Page 52 of Carved in Ice (Made of Steel 3)

Our laughter died when V’s door opened.

Liza made a small peeping noise.

“What are you ladies up to?” V asked and put his hand on the

doorjamb to block our view of his room.

“Girls’ night,” Liza said. “Now get naked or else.”

I laughed.

But V did not laugh. He just stared at us. “Excuse me?”

I elbowed Liza in the side and she laughed. “What Liza meant to say was that we want to play a game.”

He smiled. “What kind of game did you have in mind?”

“This is how it works,” I said. “For every article of clothing you take off, one of us will take off an article of clothing too.”

“It’s going to be so much fun,” Liza added.

“But you’re dressed like Eskimos.” There was a twinkle in his eye. “That hardly seems fair.”

I looked back and forth between Liza and me. We were wearing a lot of clothes. Plenty, really. “Okay, for every one article of clothing you take off, we’ll each take one off. Se we’ll go twice as fast as you. It’s your lucky night.”

“Um…no you’ll be going at the same pace as me.”

“No, I think Summer has done the math correctly on this one,” Liza said. “There’s two of us. And only one of you.”

“No, I get that…” his voice trailed off.

Clearly he had realized his blunder. Our math was flawless.

“Okay, I’ll humor you. What’s this game with very realistic rules called?”

“Strip,” Liza said.

“Naked game,” I said at the exact same time.

We both laughed.

“That definitely sounds legit,” he said.

“Mhm. It’s the strip naked game,” Liza said with a very straight face. “And it’s real. You first.”

“You’re both very drunk.”

“How dare you, sir,” Liza said. “We haven’t had anything to drink tonight at all. Right, Summer?”

“Correct. We just had some lemonade.” I winked at her.

“You’re up first,” Liza said. “Go.”

“I think you should both sleep this off. After you take off the winter jackets so you don’t sweat to death.”

“Only after you take off some of your layers,” I said. “The rules are…rules.”

“I’m not playing this game with you,” V said.

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