Fated Hearts (Southern Bride 8)

Roger walked toward me. “You little lying brat.”

I glanced over my shoulder to him. “I didn’t lie.” Then I focused back on the table and said, “Three ball, back right.”

Another ball in.

“You said you didn’t know how to play!”

Leaning against the table, I smiled. “No, you asked if I wanted you to show me how to shoot, and I said you could if you wanted to. You can’t blame a girl for letting a handsome man teach her how to shoot a pool cue, now can you?”

His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. “You’d make an excellent lawyer. Do you know that?”

I tossed my head back as I let out a deep laugh.

Roger walked up to me, and I found myself holding my breath. “I want to up the bet,” he said.

I raised one brow. “Really?”

“If I win, I get to fuck you right here, with you bent over this table.”

My legs went weak, and I had to hold myself up against the side of the table. “And if I win?”

His eyes turned dark. “I’ll do anything you want.”

I pulled my lower lip between my teeth and thought about what I wanted. “What if I want the same thing as you?”

A slow smile spread over his face. “Do you?”

The pulse between my legs grew, and I had the urge to squeeze my legs together to ease it. I tried to speak, but my answer came out as a whimper. “Yes.”

He leaned in closer, and I closed my eyes and opened my lips slightly, inviting him to kiss me.

And then the heat was gone—and I opened my eyes.

“Take your shot,” Roger said matter-of-factly.

“Wh-what?” I asked, shaking the daze away.

He pointed to the table. “Call your next ball.”

I pushed off the table and glared at him. “I see what you did there. You thought you could render me sex-stupid.”

He looked befuddled for a moment before he laughed. “Sex-stupid?”

“Yes. Press your body to mine, talk to me about how you want to fuck me bent over the pool table, almost kiss me… You wanted me to lose my touch.”

Roger swallowed hard and reached down to adjust himself. “God, Anna. Don’t talk like that, or I’ll take you right now.”

Spinning around, I studied the table. “One ball, side right pocket.”

Hit. Sank.

I moved to the other side of the table and made the mistake of glancing up at Roger. My breath stalled in my chest.

He studied our game, his brows pulled in slightly, a soft smile playing at the corners of his mouth. He’d put on a baseball cap and…turned it backward. When in the hell had he put that on? And, oh dear heavens above, why was it so freaking attractive?

I had to pull my eyes away from him and look at the table. Where was my shot? There!

“Six ball, off the side, into the back left pocket.”

“There’s no way you’ll make that shot.”

I positioned my hand and looked up at him. Our eyes met. “Care to wager on it?”

He smirked. “Why not? But let’s make it interesting.”

My heartbeat picked up. “Go on.”

“If you miss, you have to let me tie you up and…explore.”

“Tie me up?” I squeaked out. “As in…tie me up with something?”

All he did was nod.

I lifted a brow. “Is there something you want to tell me, Roger? Are you into kinky stuff? Because now would probably be the time to alert me.”

He chuckled. “I’ve never tied a woman up before in my life. Never had the desire to.”

“But with me, you do?”

Roger drew in a long breath before he exhaled, letting his eyes move over my entire body. “With you, I so very much want to.”

I swept my tongue over my suddenly dry lips. The idea of Roger restraining me turned me on so much, I could hardly think. That wanton woman from Chicago was back. “Okay, I accept.”

“And if you sink it?”

A wicked thought came to my mind. “I get to tie you up.”

He laughed. “I do love the way you think, Ms. Michaels.”

I turned away from him and took in a few deep breaths before I focused on my shot again. As I lined it up, I had a strange thought.

What do I want more? To tie up Roger, or to have him tie me up?

“You’re trying to decide which you’d prefer, aren’t you?” he asked with a smirk on his face.

“As a matter of fact, I am. I can’t decide.”

He walked over to the pool table and studied it. “I tell you what, you sink it, we’ll do both.”

My eyes lifted to his, and I smiled.

He shook his head and chuckled. “That confident, huh?”

With a deep breath in, I slowly exhaled, lined up the shot, and hit the cue ball. I barely missed the pocket.

“Oh, damn. Sucks for you,” Roger said, then he quickly got to work sinking five of his balls in a row until he missed the eleven in the back left pocket.