Page 6 of The Games We Play

For a brief moment, I’m confused. I think I’m dreaming, being that I’ve previously questioned whether or not she was real. She disappeared, and when I tried to find her, it was like she was never there. I drove myself crazy for so long, wondering if I actually conjured up everything between us.

And now, she’s here. Right in fucking front of me.

Her head tilts as her eyes squint through the mask. I step forward, bringing myself closer to her and into the small stream of light peering out from the open doorway.

As the light hits my face, her mouth falls open and her eyes widen.

“Seamus,” she whispers with shaky breath.

It was real.

Sheisreal.

The feathers on the top of her mask flutter with the movement of her neck as her eyes bounce around the crowded space between us, taking in her surroundings.

“What are you doing here?” I ask as I step toward her.Aligning my body with hers, I trap her between me and the end of the hallway.

“I was just curious, that’s all.” She pushes herself further into the wall as her eyes glance over to the door, still slightly ajar, then back to me.

“No. What are you doinghere?” I ask with more urgency, stepping closer.

Her eyebrows twitch with confusion.

If she is here, she’s a member of X-Connect. She is a member of a website that you share your sexual desires and kinks with, so that you can find partners to explore with.

She’s a fucking member.

Rage explodes from every corner of my body, and my fists clench so tightly my knuckles burn.

The glossy material of her dress shimmers in the light with the rise and fall of her chest. Her breathing is heavy and deep, and I can see the panic radiating from every inch of her lavish body. Her eyes look between mine, but she can’t hold the stare. She glances behind me, I’m guessing to look for an exit, but she’s not going anywhere.

“Where have you been?” I reach up, placing my palm on the wall behind her, caging her in. “Where did you go?”

It’s beenyearssince I’ve seen her—other than in my dreams—despite multiple attempts to find her. She’s the only one I could never find. It was like she wasn’t ever real. A figment of my fucking imagination.

The confused look she’s displaying morphs into anger.

“Me?” she accuses. “Where did I go? Where did you go?” She presses her palms into my chest, and tries to push me back, but I don’t budge. “Youleft!” The anguish behind her voice as it cracks is powerful and real.

The accusation makes me flinch.

It was more than ten years ago, since that two weeks at camp. Ten years of wondering what happened to her. Ten years beatingmyself up for not being able to find her. Ten years of wondering if I was insane.

And she thinks I would fucking leave her intentionally?

“You left…you just left me there.” Her voice is a harsh whisper that slashes through me worse than any wound I’ve ever had.

“Mimi—” Before I can finish, she slaps me. Hard. Her palm feels like tiny razor blades that pierce my skin, and the sensation rips through my entire body.

I step back, confused. I’m so fucking confused. My gaze is trained on the ground, attempting to recap every goddamn memory as I question the last night I saw her. But I don’t need to. It’s been branded to my memory and comes to me easily in daily flashbacks.

I know what happened between us.

My eyes trail her body slowly, from the ground, up her silky, muscular legs, between each side of her hips, onto the olive skin that peeks through the middle of the opening of her dress.

Jesus, she’s so beautiful.

She’s everything I remember, and still better than I ever imagined her to be.

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