Page 41 of Never Going to Care

Her eyes lock with mine and she licks her bottom lip. “Starving.”

Me too, Starlight, me fucking too.

CHAPTER 14

CELESTE

“Miss,” Hale’s deep voice rumbles with amusement and I can’t help but scowl.

“You must be cheating,” I grumble.

I admit it. I’ve never been a great loser. I know all about sportsmanship, but it sounds like complete hogwash to me. I want to win. I want to be on top.

It’s clear Hale is just as competitive as I am. I don’t even know why I’m trying to win other than my intense need to be victorious.

Because if I lose, I’m still winning. Though, if I win, he’s winning too.

All because of the stakes we put on this game ofBattleship. Maybe I’m just rusty? I’m not sure how it can be true considering this game is about more chance than anything else. I’ve been eyeing him carefully, but he’s wearing a stoic mask and won’t give anything away.

I’ve even tried to butter him up by telling him how delicious dinner was. His eyes flared with something like pleasure at my words, but his neutral mask didn’t crack. He probably knows I was trying to use it to glean about the board something from him.

He’s highly trained and good at his job. It didn’t stop me from trying. It never will. I gotta use whatever is in my arsenal and men usually love to be complimented.

He scoffs, “I would never cheat.”

I eye him warily. “Not even to get me in your bed for two weeks?”

His eyes darken as he slowly shakes his head. “It may be what I win in terms of the game, but you should know, Starlight, you’ll be in my bed a lot longer than two weeks.”

There’s so much conviction in his words, if I wasn’t sitting down, I’m pretty sure my knees would be so weak that I would crumple to the floor. Thankfully my ass is firmly in the chair. Still, I notice I sway a little closer to him with his words.

He’s been doing that all night, giving me little morsels of attention. I’ve been eating them up like they’re a damn delicacy. Probably because they are.

“J-5,” Hale stares into my eyes as he takes his turn.

He doesn’t even look down at his board. What kind of witchery is this? I narrow my eyes at him before I look down and bite back a screech of annoyance.

“Hit,” I grit out through clenched teeth.

Being a sore loser is not one of my finest qualities. Why the hell did I even suggest this?

Probably because I thought it was kind of adorable that a man like Hale has a shit ton of board games and his favorite isBattleship. I shouldn’t be surprised at that. Maybe it’s a Navy thing or something.

Part of me wants to sweep the game off the table and climb on top of it after stripping naked. I’ve never had a man cook for me before and Hale doing it was a damn revelation. Do other guys not know how sexy it is to see a man in a kitchen and then to eat delicious food? He can’t possibly be the only one to know.

I swear my panties melted off my body with my first bite. Homemade tortillas and all the fixings for the perfect taco? Sign me the fuck up.

Not only that, but he made rice using his mom’s recipe. It was delicious to the point that my mouth is watering a little now just thinking about it. Part of me is tempted to throw the game just so I can get my hands on the leftovers, but my damn pride won’t let me.

I should blame Ezra for my competitive streak. I wasn’t able to go up against him on the ice so I had to show my determination, my grit and my drive in other ways. Board games were part of that growing up which is another reason I was drawn to the collection Hale has on one his gigantic book cases.

He has all my favorites, and his couch is insanely comfortable. I can see us playing a lot more games together. Thankfully, I don’t get the vibe that those are going to be with my emotions.

Hale is straightforward. Since he’s decided to let me behind the exterior, which is all prickly thorns and grunts, I can see he has a softness underneath. I can see why he wouldn’t want to let a lot of people in on it and my heart flutters with the thought of being one of the lucky few.

“C-7,” I call out and I have to take a deep breath so this doesn’t turn into theMonopolyincident which happened at a game night with my family my senior year of high school.

Let’s just say that not all the pink bills were recovered when I overturned the whole damn game. I swear my parents had formed an alliance and were pooling their resources so they could beat me into the ground.

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