Playing Games (Endgame Series Book 3)

by Cara E Holt

  “I’m not sure I’m ready to see him yet,” I admit.

  Dom scrunches his face up at my reply.

  “What?” I demand.

  “It might be a bit difficult to avoid seeing him. He’s left home. He had nowhere else to go.”

  My traitorous heart skitters with concern. “He’s staying at ours again?”

  Dom chews on his lip and nods. “He’s walked away and his dad’s cut him off completely. He said he won’t pay his remaining college term fees or offer him any kind of financial support. He’s on his own.”

  My heart hurts for him in that moment. I know they didn’t get on, but to be cut off like that must have been so hard for him. “So you’re telling me that whether or not I want to see him, I don’t have a choice in the matter?”

  Dom nods. “Basically, yeah.”

  I lean back in my seat and close my eyes. “Well, that’s just fucking peachy.”

  WHEN WE PULL UP OUTSIDE our house, my eyes zone in on the black car parked on our drive. Even just seeing his car is painful. Dom climbs out of the car and goes to the boot to get my bag. For a second or two I just sit there contemplating not getting out. Maybe I can ring Izzy or Lottie and go and stay with them for a while. I shake my head I need to put on my big girl pants and face this. It isn’t going to go away. At some point or another, we are going to have to do this. I climb out of the car and with my heart thrumming loudly in my chest; I follow Dom inside the house.

  I’m almost knocked off my feet when Olly throws himself at me and wraps his arms tight around my tummy.

  “Evy, You’re home! I missed you. Can we play Lego later? Grayson is rubbish at building tree houses. I told him you’re the best Lego builder I know.”

  I look down at my brother smiling and ruffle his hair playfully. “Slow down, kid. I just walked in the door. We’ll play Lego, I promise. Just maybe not today, Okay?”

  Olly pouts but nods. “Will you read me my bedtime story then tonight?” He looks up at me with expectant eyes, his dark curls falling into his expressive eyes.

  “Course I will kiddo. Now let me get in and get unpacked.”

  He nods and then rushes off as fast as he came. I hesitantly look around the room and sigh with relief when I don’t see him.

  “Hey honey. How was the journey home?” Dad asks me from where he is sitting on the sofa, with Sophie curled up into his side, with a brew in her hands.

  “Fine. No delays. I read most of the way back.” I gesture to the stairs. “I should go unpack.”

  Sophie and my dad give each other a look and my dad nods his head in response. “I’ve told him if you’re not comfortable having him stay here that we’ll need to find somewhere else from him to stay.”

  I chew on my lip, nodding. “He doesn’t have anywhere else to go. He can stay.”

  Dom smiles at me in relief. “Thanks,” he says, nudging my arm with his.

  With a weary sigh, I pick up my bag and head up to my room. I throw myself down on my bed and stare up at the white ceiling. My heart hammers in my chest at the thought that he was somewhere in this house. My traitorous body yearns for him, to touch him, to look into those deep soulful blue eyes of his. I’m a weak fucker. Even after what has happened I still ache for him.

  Pulling myself from my melancholy, I unpack my things and change into a pair of leggings and a baggy hoodie. I am still debating whether to lock my door and hide away up here for the rest of the day or whether to just plough head on and face the inevitable.

  My phone pings pulling from my internal thoughts and I smile when I see it’s a text from Tyler. It’s a photo of him, Jake and Courtney all pulling sad faces with the caption

  ‘We’re missing you already.’

  Smiling, I type ‘loser’ back to him with a laughing emoji.

  I grab my kindle and try to pick up on where I had left off in my book but no matter how hard I try I can’t concentrate on the words. He consumes my thoughts. Throwing my kindle down, I climb off my bed and stride over to my mirror. I brush my hair and put on some lip-gloss. If I am going to face him, I don’t want to do it looking like shit.

  I pad downstairs and hesitate as I pass through the kitchen. I’m not sure I am ready for this.

  “He’s down in the den with Dom,” Sophie informs me with a soft smile.

  Nodding, I duck down my head and take the stairs. As I descend, I can hear them both talking and the sounds of a pool ball dropping into a pocket. I stop on the last step when I see him. My heart lurches into my mouth. God, he is fucking beautiful. He’s wearing navy joggers and a vest top, his muscled arms on display. His dark hair hangs in his eyes as he leans over the table to take his shot. When he sees me and he freezes in place. Dom lifts his eyes and clearing his throat, he places down his cue.

  “I’ll leave you guys to it,” he says, scuttling past me up the stairs.

  Grayson straightens and places the cue across the table. His eyes search over me, as if memorising every detail.

  “Hey Manchester,” he says softly with an uncertain smile. There are grey bags under his eyes. He looks as shit as I feel.

  “He cut you off?” I ask, leaning against the wall, keeping my distance from him. I couldn’t trust myself to get too close.

  Grayson moves around to the other side of the pool table and sits on the edge, facing me. “He has. I’m on my own from here on in.”

  I nod, chewing on the inside of my mouth. My heart hammers fiercely in my chest. Even after what has happened, I still love him. What a pathetic fool I am.

  “I didn’t touch her Ev. I swear to you with every bone in my body, I have never touched her in that way.”

  I flinch at the mention of her. “You were naked in bed together.”

  He goes to stand and then when he sees me lean back further into the wall; he stays seated. “I know how it looked. She spiked my drink and then my dad helped her to get me back to her room. They undressed me and set it all up.”

  I shake my head. “Why would she do that? I mean, I’ve seen her, she’s beautiful. Why would she be so desperate to want to drug you and set that situation up?”

  Grayson shrugs his shoulders and rubs a weary hand across his face. “I don’t know Ev. She has it into her head that her and I would get engaged. I don’t know what her game is. I think she saw me as a ticket to further her status.” Grayson stands and slowly walks towards me and I hold out my hand to stop him moving any closer.

  “Don’t,” I warn him. “I can’t think straight when you get too close.” I raise my eyes and meet his head on. “Why should I believe you? I mean you were a player, I mean isn’t this something I should have expected it, eventually?”

  Grayson shakes his head, his eyes holding mine prisoner. “In the past, yeah that was me, but then you came along and I fell utterly and totally in love with your sassy mouth. I would never risk what we have for someone like her. Why would I want prosecco when I can have champagne?”

  I snigger and can’t fight the smile. “Did you really just compare this situation to drinking prosecco or champagne?”

  He grins. “I guess I did, yeah.” He’s sombre again. “I swear on my sister’s life. I didn’t touch her. I would never cheat on you or risk what we have. I love the fucking bones of you, Everly Taylor. I don’t know who I am without you anymore.”

  “It hurt,” I tell him, my voice wavering. “Seeing you like that and her there, it ripped my heart in two. I can’t take losing anyone else I love, I won’t survive it.”

  He takes a step forward and then another, and he reaches out for my hands and encloses them in his. “I promise you, your heart is safe with me, always.”

  “I kissed Tyler this weekend,” I blurt out. If we are laying everything out on the table, I might as well get it off my chest.

  He nods, his jaw tightening. “Do you want to be with him now?”

  I shake my head. “No. I just wanted to forget. To feel anything other than the hurt I was feeling.”

  He sighs. “I d
on’t care that you kissed him. You were hurting. All I care about is that you’ll believe me, believe in us.”

  There is no denying it. I love this guy with all my fragile heart. I know he is telling me the truth. I can see it in his eyes. He hasn’t betrayed me. A lone tear falls down my face and Grayson swears under his breath and stepping forward he wipes it away with his thumb.

  “Don’t cry, baby. I hate to see you cry.”

  I lean my head against his chest. With my eyes closed, I breathe in his scent and my heart settles. “I love you so much it scares me,” I confess. “You have the ability to destroy me and I’m not sure I’d survive.”

  “I know Manchester. I feel the same, and it scares the ever-loving shit out of me. Can I please kiss you now?” He asks me, his voice breaking.

  I tilt my head up and look into his eyes, nodding my head. His lips meet mine. It’s cautious at first, as if he’s unsure if I might pull away, and then he deepens the kiss and I kiss him back like my life depends on it. Like he is the air I need to breathe and survive. “I don’t want you to have anything more to do with her.”

  He nods as he continues to kiss me. “Trust me, I have no desire to see that bitch again.”

  Sighing, I lean into him and grip his vest tightly as we kiss. “Gods, I have missed you,” he confesses.

  “So, we’re kind of living together,” I say with a grin. “You’ll be here all the time.”

  He nods, his eyes dark with want. “Yeah. Which means I can kiss you and feel you up all the time.”

  He picks me up and deposits me on the pool table before he glances towards the stairs. His hand reaches under my jumper to the band of my leggings and he tugs at them.

  “Gray we can’t,” I protest weakly.

  He leans his face into mine and kisses me softly, teasingly. “Everyone is giving us space to talk, no one is coming down here and Olly is playing. I need inside of you baby, like I need air.”

  I lift my body up slightly so that he can pull my leggings down. When he talks like this, I am a goner. My only thoughts become of him and of having him inside me.

  My leggings and knickers pool at my feet and he pulls them off one leg so they dangle precariously on the other.

  “I’ll make it quick, but you’ll have to be quiet Manchester.” He warns me, running his thumb along my bottom lip. I suck his thumb into my mouth and his eyes flare wide as he quickly fumbles with his string on his joggers and tugs them down. He pulls me forward slightly and lines himself up, and then he’s plunging inside me, filling me, and completing me.

  “Fuck,” I hiss as I lean my hands back on the pool table and it tilts my hips, the angle making it feel even deeper. He moves with slow but determined purpose in and out of me, his eyes never leaving mine.

  “You’re mine, Manchester, now and always. It will always be you.”

  I sit up, needing to feel my lips on his. He groans into my mouth, making me even more wet and needy.

  “I’m not going to last baby,” he warns as he ups his pace.

  “Come for me posh,” I urge him, meeting his thrusts with my hips and losing myself in the feel of him. “Oh god,” I moan and he quickly covers my lips with his and swallows my moans so that no one’s hears me. I fall apart around him and I feel him pulse and release himself inside of me.

  Our hips still and we kiss, savouring the moment of being back together.

  “Can I spend the rest of the day buried inside you?” he asks with a wide grin.

  “That might be awkward at dinner.” I tease.

  “Fuck dinner, you’re all I need to feast on tonight, Manchester,” he promises me, his eyes burning into mine, and I can already feel him hardening again inside me.

  “Later tonight.” I promise and with a sigh he pulls himself out and puts my knickers and leggings back on me, dragging them up my legs slowly, teasing me with the soft brush of his fingers.

  “I like the idea of living with you Manchester. Of waking up every morning with you wrapped round me.”

  I watch him as he slides his boxers back up and then his joggers and my vagina sighs in disappointment that we’re not going for round two right this minute. She is a greedy girl.

  He steps back in-between my legs and cups my face with his hands. “We could you know.”

  I look up at him puzzled, not sure I know what he means.

  “We could live together, once college is over.”

  I search his eyes and see nothing but sincerity there. “Live together?”

  He nods, looking uncertain for just a beat of a second. “I mean, I know we’re young but — “

  “I want to,” I reply, cutting off whatever he is going to say. “I want to.”

  His beaming smile melts my heart, and he leans in and kisses me.

  “So, we’re doing it then?”

  I nod, grinning back at him like a fool in love. “Yeah, but where will we live? I mean, we haven’t talked about university. Will you still go to Oxford now?”

  He chews on his lip as he lifts me from the pool table and walks us over to the sofa. He sits down and pulls me onto his lap.

  “I’m not going to university, Manchester. I get my mum’s inheritance soon and I’m thinking of opening my own business.”

  I arch a brow. “You are?”

  “How do you fancy a trip to Ibiza next week for the college holidays?” he asks me, suddenly changing the subject.

  “For real?”

  He nods, twirling a piece of my hair around his fingers. “We’re all going out there for a week to have some fun before the shit gets real and we have exams.”

  “But I thought your dad has disowned you? Surely he won’t let us stay at his place?”

  He nods. “No, he definitely won’t, but Izzy and Owen’s folks have a place out there. What do you say Manchester are you up for some sun, sea and fun?”

  “Hell yes,” I reply with a grin.

  I gawp like a fool at the lush villa, as we all pile out of the two mini buses that have brought us from the airport. Grayson wraps his arms around my waist from behind me and rests his chin on my shoulder.

  “Close your mouth Manchester or I’ll have to find something to fill it with,” he warns and I flush red checking none of our friends just heard him.

  “This place is amazing,” I gush, moving my head to the side to allow Grayson to continue kissing down my neck.

  “Isn’t it? Wait until you see the pool.”

  “Come on lovebirds, let’s get inside and get this holiday started!” Izzy shouts from further up the drive to us, beckoning us forward. She screeches when Dom rugby tackles her and throws her over his shoulder.

  “Time to party!” He shouts, and this earns him shouts of encouragement from the boys as everyone piles inside.

  “Why do I get the feeling this week will get messy?” I say with a smile as Grayson takes my hand and guides me towards the villa.

  “Because it will be messy. We’re going to drink and party until the sun comes up.”

  Izzy allocates us a room on the first floor that overlooks the front of the villa. Izzy and Owen bagged the best rooms that have balconies that reach out over the pool. Ben and Alex are sharing a twin room and Jacob and Molly are in the room next to us. Lydia and Jessica are sharing a room. I’d tried to convince Grayson to invite Lottie and Andrews, but whilst he is growing accustomed to the fact that one of my best friends is dating his enemy. He isn’t quite at a place where he is willing to holiday with him.

  “It’s a shame, Ems couldn’t come,” I comment as we unpack our luggage.

  Grayson scoffs. “I for one am glad she isn’t here. I do not want to see Owen getting handsy with my sister in a bikini.”

  I roll my eyes, grinning. “She’s sixteen and she’s no longer a virgin, Grayson.”

  His response is to put his hands in ears and hum.

  “Childish,” I chastise, throwing my red bikini bottoms at him. He catches them in his hands and grins, holding them out in front of him.r />
  “Now this little thing holds some good memories,” he says with a waggle of his eyebrows. “Heaven help me, I’m going to be walking round hard all the time with you in bikinis.”

  I shake my head at him, but I can’t help the smile that breaks out on my face. “Well, you’ll have to practise some self-control posh.”

  He reaches for me and throws me down on the bed before climbing over the top of me. “I don’t have any self-control when it comes to you, Manchester. My dick just wants in you all the freaking time.”

  I reach down between us and cup him with my hand. “Like right now?” I ask him, chewing on my lip.

  “Definitely right now.” He grins before grinding his hardness into my hand.

  “Come on, you two! Get your arses down to the pool, it’s time to party!!” Owen hollers from outside our door. “Put your overactive dick away, Grayson, and get downstairs!”

  “Fuck off, we’re busy,” Grayson shouts in reply, his hand tugs at the zipper of my jeans.

  “We’re still unpacking,” I shout, then moan slightly louder than I intended when he slips a finger inside me.

  “Fucking Nympho’s,” Owen mutters from the other side of the door.

  A half hour and two orgasms later, I follow Grayson outside to the pool in my red bikini. The hot Balearic sun beams down on us and I raise my face and close my eyes for a few seconds and soak it in. Izzy appears before me with a red-coloured drink in her hands.

  “This is for you. Strawberry Daiquiri.”

  I take the drink from her and take a sip. “Wow, that is nice.”

  Izzy grins and points at the jug in her other hand. “I’ve made a pitcher so there’s plenty more where that came from.”

  Music erupts from the speakers, and the boys all whoop and start diving into the pool. I notice Grayson deep in conversation on his phone and make my way over to him. As I reach him, he drapes an arm over my shoulder and pulls me into his side.

  “That’s great Tom. Thanks for letting me know.”

  “Everything okay?”

  He nods and drops his phone down onto the sun lounger. Grayson is wearing pale blue swim shorts that hug his thighs. His chiselled chest is glistening with the sun cream I just took a great deal of pleasure in applying all over his body.