Page 31 of Power Play

“I’m not hungry so I’ll stay and keep Rex company,” Sawyer says.

“Alright. We will be back in a bit,” Cassie responds.

“Have fun.”

As soon as they leave, Sawyer immediately turns to me with a shit eating grin on her face that can only mean trouble. “Want to play a game?” she asks, grinning even wider as she stands up.

“Like what? Darts or something?”

“Well, I was thinking pool, with a twist.” She winks.

“Explain,” I grumble, not liking the sound of this.

“Whoever makes a ball gets to ask the other person a question, and we have to answer. It’s a rule. If you make more than one ball, you can ask more questions,” Sawyer explains, a mischievous glint in her eye.

Running my hands through my scruff, I look at her curiously, weighing the options. This chick is pretty fucking cool. Free information is always nice, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to know more about her. But I hate sharing information about myself, so am I really willing to play a game that forces me to? She might ask questions I’m not ready to answer.

“Why the fuck not? Let’s play,” I agree.

“Awesome! Will you go grab us a couple shots? I’ll go set up the table.”

“What are the shots for?” I question.

She gives me a look that’s equal parts mischievous and seductive before smirking, as if I’m missing something obvious. “To get drunk, silly,” She responds before heading to set up the table with a cute little swing to her hips.

At this rate, I’ll be wrapped around her finger before I’ve even been inside her.

9

SAWYER

I’ve been looking forward to tonight all week, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t mostly because of Rex. Last week was surprisingly fun, and it was the first time in a while I’ve enjoyed spending time with a man outside of the bedroom. I don’t date, hell the last person was Brandon, but no one since then.

It’s just the population of men in general.

Any man I’ve ever let into my life has let me down. My father left, my brother is a loving yet extremely controlling prick, and then there’s Brandon, the guy I dated for a hot minute who turned out to be a douche.

Men in real life don’t compare to the men in the romance novels I read. In real life, we run from red flags. But when I’m reading a book, I want to drown in the sea of red flags.

To sum it up, I don’t trust men, so the fact that I’m seeking more time with Rex is a little fucking confusing for me.

After I’ve set up our game, I look over at the bar where Rex is waiting for our shots, completely ignoring the two women next to him pulling out all the stops to get his attention. If I weren’t seeing it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it. They’re both throwing themselves at him, but he can’t be bothered to spare them a glance. Despite their attempts at seduction, his eyes remain fixed on me the entire time.

Regardless, even with his lack of attention, the girls don’t give up. Rex stands at the bar, waiting for our shots, while the girls continue trying to talk him up. I don’t blame them; Rex is extremely fucking attractive with his couple days’ worth of scruff and backwards hat. He’s exactly what wet dreams are made of. It doesn’t hurt that his muscles are on full display in his light gray shirt and jeans that fit perfectly. Fuck. All I can imagine is what that scruff would feel like between my legs.

If I were the insecure, jealous type, this scene would piss me off. Watching these two gorgeous women shamelessly throw themselves at Rex, part of me wonders what’s stopping him. They obviously want him, but instead of taking the very low-hanging fruit, he mouths to them, “I’m with her” and directs their gaze to me. With perfect timing, our drinks arrive, and Rex grabs them before walking back to me.

Immediately, Rex starts to lay out our shots before finally looking up at me. “Game all set?”

“Yup. It’s all ready,” I tell him, doing my best to not let what I just watched go directly to my head. “What was that all about?”

“What was what about?” Rex responds, his face void of any emotion. Is he really that clueless?

“At the bar, with those two girls that are currently shooting daggers my way.”

Looking up, he glances in their direction where sure enough both girls are full on glaring at me, but they quickly look away when they notice him.

“That…was nothing,” he says, before gesturing to the shots. “Uh, I wasn’t exactly sure what your shot preference was, so I got a couple different things. We have two Jameson, two Fireball, two Don Julio, and two Patron shots.”

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