His Princess - Stacy Gail Page 0,14
statement to say that shooting pool is a survival skill in South Deering.”
“I can just picture you, running the table with unsuspecting marks. Don’t you just love the sound of a good, solid break? So satisfying.”
That surprised him. “You play pool?”
“Oh goodness, it’s been a while.” She scrunched her perfect little doll’s nose while her sky-blue eyes smiled up at him. “My father had a billiards table in the drawing room. And before you say it, yes, we actually had a drawing room. I can’t tell you how absurdly huge the old Fielding house was where I grew up. I’m so glad it’s been repurposed and is now an upscale convalescent home. They’re putting it to much better use than we ever did, that’s for sure.”
“So you don’t miss it?” he asked curiously, pulling a couple cue sticks from the rack on the wall and handing one to her. “All that grandeur?”
“God, no. Trying to hold on to all that stuff turned my father into a bitter old man before his time, and probably even shortened his life. Same with my mother, who died a couple years later. It was a hard lesson to learn that material possessions aren’t all that important in the grand scheme of things, but I’m glad I learned it. People are what matter to me. Money, not so much.”
“Ah, but you’ve never been without it.” He racked up the billiard balls and walked around to the other end of the table to fish out the cue ball. “I can tell.”
“Oh, really?” Those perfectly arched brows of hers went up, and she couldn’t have looked more like a queen questioning a peasant if she’d tried. “How can you tell, exactly?”
“Because you just said money doesn’t matter. If you’d ever wondered with genuine fear in your heart where your next meal was coming from, or worried the lights were going to go out because the bill hadn’t been paid, you’d know one thing—money matters one helluva lot. You wanna break, or should I?”
“I’ll have a go.” A vaguely conciliatory expression softened her elegantly sculpted face as she bent over the table and lined up her shot like she knew what she was about. “That’s a fair point you just made. My idea of being broke is probably a little…off. For instance, when my father declared bankruptcy a few months before he died, I had to trade my BMW Roadster in for a Nissan Altima. I thought that meant we were flat broke, but of course now that I pay my own bills, I realize that wasn’t the case. And I do pay my own bills,” she added firmly, then took a moment to shoot. The cue ball made solid contact, and a ball rolled into the corner pocket. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I don’t touch my trust fund. Someday that’ll go to my children. Was that a solid ball that went in?”
“Yep. You’ve got a nice stroke.” She had a nice everything, and damn, when she leaned over the table, her off-the-shoulder sweater gapped so he could see those lush breasts of hers cradled in purple lace. Desire thrummed through his veins, until his skin felt too tight for his body. “You’re not thinking of hustling me, are you, my lady?”
“Me?” Keeping her gaze on the layout of the balls, she slowly circled the table. “Don’t be silly, Gus. Whoever heard of a girl who could play pool?”
“Holy shit,” he chuckled as he watched her zero in on a shot he’d already spied. A half second later, she sank another solid. “You’re totally fuckin’ hustling me.”
“It’s impossible to hustle you when we’re not betting on anything.”
“Then let’s bet on something.”
“Sounds fun.” Supremely confident and looking like she loved the whole world, Joelle beamed at him from across the table. “Name it. Seven in the side pocket, by the way.”
Now she was calling her shots. Holy hell. “If I win, you spend the night with me.”
She seemed to pause a half-second before she reached for some chalk. As she chalked up her cue stick, she gave him a long, considering look. “Deal. And if I win…”
“I’m waiting.”
“You spend the night with me—with a bonus of naked hot-tubbing.” She gave him another winning smile. “See? Everybody wins in the end. Isn’t life wonderful? Two in the corner.”
It took him a second to get his mind off how hard his dick was and focus on what the hell was going on around him. But that was tough to