The Devil's Game Read Online Free PDF Page B

Now she just wanted to sleep, but when she closed her eyes the room started to spin. She tried to ignore it but just ended up vomiting right there in the shower. It was official—the dress was ruined.
    There was a tapping on the door, but Karina was sure she was imagining it.
    “Karina?”
    “Go away,” she called out. Or at least she thought she did. Her voice sounded so far away.
    “You need to get of here before you drown.”
    “I’m fine,” she mumbled. “I just need a few minutes.” She thought she might be crying, but it was hard to tell in the shower.
    The water stopped falling on her and the dress was pulled—ripped, maybe—off of her. Here it comes, she thought. Time to pay up. But then something warm and plush was wrapped around her and she felt herself being lifted off the floor and soon after, lowered onto a cloud. A warm, fluffy cloud. What felt like a gentle hand brushed her face, pushing the wet hair from her cheek as her mind went utterly and blissfully black.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Expectations
     
     
    Karina wanted nothing more than to continue sleeping when she returned to consciousness the next morning, but her aching head wouldn’t allow it any longer. She opened her eyes, trying to focus on the popcorn ceiling above her bed, except that it wasn’t popcorn. It was smooth, and pure white rather than graying. She sat up, her brain screaming, and looked around. Damien’s house. It all came back to her. Including the disaster that was last night. In a panic, she looked down to find that while the dress was gone, her underwear were still intact and she was wrapped in a robe. Nothing had happened last night, thanks to her. Karina wondered how mad Damien would be. And then she noticed the water glass and a bottle of ibuprofen on the table next to her. She opened the bottle and let two pills drop into her palm. She studied them, hesitant. But they didn’t look suspicious, and she desperately wanted the pounding in her head to go away, so she swallowed them, washing them down with half the water.
    She continued to lie in bed, waiting for relief, when she heard a splash outside the balcony doors. Cautiously, she climbed out and tied the robe around her. She opened a door and stepped out onto the balcony to see Damien swimming the length of the pool. When he got to one end, he tucked under and disappeared for a split second before reappearing, swimming just as strong in the opposite direction. Karina couldn’t help but watch the impressive machine. A phone started ringing, bringing her out of her reverie, and she realized it was coming from the poolside. Damien heard it as well and swam toward it.
    “Hello,” she heard him say with his back to her. He was standing in the shallower end, and she could see the muscles in his back ripple with every movement.
    “That’s not what I asked,” he said. “You need to figure this out. If I do your job for you, then I have no need for you.” He paused, running a hand through his dark, wet hair. “I see. Then how about if I go take a look right now, and if I manage to find a solution before you…. Good man. Call me when it’s done.”
    Damien hung up the phone and then pulled himself out of the pool to sit on the ledge. He was now facing her direction. Karina took a step back, but it only seemed to attract his attention and he looked up at her, his expression unreadable. This time, she was sure she had done something wrong, and she went back into her room. She climbed back into bed and pulled her knees up to her chin, wrapping her arms around her legs, and waited. Waited for Damien to come and punish her, or have his way with her, or something. She looked at the clock and realized it had been over twenty-four hours and the man had yet to even kiss her.
    But Damien never came. She thought she heard him walk by a couple times, sometimes pausing briefly at her door, but he never knocked, and she couldn’t even be sure it was him. And now