Page 102 of Game Over

My blink was long and slow, the wheels in my mind turning as they tried to make sense of his insane declaration. “You just said you were.”

“No, not like that. I am him, the profile. But I’m not.. You know?”

“No, I most certainly do not fucking know,” I snapped, voice rising.

“I’m not the big, commandeering alpha you need.”

“Who said I wanted that?” I asked angrily, white hot rage making it difficult to sit still. “And who the fuck are you to make that kind of decision on my behalf?”

“You seemed to enjoy it at the heat hotel.”

I was about to snap back, tell him I didn’t give a fuck about him being some macho alpha, when Jesse asked, “What do you mean, heat hotel?”

We both froze.

Jesse had been quiet up until this point, but now they glanced between us.

I sighed, knowing it was time to face the music of my own lies. “Charlie is Mr. Heat Hotel. The alpha who took my virginity.”

Their green eyes bounced between us, that deadpan, devoid of all emotion look they got when they were upset clear on their face. “So you lied?”

“We didn’t lie, but we didn’t want it to be weird,” Charlie said.

“Especially given the surprise bond, and how angry you were at Charlie. We didn’t want to make things worse.”

“So you decided to lie to metogether,” they hissed.

“Baby, it wasn’t about that,” I said, trying to move closer to them but they pulled away. Hurt panged through my chest, but I continued. “We didn’t want you to feel like this was something we planned.”

“It was though, wasn’t it?” they asked, voice laced with disgust. “I’d shown Charlie your photo. He’d known it was you, and he didn’t say a word.”

“What?” I asked, feeling sick. “Is that true?”

“Yeah, I didn’t say anything then, either. And I’m sorry about that. But Tara wasn’t involved, you know I’m shy…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jesse finally snapped, getting to their feet. “You bothknew, and you lied to me. And even worse, youbondedme, while fucking lying to me! Were you just never going to tell me?”

There was a part of me that wanted to insist we would’ve fessed up eventually… But if I was honest, I hadn’t thought about it once. And I didn’t want to lie to them anymore. They didn’t deserve that.

It seemed Charlie was also at a loss for words, or perhaps he was just choosing to say nothing in the hopes that if he want quiet and still enough that both Jesse and I would forget he was there and leave.

The room fell into a tense silence. Jesse stared out the large floor to ceiling window on the other side of the room, his hurt feelings and anger filtering back to me in our connection only adding to my own.

“I think I’m gonna go,” Jesse said, collecting his phone from the coffee table and heading towards the door.

“Wait,” I called after him desperately. “Jesse, please?—”

As I stood, making to leave and follow after him, Charlie caught my forearm. Not enough to actually have any hold, just to stop me. “Tara, I’m so sorry. I know I was wrong I just?—”

His eyes held sincerity, but I couldn’t deal with this right now. I needed to get to Jesse. “I have to go.”

I pulled my arm from his grip. He didn’t call after me or try and stop me again as I raced to the elevators, using my fist to pound the button, praying for it to come back up faster. I would’ve taken the stairs, but we were on the thirty third floor, and there was no way I would’ve been faster.

The elevator finally arrived and I clicked the little M for the main floor before pounding on the close door button. I was surprised it wasn’t broken by the time the doors actually did shut. Jesus I never remembered Elevators taking eighteen years to start moving before, but I was pretty sure by the time they actually shut I would legally be entitled to collect a pension. My foot tapped on the hard floor beneath me as I prayed Jesse was still downstairs when I got there.

And that he’d let me explain.

The doors finally opened again and I took off, sprinting through the overly fancy marble lobby until I reached the street. Thankfully, Charlie had driven us both, so it was my good luck that Jesse was still standing on the curb, trying to hail a taxi.

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