Playing His Game Part 10

"I'm going out. Maybe I'll stay gone twelve hours, and you can see how you like it."

Mya rolled her eyes at his petulance until she realized he had scooped up the car keys from the table.

"You can't take the SRX."

Bobby turned to frown at her. "Why not?"

"My family will be here soon. We need to pick them up."

"You can do it. Or maybe Roarke will help you." With a twist of his lips, Bobby tossed the keys at her

before he opened the door and walked out. He made sure to slam it behind him.

Mya ducked as the keys flew through the air, aimed at her. They careened into the black lamp on the table and sent it cras.h.i.+ng to the floor. A bubble of hysterical laughter welled up in her, which begged for release. The confrontation hadn't been as bad as she had expected.

Mya forced down the laughter and the tears that tried to follow. She got up from the loveseat to clean up the debris left from the lamp. She fished the keys from the ceramic shards, then got the dust pan and whiskbroom from the kitchen. After she cleaned the mess, Mya went into the bedroom to change into jeans and a warmer s.h.i.+rt.

As she brushed out her hair, she met her eyes in the mirror. They sparkled with unshed tears and repressed anger. Her skin was pale, and her mouth trembled. Her parents would surely notice how upset she was. As usual, they would attribute it to Bobby, and she would have to let them. She couldn't explain the situation with Roarke. They would never understand why she let herself be used for Bobby's benefit. Her parents wouldn't understand that his success was their success.

As she laid the brush down on the counter, an uncomfortable thought popped into her head. She averted her eyes from the glint of knowledge in the mirror image's eyes, but the thought wouldn't go away.

Was she really doing it for Bobby, or had she become a willing partic.i.p.ant in Roarke's game?

She tried to push the thought aside as she left the apartment and headed for the airport. She made good time through the moderate traffic and arrived a little after four-twenty. She stood in line for a while before she finally got back to the gate where their flight would arrive.

Mya sat in a chair and thumbed through a magazine without reading it. Instead, she found her thoughts once again on Roarke. Not Bobby, as they should be. She wanted to think of the perfect apology to smooth things over with her fiance, but all her mind conjured were images of Roarke. His gentle hands as they moved over her body, or the way his muscles moved when he had walked naked from the bedroom to the bathroom. His taut b.u.t.tocks...

Mya suppressed a groan, forcing her attention back to the magazine. The headline of the open page screamed 10 Easy Ways to Seduce Your Lover. She scanned the article almost automatically. s.e.xy lingerie: Check. Flirting: Uh... Touching him without a reason: Good idea. When Mya realized she was mentally listing what she had done as opposed to what she hadn't, she closed the magazine with a snap and tossed it back on the small table beside her chair at the end of the row.

She got up for a juice from the machine and paced around the lounge for a while. When the plane finally landed, she walked over to the window to watch the ground crew direct it in. When the first pa.s.sengers poured in, she dropped the empty juice bottle in a trashcan and turned her attention to the line.

Solidly in the middle of the crush were a tall man, plump woman, and beautiful girl. Mya raised her arm and waved to them wildly. Carly caught sight of her first and waved just as enthusiastically. Mya worked her way through the crowd as her family did the same.

Then she was standing before them, and they were all talking at once. She was swept up into three sets of arms, and did her fair share of hugging. "I missed you," she said over and over. The tears in her mother's eyes brought tears streaming down her cheeks too. It wasn't long before Carly was joining in. Only Frank's eyes didn't tear, but his lips were trembling.

After the initial rush of greetings, everyone caught their breath, and they turned toward the exit and joined the crowd that struggled to get through LAX as quickly as possible. "Where's Bobby?" Patty's tone was polite, but lacked any warmth.

Mya shrugged. "He couldn't make it."

Frank grunted, but didn't say anything. Patty nodded, and Carly looked relieved. Contrary to her usual reaction, Mya found herself too apathetic to answer their unspoken criticisms. "Let's go back to the apartment and drop off the bags. After, we'll go have breakfast." Her stomach rumbled and Mya realized

she hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday. With the upheaval of the last few hours, she shouldn't be able to even think about food.

"I'm starving." Carly rubbed her stomach. "That airline food's a killer."

Mya chuckled. "I remember a time when you scarfed it down."

Her sister shuddered. "Don't remind me."

They stopped at the baggage carousel before they made their way to short-term parking. Mya opened

the rear door of the Cadillac SRX so Frank could load their luggage.

"Nice." Carly caressed the deep purple paint. "Spendy?"

Mya nodded, more than a little sick at the amount of money Bobby had put down on the vehicle. There

had been no choice with his bad credit, and he had been determined to have it. When she had protested at the extra $2,000 for a custom paint job, he had a.s.sured her there was more money where that came from. As always, he had been confident of his prospects. That was before Roarke and his ultimatum. Mya's lip curled. His future was secure, for only the bargain price of her body.

"I hope you put some back."

"We did, Dad." She avoided his eyes when she thought of the small amount left in the checkbook.

"That boy will drain you dry..."

"Dad, don't start."

Frank slammed the back. "I'm just saying you have to be sensible about money when you're with a man

like Bobby."

"Frank." Patty touched his arm while she shot him a look. "Remember what we talked about on the plane?"

"She needs to realize what she's getting into. And when they have kids..."

"Frank!"

He snorted as he walked around to the back pa.s.senger side.

Mya sighed as she walked to the driver's side and unlocked the door. She disengaged the other locks

and slid inside. As she left the lot, she wondered at her lack of anger with her father's words. Maybe she had missed them too much to pay attention to the same old criticisms. Maybe she was finally mature enough to overlook their poor opinion of Bobby. Maybe Dad's right. Mya forced a smile for her sister when Carly handed her the parking slip, while trying to brush aside that thought. So what if Bobby was a little careless with money? It was part of his personality, and she loved him-warts and all.

Her stomach cramped. She frowned at her reflection in the mirror on the visor. She was just hungry. That was all. It had been hours since she had eaten.

Chapter Thirteen.

The Gym Bobby spent the first two days of her family's visit in near silence, when he was home at all. This seemed to suit Frank, and he was more cheerful than usual around her fiance. By Monday, Mya was relieved when he went back to work. To her surprise, Patty and Frank decided to spend the day sightseeing alone and left the two sisters on their own.

Around six in the evening, Carly threw herself down on the couch. "I'm bored."

"We could go to a movie."

"Eh." Carly shrugged. "What do you normally do?"

Mya scrunched her brows together as she tried to remember the last time she had done anything on a

Monday. "Well, I normally work until nine-thirty. When I get home Bobby and I go to the gym."

Carly's blue eyes sparkled, and she leaned forward so quickly her short, auburn, pixie-cut flipped up.

"Cool. Let's go."

"You don't have a members.h.i.+p."

She lifted a shoulder. "I'll pay for a guest pa.s.s. I've been dying to work out."

"There's a small gym downstairs."

"No pool, and the machines suck."

"That's why we pay for a members.h.i.+p." She got up from her perch on the loveseat. "All right. I am stiff."

She stretched reflexively. "I remember when I couldn't drag you away from your computer or video games."

A rueful smile curved Carly's lips. "That was me. No argument there."

"Did you bring you workout clothes?"

She shook her head. "Can I borrow something?"

"I don't know if I have anything that will fit you since you've gotten so skinny." Mya bit back a grin at her sister's blissful smile. She liked to praise Carly's accomplishment whenever the opportunity arose.

They rummaged through the closet, then took a taxi to the gym since Bobby had the SRX. Once inside, Mya watched with amus.e.m.e.nt as her sister flirted shamelessly. She left Carly to her activities to do her workout. When Carly finally joined her, she made Mya exhausted as she watched. It was a relief when they were finally on their way out.

Until they ran into Roarke. Carly had her head turned to watch a guy as he pumped iron, and she ran

right into a solid male body. She turned with a giggle. "I'm so sorry."

"No problem. Mya?" Roarke's eyes scanned her body in the form-fitting Lycra pants and bra-top. Why was she even s.e.xier in the workout clothes than the teddy he had bought her?

She tried to suppress the excited quiver in her stomach as she smiled at Roarke. "Hi."

Carly's man-eater grin was in full force as she batted her eyelashes up at Roarke-not too far, Mya noted with a grimace. Unlike her, Carly was tall. Her head came to his shoulder. The perfect level for

them to kiss. Her mouth twisted at the thought, and she tried to ignore the twinge of jealousy while she watched her sister focus her charms on Roarke.

"You know each other?" Carly had positioned herself just a few inches from Roarke after they collided.

"Roarke owns the studio shooting Bobby's movie."

Roarke held out his hand. "You must be Mya's sister."

Carly grasped his hand. "I'm Carly, the baby of the family."

He cleared his throat as she stroked her fingers across his palm. Roarke's eyes skimmed over her lithe

figure in the shorty-shorts and t-s.h.i.+rt, knotted under her full b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "Could have fooled me." He disentangled his hand while he looked at Mya from the corner of his eyes just in time to catch her pouty frown.