Free PLAYED - A BRITISH BAD BOY ROMANCE by Nikki Wild

left us to our devices, and I turned to Riley. “How long have you
been here?”

 
    “Since you saved me.”

 
    “Saved you?” I didn’t remember much saving.

 
    “The… rapists, in the alley,” she cautiously reminded me. “I was going
to be assaulted and probably left for dead, but you found me… you came for me,
and you rescued me from them.”

 
    I faintly remembered something like that, but it was incredibly faint. Did I? I flexed my knuckles, feeling
them ache. It was the kind of ache from battering them against the skulls of
predatory, low-life scum.

 
    “Are you okay?” I asked her.

 
    Riley smiled softly. It was maybe the first genuine, sincere smile that
I’d seen out of her. “Yeah. I think I’m pretty great.”

 
    “Fantastic to hear, love,” I smiled back.

 
    “Listen… how long are you going to be in America?” Riley asked me,
hovering near the edge of my bed. She looked pensive, tentatively awaiting my
answer.

 
    “You know, I’m not quite sure… weeks, probably. I can’t stay too long,
the season starts back up in a month and a half… and I’m going to have to keep
in shape, regardless of where I am.”

 
    “Oh. I see.” She looked crestfallen.

 
    “Listen, a month and a half, that’s a long time, right?” I replied,
sensing her withdraw back into herself. Dammit,
it took this long to get her to
retreat out of that shell… the last thing I need is to lose her now.

 
    “Well, not really, when you think about it,” Riley told me. “I’d
actually say that it’s not a whole lot of time at all.”

 
    “I want to see more of you,” I blurted out, surprised by myself. Riley
was apparently startled as well, as she looked at me curiously and with a
rather analytical gaze.

 
    “Do you?”

 
    “Yeah,” I reiterated. “Only if you think you can handle it.”

 
    “I can handle myself,” she retorted, “with the notable exception of last
night. Call that the exception that proves the rule.”

 
    “You know… I like you,” I confessed. “The other night was fantastic, and
I hope to experience more of those… And less nights that end in a hospital bed…”

 
    Riley hesitated, looking at me with a clear conflict of emotions in her
head. Finally, she looked me in the eyes with a startlingly vulnerable gaze,
and she spoke: “…Yeah.” Adding a nod, she continued: “I think I’d like that.”

 
    I nodded back, letting a small grin curve up the corners of my lips. “I
think I’d like that too.”

 
    The door popped open not five seconds later, and a very flustered Jess
was upon me like wildfire.

 
    “Lex, what the fuck? Can I not
leave you alone for fookin’ five
goddamn minutes without you disappearing on me? And this time… this time,
you’re in the hospital? ”

 
    “It was for a worthy cause,” I replied, taking Riley’s hand. Her fingers
flinched, but she kept her hand in mine.

 
    Jess glanced back and forth between us. “So… are one of you going to
start talking about why my friend is in a hospital bed right now, or am I going
to have to threaten to beat him halfway to death with a brick to get answers?”

 
    “Riley was cornered by a spot of trouble,” I answered simply. “I took
care of it. Might have gotten a few scrapes in the process.”

 
    “He’s being modest,” Riley elaborated.

 
    “Am I… am I hearing that right?” Jess laughed as she turned back to me,
almost in hysterics. “Modest? You? Do
you even know how to be modest? You
couldn’t even find it in a dictionary, yeah?”

 
    “I was dragged into an alley,” Riley told her with complete conviction.
“There were two of them, and I couldn’t fight them off. Lex found me and fought
them off. If he’d been fifteen seconds later…”

 
    Jess went completely silent, staring at me. She looked a very compelling
mixture of shocked, appalled, and downright horrified.

 
    “Lex… is this… is this true