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While I tried to convince myself that I was staying in the house solely to prevent Isabella from simply vanishing into thin air one day, deep down I know that the reason is something else entirely. But it’s not something I dare to admit. Even to myself.
“How’s that pile coming along there?”
I look up from the board to find Isabella grinning at me. There is light in her eyes now, actuallight, that sparkles when she smiles. I never used to see that in her eyes when we first met. But now, I see it almost every day. It’s an absolutely astonishing sight, and it still takes my breath away every time.
Narrowing my eyes, I shoot her a pointed look. “It’s coming along just fine, thank you very much.”
“Uh-huh.” She smirks at me. “Is that why I have already captured half of your pieces while you have…” She makes a show of squinting and leaning forward across the table to count the pieces in my pile. Then she flicks her gaze back up to me and finishes with, “Four of mine?”
I let out a huff. “I was trying to be nice. To go easy on you since this is your first time playing this game.”
After the first few days of just letting her rest and get some peace and quiet, I suggested that we could watch something on TV. She agreed, more eagerly than I had anticipated, so we watched an entire season of one of my favorite shows. After that, I suggested that we could try some video games. To my delight, she absolutely sucked at that. Which I teased her about rather mercilessly.
One day at dinner, she mentioned that she has never played board games. We don’t own a lot of board games, but I manage to dig one up from the library. So that’s what we’re playing at the desk in her bedroom now. And she is kicking my fucking ass even though Iamtrying to win.
She flashes me a knowing grin. “Sure you were.”
“Cocky, aren’t you?”
That incredible light dances in her eyes again. “Well… is it really arrogance if it’s true?”
I chuckle.
Warmth spreads through my chest. I love seeing this side of her. The real her. Not once since I brought her here has she played the part of the meek and mediocre girl that she pretended to be for weeks. Every day, she has only been herself. Her true badass, intelligent, and slightly cocky self. And I fucking love it.
“If you really have been going easy on me, then let’s up the stakes.” Mischief glints in her eyes as she holds my gaze. “From now on, every time someone loses a piece, they have to take off one item of clothing.”
My eyebrows shoot up.
Her grin just grows more villainous. “What? You scared?”
I scoff. Shaking my head, I lock eyes with her. “Fine. You’re on.”
It takes me less than a minute to lose the first piece.
Isabella arches an expectant eyebrow at me. “Well?”
After leveling a sharp look at her, which just makes her laugh, I stand up from my chair and grab the hem of my shirt. With one smooth motion, I pull it off and toss it to the floor beside the desk. We’ve pulled the desk out from the wall so that we can sit facing each other, and I’ve brought in a second chair from another room. We were planning on sitting at the kitchen table, but Kaden and Jace came back from campus right as we were about to start. And call me selfish, but I wanted Isabella all to myself.
Now, as she rakes her gaze over my naked chest, I’m suddenly very thankful that we’re alone in her bedroom and not where those two troublesome psychos are, because they would never let me live this down.
“That was just me getting warmed up,” I say as I sit down again.
Isabella, who of course sees right through the lie, smirks. “Of course.”
It takes me another minute to lose the next piece. This time, I take off one of my socks and drop it pointedly on the floor. She chuckles. And then proceeds to capture yet another one of my pieces. I take off the other sock too.
“If you’re planning to actually win, you might want to…” She flicks a deliberate look down at my crotch. “Get a move on.”
I just shoot her a threatening look back, and then calculate my next move. This time, I do manage to take one of her pieces. But the sly smile that ghosts across her lips as I pluck it from the board and make a show of dropping it on my pile, makes me wonder if she might havelet mewin that one.
She grins like an absolute villain.
I give my head a quick shake. No. She’s just messing with me. Trying to get in my head and make me question my own skills.
While licking her lips, she stands up and then slowly pulls her own shirt off.
My heart still constricts painfully when I see those wounds on her skin. But they are healing well, and she doesn’t wince when she moves anymore.
