Page 48 of Moon Fated

Rowan shot her a look. “Whose side are you on?”

Mia pointed at me, and I laughed, setting my earring on the closest table. “Keep that safe for me.”

“Both.” Rowan tapped his cue on the floor.

I frowned. “What do you?—”

“If earrings count, it has to be both.”

I reached up and took off my second earring. "Fine.”

Rowan nodded, satisfied, then took his next shot. It was ambitious, and he missed.

I swallowed hard and picked up my cue, determined to wipe that sexy smirk off his face. Game on. I stepped up to the pool table, my focus narrowing to the colored balls scattered across the green felt. The cue stick felt solid and smooth beneath my fingers.

I leaned down, took aim, called my shot, and struck the cue ball. It connected with a sharp crack, sending the three-ball rolling toward the corner pocket. For a breathless moment, I thought it wouldn’t drop, but at the last second, it toppled over the edge.

Whoops and cheers erupted from the pack members clustered around the pool table as I bent to line up my next shot. Their raucous encouragement only stoked the flames. I wanted to beat him.

"Take it off, Rowan!" Jace hollered, his grin wolfish.

Heat flooded my cheeks. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to see him. All of him. Which caught me off guard. After Nathan, the idea of being intimate with anyone shut me down like pressing a power button on a computer. But after Rowan had spent time discovering nearly every inch of me in the cabin, my screen was suddenly back on.

I felt safe with him.

That in and of itself was a miracle. He’d had every opportunity to force me to submit to him, and he’d never taken advantage. He had a damn mating bond in his pocket—a justifiable reason to push me—and still, he’d allowed me to be the one in control.

Ironically, that only made me want to move over and let him sit in the driver’s seat.

As Rowan reached over his back and pulled his shirt over his head in one smooth motion, my breath caught in my throat. Sweet moon above. I'd imagined Rowan shirtless countless times over the past few days, but the reality put every fantasy to shame. Golden skin stretched taut over chiseled muscle, his abs so defined they deserved their own zip code. And those tattooed sleeves hugging his bulging biceps...I wanted to trace every swirl and whorl with my tongue.

And the way he undressed? That was stupid hot. I suddenly didn’t want to be in this packed pub.

I wanted him to do that again.

Just for me.

Rowan looked up, and by his devilish grin, he knew exactly what effect he was having on me. My wolf was panting, and he could feel it.

I kept my eyes fixed firmly on the cue ball, trying to ignore the heat between my thighs. Hard to do when I had to walk up to the table.

Rowan chuckled, low and dark, as he braced his hands on the polished wood. “Two can play at this game.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I forced my eyes to stay put and then sucked in a breath as a wave of heat pulsed through me, flooding from my head to my toes. Holy shit. My eyes snapped up. “What the hell?” I hissed.

Rowan smiled innocently. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I swallowed hard, trying to clear my blurring vision. Never in my life had I been this turned on before. I could feel him—sense his longing through our solidifying bond—and I was not equipped to handle it. Images of him throwing me onto the pool table and claiming me right there in front of everyone flashed in my head, and I couldn’t make them leave. Didn’t want to make them leave. I was going to combust. That or throw my cue down on the floor and jump him like a wolf in heat.

I jolted as something ice cold hit my neck. My eyes closed involuntarily as Rowan’s hand ran an ice cube up and down the ridges of my spine, slipping his fingers beneath the fabric of my tank top. “It’s a bit hot in here, don’t you think?”

“Mmm.” I could barely make my voice work. My breath came in quick bursts as the melting ice dripped down my back.

Rowan pulled it from my skin, then waited until I looked up to place the half-melted ice cube on his tongue. He stood there in front of me and sucked on it. “It’s still your shot.”

Dead. I was dead.

“Don’t you dare let him win, Evelyn!” a young wolf standing next to Mia called out.

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