Twisted Games (Twisted, #2)

by Ana Huang

Men. They always ruined it by opening their mouths.

Something dark unfurled in my stomach. If there was one thing I hated, it was men who couldn’t take a fucking hint.

Bridget and I weren’t each other’s favorite people, but that didn’t make it okay for anyone to call her names. Not under my watch. It was a matter of principle and basic fucking decency.

“For what?” “For calling you a…” He shot a fearful look in my direction. “For calling you a bad name.” “And?” I prompted. His brow creased in confusion. My smile contained more threat than humor. “Say, ‘I’m sorry for being a limp-dicked idiot who doesn’t know how to respect women.’”

“I’m sorry for being a limp-dicked idiot who doesn’t know how to respect women.” Resentment poured off him in waves. “Do you accept his apology?” I asked Bridget. “If you don’t, I can take this outside.”

“How’s the book?” he drawled later when he’d finished his workout and I’d grabbed the closest book I could find before he entered the living room. “Riveting.” I tried to focus on the page instead of the way Rhys’s sweat-dampened shirt clung to his torso. Six-pack abs for sure. Maybe even an eight-pack. Not that I was counting. “Sure seems that way.” Rhys’s face remained impassive, but I could hear the mocking bent in his voice. He walked to the bathroom, and without looking back, he added, “By the way, Princess, the book is upside down.” I

A hint of sadness remained in her eyes, and I felt that strange tug in my chest again. Maybe it was because I related to the source of her sadness—the feeling I was all alone in the world, without the two people who were supposed to love me most by my side.

I walked into the living room, bleary-eyed, only to find it transformed. The furniture had been pushed to the side, replaced with a pile of boho-printed pillows and cushions on the floor. The coffee table groaned beneath various snacks and drinks, and the Rokbury festival played out in real time on-screen. The pièce de résistance, however, was the indoor tent decorated with string lights, which looked exactly like the ones people set up on the festival grounds.

“What…” I rubbed my eyes. Nope, I wasn’t dreaming. The tent, the snacks, they were all there. “What is this?” “Indoor festival,” he grunted. “You put this together.” It was a statement of disbelief more than a question.

“Wish I was there too.” I brushed a strand of hair out of my eye. “At least I had the indoor festival. That was a brilliant idea, by the way. Thank you.” “Indoor festival?” Jules sounded confused. “What are you talking about?” “The setup you planned with Rhys,” I prompted. “The tent, the cushions, the food?” “Maybe I’m drunker than I thought, but you’re not making any sense. I didn’t plan anything with Rhys.” She sounded sincere, and she had no reason to lie. But if Rhys hadn’t planned it with my friends, then… My

and he wasn’t exactly a chatty conversationalist. And yet he knew exactly what I needed without me uttering a word.

“About the indoor festival you set up for Rokbury…” Rhys stabbed at a piece of beef, ignoring the table of women ogling him from the corner. “What about it?” “My friends didn’t know what I was talking about when I mentioned it to them.” I’d checked with Ava and Stella too, just in case, and they’d both stared at me like I’d grown two heads. “So?” I finished my wine, my nerves jumping all over the place. “So you said my friends helped you with the setup.” Rhys chewed quietly, not answering me. “Did you…” A strange lump formed in my throat. I blamed it on too much food. “Did you come up with the idea? And set it up all by yourself?” “It’s not a big deal.” He continued eating without looking at me. I’d known it was him since my phone call with Jules, but hearing him confirm it was a whole other matter.

I could handle getting shot. I couldn’t handle Bridget getting hurt.

I couldn’t remember the last time anyone really cared about whether I lived or died. But Bridget did, for some unknown reason, and it wasn’t just because I was her bodyguard. I saw it in her eyes and heard it in the faint waver of her usually cool, crisp voice. And I’d be damned if the knowledge didn’t hit me harder than a bullet to the chest.

I’d used the lame excuse of walking off our food to justify the trip to the park, but in truth, I’d wanted to extend the night, because when we woke up, we would go back to what we were. The princess and her bodyguard, a client and her contractor.

“Come here, Princess.” I opened one arm. She stepped into it and buried her face in my noninjured shoulder. It was the most vulnerable we’d been in front of the other since we met, and it chipped away at something inside me.

Something changed the night of my graduation. Perhaps it was the shared trauma or the fact that Rhys had voluntarily opened up to me about his past, but the long-standing antagonism between us transformed into something else—something that kept me awake late at night and drove the butterflies in my stomach nuts.

“It’s nice,” he said. “What?” “Your real smile.”

“He’s wearing shoe lifts. He deserves to be threatened.”

“Princess, you couldn’t look horrible if you tried.” Even though she looked more tired than usual, with purple smudges beneath her eyes and her skin lacking its usual glow, she still blew other women out of the water. Bridget’s eyebrows shot up. “Was that another compliment, Mr. Larsen? Two in two years. Careful, or I’ll think you like me.” “Take it however you want,” I drawled. “But I’ll like you the day you like me.”

“I looked.” I parked the cart near the back entrance. “You should fire your deputy security chief. He’s a moron. If I hadn’t found you, he’d still have his people searching the inside of the palace like—what?” “How long did you look for me?” Bridget gave me a strange look, one that made my heart twist in the oddest way.

“You.” I grabbed the collar of Viggo’s shirt and lifted him until his feet dangled in the air. “I told you she was outside. Any damn person with common sense would know she was outside, yet you wasted an hour searching indoors while Bridget was unconscious in the rain.” “Mr. Larsen!” Elin sounded scandalized. “This is the royal palace, not a dive bar where you brawl with other patrons. Put Viggo down.” I ignored her and lowered my voice until only Viggo could hear me. “You better pray the princess isn’t seriously hurt.” “Are you threatening me?” he sputtered. “Yes.” “I could fire you.” I bared my teeth in a semblance of a smile. “Try.”

“I’m fine,” she repeated. “Don’t worry about me.” “Too fuckin’ late.” She hesitated, seeming to debate something before she said, “Because it’s your job.” The question hung in the air, loaded with a deeper meaning. My jaw flexed. “Yes,” I finally said, my heart doing an odd little twist again. “Because it’s my job.”

could’ve sworn his worry for me went beyond his professional obligations. And maybe, for a second, I could’ve sworn I wanted it to. I wanted him to care about me as me, not as his client.

Rhys never touched me unless he had to, but at that moment, he didn’t have to. Which meant he wanted to.

unimpressed by my lack of designer clothes and fancy accessories. Tough shit. Maybe he’d be more impressed by my fist in his face.

“Remove your hands from her before I remove them for you.”

“Wrong. This is what you’re going to do.” I kept my voice friendly. Conversational. But beneath the polite veneer ran a razor-sharp blade of steel. “You’re going to turn around, walk away, and never speak, touch, or so much as look in her direction again. Consider this your first and final warning, Mr. Hauz.”

“This is it.” Rhys pulled up in front of a sprawling, two-story villa. “Bucket list number one.” Go someplace where no one knows or cares who I am. That was definitely the case here. The house was nestled high in the hills and the only residence around. How had Rhys even found this place? My chest tightened with emotion as we unpacked our suitcases from the back of our rental car and walked toward the entrance. “How did you pull everything together so fast?” Rhys would never let me go anywhere without doing the proper advance work first, but it had only been forty-eight hours since I told him about my list. For him to have researched the town, booked the charter jet and villa, and handled the millions of details that came with royal travel in such a short time…

“If you can stay up a while longer, there’s something you should see.”

He sat down next to me, and I spotted a flash of his teeth in the darkness before he angled his chin up. “Look up, Princess.” I did. And I gasped. Thousands upon thousands of stars splashed across the sky above us, so numerous and densely packed they resembled a painting more than real life.

A deep, rich sound filled the air, and I realized with shock Rhys was laughing. The deepest, loudest, realest laugh I’d pulled out of him yet. It was beautiful.

“Can I tell you something, Mr. Larsen?” He dipped his head. “I’m going to miss you.” He went still, so still I thought he didn’t hear me. Then, in an uncharacteristically, achingly soft voice, he said, “I’m going to miss you too, Princess.”

“It wasn’t the boy’s fault,” I said. A tear slid down my cheek before I could stop it. “I hope he knows that.” “He knows,” Rhys said. He rubbed my tear away with his thumb. “Don’t cry for him, Princess. He’s all right.”

“There’s no such thing as just a story. Every story is important. Including yours.” Especially yours. I released his hand and swam around to his back, where I brushed my fingers over his skin again before pressing the smallest, gentlest of kisses on one of the scars. “Is this okay?” I whispered.

IM SOBBING WTH

“However, they had an odd request. We normally wouldn’t entertain such an idea, but Christian Harper has a considerable amount of influence. He’s not someone you say no to lightly, even if you’re the king, and he asked for a favor of sorts on behalf of Mr. Larsen.” I was growing more confused by the minute. “What’s the favor?” “He wants to rejoin your personal security detail.” If I hadn’t been sitting, I would’ve fallen over in shock, and that was before Edvard added, “Permanently.”

and my steps slowed when I heard Bridget’s silvery laugh through the doors. God, I’d missed her laugh. I’d missed everything about her.

“So where do we go from here?” No matter what we said, he wasn’t just my bodyguard, and deep down, we both knew it. “We go wherever you go,” Rhys said. “I keep you safe. The end.”

But even though I was still upset with Rhys for leaving in the first place, I realized something. The empty, gnawing feeling had disappeared.

except for the fleeting moments when he looked at me like I was his whole world, and he never wanted to blink.

He escorted me to my room, and when we arrived at my door, he pulled something out of his suit pocket. “Your birthday present,” he said gruffly, handing me a rolled-up sheet of paper tied with a ribbon. “Nothing fancy, but I had it and thought you might like it.” My breath caught. “You didn’t have to get me anything.” We never bought each other birthday presents. The most we did was buy each other a meal, and even then, we pretended it was for something other than the other’s birthday. “It’s not a big deal.” Rhys watched, shoulders tense, while I carefully untied the ribbon and unrolled the paper. Once I saw what was on it, I gasped. It was me. A drawing of me, to be exact,

“Are you kidding? Rhys, this is beautiful.” My words hung in the air, and we realized at the same time I’d called him by his name again. My first time doing so since Costa Rica. But it felt right, because at that moment, he wasn’t Mr. Larsen. He was Rhys.

“It’s not all right. It’s beautiful,” I repeated. “Seriously, thank you. I’ll treasure this forever.” I never thought I’d see the day, but Rhys blushed. Actually blushed.

THIS MANN OH MY LORD

“Ignore him. He’s been a satanic little turd since we were children, and he thrives on the attention.” A startled laugh rose in my throat. “Tell me the words ‘satanic little turd’ didn’t just leave your mouth, Princess.” She responded with a sly smile. “I’ve called him worse in my head.” That’s my girl.

THIS LINE ALWAYS GETS MEEE

I finally gathered enough of my wits to pull back, but before I could, a loud crash shattered the silence in the greenhouse. Steffan and I jumped apart, and my eyes fell on Rhys, who stood next to a broken pot of lilies. “My hand slipped.” His voice held not an ounce of apology.

“You. Me. Us.” I wiped tears of mirth from my eyes. “You’re an ex-Navy SEAL and I’m royalty, and we’re in such denial we might as well apply for Egyptian citizenship.”

Read on

Why did you come back, Mr. Larsen? The real answer this time.” “I gave you the real answer.” “The other real answer.” Rhys’s jaw clenched. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Princess.” “I want you to say the truth.” I knew my truth. I needed to hear his. My truth? There was only one man who’d ever given me butterflies with a kiss. One man whose touch set me on fire and made me believe in all the fantastical things I’d dreamed about since I was a child.

“I came back despite knowing the torture I’d have to go through because I can’t stay away from you. Even when you’re not there, you’re everywhere. In my head, in my lungs, in my fucking soul.

“We always end up where we’re meant to be,” I said softly. His eyes lingered on mine. “Maybe.” He hated Eldorra, yet he’d not only taken the job but moved here permanently. For me.

“Perhaps…” Rhys’s touch skimmed down my neck and over the curve of my shoulder. I shivered, my skin blossoming with a thousand more goose bumps. “I was always meant to find my way to you.”