Chapter 0110

Kent grabs the cookies from my hand and tosses them on the bed, taking a step closer to me. “Trust

me, Fay,” he murmurs, his eyes on my mouth again. “This will be nothing like Girl Scouts.”

I groan then, tossing my head back, letting him see that none of this is sexy. It’s all just so draining.

“Whatever, Kent,” I murmur, looking up at the ceiling. “Can you just go away? I’m tired. I want to go to

bed.”

He surprises me by backing off. I watch him as he moves away from me, heading towards the door.

“Seriously?” I ask, watching him as he twists the handle. “That’s it? No fight? No repartee? It’s that

simple?”

Slowly, Kent turns to me. “You’re tired, Fay,” he says. “Go to bed. You need your rest.” He takes a

moment to consider me, though. To run his eyes over my tired face, my rumpled hair, my lips still

swollen from the force of his own pressed against them not so long ago.

“But simple? No, Fay. If you think this is over…” He just slowly shakes his head.

With that, he pulls my door open and steps out into the hall, closing it behind him.

I stand still for a moment, staring at the door. Then I slump down onto my bed, pulling the box of

cookies into my lap.

Without a word, I eat the whole thing.

The next morning I push through the door to the kitchen rubbing my eyes, still bleary from lack of sleep.

Unfortunately, no matter how late you go to bed, the Lippert house is buzzing with activity as soon as 6

am. A knock came to the door at 6:30 – a housekeeper delivering my fresh clothes for the day. There

was no getting back to sleep after that. So here I am, at 7 in the morning, needing coffee. Badly.

I make a beeline for the espresso machine and am surprised to meet Daniel there.

“Hey Fay,” he says, handing me the cup of espresso he just made. I accept it gratefully. “How did you

sleep?”

I shoot the shot of coffee down in one and hand the porcelain cup back to Daniel.

“Not great,” I say back to him, and then I lower my voice. “Daniel,” I say. “We have to talk.”

He frowns at me, curious and a little concerned. “Is everything all right?”

“For me?” I ask, pointing at my chest. “Sure. Weirdly fine at the moment. But for you?” I raise my

eyebrows, switching the direction of my finger so that it points at him. “You are oddly in hot water

today.”

“Last night,” I say, leaning closer to him. “Whatever was going on in your room...your dad…” I bite my

lip. Damn, I didn’t really plan how I wanted to say this.

I freeze, then, realizing something very suddenly that I hadn’t thought of before.

And if I wanted to, I could use it against Daniel to get something that I want. That I could enter this

game of chess that they’re all playing around me. Stop being a pawn, and become a real player.

But the real question is, do I enter the game at Daniel’s expense?