A Game of Hearts and Heists (Girl Games, #1)

by Ruby Roe

There are two things I love: winning and angry women. If the two happen to fall together, and I win—or seduce—an angry woman, well, I’ll let you work it out.

She wants to stab me as much as she wants to strangle me. It’s just unfortunate I seem to experience the same dilemma. Fury one day, furiously horny the next.

She’s stunning. But not my type. I prefer the more commanding girl—a girl with weapons in her hands and murder in her heart.

“If it weren’t for the fact I know you’re holding some kind of weapon to my thigh, I’d be highly aroused right now.”

Ghosts of monsters and nightmares furrowed in between the lines of his scars. All of them wrinkled and etched into the grooves of his face so he’d wear them close and never forget.

I hesitate and shut my eyes the moment he takes the scissors to my hair. There’s a grinding slice, slice, slice, and then my head is lighter. I grin. Totally the right decision. As he cuts and trims and uses the clippers against my scalp, my smile gets wider and wider.

She laughs. It’s light, fluttery, like my traitorous fucking stomach.

“Right, well. When you two have finished verbally fucking each other, shall we begin?”

“I see. Well acquainted already then.” My words are bitter. I don’t care. Obviously. I have ex’s too. The lesbian world is close knit. There’s very few of us who don’t know each other—or have dated each other.

“Do they still love each other?” Scarlett shrugs. “A love like that never goes away. But I also don’t know if they’ll ever get back together. They have a ton of history and mess.” “Lesbians are good at mess, though.” Scarlett smiles. “Then perhaps there’s hope for them yet.”

It’s the truth. Not the truth I should have admitted, but it is a truth nonetheless.

“Life is a game, Quinn. We’re here until we’re not. We’re winning until we lose. Doesn’t everything feel sweeter when you’ve fought for it?”

I know I’d lay down and die for her. I’d cut open my chest and deliver my dripping heart in open hands.

Falling in love doesn’t happen slowly, it happens in moments of clarity and revelation. In fleeting sparks of action and displays of our true selves. It happened right there.