Play With Me

to Tony, staking him with
the horror I felt. “Why did you come here?” And ruined the most beautiful
moment of my life. You idiot!
    “I had to make
sure this asshole keeps his hands off your body.”
    Ryan glared at
him over my outstretched arm. Unlike Tony, he was amazingly calm, which just
crept me out all the more. “You’ve chosen one helluva moment to show up.”
    “Seems like I’m just
in time. You’re not going to touch her again.”
    “I’m sure Liza
can speak for herself and doesn’t need you to babysit her.” With those
words, he placed his hands on my hips and moved me to the side.
    I wasn’t sure if
this was a good idea, but with Tony being so furious, I somehow appreciated not
to be in his way anymore. Ryan took a protective stance beside me and nailed
Tony with a hard look. “This is none of your business.”
    “She’s my friend
and sure as hell is my business,” Tony spat.
    “What’s your
problem, man?”
    “You are. This
shit ends now. I didn’t ask you to go that far with her.”
    Ryan stiffened.
“Shut the hell up, Mitchell,” he warned in a voice gone lethal.
    But suddenly I
didn’t want Tony to shut up. In fact I wanted to know what he meant with that.
    Taking a
provocative step toward him, he continued. “I didn’t mean for you to screw her
when I asked you to distract her.”
    At his words, my
stomach churned.
    This was too
much information for just two seconds. Finding Ryan’s shocked face, I narrowed
my eyes. “Distract?” No real sound came out of my mouth. I had heard that word
one time to many tonight.
    Lips tight, his
jaw hardened. “It’s not like that—”
    “No?” Then what?
The club, the kiss. Him letting me drive his car. It was all part of his
brilliant plan to distract me. And he was sent by Tony who just wanted
to feel better—do a good deed for the old friend he’d hurt. I wanted to curl up
on the floor and bawl at the unfairness of my life.
    “Bullshit, of
course it’s like that,” Tony answered before Ryan could say more. “He called me
this afternoon, wanting to know why you’d quit training all of a sudden. I
asked him to get your mind off…well—” He looked at me shamefaced, but his voice
became softer. “Off us . I knew you didn’t want to see me, but I couldn’t
stand the thought of you being in your room all alone, crying.” Then his tone
hardened twice as much as it had before. “But now that I think of it, it was a
crap idea from the beginning. You deserve better than him. All he wants is to
get you in the sack. Don’t you, Hunter?”
    Wait. “I deserve better?” I couldn’t believe he’d say something as trite
as this when he’d been the one who chose Barbie girl over me. “Then who, Tony? You ?”
Cynicism leaked from every syllable.
    “Why, I was good
enough for you for the past ten years.”
    You were.
Until this afternoon, when you ripped my heart right out of my chest.
    Ryan shoved Tony
away and stared him down, venom seeping through his glare. “ Now you
start to fight for her? You goddamned idiot!”
    “I don’t have to
fight for her. Not with you. She never wanted you.”
    “She might, now.
And that scares the shit out of you, doesn’t it? Giving her up, but not wanting
her to be with someone else. You’re pathetic.”
    If I looked at
it this way, he really was. But what in the world happened that I suddenly had
two furious guys fighting over me in my room. This couldn’t be true. I searched
Tony’s face. “What’s going on? You told me you’re dating Cloey. So why are you
in my room in the middle of the night?”
    He shot me a
glance that said he’d rather not talk with Hunter in the room. A very queasy
feeling rose in my gut. Instinctively, I grabbed the edge of my desk for
support.
    “Not hard to
guess,” Ryan answered my question, but he kept his eyes pinned on Tony. “You
slept with Cloey. And she dumped you like I told you she would, didn’t she?”
    Tony was silent.
    He. And Cloey.
Naked. In one bed.
    A scream started
in my head that threatened to scatter my ears from the inside. My knees gave
way, and I collapsed on the bed. Tony reached for me, but I spider-crawled away
from him, my throat hurting as I forced air into my lungs. “Don’t you dare
touch me!”
    He planted one
knee on the mattress. “Please, Liz—”
    “No!” I slapped
him—for the first time ever—and his head jerked sideways with the force of my
palm. “Just go!”
    Tony breathed a
few times, keeping me