Page 173 of Play Dirty

After that?

It got easier.

Because the truth was — I wasn’t sneaking anymore. Not really. Not in the way I told myself I was.

It started with Sebastian, most nights. Already there. Already waiting. Like he belonged in that space before I even stepped into it.

Then the knock. Soft.

Always soft.

Ares never waited long after that.

Grayson came sometime later. Sometimes earlier.

Sometimes he didn’t knock at all.

And every time—

Every single time—

I felt that same surge of heat, low and electric, curling through me like it had a mind of its own.

It should’ve felt wrong.

It didn’t.

It felt… right. That was the problem.

Or maybe it wasn’t.

There were moments I caught myself thinking about it. Not just the physical part. Not just the way they touched me, or the way they looked at me, or the way I felt when I was with them.

Them.

All of them.

Grayson, with that quiet control that somehow made everything feel chosen instead of taken.

Ares, who never asked but always made me feel like I could say no — even when I didn’t want to.

Sebastian, who somehow made the whole thing make perfect sense.

I should’ve been overwhelmed.

I wasn’t.

I should’ve been conflicted.

I wasn’t.

If anything— I was already falling. Falling for all three of them.

And that should’ve scared the hell out of me.

It didn’t.

I was on the bus, riding high on coffee and the adrenaline from our latest road win, when I heard Mercer’s voice call my name. I looked up to find him standing in the aisle, one hand braced on the seat in front of me. Like he’d been standing there a while.