Page 80 of The Grandest Game
“I can come up with another dare,” Rohan told her, spinning the brush around once in his hand. “If you would like.”
Savannah gave him a look sharp enough to bisect him. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“The chip.” Rohan leaned forward to lay it on the table in front of her. She took it in her hand, and Rohan registered the way her long, pale hair danced all the way down her back with even the slightest movement.
“I won’t touch you if you don’t want me to.” Rohan walked toward her, making no effort to mask the sound of his steps. “I can come up with another dare.”
“I want,” Savannah said, “to win.”
You need to, Rohan corrected silently. The labyrinth beckoned.
“Do it.” Savannah liked giving orders.
Rohan counted her breaths and his own, and when he reached seven for each of them, he brought the brush up and began expertly working out the last remaining knots from the braids. He remembered fisting his hand in her hair, remembered her own painful hold on him, but this?
This was a different beast.Slowly. Carefully. Gently.This wasn’t his first time brushing hair—not even hair as long and thick andsoftas hers. The knots were gone soon enough.
Rohan’s skill set was… eclectic.
He didn’t stop. He went section by section, guiding the brush through her hair and down her back, counting her breaths and his own.
One.
Two.
Three.
Her next intake of breath was a little sharper.Do you know what that does to me, winter girl?His thumb lightly skimmed her neck, and Savannah arched it, leaning into his touch.
His pulse. Hers. Softness and heat. Breath after breath after breath, Rohan kept brushing, kept counting.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
“Rohan.” The way she said his name was like a knife slid between ribs.
Savannah.
Savannah.
Savannah.
The chip in her fingers lit up. “Are we done?” Her voice was lower now, low and rich and brutally, irrefutablyher.
“Are we, Savvy?” Rohan echoed the question back to her. “Done?”
He saw and heard andfelther swallow. “It’s over.”
There was a difference, Rohan knew, betweenwantandneed. Staying on the right side of that line was an exercise of utmost control. He couldwanther to eternity and back, but he couldn’t let himselfneeda damn thing.
