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“I got winner,” I said, returning her seductive smile.
“You’re on,” she said, returning her eye to the cue ball, her breasts shifting under her thin dress.
As she took her shot, I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Talia’s place at the bar was now occupied by a new ass, and a strange mix of relief and sadness rippled through me.
I felt sorry for her. She’d clearly tangled with the wrong man, gotten in over her head, and had seen me as a ticket out of the madness. But I wasn’t that kind of guy. I’d thought I’d made that pretty clear, but it didn’t take the sting away from pitying her situation.
I shook it off and loosened my shoulders before selecting a stick from the display on the wall. I chalked the tip and congratulated the blonde, as the eight ball sunk into her declared pocket. The geeky guy took the hint that he’d been cut from the conversation, and moved on, mumbling something to the blonde in passing.
From the look on her face, she hadn’t even heard him.
Her bright blue eyes were locked on mine, and I knew by the end of our game, she’d be in my car, headed back to my place, and I’d be stripping her of much more than just the twenty-dollar bill she’d laid on the table.
They didn’t call me Player for nothing…
11
“Hey handsome, thanks for the good time.”
I grinned at the message scrawled across my bathroom mirror in pink lipstick. “I like your style,” I mused, rubbing a hand down my stubble-coated jaw. I’d woken up minutes before, surprised to find an empty place in the tangled sheets beside me.
Last night was spent with a very…enthusiastic…blonde named Kimberly. I’d picked her up at a bar over a game of pool and had her screaming my name before my buzz had fully evaporated. Afterward, I’d crashed out across the mattress before I could figure out the right exit strategy to get her in a cab back to her car. Wherever the hell it had been parked.
Apparently, she didn’t need any prodding.
With a grin still on my face, I got into the shower and relived the highlight reel from the hot night. Those tits, damn. A man could get lost…
I stepped out, toweled off, and paused at the sink long enough to use the steam from the shower to scrub away the lipstick message with the corner of the towel in my hand. I stalked—bare ass naked—out into the bedroom, not caring that the blinds were up on the large picture windows and went to my dresser. I dug through my drawers and threw on the same damn thing I wore every day. Jeans, tee, and my black leather jacket. It was comfortable, familiar, and worked to amplify my badass persona. I slid my work boots on and headed out the door.
A few minutes later, I was next door at the warehouse that occupied most of my property. The Rosen Air Museum. My inheritance. My business. My life. I strolled through the warehouse as everyone rushed around to open for another busy Saturday, nodding as my employees called out their morning hellos as I passed by.
“There you are!” Lana, my assistant, raced up to my side.
I glanced down at her clunky shoes, wondering if they were doctor ordered, or she just had a thing for big ass, grandma shoes. I thought about asking but then thought again.
Lana had a not-so-secret crush on me, and while I wasn’t even in the same realm of feelings, she was a good worker, and I wouldn’t want to lose her over a crass joke about her fashion sense.
Or lack of.
“Damn girl, A crisis already? I haven’t even had my coffee.” I rolled my eyes.
“No, no. Nothing like that,” Lana assured me, batting her eyelashes up at me as she took two steps for every one of mine to keep pace with my long strides. “The F-4 is here!”
“Shit! Already?” How had I forgotten? Oh yeah, I remembered. Blonde. Tits. Ass made for spankin’…
Lana nodded furiously. “I called you earlier.”
My hand automatically went to pat the back pocket of my jeans. Shit. I’d left it over at the house. Or at the bar. Who knew? After the night I’d had, I was lucky I wasn’t reeling from a hangover. I’d thrown back a few more beers than I normally would have after my unsettling meeting with Talia.
“Do you think we could start over? I’d like to get to know you.”
Talia’s words came back to me and an uneasy feeling turned in the pit of my stomach. In hindsight, I’d been somewhat of an ass, and although I was still angry with her for her role in the O’Keefe scheme, I knew she wasn’t really the one I should be taking issue with. After all, without her warning, I would’ve walked into that meeting blindly. Even though I knew I wouldn’t have taken the deal, it was a big help to have the upper hand from the get-go.
