Playing Hard to Get (The Players, #1)

by Monica Murphy

It’s not that I hate my job. I love working here, but sometimes, I hate peopling. Peopling is the worst.

“She’s kind of hot.” “Jesus, you think so?” Jealousy floods my veins. “Don’t even look at her, you hear me?”

At the same exact time, he quietly confesses, “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

But there’s something to be said for kissing a beautiful woman when you have her pinned against the wall on a Tuesday night.

“Kissing you, Jo Jo. I can get kind of fixated sometimes.” He kisses me like he can’t help it. “Pretty sure I’m completely obsessed with you.”

“Hi.” Her smile is confident, her gaze sending me a secret message that says, I know I’m destroying you with this dress and that was my plan all along because I’m an evil queen.

Does she realize how much she’s got me? I’m whipped. It’s true. I’m one hundred percent whipped for this woman.

“You already give me that.” I decide to be one hundred percent truthful. “You are like my own personal book boyfriend.”

“You make it easy for me. I just want to see you happy. That’s my end goal.” He leans in and kisses the tip of my nose. “You are my end goal, Jo Jo.”

“That asshole just knows you so much better than I do and I hate it.” I shake my head when he says that and he shifts back on his heels, his gaze dropping to the ground. “He loved you first.” I rush forward, grabbing hold of Knox’s cold hands, curling my fingers around his. “But you love me best.”

I stare at her, dumbfounded by her beauty, crushed by those tears on her face. I never want to make my girl cry. The meaning of her words, what she just said, slowly sinks in. Fuck, she’s right. He may have had her first… But I do love her best.

“And more. Because that’s how much I love you. You’re the first thing I think of when I wake up, and the last thing I remember before I fall asleep. Something will happen during my day and I’ll think, ‘I need to tell Jo Jo about this.’ Everything in my life begins and ends with you.” I cup her cheeks with both hands, tipping her face up, so I can kiss her. “I love you.”

“When it comes to you, I mean everything I say. You’re the best thing to happen to me. I’m on top of the fucking world this semester, and that’s all thanks to you.”