Dove gasps. “What? Are you serious? That can’t be right…”
“Who got the most no’s so far? And is it me?”
“No, actually.” Phantom’s gaze moves to Ginger.
Ginger grins. “Oh! Well, I sort of cheated. I’m not playing, so I just tell people to give me theirno’swhen I sit down so they don’t feel bad about it. I just like talking to people. Everyone is so nice!”
Dorian takes off his glasses and begins to clean the lenses with his shirt. “Ginger, you and I did not have a problem…until this very moment…”
“This game is rigged,” Dove complains. “Rigged! I’m going to stuff my face with chocolate covered strawberries.”
“Enjoy your freedom while you can,” Dorian reminds her ominously.
I want to talk to Phantom, privately, but he’s already peeled away from the group. He steps in line with Zero, and the two share some kind of private, intense conversation.
Dorian chuckles beside me. I frown at him. “What are you so ticked about? It can’t be anything good.”
He returns his glasses to his face. “Dove doesn’t get the bet, and it’s making her crazy.”
“Idon’t get the bet. What’s the point?”
Dorian blinks at me, as though it’s obvious. “Dove’s so-calledworsttraits are the best parts of her. She’s learning that the hard way tonight.”
I stare at him, long and hard. That is…oddly heart-warming. “You have a strange way of delivering affection,” I inform him.
“Thank you.”
The break seems to stretch on forever before Phantom announces it’s starting again. I’m already in my chair when Trinity returns. She smiles pleasantly when she settles back in.
My gaze flickers across the room. I can feel Phantom watching the two of us.
“So,” Trinity says, breaking the ice, “should we try one of the questions?” She reaches into the bowl in front of her and unrolls a small strip of paper. “What made you pick your scene name?”
“Actually,” I say, “I want to know about you and Phantom.”
She drops the polite niceties, which seems to be a relief for both of us. Trinity lets out a soft sigh, refolding the question and returning it to the bowl. “I suppose Phantom and I clicked because we’re both cut from the same cloth. We’re both heartless bastards.” She smiles when she says it, though, showing off her pearly white teeth. “It was a great arrangement at the time. Play, intimacy, but nothing romantic. I didn’t want that and neither did he. I’d just gotten divorced and I was reeling. The divorce was the right thing to do but I was still completely in pieces. I entered the club with a gaping, bleeding wound and Phantom smelled blood. He loves a broken bird.” Her eyes scan me, curiously. “What’s your damage?”
“Sorry?”
“He has a type, doesn’t he?” I rack my brain, looking for similarities between the two of us. When she sees I don’t catch her drift, her mouth forms a line. She explains: “The messier, the better. He wants someone he can fix. Mold into his perfect, obedient submissive but then keep them at a deliberate arm’s length.” She presses her lips together and the look she gives me—it’s almostpitying. “Phantom doesn’t know how to be in love,” she says. “He only knows how to be in control.”
“It’s different with us,” I hear myself say.
But is it?
The realization sends me off kilter. I can hear my heart pounding in my ears. I try to focus on something else. Anything else. I glance away from her and into the sea of Seekers. My friends. Phantom is circling the room, no doubt trying to eavesdrop on our conversation. Dorian sits with his latest victim. He has one of the decorative roses behind his ear. Phantom, clearly fed up and on edge, scowls at Dorian. “At least try to take this seriously,” he growls.
Dorian removes the rose and points it at Phantom. “I am serious,” he says, “and don’t call me Shirley.”
Phantom snatches the rose from him. “Give me that.”
Oh, no.
Give.
I gasp. My hips roll forward, legs snapping together, and I bow forward. I can’t help it. Can’t stop it.I’m cumming. Right here. At the table. I’m trying to be quiet about it…but, Christ, it’s hard. My body clenches, throbbing around nothing, and I squeeze my thighs together, trying to put some pressure on my aching cunt. It’s bothso goodand so torturous and I moan and fall into a swoon.
When my vision clears, I look across the table and I catch Trinity…
