Page 29 of One Night Gamble
She took the triangle off the wall and handed it to him. He set it up and Talia pushed the balls to him down the green felt-topped table. He caught them and put them in the right positions.
He rolled the balls around in the triangle and then took it off the table, hanging it back up before taking down two cues. He handed one to her and she tipped her head to the side as she expertly lined up her cue stick with the cue ball.
…
Talia had seen enough games of pool over the course of her life to know the basics of what she needed to do, but as she lined up her shot, she knew she was out of her element. And when she pushed the cue forward, barely tapping the white ball, she realized he now knew it as well.
“Damn, woman, I thought you were hustling me for a minute,” he said.
“I wish I was,” she admitted. “But honestly, I have no clue what I’m doing.”
Casey took off his dinner jacket and walked around the table to stand behind her. “Let me show you.”
She turned around and realized he was closer than she’d noticed. She handed him the pool cue and started to step aside but he stopped her with his hand on her waist. “You can’t learn from watching…only from doing.”
It sounded like a line and she wasn’t sure he hadn’t used it on a woman before but there was something in his eyes that made her want to wrap herself around him and hold on forever.
She realized that she probably should be beating a hasty retreat, but instead she arched one eyebrow. “And how exactly are you going to do that?”
“Face the table and hold the cue again,” he said. Then he moved around so that his body was pressed against hers. His arms rubbed along the outside of hers as he positioned her hands on the long, slender cue.
His hands were big, his nails manicured, and she shivered as she remembered the way they’d felt on her body. He’d been gentle, but it was clear Casey kept a tight rein on his strength.
His hips brushed against hers as he covered her back, putting his chin on her shoulder. She turned toward him and he kissed her quickly. “Watch the table, Brown Eyes, not me.”
She turned back to the table, her body on fire from the nearness of his. Her mind was running a million different scenarios and fighting against what she’d agreed to earlier.
Casey was dangerous—to her career…and her heart. She never should have slept with him. Each touch on her body had hit her like a gateway drug to the most potent high that she’d ever experienced. A smarter woman…well, she probably wouldn’t be here right now. Her body urged her to stop thinking and enjoy this moment.
She started shaking as she realized that she’d never allowed herself to enjoy anything. Her experience with her father had shown her to fear pleasure, had made her realize that any type of joy had to be monitored.
“Talia.”
“Hmmm?”
“Draw the cue back,” he said.
He was still talking about pool, showing her how to play a game that she had no interest in. But she had to fake it, had to focus on what she was doing, not on how he made her feel.
She was going to be smart.
Except she wasn’t, she realized, as she shifted back on her heels and her backside brushed against his erection. He wasn’t as immune to their closeness as he’d been pretending and that eased something inside of her.
She drew the pool cue back and then Casey tightened his hand over hers at the back of the cue, put his hand on her waist, and drew her toward his body. “Don’t do anything yet. Relax back into your heels.”
When she “relaxed back,” she pushed her buttocks closer to his erection and she felt the tautness of his chest against her back. He moved his head closer to her face. “Lean down so that you can line up your shot. You want to hit the white ball right in the center, so that it will hit the green ball at the center of the triangle. You want a good split of all of the balls.”
She took a deep breath. His words made absolutely no sense to her. All she could think of was whether he’d closed the door when he’d come to join her in this room, and if he’d have a problem with having sex in someone else’s house…while there was a party going on.
“Ready?”
Yes. She was ready, but not to play pool. But she was on fire and he’d done nothing but surround her with his body. She wanted to think that he was ignoring his hard-on, so maybe she should try as well. But she couldn’t.
She shifted her hips so that she rubbed the cheeks of her butt over his erection as she leaned forward. She looked down the pool table, but was very aware of his groan. His hand clenched on her waist, drawing her back against him for a moment before he relaxed.
She took a deep breath and pushed the pool cue forward. This time, it hit the white ball with force and the other balls scattered around the table. One of the solid-colored balls rolled into a pocket.
“Good job,” he said, his voice husky.
