Page 145 of Playing Dirty
Not fully.
Just enough.
“I’m not acting like anything,” he said.
“Yeah,” I replied. “That’s the problem.”
He didn’t respond immediately.
That pause again.
The same one I was starting to recognise.
Then:
“I’m just thinking.”
“About what?”
He looked at me properly this time.
Longer than before.
“Nothing you’d want the answer to,” he said.
That should’ve been dismissive.
It wasn’t.
It was careful.
Mason
She didn’t look away this time.
That was new.
Rowan was usually controlled in a different way—distance, timing, deflection.
But now she was just… holding the space.
Like she wasn’t going to be the first one to break it.
I turned back toward the window.
Because staying there felt easier than staying there with her looking at me.
Jace would’ve called that obvious.
He’d be right.
The room behind me shifted slightly.
Bed creaking.
She stood up.
Not close.
