to keep Cael on with him and Lee thought it would do the kid good to see how I worked.

As if Anna were a typical client.

As if anything about this situation was typical.

I was showing him the ropes on something different. Showing him what I did when batshit met crazy.