AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And most definitely, we should not fall on each other the second we’re in his room, the wood of his door smooth under my back, his front pressed against mine as we kiss deeply. The mechanics of this are familiar, but the impatience simmering inside me is new. The feeling that one more minute apart will be too much. Seeing the same eagerness mirrored in Nolan.
“We still don’t have a condom,” I tell him, and he grunts against my throat. Then steps an inch back.
“I’m going to get one from Emil— ”
“No.No.”
“Why?”
“I’d rather they not know.”
“Mallory.” He presses a kiss on my cheekbone. My nose. “They know.”
“Yeah, but they don’tknowknow, and . . .” I’m the one to groan now. “Let’s just go to CVS tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” He pulls back and looks so horrifically, theatrically appalled, I have to laugh and kiss the expression off his face.
“We can dootherthings in the meantime.”
His fingers slide down my spine, slowly massaging each knob. “Like what? Shovel snow? Color by the number?”
I laugh against his mouth. “So many options.”
“Please, list them for me. I amverynew at this.” His hand slips inside the waist of my jeans, and I exhale sharply.
“Illegal move.”
“Should we call in the arbiter?”
“Only if— ” My phone rings, and he groans. I whimper, working my hand between us to retrieve it from my pocket.
“It’s Defne,” I say. I have a déjà vu— months ago, on Nolan’s couch. She hasatrocious, cockblocking timing.
“Ignore her,” he orders, and I’m happy to. I toss it on Nolan’s dresser, and we’re back on each other, graceless, uncoordinated, voracious, until he kneels in front of me and starts unbuttoning my pants. “So.” He speaks against my hip bone. “Thesethingswe are going to do. Could they involve me— ”
My phone, again. No, Nolan’s— it’shisphone buzzing now. “Fuck,” he grunts, pulling it out of his pocket and throwing it next to mine.
But my eyes fall on the caller ID, and I stiffen. “Wait. It’s Defne.”
She hasn’t called once since we came here, just the occasional text. And now . . .
We halt.
Nolan’s phone stops buzzing. A second later mine starts ringing again.
We exchange a long look, both out of breath. He lets out a deep, frustrated groan, and hides his face in my stomach. His hands close around my waist, trembling slightly. I take it as tacit permission to pick up.
“Hey, D— ” He inches my shirt up and nibbles on my belly button. My breath hitches. I giggle, sigh, try to push him away. Then the cycle starts all over. “Hey, Defne,” I finally manage. Nolan licks a stripe below my navel. “How are you— ”
“Mallory, I’m on my way to pick you up. You need to return to New York immediately.”
“What do you mean, Koch cheated? There were too many cameras for him to— ”
“Someone has been combing the footage.”
Defne’s voice is grainy over the speakerphone, background noise ebbing and flowing as she drives up the interstate. Nolan and I sit on the bed, eyes locked, but his expression is indiscernible. His hair is still tousled from my fingers.
“Remember how he kept standing to pace? He’d hidden a smartwatch around his elbow. He’d leave the board, find a place without cameras, and use it to communicate with . . . well, we don’t know. Presumably, someone who had access to a chess engine. But he miscalculated, because they havetwoinstances of this on video. And one right before his final move against you.”
