Playing Dirty (Risky Business, #2)(94)

The truck was in the driveway and the lights were on.

My dad walked me to the door. It flew open almost immediately.

“Sage,” Ryker said, looking surprised. Seeing my dad, his brow creased in confusion, then he got a good look at my face. His jaw tightened. “What happened?”

“Your job happened,” my dad said. “Leo Shea thought he’d use Sage to get to you. Fortunately, I was keeping a closer eye on my daughter than you were.”

Ryker said nothing, though a wince crossed his features.

“Leo’s left town,” my dad said. “I trust the police won’t devote a tremendous amount of resources looking for him?”

“No,” Ryker rasped, and I knew he understood what my dad wasn’t saying.

“Excellent. Then we have an understanding. I’ll continue to allow you to see my daughter, against my better judgment, but she asked to come here. However, if you continue to take such poor care of her, you and I …”—he paused meaningfully—“will have a problem.”

Ryker didn’t flinch at the threat, but I elbowed my dad.

“Stop,” I chastised him. “Go on and go. I’m exhausted.”

“All right, honey.” He brushed a kiss to my forehead. “Get something on that eye.”

He walked away and I fell against Ryker, tired to the bone and too heartbroken to cry. He pulled me gently inside and closed the door behind me.

I took a deep, steadying breath. “There’s something I have to tell you,” I began …





Sage Reece almost lost the two men she loves:

tough cop Ryker and sexy businessman Parker.

But when a beautiful, cunning woman from their

past returns, Sage must make the most

dangerous play of her life …

Please see the next page for a preview of

Play To Win

Available

from Piatkus in Spring 2016





PROLOGUE


Parker and I have been sleeping together.”

The words fell with the force of a bomb against Ryker’s ears as he stared at the woman he loved. Shock had turned his muscles to stone and he couldn’t move, could barely breathe.

This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t possibly have understood her correctly. She was lying, or this was a really bad joke—

“I’ve been in love with him for a while,” she continued as though completely unaware of the stake each word was driving into his chest. “And he loves me, too. We were going to tell you before, but …” Her words trailed away and she shrugged.

“But what?” he asked, his voice like a rake on gravel.

“But I love you, too,” she said, tears filling her eyes but not yet spilling over. They clung to her lashes like diamonds sparkling in the sun. “And I don’t want to lose you.”

She moved closer until she stood within a hairbreadth of her abdomen touching his. Lifting her hands, she placed her palms on the bare skin of his chest. Ryker squeezed his eyes shut, his senses assaulted by her—the heat of her touch, the smell of her skin, the brush of her hair against him as it stirred in the breeze.

“We can be happy, the three of us,” Natalie said, her voice a soft murmur of sound. She pressed her lips to his skin, and against his will Ryker’s cock twitched, hardening from her mere touch.

“Parker put you up to this, didn’t he,” Ryker said. That was the only explanation. The woman he knew was sweet and trusting. She’d believe anything Parker told her. God only knew what he’d said to seduce her and make her think they were in love.

“Parker’s your best friend,” she said, her lips moving against his skin. “The three of us together … just think about it.”

But Ryker had stopped listening. Grasping her upper arms so tightly she gasped, he pushed her back so he could see her eyes.

“Tell me the truth,” he growled, trying to keep his temper in check. “Parker filled your head with all this crap about the three of us, didn’t he? He said whatever he had to in order to get you into bed. You love me. You want to be with me. Right?” He shook her slightly before he stopped himself. “Tell me!”

“Y-yes,” Natalie stammered, her eyes wide. “It was Parker. I-I didn’t know what to do. And he said we could be happy, the three of us, wanted to show me what it would be—”

“He wants you for himself,” Ryker interrupted, abruptly releasing her. Turning away, he shoved a hand through his hair. “I can’t believe it. My best friend, stabbing me in the back.”

It was unreal. Incomprehensible. Parker and he went back—way back—and had looked out for each other through street gangs, schoolyard bullies, drill sergeants, and enemy fire. Parker knew how much Ryker loved Natalie. He’d even talked with Parker about how he was thinking of proposing, once Natalie had gotten over the loss of her husband, missing in action and presumed dead.

And he’d thought she was there or, at least, almost. She’d told him she loved him. They’d made love …

Then Parker had seduced her. To do something like that to someone as trusting and vulnerable as Natalie made his blood boil. Parker had finally shown his true colors. It had just taken a woman to bring out what Ryker had always suspected was there—a narcissistic * blinded by his own wealth and privilege. It must’ve amused him, all these years, playing the savior for the charity case kid from the shitty part of town.