Stroke It - Brooke Page Page 0,35

either.”

I shrugged. “Fine. I’ll just pick out my own tattoo.”

“You’re going to get a tattoo tonight? Don’t those take a while to heal?”

I rolled up my sleeve, revealing an armful of ink. “They don’t take that long. Besides, it depends on where you get it.”

She shook her head. “No deal.”

I sighed dramatically. “Typical princess.”

She narrowed her eyes in disapproval. “I’m not a princess.”

“Then make the deal.” I flirted, holding my stick up to the cue ball and striking it. It wasn’t a clean shot by any means, only moving half of the balls from their pyramid.

She chewed on her bottom lip, then placed herself behind the cue, aiming it at the cluster of balls, spreading them out in a flash and sinking two of the same color in the process.

“Look, you’ve already got me by two. Come on…” I coaxed.

“I’d take it, otherwise he won’t shut up the rest of the night,” Chase sighed. “There ain’t no way you’re gonna lose to him, not with how you hold that pool stick, sweetheart.”

She moved the stick between her hands, then finally nodded. “Alright. I’m in!”

Smoothly pacing to the other side of the pool table, she grinned at me, but it wasn’t friendly, it was sultry, and her graceful movements around the table had my head spinning with what I could do to her sprawled on top of the table.

My fantasies were quickly squashed, turning into disbelief of how good she really was at this game. I had stood in the same spot, watching her slowly kick my ass, one ball at a time, until she only had the eight ball left.

I casually walked in her direction, biting the insides of my cheeks to keep from smiling.

She was giddy, slowly bending down to line up her final shot. “Looks like I just made money and get to pick out your tattoo,” she said proudly.

I eyed Gunner, and he shook his head. Moving my eyes to Chase, I gave him a nod, and he held up his hands and mouthed no way.

Then there was Rocket, the young and mischievous one. He’d come out of the bathroom with a girl, shit eating grin on his face, the girl’s chest puffed in triumph.

“Hey Rocket,” I called, watching him approach. “Raina here is one shot away from winning. We bet tattoos.”

“Oh yeah?” he raised a brow. “Who’s getting one?”

Raina pointed her stick in my direction. “I just have to knock this one into the left corner pocket.” Squaring her shoulders, she slithered lower, eyeing the imaginary line she had to follow to make the shot. Once she found it, she gazed up at me, her sultry stare goading me.

Rocket caught on, a slow smile forming on his lips as he watched our interaction.

I crossed my arms and let my shoulders relax. She was fun to flirt with, and the feisty Raina I had met earlier was going to reappear in three, two, one--

“What in the!? Hey!”

Her stick connected with the cue ball, but was misguided by an unfortunate bump in the back of her stick. The cue ball went sailing toward the eight ball, but on the opposite side, and by sheer dumb luck, it landing in the opposite pocket she had called.

Hoots of laughter and surprise emerged from the fellas, and Raina’s confidence shrunk, her head whipping back toward Rocket. “You hit my stick!”

Rocket threw his hands up. “Why would I do that?”

She glared at him, then spun in my direction, holding her finger out. “You told him to do that!”

I held my hands up. “When on earth would I have told him to do that?”

She looked between the two of us, both of our faces doing a terrible job of hiding how hilarious we thought the situation was.

“That was cheating, you didn’t just win!”

“I’m no expert at pool, but I believe if you call one pocket, then it goes into another, that means you lose,” Rocket shrugged. “Looks like that fresh skin of yours is going to get some ink.”

She crossed her arms. “No way. I’m not doing it.”

“You can’t back out on a bet,” I tisked, pulling out my wallet. “You did score cash off of me, so it’ll be like I paid for it.”

“We’re playing again,” she demanded, shoving my hand full of twenties into my chest. “This time no one is going to ‘accidentally’ hit my stick so I miss!”

“No.” I said firmly, placing my stick in its spot on the wall. “We’re going across the street to the tattoo parlor.”

She