Games of Love: Enemies-to-Lovers Romance

“Ha! Beat you, slow-poke,” I mocked as Connor closed the door behind us. He put the plate of food by the bed and my stomach flipped when he locked the door.

Connor hauled me up with a lascivious laugh, wrapping my legs around his waist and walking us to the bathroom. “I let you win.”

“Yeah, sure,” I nodded, kissing him back deeply as he pressed me against the cold-tiled wall of the bathroom’s interior. “Whatever makes you feel better.”

“You make me feel better,” Connor murmured into my mouth and then I could see the regret in his eyes as he cleared his throat. “I mean-uh…”

“Me too, Connor,” I stopped him quickly, pressing my forehead to his before he closed himself off to me. His hands squeezed my thighs gently and he let me down to tug his t-shirt over his head.

Much, much later, Connor lounged in his boxers against my headboard, and my legs were in his lap. I chewed on my pizza, finishing off my second piece with a dramatic smack. Connor laughed, tossing his crust onto the nearly empty plate on the table beside the bed.

I made a face at him. “Only little kids don’t eat their crusts.”

Connor raised an eyebrow in mock surprise, digging his fingers insistently into my sides until I laughed out loud uncontrollably. “You judging my pizza habits, Harlow?”

“And what if I am, Lennox?” I laughed at Connor, ducking away from his wiggling fingers before he could touch me again.

The scary movie we were watching was a hilarious contrast to our playful happiness as we tussled over the sheets. The rain stopped outside of the window and I had no idea what time it was. I assumed it was either late into the night or very early in the morning, and my head ached from lack of sleep. I was so very happy even so, and in Connor’s arms, I felt as if I might be okay with everything else. Connor rolled over away from me, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He sat up, raising his arms above his head. I glanced over at him, staring at the wide muscles of his back as he stood up. He checked his phone, raising his eyebrows in surprise. “It’s almost 6 in the morning, I think we lost track of time. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

I huffed out a laugh, falling onto the pillows. “It’s a good thing, Connor. Time flies when you’re having fun and all that, you know. It’s our last day here, we should start packing up I guess.”

“I guess so,” Connor sighed, glancing back to look at the window and pulling on his boxers. “I hate to say this, but I don’t want to leave.”

I felt myself smiling softly at him. “Me neither. I don’t want to face reality again.”

“The show,” Connor leaned against the window.

My stomach dropped at the mention of Games of Love. What had once been an exciting idea had become something that I dreaded. It was my own fault, falling for Connor when he had seemed to be the exact opposite of what I wanted in a man. He had turned out to be everything I needed and everything that I didn’t want to live without. We had become friends and then we were building into more than friendship almost from the very beginning. I swallowed against the lump in my throat. I stood from the bed and wrapped the sheet around myself, leaning my body against the other side of the window’s frame. Connor’s skin was pale and lit up golden by the slow-rising dawn. Shadows curved over the sleek muscles of his arms and the sharp cut of his cheekbones. His blonde hair was burnished yellow, tousled, and pulled into disarray by my own hands. He glanced over at me with those glittering blue eyes and my heart jumped.

“What are we going to do, Connor?” I knew my voice trembled and I also knew that Connor heard it.

He stretched out his arm and long, warm fingers brushed my cheek, caressing my skin,

“We’ll figure it out, I promise, Sadie.”

Chapter 16

Connor

The train station was packed with busy people, all of them shuffling and sidling through the crowd with their luggage and bags. It was a huge contrast from when we had arrived, and Sadie looked around with surprise on her face. Her cheeks were pink from the cold and she tugged her hat lower on her head as we waited. I could only think of her beneath me and the look on her face as she told me that she loved me. I still couldn’t believe it. I watched her as she navigated her way onto the train’s stairs, and I grabbed her bag when she struggled to lift it onto the train. She turned around, her face lighting up with a bright smile as I held both of our bags. There were running footsteps, quick and loud behind us. Alex nearly fell over onto the platform beside me, gasping out a breath. I wondered if he had run all the way from his car to the platform and where I would have wished him ill before, I could find no malice for him now. I felt myself smile, even.