Page 19 of Darkness Colliding
Nollix’s arm brushes against my hair as he wraps himself closer around me in a casual way, his legs spread wide as if he’s not aware, or doesn’t he care, about the world around us.
“I saw some cards upstairs in my room.” Cameron’s gaze shifts from the kitchen to me. “I’ll run up and get them.” He stands from the chair, leaving an imprint in the gray cushion from where he disturbed the thick dust.
I watch him as he leaves, my nerves tingling through me as I listen intently to the plotting whispers in the other room.
“I won’t let anything happen,” Nollix promises in a low voice, his lips skimming my ear before he presses a kiss against my hair.
Cameron strides casually down the stairs. He seems … carefree. Happy, almost, to be in this terrible place in the Underworld; in this rundown house full of Demons who want to fuck him and then eat him.
But I don’t mention any of that.
He kneels at the coffee table, taking a seat on the floor, and I slowly slide down to sit on the floor opposite of him. His gaze locks on mine for only an instant, warm and shining as he stares at me, making me remember the way his lips seared across my skin. I shift in my spot, making the old boards protest beneath me. Bright red cardboard covers the small box of playing cards. He opens them and slides out cards of the same color, without any patterns on the back. Nollix remains seated, but Link shifts behind me, moving until his legs are on either side of me while his palms skim over my shoulders.
“Is it okay if I just watch?” Gentle fingers brush along my neck before kneading firmly against my muscles. His touch always strummed through my body, but now it seems intensified. It’s as if he knows how his hands affect me, and he strives to touch me here and there just to set me on fire.
“Mmm,” a breathy sound escapes my mouth before I can stop it and the watchful, heated attention Cameron gives me makes me realize how pent up I feel right now. “Yeah. That’s fine. Whatever.” I try my best not to meld into Linkin’s touch. I try so damn hard to focus on the cards that Cameron is loosely shuffling.
“Are we playing poker?” I secretly hope we are. I never really learned many card games growing up. I didn’t have a lot of free time. Between foreign langue classes, extensive history lessons, and world politics I was kept pretty busy. And all of those lessons were a waste. I didn’t need any of those things after my father threw me into the Wild Hunt.
Cards would be such an easy thing to immerse my thoughts into.
My thoughts slip away for a moment as I realize that might have been his intent. To distract me. At least for a little while.
“No, I don’t think a game of wagering is what we should be playing right now.”
Wagering?
My brow arches and Nollix makes a low noise similar to a laugh. I peer back at him and he passes me a knowing look.
For some reason, I get the feeling there’s some sort of hidden sexual thoughts circling the room, but I’m just going to ignore it.
“Have you ever played High Card, Low Card, Red and Black?”
I blink a few times at how long that name was.
“… No.”
“It’s a drinking game, Vi.” Link whispers in a sweet tone as if he’s trying to explain something really complicated to my innocent little mind.
“Okay, how do you play?”
“It’s fun.” Cameron’s smile is genuine and carefree. “It takes a lot of focus, but I’m going to lay out five cards in a row, and you have to make it through the line of them by guessing what the next card will be by either saying, higher, lower, red or black.”
I nod, watching as he lays down one card. It’s a king of hearts. Simple start to the game I guess.
“Do I have to say if it’ll be lowerandthe color?”
“Nope, you can just pick one.”
“Okay, lower.”
He nods with a small smile and flips over a card, placing it neatly next to the king. The five of spades looks up at me. I try to make a decision.
“Choose quickly. Wisely, but quickly.” He winks at me, and I roll my eyes at him as my thoughts pick up the pace and try to rapidly guess what card may come next.
“Higher.”
The card flips. Two of hearts is laid down.
