Cruel Money (Cruel 1)

“Why are you so obsessed with my notebook?”

“Because you’re always writing in that damn thing. Who wouldn’t be interested in it? You never let us read it.”

“You’ll just have to die of curiosity, I suppose.”

Katherine rolled her eyes and then slinked off of the bed. Her steps were predatory as she moved toward me. I just stared back, impassive. Katherine and I had been playing another sort of game for a very long time. One that didn’t have a winner. It usually resulted in anger or sex or tears or screaming. Sometimes, all of the above. It never ended well. Fuck, it never started well.

We were great as friends. But we were terrible—utterly fucking terrible—as anything else. She knew it. I knew it.

And still, she straddled my lap in her tiny lingerie-clad body and brushed her fingers up into my hair.

“Let’s play something else tonight,” she purred.

I kept my face blank, neutral. “I’ll pass.”

“It’ll be fun.”

“You’re not going to win this way,” I told her evenly.

“Who said anything about winning? Maybe I just want you.”

I scoffed and stood, dropping her onto her ass. “We’re playing one game, Katherine.” I wielded her full name like a weapon. “I’m not interested in any others.”

She somehow made scrambling to her feet look graceful, but I could see the venom in that look. Here came the anger…and probably the screaming. Though I never knew which side of Katherine I’d get.

“I was just teasing,” she finally said. “You can restrain yourself.”

Restrain myself. Fuck. Restrain myself?

Sometimes, I swore she said things just to piss me off. There was a reason I’d stepped away from my family. That I’d stepped away from it all. I loved my crew fiercely. But it was so easy to backslide around them, around Katherine.

“Were you?”

“Was I what?” she asked, stopping halfway to the door.

“Teasing?”

“Obviously. Watching you make a fool out of yourself is a fun sport. I like to watch myself win without lifting a finger.”

“As if you’re not playing yet.”

She grinned wickedly and then gingerly stepped back across the room. She ran one manicured nail down my cheek. “When I play, you’ll never see my moves coming.”

Then, she winked and sauntered out of my room.

I sank back into the chair. Good riddance.

As much as she irritated me, I couldn’t help but worry about what moves she was already planning. The one thing I did know about Katherine was to never, ever underestimate her.

Natalie

10

It was Monday morning, and the crew had been gone a whole twenty-four hours. They’d left the day before without fanfare. Now, I was back to my regularly scheduled programming.

My arms cut through the water as I swam laps to stay fit. I’d been on my high school swim team and even competed a few years in college. It calmed all the voices and let me concentrate. Or at least, it usually did.

I flipped at the next edge and pushed off the wall like it was a spring before darting to the other side. This was supposed to be relaxing and not filled with thoughts of a guy who had flitted in and out of my life as easily as he had six years ago.

At least I hadn’t slept with him this time.

I came up for air. My heart was racing, and I took deep breaths, gulping in oxygen after my workout. I snagged my water bottle and guzzled half of it. Then, I leaned my elbows against the side of the pool and stared out to the ocean.

It was a beautiful day with the high still in the mid-80s. The first round of consults for the renovations would be here this afternoon. The job was getting real. That meant I needed to focus less on the events of this weekend and more on the manuscript sitting unfinished on my computer. I had two months to finish my draft. I could make this book the one.

Suddenly, I heard a strange jingling noise coming from the house. I turned toward the noise with a furrowed brow. What the hell was that?

And there it was again.

Had I left a door open or something? I hadn’t turned the TV on since I got here. Even Netflix hadn’t been switched on. Still, the noise persisted.

Then, to my utter shock, a tiny yet incredibly long-legged puppy bounded out of the back door and onto the deck.

“Oh my goodness,” I crooned.

I pushed off and moved to the other side of the pool. The little puppy sprang right over to me in his cute, slightly uncoordinated way. I held my hand out to him, and he licked it and then my nose a couple of times in greeting.

“Where did you come from?”

I hauled myself out of the pool and sat on the edge. The puppy nudged its way into my lap and tried to find a way to get his awkward limbs all onto me. I petted his shiny gray coat and rubbed its cute too-big-for-its-head ears.