Page 25 of Mace

When he finally took his shot, the ball spun forward with more force than I would have imagined, knocking a green ball into the corner pocket. He straightened up, giving me an easy grin.

“Good shot, Mace.” My praise was genuine. I loved watching him play. “Have you been playing long?”

He shrugged. “I played for a long time, but poorly. Then Grit started teaching me last year and my skills have improved. You should see him and Mack go at it. Both of them are champion pool players.”

“I’ll bet that would be something to see,” I told him.

His voice lowered, “I can coach you, if you like.”

“About pool, right? That’s what we’re talking about,” I said.

He stepped closer and gazed down at me, a multitude of expressions moving across his face. There was warmth and admiration, attraction and an urgent raw need that made my clit tingle. “I could teach a sweet little thing like you a lot of interesting things, but only if you really want me.”

“You forgot to add ‘to’.” The look on his face told me that he hadn’t forgotten a thing. He was asking if I wanted him and the answer was yes, a thousand times yes.

My heart sped up, the thought of him having his arms around me again flipped all the right switches for me. “You know, at some point the student always becomes the master, right?”

His expression took on a playful edge. “That’s kind of the point, isn’t it? Maybe you have something interesting you could teach me, you know, to even the score?”

I wasn’t quite sure where he was going with this, but I was definitely there for it. I turned around to face him and said, “I’d have to get up pretty early in the morning to be better at something than you are, Mace.”

He came closer and put one hand on the pool table on either side of me. “I can think of some things that you’re probably a natural at, things that you could teach a man like me if you really wanted to.”

I swallowed thickly. Having Mace’s attention fully on me was heady stuff.

“I’ll have to think on that,” I replied. “I’m sure I can think of something to capture your notice.” When I met his gaze, it felt like something meaningful passed between us. For the first time I really started to believe that there could be something real and special between us.

As we stood there and let the background noises of the bar engulf us, I realized maybe we weren’t so different after all, and the distance between us was not all that far. It made me want things with this man. Mace was something special, strong, sure of himself. Only time would tell if we could build a bridge between his world and mine. I vowed to try to find the middle ground. I wanted him to think of me as more than just the girl from a shitty background that he had to risk his life to save. And I truly wanted to see him as more than just the hot biker who came to my rescue when I needed him the most.

Emboldened by his closeness I reached down and lifted his hand up, pressing my palm against his. We were from different cultures, but our similarities outweighed any differences. We were both strongly attracted to each other, and we were patient when it came to love and I sensed that he, like me, was looking for something meaningful and real. The thought that we could be that for each other electrified my brain with excitement.

As we were standing there staring into each other’s eyes, Mace brought his hands up to cup my face and his head drifted closer. He was just about to kiss me when something large thumped into us so hard it almost knocked me over. We looked down to find Nine there, trying to wedge himself between us.

I let out a strangled laugh of surprise. And Mace muttered something under his breath that sounded and awful lot like, “Cockblocked by my own fucking pet.”

I laughed out loud, and Mace’s expression relaxed.

Chapter 10

Mace

Ihad been out every single day since Alicia and I had returned to the clubhouse looking for signs of the ancient burial ground the elders talked about. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the elders, but I was starting to believe it might not exist after all. Perhaps it was in another area of the national forest? It was vast and in some parts, the terrain was too rough to navigate on foot.

Coyote had stuck by my side like a true brother. He hadn’t complained once, and he’d poured over topographical maps with me and given me good counsel on finding the spot. There were lots of things going on in our club and in Coyote’s life, but he hadn’t let me down even once. He was a true friend and club brother. So today, we were hiking through a valley looking in a new spot.

As we walked, Coyote played with Nine, tossing a large stick for him to fetch over and over again. Me? All I could think of was Alicia. Since we’d been staying at the clubhouse, she’d been extra sweet to me. I didn’t know for sure, but it seemed like she was interested in me, like she would welcome a kiss from me. A proper kiss, not like the quick one we’d shared last week. It was about to happen the other night when we’d played pool, until Nine stepped in. After that moment passed, it didn’t seem right to try again. I didn’t want to rush her—she was having to share a room with me, and I didn’t want her to feel that us getting closer was expected.

I had promised myself that I wouldn’t hit on her. Even though she was twenty-one-years-old, she was still a vulnerable person who had been granted sanctuary by our club. Any decent man wouldn’t be jacking off like an asshole to thoughts of her, but I was, every morning and night.

Three nights ago when we were playing pool, I’d have had to be pretty dense not to see the huge hints she was dropping when she was flirting with me. But I still felt like I’d be taking advantage of her and that she was just saying those things because she thought it was expected of her.

That had been going round and round in my head, like I was a fool who couldn’t reason his way through the situation. Maybe I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was. Either that or I was too smart for my own good and that’s why I was so obsessed with doing the right thing by her, rather than just living in the moment which had always been my philosophy on life.

When I stepped on something hard and flat, I realized that I’d shifted off the grid formation. I’d gotten some advice from the archaeologists, and they’d told me how they did searches, taking a specific area and splitting it into grids. I had to admit it was easier than just aimlessly wandering around, which was what I’d been doing up to that point. Coyote and Nine were far to the left. I knelt down to see what I’d stepped on and found it was a piece of fired pottery with some markings on it. Using my sleeve, I wiped the top to remove the mud. The more I wiped, the clearer it became that this was a funeral plaque of some sort. I could see my tribes’ symbols for death, rebirth and, possibly, ascension. I had to be careful with this artifact because it was extremely rare and valuable. That’s if it was truly an artifact, and not some modern reproduction. I couldn’t believe I’d finallydone it after all these days of looking, it was truly like finding a needle in a haystack.

In the distance I could see Coyote and Nine moving towards me. I stood and held up the find for them to see. “I found it! Don’t come any closer. I don’t want us to trample anything related to this find. I need to put the markers in place like the Professor told me.”

Coyote’s expression turned excited, but he did as I asked. “Congratulations, Mace. Your tribe is going to be thrilled that you managed to pull this off.” When Nine started to bolt across the flat expanse of land to me, Coyote grabbed his collar and held him back.

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