Two Can Play (Entangled Ignite) Read Online Free Page A

ballerina. The house staff called her Rena ever after and it stuck.
    “You interested in learning to battle?” she asked him.
    “If you’re the coach, sure.” The sex-heavy words zinged like a sniper shot to her core, hitting her hot and hard.
    “You could use the points,” she breathed, not thinking of battle points at all. “We’ll get to that, for sure.” She got a little shiver of anticipation. “At the moment, I’m due upstairs and you should hit your shift.”
    A little tingly from that exchange, Rena jetted up to her Quarters to shower off her battle sweat and gear up for the visit with the Blackstones. She’d barely dressed when Maya knocked at her door. Maya would green-light the elevator to the penthouse for Rena.
    “Are you ready?” Maya pressed a strand of Rena’s hair deeper into her braid. Maya was short, with upturned green eyes that missed nothing, and a small, serious mouth.
    Rena nodded, prickling with nerves, her stomach jumping madly.
    “Breathe for me then.” A therapist in the Dead World, Maya was tuned to mood, attitude, and emotion. In the Life, she ran Group and looked out for Lifers’ well-being. It was so much better than the Dead World, where you were on your own, sink or swim, with no one to throw you a rope before you glugged out for good.
    Rena exhaled, taking in the sweet patchouli of Maya’s scent on the next inhale. She loved that smell. It made her remember turning her life over to joy. Rena’s one lucky moment had been the black night of her twenty-first birthday when Maya had scooped her drunken ass out of the path of a semi and showed her the Life. Rena had wanted what Maya promised so bad it made her ache. It had been forever since she’d wanted anything. “I’m ready,” she said.
    Maya squeezed her shoulders. “Of course you are. Nigel saw your potential from the beginning.” Maya had introduced her to Nigel in Blood Electric and they’d shared something from the Blackstones’ private reserves. Fizzy and hot, it had made Rena and everything around her glow. Nigel had invited her into the Life and Rena’s gray world went full color overnight. She never looked back.
    Now Maya gave her a quick hug, the obsidian earrings Rena had given her tickling Rena’s neck, then smiled. “Good luck, Rena. Trust Nigel.” Maya passed her key card over the elevator security sensor, which flashed a green that matched the swirling shade of her mood ring. Green for go, go, go .
    The door closed and Rena soared upward, her heart rising, too, as if it wanted to fly from her chest. At the top, the elevator opened onto a hall leading to a door painted red with a black border of carved dragons.
    Before she could knock, her cell phone beeped, signaling a low battery. Cassie had dropped it a few times, cracking the screen, and dunked it once, weakening the battery. When Rena had the spare points, she’d replace it. The beep reminded her to silence the phone. It wouldn’t do to have a call interrupt her precious moments with the Blackstones.
    A tiny Asian woman opened to Rena’s knock and bowed. Naomi? No. Naomi’s hair was red, not black. She motioned for Rena to enter. The museum-like space was open and bright with light from overhead skylights. Wind chimes tinkled and she smelled sandalwood. She liked the smell, but it sometimes made her dizzy. Plasma TVs ringed the room, silently flashing the colors and lights of EverLife .
    She turned to ask where to go, but the woman had disappeared. Rena moved slowly past a giant red-and-gold Buddha, water bubbling from its base into a box of fist-sized black stones, on her way to a seating area at the far end of the room. She realized her mouth hung open in awe.
    “It is an honor to have you in our home.”
    Rena spun to see Nigel bowing before her. Where had he come from?
    “It is an honor to be here,” she blurted. At the last second, she jerked into a bow.
    When she righted herself, Nigel’s eyes bore into her, the shiny black of