Page 62 of Double Bucked

Every word he says feels like fleas nipping at my skin.

Drive us around. Like I’m some goddamn taxi service.

“Yeah, well. Claire and I go way back. It’s the least I can do.”

“Oh, I know,” he says plainly. “I know all about it.”

I can’t stuff my anger down anymore. I tell him, “You know what people hate more than an outsider? An outsider who pretends he knows it all.”

His blue eyes meet mine. He’s exceptionally, infuriatingly calm when he says, “But I do know it all. I know everything about you, Riley Ransom.”

“Yeah? What do you think you know?”

He tilts in. I can feel my heartbeat pounding in my throat when he drops his voice, low enough just so only I can hear him. “I know you chase married women because you don’t feel adequate. You’d rather take the sure thing than risk rejection. I know the last time you felt like you were worth a damn was your teenage years, and life has been an uphill battle for you ever since, so you long for the things you left behind the way a weened child cries for its pacifier.”

Everything in me goes cold, and the hair stands up on the back of my neck, but he doesn’t stop. He continues. “I know that you’re operating on the assumption that if you can get into Claire’s bed, she’ll remember how good it was with you, and she’ll leave me. But that’s where you’ve miscalculated. In fact, the best thing you can do is keep your mystery. Because once you’re inside of her, you’ll lose that sweet, puppy-love charm. She’ll see you for what you are. A memory made rosier by time. And all Claire is going to think about is me. The man who made her a woman. A woman who likes to get fucked and spanked and choked. By me.”

I jolt as Maeby sets the drinks on the bar with a clink. James straightens his spine, pulling away from me. He takes the two whiskey gingers. “Keep the change,” he tells her and gives Maeby a chillingly polite smile.

The man’s got this haunting, cat-who-ate-the-junkyard-dog smile.

With that, he leaves. My heart is pounding, this heavy, thudding beat that won’t let up.

“Ransom,” Maeby says. Her gaze flickers over me. “You good?”

I watch as James meets Claire back at the pool table. He holds out a drink for her. She takes it, and they sip together.

Thu-thump. Thu-thump.

“Yep,” I tell Maeby. “All good.”

I take the pitcher back to the booth.

“Ransom!” That’s Claire’s voice. When I turn, I see Claire twirling her cue between her fingers. “Are you going to hide in the shadows all night, or are you going to put on your big-boy pants and get up here?”

I get a couple of curious stares from the barnacles at the bar. James watches me from the sidelines, gauging my reaction.

I step up to the pool table. “Don’t you think you’ve played long enough?”

“Can’t handle the competition? I guess you can only take it when it’s easy.”

Claire’s eyes lock on me. A challenge.

I’m pissed, my heart’s all tangled up, and?—

Fuck it. She wants a fight, I’ll give her a fight.

I shrug. “I was just thinking…it’d be a shame.”

“What would?”

“To knock your pretty ass off your very high pedestal.”

Her eyes flash. I’m in.

“You’re welcome to try,” Claire says. She grinds her tip against the chalk, like a swordswoman sharpening her rapier.

I pick out my cue. “You know, you’re a real pain in my?—”

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