The Player (The Game Maker #3)(32)

“So you know about his crush?”

She nodded. “He thinks it’ll be weird.”

“Weirder than a congressman acting like his wife died in a fiery car crash so he can get a piece of ass?” When I downshifted for a stop sign, the engine purred. Giving up this car would’ve been impossible for anything or anyone outside of my pack.

“Benji also thinks I’m still in love with you-know-who.”

“Are you?” I asked, though I knew the answer. Karin was lost for Walker.

She gazed away. “That would be idiotic, wouldn’t it? He made his feelings clear.”

The man had a ready-made family but was too stupid to see it. And if Karin and Benji ever did get together, it’d be too late for the *. “Are you holding back with Benji because of his history?”

He’d been sexually abused out on the streets. When I was young and didn’t know better, I had asked him distressing questions like, “Why are you scared to go outside at night?” and “Why do you cry when it’s bath time?” I often wished I could go back and spare him that extra pain.

“He’s worked through a lot of it,” Karin said. “But, yeah, getting with his adoptive sister might spin some things off axis.”

He’d always called me sis, but never Karin. I don’t think he’d ever bonded with her that way.

She frowned at me. “Enough about that. There’s more you’re not telling me.”

I could never fool her. “Say I do have a . . . fetish.” Which I would be looking up online as soon as I was by myself. “It was Dmitri who got me so worked up. Maybe having other peoples’ eyes on me was the seasoning, but the main course was all him. He’s really dominant. I did those things because he told me to.”

“He sounds like a thrall.”

I slapped the gear shift. “Bingo. Everything about him—his voice, face, body, scent, intensity—makes me lose my ever-loving mind. In the same situation with another guy, I wouldn’t have reacted as I did. I felt completely out of control.”

“I understand why that would be so scary. Especially for your first time.”

I exhaled. “I trusted him to take care of me when I was drunk, and instead he pushed me to do things I wouldn’t ordinarily do.”

“Maybe he sensed your fetish. What if he was trying to please you?”

He’d told me, I need to give you pleasure so much I ache. I cleared my throat. “Then I would say I might have possibly overreacted and blamed him unfairly.” The look in his eyes . . . I’d hurt him. That damn sense of protectiveness rose up yet again.

“What if you ended up with him outside of a con?”

Of all the women he could have, Sevastyan was pursuing me. At least for now. “He lives on a different continent. And we have nothing in common.” I refused to believe I could fall for Sevastyan, with his sinful voice and talented fingers. With his lifeline glances, the ones that both lured me closer and scared the hell out of me. “Plus, I could never trust him. I don’t think another man will ever convince me I’d be enough for him. It’s like in the movies, when the lead guy makes a grand gesture, sacrificing everything to prove his love. Stupid, huh?”

“Not stupid at all,” Karin said.

“Catching Brett made me doubt myself in a way I never did before.” Wasn’t I desirable enough for him? Wasn’t I enough woman? “Besides, if I were ever going to settle down, it’d be with another grifter. Which means a tech billionaire is out of the running.”

“You must’ve considered a Peggy Sue by this point.” A wedding con. “I’m sure we all did after that call.”

The thought had tickled at the back of my mind, but I’d mentally scratched it away. “Dmitri’s way too clever. He’d lawyer up with a prenup so ironclad it’d clang when it hit a desk. Plus he’s got those two bodyguards.”

“Hate bodyguards. Still, it’s Vegas, baby. Make him crazy for an hour, and you could seal the deal.”

“Crazy, huh?” He’s got that covered all on his own.

“I could run a badger on him.” That multi-purpose con could be used for more than just blackmail. “I’d mick him, and you’d find us ‘together.’ You’d scream and cry, telling him there’s only one way you could ever trust him again: the bonds of holy matrimony. Give him the ultimatum, and he’d be toast.”

I could cry on cue, but the idea of Karin even “fake” getting together with him made my fingers clench the steering wheel. “I’ll stick with the milk-cow.”

“Then wear the man-eater.”

I’d cut that sleeveless gown from scarlet body-hugging silk. The overall look was simple yet sultry. Illusion straps and a plunging neckline bared plenty of skin in the front, while the back cutout dipped almost to my ass. The hourglass silhouette gave way to a thigh-high slit.

When a woman wore a dress like that, it told men: I’m getting laid tonight. And when I do, some lucky bastard’s balls will scream for mercy. “You don’t think it’s too soon?”

“No, but he’s going to be all over you.”

At the idea, my body purred like the Porsche’s engine.

Whatever she saw in my expression made her lips thin. “You cannot sleep with him, Vice.”