A Harmless Little Game (Harmless #1)

 

 

Silas’ shoulders drop. How cute. He’s still naive enough to care. “Good. You need medical attention?” He looks at me again. I think this is the most I’ve ever heard him speak.

 

“I’m fine.”

 

Drew jerks his thumb toward me and leans in to Silas. “She’s always fine.”

 

Silas doesn’t react. Good man. Stay stone-faced. That’s how Daddy’s security detail always works. They’re statues.

 

Statues with lightning-fast reflexes and guns.

 

All the emotion from minutes ago needs to go somewhere. It’s still there. In me—my heart, my mind, my gut, my everywhere. Just because Silas appeared and Drew and I have to play fakey-fake doesn’t mean the feelings left. Oh, no. If only life were that simple.

 

Instead, they lurk. Like guerillas engaged in an undeclared war, all my feelings—desire, love, need, want, arousal, intrigue, self-righteousness, indignation, you name it—they crouch behind whatever item they can to find sanctuary. Finding safety from the wretched real world isn’t easy.

 

In fact, it’s so hard you’ll drive yourself insane trying.

 

Silas offers me a hand and pulls me up, Drew’s eyes on him the entire time, locked on our grasping hands. Too bad, buddy. Don’t like me touching another man?

 

I’m not yours, Drew.

 

For a brief second, those words scream so loudly in my head I’m afraid I said them aloud. Drew’s talking into his phone and Silas scans the horizon. No. Whew. I didn’t say them.

 

Which is good, because I’m already in big trouble as it is.

 

Silas lets go of my hand and gives me a quick nod, as if to say I’m all good. An unmarked black car appears behind a row of bushes, high up on the hill that overlooks the path. Silas spots it just as I do, and his face softens with recognition.

 

Guess I’m not running the rest of the way home.

 

I lurch forward, toward the long, tall set of stairs leading up to the parking lot, and come to a fast halt. My knees are toast. Suppressing a groan, I take another step. Drew and Silas bookend me instantly, hands on my elbows, supporting me.

 

“I got her,” Drew says to Silas, his voice a snap, like the jaws of a large predator closing.

 

I lean away from him and pretend to fall toward Silas, who catches me beautifully, without pretense, seeking only to help.

 

Drew’s eyes narrow and he gives me a sharp look, then frowns at Silas, who doesn’t seem to notice.

 

“I don’t think you’re fine, Ms. Bosworth,” Silas declares, looking at my ragged knees with concern.

 

I catch Drew’s eyes and tip my chin up, defiant.

 

“Gentian may have a point,” Drew says evenly, eyes narrowing.

 

I let Silas brace me with an arm around my shoulder and let my weight fall on him, requiring more contact. Drew’s jaw tightens.

 

“Thank you,” I say softly to Silas, looking at Drew the entire time. “I really appreciate your help. I’m more injured than I realized.”

 

Drew snorts.

 

Silas’s eyebrows draw down. “I’m sorry to hear that. Maybe we do need to get her to a doctor, Drew.”

 

“What Lindsay needs is to be put to bed and given lots of attention,” Drew answers, not looking at me. I feel Silas pause, trying to decide how to read that whopper of a comment. I steel myself on the inside, pushing aside the racing arousal that comment triggers, and give myself a bit of distance from Silas.

 

“I need to get home,” I say simply.

 

Silas helps me up the achingly long set of stairs, Drew following slowly behind us, talking in a low voice to someone on his phone the entire walk up. Once we get to the car, he turns off the phone and climbs in the driver’s seat, leaving Silas to help me get situated in the back.

 

We’re barely buckled into our seat belts as Drew pulls the car out of the parking spot, Silas clearing his throat with meaning. Drew ignores him. I close my eyes and lean my head against the back of the seat, mind spinning.

 

I can still taste him.

 

Stupid, stupid, stupid. How could I do that? How could I kiss the guy who betrayed me?

 

But I did.

 

And I liked it.

 

“Did you really call Stacia and have her sent to the Grove?” I ask.

 

Silas gives Drew a confused look.

 

“I called her off,” Drew snaps.

 

I’m relieved. Then disappointed.

 

I can’t even feel anything in binary. One or the other. Everything is both.

 

Stacia’s offer to be there by phone shoots through my mind as Drew maneuvers the black, unmarked car onto the highway. We speed up. So does my heart. I remember Stacia’s office, the muted pastels and beach scenes on pictures designed to calm and never excite. Maybe she was right.

 

Maybe I’m not ready.

 

Wait. Wait. It’s been a day. I remind myself. One day. One big, big day.

 

Tomorrow will be calmer.

 

It has to be, right?

 

Nothing could be worse than today.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 23