Pre-Game
“Are you wearing it?”
I smoothed down the skin-tight, two-tone dress, still hiding in the bathroom. “No.”
“I know you are. Come out here and show me. I don’t know why you didn’t just dress out here,” Phillip called out through the door, his tone teasing. “I’ve seen everything, anyway.” He wasn’t wrong, but it felt different somehow.
I fixed the messy curls waterfalling around my bare white shoulders, for some reason feeling more naked than I did in bed the previous night. Dark eyeshadow brought out the blues, greens, and yellows in my eyes, and the red lipstick was a color I’d never bother to wear of my own volition.
It felt like I was playing dress up.
I’d done it all with the manipulative insistence of the man outside the bathroom door.
He’d swindled me into thinking he had a real gift, and it turned out to be a dress two sizes too small and a night out to god-knows-where.
My stupid ass thought it was a pretty dagger, or maybe a good burger.
Not this demeaning, wrapped-up gift of misogyny.
Asshole said it was to celebrate my birthday.
But where exactly were we celebrating, a strip club?
Not that it would surprise me if that was where he took me.
In our line of work, dressing in provocative attire was as normal as the daggers we carried.
Even Phillip styled his attire to lure women and men in some kind of way.
Like our weapons, it suited a purpose. And on intel gathering, it was practically a necessity, especially in the case of honey-trapping.
But that didn’t mean I wanted to wear the stuff when there wasn’t any reason for it.
I’d be worrying about my ass showing all damn night.
Still, the very idea that Phillip had chosen it with me in mind made me want to put it on just to see what sort of face he’d make when he saw me in it.
At the end of the day, a part of me wanted to please him, even if it meant wearing misogyny personified under verbal protest. I mean, men chose clothes for women they had every intention of taking off, right?
I wasn’t exactly averse to an after-dinner night-cap if all it required was me walking around in this ungodly tight thing.
Honestly, I was sort of banking on it. At least in that case, my efforts wouldn’t be in vain.
Unfortunately, the other night was more of a palate cleanser than a full-course meal.
I wasn’t satisfied. Part of me wondered if I ever would be satisfied where Phil was concerned.
I still thought about sex constantly, especially without reprieve from the sex god who’d first introduced me to amazing pleasure I could literally get drunk off of.
We’d talked sex all morning until the late afternoon, toeing a line between what was appropriate for us and what went beyond the usual.
Something had definitely changed. Phillip didn’t imply we weren’t going to do it again.
If anything, the other Hunter warned me to be ready for it to happen again.
Despite saying it was a rule he’d never broken, we had sex several times since I first propositioned him.
And for the most part, it didn’t seem to bother Phillip that we had.
Though, after we finished the other night, Phillip was unusually quiet. We didn’t discuss what sort of sex friends we’d be, and I wasn’t sure if anyone else really spelled these things out to begin with, so I didn’t press the issue.
If I was honest with myself, being around Phillip the way I was, I couldn’t tell if it was the sex I liked or more than that.
I thought about him a lot, and not just sexually.
His smiles, his general demeanor, his kindness and thoughtfulness even when he was being an asshole all intrigued me.
I wanted to know more about his past. I wanted to ask about what sort of life the mysterious Hunter led.
I wanted to know more about the bond he shared with Sloan, because it really felt like the two were closer than they let on.
But learning more about Phillip also felt like a bad idea.
Like I’d catch real feelings. Like I’d step over a boundary we’d set for both of our sakes.
Like it’d open the door for heartbreak.
After Nigel, I couldn’t do that to another person. It would make me that stupid girl I was desperate not to be. It would mean I hadn’t learned anything from my mistakes. It would send me right back into the situation I only just got out of with Nigel.
Why is everything always so complicated?
More importantly, I couldn’t ruin things between Phil and I when it finally felt like we were in a good place.
He was the only person who really knew about me and what I was going through, so I couldn’t risk our relationship over stupid choices.
I couldn’t be selfish and chase after possibilities.
Not when I was the target of every bad guy bent on sticking it to the Organization.
Not when a rebellion against the Organization was contingent on me surviving to start it.
Not when Phil’s nonchalance and scorn towards relationships suggested he didn’t want to take any part in one.
I wanted to stay by the Hunter’s side. Emotions, feelings, a simple crush or deeply in love, it’d fuck the whole thing up.
“Come on, pet. Show Daddy what you look like in the dress I chose for you,” the Austrian said with a sultry husk. “Bet you look like sin walking.”
Did he just call himself Daddy?
Completely put out, I rolled my eyes and fixed the collar of the dress where it dipped precariously low.
“Please tell me you didn’t just refer to yourself as Daddy.
Christ, I don’t have time to unpack how gross that is.
” I swept back my hair and rubbed my lips together, trying to properly spread the vibrant color.
“Or how no one, and I mean no one, says that. Ever. Not unless they’re looking to get smacked. ”
“Noted.” Phillip’s rich laughter put sensation in my hips I’d rather not acknowledge.
With another wistful glance at the mirror—this is as good as it’s going to get—I exited the bathroom and prepared myself for another string of unnecessary sexual comments.
The Austrian’s gaze seemed to devour me whole with the slow sweeps he offered my body. “Daddy likes.”
There it is.
“Were you always this much of a pervert?” I complained before walking past him and trying to temper the uptick of my heart.
“Is that really a question?” He chuckled to himself and followed after me closely.
I had all but given up and shrugged. “Guess not. You’ve always been a little whack.”
Phillip’s lips teased upwards the second I stole a look at him, and his large hand stroked the front of his neck with an amused twinkle in his eyes. “Tell me how you really feel, princess.”
“Any more misogyny out of you and I’m going to be sick. Take it down a notch, would you? Don’t forget I’m probably a hell of a lot stronger than you are, and I don’t have any qualms with throwing you out of a fourth-story window.” I stared at him, voice monotone. “None.”
Phillip’s dazzling smile greeted my next glance, and I shouldn’t have expected anything less from the other Hunter. “Fair enough. Consider me warned.”
Pointless to say anything at all to the bastard.
Still, I didn’t fail to notice how gorgeous the man was in a well-tailored vest and pair of dress pants.
Or how no matter what clothes he chose to wear, he always looked like a sexy criminal.
The other Hunter opted for a smart black-and-grey striped vest, with his hair slicked back and his tattooed neck coming out of nothing but black shirt and shiny red tie.
He’d rolled his cuff sleeves partway up his forearms, displaying just enough to send a message—one that warned of violence—to anyone who even so much as glanced his direction.
Standing there, looking like the Devil himself.
With the shadow of a beard and all his piercings in place, as well as a perfect application of eyeliner to contrast pale irises, the Hunter was a vision, and it took all of my willpower not to slam him into one of the walls and climb him like a tree.
My pride wouldn’t allow it.
“Where are we going, anyway?” I asked, carefully tucking a couple of compact-sized daggers into a thigh holster.
Good Hunters always had something useable on them, even for a night out.
Something told me wherever we went, I’d probably end up using all the weapons I had on me.
I went to the other thigh holster, doing the same as the first. “It better not involve dollar bills, Phil, because I’ll walk straight the fuck out and leave you to celebrate all by your damn self. ”
Phillip’s hand found my lower back as I bent over, and I didn’t need to look back to know he was appreciating my backside. Dudes were predictable as fuck.
“Promise it’s not.” When I turned around, fixing my chest, his eyes dropped to where my cleavage was exposed. “I wouldn’t waste this.”
“Waste? How?”
Phillip’s smirk was licentious. He reached out, wrapping an arm around my back, and his fingers danced along the valley of my spine.
Mouth swept up sexily, the older man stepped in close and bent his head just enough to reach my ear.
“If I’m honest, I’m not sure I want anyone else seeing you look so…
” The Hunter moistened his lips, blue eyes trailing down my body provocatively, before they were back on mine and his hand enclosed around my throat. “Delicious.”
It was ridiculous how easily he got my heart pumping and my thighs shifting in lustful anticipation. Had to give it to the dude, he really knew how to seduce the socks off a girl.
I didn’t contain the shudder in my body, so I quickly brushed through my hair to hide how much his every word affected me. “Yeah, yeah, you suave player. Let’s just go. Something tells me no matter how innocent the night starts out, we’ll end up needing the daggers I’ve hidden inside my thighs.”