Killing Game Read Free Page A

hand as it slipped into his jeans pocket, and when it reappeared he was holding a small steel Zippo in between his index and middle finger. Her eyes stayed fixed on it as he raised it up and flicked it open, sparking it into life and bringing it to the tip of his cigarette. The long flame seemed to die for a moment as he sucked on the cigarette, tugging the flame to it and causing the end to glow red. As he moved the lighter away, the flame danced back into life, and he stared at it with a look of fascination in his eyes before he flipped the Zippo shut, effectively killing the flame. He released a long stream of blue grey smoke with a sigh, and her eyes fell to his mouth, her knees weakening as she felt his gaze on her again.
    “Bugger!” He rolled his eyes and his jaw clenched.
    Lily jumped slightly at his sudden outburst. It had torn straight through her daydream about his mouth.
    “Sorry. God, I’m a complete wanker.”
    She watched in confusion as he disappeared into the room again. A few minutes later, he returned with a whole heap of clothes and a bathrobe. Seeing the dry clothes in his arms, she realized that in her constant daydream she’d forgotten that hers were soaked. She looked down at her body and her eyes widened when she saw her hard nipples were evident through the thin material of her halter-top. Swallowing hard, she wrapped her arms around her chest in an attempt to hide them from him.
    “If you wanted to... get out of those...” Cain cursed himself for suddenly feeling like a pathetic schoolboy, but she was looking up at him with such large trusting eyes that it was making it hard for him to concentrate. “Look. Clothes. Dry. Your clothes. Wet... comprende?”
    She nodded.
    He pointed to the room he kept disappearing into. “Please, be my guest.”
    Lily gathered up the bundle of clothes that he offered to her and slowly walked over to the room. She was thankful that he didn’t appear to be following her, and when she flicked the light on and the room was revealed to her, she was doubly thankful. It was a bedroom. An expansive bed was laid out in front of her, but other than it and a few scraps of furniture, the room was empty. She couldn’t take her eyes off the bed. What kind of guy had black silk sheets?
    The tiny bubble of panic in her stomach exploded into a turbulent ocean of fear. She shut the door and hurriedly peeled off her wet clothes. Keeping one eye on the closed door at all times, she picked through the clothes he’d given her, and slipped into a pair of sweat pants and an oversized black t-shirt.
    Clinging onto her wet clothes, she re-emerged and shut the door behind her. Noticing that the man was nowhere to be seen, she let her eyes wander around his apartment. It was as sparsely furnished as his bedroom, and the walls were greying with age and neglect.
    As her eyes fell on the closed door opposite her, she remembered him checking that it was locked. It had been the first thing he’d done on entering the apartment. He’d walked straight in and checked that door. She felt the weight in her hands disappear and she jumped, her heart leaping into her throat as she did so.
    “Jittery little chit, aren’t you?” He smiled.
    She noticed that he was standing no more than a foot away from her, and he was now holding her wet things. She hadn’t even heard him approach.
    How the hell did he do that? She offered him a slight smile.
    “I’ll hang these in the bathroom,” He hollered as he walked off behind her. “There’s tea in the kitchen. It’ll warm you up.”
    Lily still stared at the locked door, her mind racing through all the possibilities of what he had to hide.
    Maybe he just didn’t like strangers near his stuff. It was perfectly reasonable. He probably had expensive stuff in the room and she couldn’t blame him for being cautious. After all, she had nothing and he knew it. She hoped he didn’t think she was out to rob him. She laughed internally at that. She was