Page 24 of Mace

“No. Coyote’s wife packed us a lunch and I pigged out way more than I should have on empanadas.”

I grinned at him. “Remind me to thank her for that.”

His expression morphed into one I didn’t recognize. “I’m not yours. You don’t have to thank people for taking care of me.”

His words caught me by surprise. I guess by the easy way we joked around I was starting to think of him as something more. Rather than be hurt by his words I don’t know why, but my first instinct was to flirt. I walked by him running my hand across his chest as I headed for the door. “Maybe not right now but you never know. Perhaps you’ll end up snared in my trap.”

He stared at me even harder. “Your love trap? You forgot to specify what kind of trap you’re setting for me.”

Instead of agreeing with him, I said over my shoulder, “I’d be foolish to tell you what kind of trap I’m setting. You’re supposed to figure that out on your own.”

I meant it to sound mysterious and flirty, but I had to admit it just came across as weird and vaguely threatening, which wasn’t my intent at all.

Chica, just give it up. You suck at flirting.

I wished the floor would open up and swallow me whole, but of course it didn’t because I’m never quite that lucky. Mace didn’t have a response for my odd and probably confusing words. He just followed closely behind me. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, he guided me over to one of three double arched entrances which led to a back room. Behind each doorway there was pool table. We approached one and Mace set the balls up for us.

Something about the Dark Slayers’ clubhouse was appealing. Maybe it was Rosie’s smiling face at the bar or the way she brought our favorite drinks over without us evenasking. It could have been dim glow of the overhead lights or the scent of leather and beer that hung heavy in the air from so many brothers being packed into one place. Whatever it was, I genuinely liked it and felt comfortable and safe.

When he was finished setting the table up, Mace, ever the gentleman, gave me the first shot. I rubbed the end of my cue stick with chalk and leaned over the pool table and concentrated on making a good strong shot to break the balls up.

My fingers wrapped anxiously around the stick. I’d never played pool before, but I’d seen it done on television tournaments and in movies. I glanced up to find Mace standing on the other side of the pool table with both hands wrapped around one end of his stick and the back end on the floor. My heart skipped a beat when I realized he was watching every move I made. Since my weird flirting didn’t drive him away earlier, I decided to hone my skills a bit, seeing as the wine was starting to relax me.

I felt my lips curl into a teasing smile. “You like what you see, Mace?”

His eyes lifted to mine, and he gave me a lopsided grin. “You know that I do, sweetheart. But I’m also interested to see if you’re any good.”

Playing him at his own game I said, “Any good at pool, you mean, right? I only ask because I could be good at any number of things.”

Damn it! What was wrong with me? Here I was a twenty-one-year-old virgin, acting like a femme fatale. I didn’t know what it was that was making me feel so bold. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I would do if Mace took me up on my offer, but deepinside I think I had decided that he would be the one to teach me about love.

“Yeah, I mean pool. Of course I do,” Mace said. Something about his tone had me questioning if that was true, especially as I could detect a flush on his tanned cheeks. Sometimes, like now, the way he looked at me told me he was just as interested in me as I was him. I didn’t say anything about that. Instead I refocused on my shot.

Once I had the cue ball in sight, I realized my hands were trembling slightly. I didn’t know if it was just nerves—or maybe just the thrill of having all of Mace’s attention on me. I bit my bottom lip, aimed carefully, and with a sharp, hard poke, the cue ball slammed into the neat triangular arrangement of balls, and they all split apart, going in different directions.

Excited, I looked at Mace. “Did you see what I just did?”

Mace chuckled, “Yeah, I saw. You did good.” He stepped forward with a swagger that made me smile. He brushed past me and turned to stand behind me. I heard him lay his stick down on one of the nearby tables and he reached his arms around me, grasped my pool stick and pointed the small end towards the white cue ball.

“It’s all in the way you handle the cue. Here’s what you want to do, darlin’.”

Maneuvering his hands over mine, he showed me what he meant. “You want to hold the stick lightly, resting it on your fingers. Holding too tight when you take your shot can cause the ball to jump off the table.”

“Um, okay. I can do that,” I stammered, hardly able to concentrate on anything with his strong arms around me and his hard muscular body pressing against my back.

“Why don’t you go ahead and give it a try?”

I lined up the white ball with another and took my shot. Instead of it landing in the pocket like I planned, it bounced off right beside the pocket.

“That was pretty good for a first try. Now, you want to find you’re aiming in line with each ball that you want to sink. Lining the balls up is all geometry. Once you see how to line them up with your eyes, you’ll never be able to unsee it. When you take your shot, you want to keep your pool stick straight and follow through with your shot.”

“Alright, I’m getting the hang of it now.” I took my shot and one of the balls landed in the pocket. I tried not to preen but I had to admit that I was proud of myself.

Mace’s deep voice was warm and approving. “You did really well. Good job, Alicia.”

“Now, it’s your turn to take a shot,” I told him.

I regretted saying that the moment his arms slid from around me. I backed up to give him space and he leaned forward, taking his time to make his shot. I watched him line up the cue ball. Unhurried, he acted like he had all the time in the world to take this one shot. I found myself caught up in the moment, in how deceptively easy-going he was. I also couldn’t help but notice how fine his ass looked as he leaned over the table, and the way his jeans hugged him.

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