Page 63 of A Fool's Game

She smirks and places a kiss on my nose. “Yes, Dad.”

Marisol laughs. “Don’t you mean Daddy?”

The roommates explode into giggles once more and Gem, bless her heart, turns a nice shade of pink as she tosses them a look and escapes down the hallway.

“Honestly, I think it’s the end for me,” Marisol says, climbing to her feet and taking the last sip of her wine. “I’m exhausted. How did it get so late?”

I pull out my phone to check the time as the twins start helping each other to their feet.

Nearly eleven.

“We’re going into food comas in our beds as well,” Lana says, leaving the room arm in arm with Eva.

“Taylor, we’ll do the kitchen first thing in the morning,” Marisol says, as she starts to follow the twins out of the room. “Don’t you dare clean it up.”

“Goodnight,” I call after them and then turn to Ainsley, who’s being uncharacteristically quiet. “You okay over there?”

My words shake him out of whatever daydream he was lost in, and he tosses a look my way before quickly looking back down at his wine glass. “Yeah. I’m just full and tired. Dinner was so good, Taylor. You really are an incredible cook. I don’t know what you’re doing at the college cafeteria. You should open your own place.”

I push up to my feet and swallow the sharp remark that rises to the tip of my tongue. “I’m going to get started on the dishes.” I made no promises to those girls to leave this mess overnight, and I now officially need a reason to leave Ainsley at the table. The last fucking thing I want to do is listen to compliments or offer excuses about why my life is where it is.

Especially not to this rich kid, who I’m sure has never made a hard decision in his life.

I’m scraping the last of the unused dough into the garbage when I hear Gem come back down the hallway and join Ainsley at the table.

“You're staying the night, right?” I hear Gem ask.

I hold my breath and wait for his answer, equally hopeful that he’ll stay and that he’ll go.

“I really have to get home to my dog. He’s old and not used to being left alone all night.”

I’m leaning just inside the doorway to the kitchen, eavesdropping. What I hear next has my whole nervous system in turmoil.

“You should come back to the apartment with me,” he tells her. “That’s allowed, right?”

I seethe as I hear him check her boundaries. I shouldn’t, it’s probably polite behavior all things considered. I just can’t get over the idea of him trying to get rid of me. I spent this whole night waiting to get the two of them alone, and the thought ofthem alone—without me—is too much for me to handle at this moment.

I take one last glance back at the dishes, at what I should be doing with my night while allowing these two people to have a bit of privacy to get to know each other, but all rationality seems to have left my body.I step into the hallway, still drying my hands on a kitchen towel. “You know,” I say, too quickly, too loud, cutting Gem off as she starts to speak but unable to stop myself. “I never got the full tour of your place the other night.”

They’re both watching me like I’m insane. Maybe I am. “I’d love to see the upstairs.”

I lock eyes with Ainsley over Gem’s head and watch the war raging in his eyes. He’s not going to call me out. He’s not going to tell me to go fuck myself. But he wants to.

“Yeah,” he says finally, slipping his arm around Gem’s torso and pulling her back to his chest as they sit closely in their chairs at the table, never taking his eyes off mine. “We should all go.”

His words drop into the air, so obviously heavy with meaning, that we all fall silent for a second. Gem narrows her eyes at me before turning to Ainsley. I can’t see the look she gives him, but I watch him hold her gaze for a long moment before smiling and returning his attention to me. “As long as you don’t need to stay and clean up.”

“I should make you clean up.” It’s too harsh, and I’m not one bit surprised when Gem’s gaze shoots back to me, brow furrowed.

Ainsley takes it in stride. “I’m off the clock, boss.”

I need to get us back on track, back on level ground, so I don’t risk pissing off Gem and ending this whole night before it even begins. “The girls said they’d clean it up in the morning. I’ll just grab my coat.”

Ainsley pushes up to his feet and helps Gem up, keepinghis hands on her body protectively. I have to bite my lip to keep from groaning out loud at the sight of it. Of him touching her, protecting her. Of what I’ll get to watch him do to her with those hands later.

“Perfect. We’ll just leave all these dishes and food scraps and mess to harden and attract bugs overnight,” Ainsley says.

His matter-of-fact tone draws my attention away from the straight up porn going on in my mind, and I narrow my eyes at him. He’s trying to get a rise out of me.

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