Page 133 of Playing Dirty

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I glanced at her. “It’s a room assignment.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Sure it is.”

I didn’t answer.

Because the elevator moved.

Slow.

Too slow.

And now there was no one else to fill the space.

Just us.

Contained.

Unavoidable.

Rowan

I hated elevators.

Not because of the space.

Because of what people did in them when they thought no one else mattered.

Mason leaned slightly against the wall.

Arms crossed.

Neutral expression.

Controlled.

Like nothing about this affected him.

But I’d started noticing the small things.

The jaw tightening.

The stillness that wasn’t natural stillness.

The way he didn’t shift away.

Even when there was space to.

That mattered more than I wanted it to.

“You knew?” I asked.

“No.”

That was immediate.

Too immediate.

I nodded slowly. “Right.”

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