The steam in the locker room swirled around Gezza and the air was full of bleach and the stinging odor of Riley sweat.
Her muscled figure was holding him to the tiled wall, her dog tags icy on his chest, and her lips were fierce and hungry.
The Playbook was scalding with blood-red runes in his backpack and the sound of the hum was feeling its way into his bones. Its hoarse voice swore in his head: Take her. Pour the lust.
The ribs of Gezza hurt the fists of Mike, the back of Mia hurt with the scratches of the claw, but the force of the Playbook obliterated the pangs of pain, and he felt some sick, electric euphoria.
The illusion of the Playbook worked its magic and Riley was unnaturally shiny in the blue of his eyes. The first power of the book took hold when Gezza wrote her name in the book and it distorted her vision. Instead he was not the lanky, greasy-haired loser with a patchy beard and a worn hoodie to her. He was what she had dreamed of, tall, rough, with eyes that glowed with confidence and a voice of low wild purr that shakened her knees.
Her nails pierced the bruises that Mike had caused, her breath was fiery against his neck as she clasped his shoulders.
"I do not know why... but I need you..." she said, trembling with passion, the illusion fastening her eyes on him.
Gezza was heart-thumping: the warmth of the Playbook throbbing his thigh.
He had witnessed the same with Elena with her sultry purr, and with Mia with her coy teasing, both of them going head over heels as soon as their names appeared on the page. But Riley was different.
Her power, her training, kept her opposition wavering longer, her hand jerking to her dog tags as though she was reaching toward her true personality. Now is what the voice in the Playbook hissed. Bind her.
Gezza bent and his lips touched her ear, and he unleashed the second power. He poured lust into her, magic of the book a boiling blood in his veins, a hot surge of lust that ached his cock and clouded his eyes.
Riley, with a shudder of her entire body, countershaded him, and her eyes became dark, and the passion seized her, obliterating the last resistance.
"Fuck", she grumbled, and pulled his hoodie back, the tear at the shoulder tearing open, and he was covered with blood and sweat.
She belonged to him now, with all her strength, her fire, her all twisted to his purpose. The fantasy led her to believe that he was flawless; the passion led her to desire him like breathing.
But the emptiness was nearing, its sticky ink moving in the steam, smoky characters moving at the sides of the room. The cold of the Playbook ran along his spine and his balls were contracting in the fear. Its cost increases, it snarled, the voice a snarling guttural growl. His hands grabbed a hold of Riley, and tugged her. She was not kind, her kisses stinging, her power overpowering and she threw him down onto the bench.
The influence of the Playbook became stronger, and the runes within it clanked more loudly, and the noises in the gym next door became subdued.
His bruised ribs were ripped down by Riley, her nails, and pain and pleasure were mixed.
"You are everything I wanted", she dazed, the illusion blurring her speech, her purple eyes fixed on his with wild lust.
But something of her true nature penetrated--her eyebrows knitted, her hand holding her dog tags. "This... it is not me", she said, with voice breaking, feeling her body twitching and struggling with the lust rushing through her.
Gezza shuddered, and the coldness of the nothingness settled even more, the characters twirling nearer.
His stomach turned, the sneer of Mike was in his mind--those fists, that laugh, another beating. He required the strength of Riley to save him, required her as his enforcer.
"You belong to me", he growled, The resistance of Riley fell and, her eyes gleamed all the way through, and her frame gave in, and she was upon him, her motions fierce and mechanical and inspired by the magic of the book.
The locker rotated, the ink on the void whirling around them, its runes blazing in the steam. The high soured Gezza, The heat of the Playbook burned his soul And in its voice it cried: Another claimed.
His back bled, his ribs were screaming and the claw marks left by Mia throbbing with each thrust. The clink of Riley's dog tags, the raggedness of her breath, her strength excited and terrified. When she fell and lay against him, sweating and breathless, the chill of the emptiness was like a knife and his eyes filled with runes.
There was a car-honk outside, and Gezza was brought back to himself. The noise in the gym poured in--clanking of the weights, shouts. Riley rose with her eyes gleaming, but there was a tint of the side of guilt on her face and she touched her dog labels.
"What... did you do to me?" she did, with a raw voice, the spell of the Playbook shaking.
The heart of Gezza beat wildly and fear clutched him. His powers had taken her; her strength her will had rendered her dangerous, the powers of the book.
He would lose everything if she escaped.
"Get dressed", he moaned, tugging on his hoodie, with the weight of the Playbook at the end of his backpack. Riley did so, and her gestures were slow, with her eyes flitting with lust and bewilderment. That emptiness had gone, but its cold remained, an omen of the cost Gezza could not afford to pay. Mike was out there still waiting with his fists, and Gezza needed Riley at this time, more than ever.
They moved out of the locker room, and her hand brushed his, and her hand was possessive but weak. Urgently its runes fluttered in the Playbook: More. The businesswoman waits.
And his heart sunk, and Gezza felt his sweat falling in his eyes. The gray eyes of Victoria Blake flashed over his mind, her dominating figure another challenge.