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Did he know what he was doing to her? She clenched down inside against a powerful wave of desire.
But he was still talking about pool. He placed his hand over hers on the felt, realigning her shot a few degrees to the left. Her breath caught.
Seriously. She was Going. To.Die.
She hovered there for just a second, soaking in the feeling of his body blanketing her, fluttering her eyes shut to bask in his closeness.
But as good as it felt—and as much as she never wanted to move again, ever in her life—she couldn’t stand there and take a crummy shot just because a hot guy was scrambling her brains.
Carefully, she stood up again. He moved with her. She glanced at him over her shoulder, and his face was inches from hers, his kissable mouthright there.
She stepped away. She got the bridge down from the rack. Her face flushed hot as she set up her original shot again. If she missed, she was going to feel like twice the idiot now, but she knew herself, dammit all. She knew her own mind, and she knew her body and her abilities.
No guy was going to waltz in out of nowhere and try to tell her differently before he’d even seen her play.
She ignored the pressure of his gaze. Then, with a breath and a prayer, she pulled the cue stick back.
The ball careened forward, banking off the far rail before heading straight for the nine. Everything in her tightened as the nine rolled toward the side pocket, slower than she would have liked. It hovered on the edge for an agonizing instant.
And then it tipped right on in.
She wanted to shout and scream—maybe jump and dance. As it was, she restricted herself to a single pump of her fist before locking her gaze with Devin’s.
“Watch out,” she told him, breathless—and not just from the score. “I’ve been practicing, too.”
Chapter Six
Okay, for real, though, where did you learn to play like that?”
Zoe laughed as she braced her elbow against the bar. Devin settled onto the stool beside hers. His knee rested against hers, and she shivered.
They’d been getting closer and closer all evening. She wasn’t complaining, but there was a tension inside her chest. This didn’t seem like it could last. A half dozen games of pool and almost as many drinks between the two of them had them both loose-limbed and happy. After their last match, when someone else had asked them for the table, she’d kind of expected him to call it a night. It was late, after all. But when she’d started making her way over to the bar, figuring she’d check in with Clay before heading out herself, Devin had come on over, too.
Now here they were. Sitting together, fresh drinks in hand.
Zoe shrugged and took a sip of her cosmo. “There was a pool table in the basement of my dorm my first year of college.”
“And a shark there to teach you all?”
“Don’t underestimate bored teenage girls trying to avoid writing term papers.”
He chuckled. “Fair enough.”
She stirred her drink, probably a little too forcefully. “Turns out, hustling pool is one of the most useful things I learned at school.”
“Oh?”
“I mean…” Releasing the tiny straw, she gestured around. She couldn’t quite keep the sour note out of her tone. “See how far that degree has gotten me?”
“I don’t know. Doesn’t seem so bad.”
She shook her head. “Try telling that to everyone else.”
“You mean your mom?”
“Among other people. Han and Lian don’t seem super impressed, either.” Sighing, she looked away, to the bottles of liquor on the shelf, the taps, the specials she’d written on the big black board the day before. “I mean, I had a great time at college—don’t get me wrong. But the whole grand compromise of it all—me going so far away, to a school that cost so much…” Even with aid and a bunch of money from her mom, she was going to be paying off loans forever. “Mom let me follow my dream, but she hammered home that if I didn’t pick something practical, I’d end up penniless in a gutter somewhere.”
“And that’s how you ended up going into accounting?” Devin asked, leaning his elbow on the bar.
