Cuffs - Cara Lockwood Page 0,22
him holding her wrist tight. The warning in his eyes. God, the memory made her want to get on her knees. Submit to him. The urge was strong. Stupidly strong. She gulped her beer to cool the fire licking at her throat.
“Would you like to break?” he asked, grabbing a pool cue from the bin against the wall and offering her the stick.
She shook her head. “You can go ahead.” She wanted to see what he could do.
“You sure?” He grinned. “If I take the cue, you might not a get a shot.”
Mags laughed and put down her beer. She doubted he was that good. How many suits ever spent time in a pool hall? Please. That wasn’t where they made their money. The other women in the bar were watching him intently as he moved around the pool table.
“You can’t be that good. You grew up on the North Shore.”
He just shrugged one shoulder as he handed her the cue. “I was always taught...ladies first.”
The way he said it made it sound like pool wasn’t the thing he was talking about at all. She felt a quiver of anticipation run down her inner thigh. She put down her beer at a side table and choked up on the cue.
“Well, I’ll go, then.” Mags leaned over the table and shut one eye as she lined up the stick and let it rip. The balls clattered across the table, and two stripes went barreling into opposite corner pockets. Mags settled in, aiming for a blue ten. She was keenly aware of Gael’s attention focused on her. She almost thought he might be checking out her ass. She hit the ball, hoping to spin it to the side pocket, but barely missed. Mags felt her cheeks burn ever so slightly. Normally she was better at this. Was she actually nervous? She didn’t want to think that Gael’s knowing gaze was the reason she’d missed.
“That’s rough,” Gael said as she handed him her pool cue. He flashed her that grin again, cocky as ever. His eyes held hers, just for the briefest of seconds. She remembered the kiss then, the sudden warmth of his tongue in her mouth, the way he’d opened a need in her to please him—a dangerous need.
“I’m out of practice,” she said, wondering if she meant playing pool or flirting. Lately Mags had done very little of either. But now it was her turn to stare at his ass if she wanted. Which she did. She watched him walk around the table, calculating the geometry in his head. He decided on a shot, number three into the corner pocket. He leaned over and was all tight control as he easily knocked the ball into the corner. It was an easy shot, one she could’ve made with her eyes closed.
“Nice shot,” she said.
He raised an eyebrow. “Are you patronizing me?”
She laughed. “No. Yes. Maybe.”
He chuckled again, low in his throat. Then he leaned over the felt again, and she could see down the front of his shirt, the hint of the chest muscles there. She had a strong desire to run her hands across the ridge, draw her finger down the front of his belly and see if those ab ridges she’d seen in the tattoo parlor felt as hard as they looked. She suspected they would. He cracked the cue stick against the ball, and it rolled hard, smacking the side ball and the corner ball, straight into the pocket. Mags’s mouth fell open.
“What the hell?” she murmured, gripping the side of the pool table. That was no lucky shot. That wasn’t an amateur’s play. “You’re...” She struggled for the right word. “Good.”
“Surprised?” Gael grabbed a chalk cube and twisted it around the end of his cue, green eyes sparkling. “Did you think I was a buttoned-up stiff who never had any fun?”
She felt a blush creep up her cheek. That was exactly what she’d thought.
He leaned back down and made quick work of the five, slapping it into the opposite side pocket, spinning the cue ball so that it didn’t follow. Gael was systematically cleaning the table, setting himself up for one shot after another. The pool table fell under the power of his will. And so did she.
“You weren’t kidding when you said I wouldn’t have a turn if you went first.” She’d thought he was all bluster. No substance. She’d been wrong. Very wrong.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he added as he knocked the two