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“Looks like you’re up first,” she said, offering him the coin.The shiny metal glinted under the pool table lights.He took it, and her skin was warm and soft as his fingertips brushed her palm.Trying not to dwell on that, he shoved the quarter back into his front pocket.“Let’s play.”
It was tough to concentrate with her right there opposite him.The shirt she wore was covered in tiny beads that caught the light just so, casting an almost ethereal glow over her pale gold skin.The soft material hugged her in all the right places, reminding him of how she’d felt, cosied up against his chest when he’d carried her from the truck.Had that only been three days ago?He felt all turned about by her.A leaf in a storm, helpless to do anything but dance to the rhythm of the wind.
“Ready to get schooled?”he asked, trying to get his head back in the game.
“Big talk,” she teased.
“Foryou,since you haven’t played in years.”
He bent over, positioning the cue and eyeing up the balls.The overhead pool lights glinted off their hard, shiny surfaces as he weighed his options, then set the cue ball down, and with a measured strike, broke the triangle of balls.His aim was a little off - one of the striped balls bounced off the corner, didn’t go into the hole.“Rats.”
Maddie just smiled serenely.“You were saying?”
“You’re putting me off,” he grumbled, wincing internally when he heard himself.“You’re doing it deliberately.”
“Uh huh.I’m just standing here, deliberately.”She walked around the table and he exercised extreme restraint in not looking at the line of her ass in the blue miniskirt.With her free hand, she tapped her index finger on her cupid’s bow and, like a moth to a flame, his gaze zeroed in there.How would she taste?Would her lips be plush and soft?“Okay, I think I see a shot.”
Positioning herself, she bent over, slid the cue between the bridge she made with her fingers to get the feel of it.Rick made himself think unsexy thoughts.Coffee-machine descaling.Eddie’s Star Wars t-shirts.Any-fucking-thing except how Maddie’s delicate hands would look on pole-shaped parts of his own anatomy.
She made the shot and sunk a plain ball.“Big talk, huh?”
Rick rolled his eyes.“Beginner’s luck.”
Her second shot wasn’t so good.It bounced off the side of a pocket, but she shrugged, nonplussed.“That’s okay.I’ve lined it up for later.”
From over Maddie’s shoulder, Rick checked on Jenny.She was still talking to that guy.Just talking.Hands not touching.Good.He returned his attention to the beautiful Brit leaning on her pool cue, her free hand twirling over the chalked end.Fuck.The way her fingers danced made him think of other things she could touch just like that.
Rick shifted position, once again doggedly setting his mind to mundane everyday items.His mom’s boiled cabbage.He hated cabbage.Good, that was good.
“We’ll see about that,” he tossed back.
He rounded the table, scanning the position of the striped balls, picked one, lined up the shot and sunk it.He couldn’t help checking Maddie’s reaction.She stood with her index finger pressed to her bottom lip, thoughtful.
As she didn’t say anything, he took another shot, but this one fell a little short, bumping the pocket but not going in.
Since he could feel her gaze on him, he pouted.
She laughed.
He could listen to that sound all day.
“My turn.”She took her time looking over the balls.The shot Rick had just taken had knocked the ball she’d almost sunk last time off course, but there was another ripe for the picking.He spied it, and by the grin that flashed over her face, so had she.
Maddie bent over, showing off anexcellentass that certainly did not help his slippery grip on chivalry.Her ponytail slipped over her shoulder as she did so.The raven locks glinted under the pool table lights.She positioned the cue between her index and middle fingers, shot, and stabbed the tip into the grassy felt.
“Shit.Do I have to forfeit a turn now?”
“I’m feeling generous.”He leant on the cue, smirking, unable to resist adding, “Want some help positioning?”
Her gaze flitted to him and then back to the cue ball.“Only if you’re sure you won’t mess it up.”
He scoffed, chuckling, and abandoned his cue against the wall opposite.“I’ve been goin’ too easy on you, champ.Okay, here we go.”He stood behind her, caging her in, felt the brush of her ass against the front of his jeans, and made himself take a calming breath.“Bend over as if you’re gonna take the shot.”
She did so, and he went with her, positioning her arms and hands for the best possible shot.“This okay?Am I too close?”
“No, you’re fine.”But her breath hitched.Rick wondered if her pulse was pounding like his.His heart bumped hard in his chest at the proximity.He was dizzy from her perfume.It was cherries and something floral, something Rick would think about for some time to come.
“Okay, now feel the cue between your fingers.Is it steady?Don’t move too fast.Breathe.There you go.”
