Page 11 of The Baller

“What are you doing here?” she spoke finally, and I didn’t miss the small bite to her tone.

“I’m having a beer with my buddies.” I pointed over to the boys, all three of whom waved back and grinned like the idiots they were.

Her eyes narrowed and it took another second for her to speak again. “Are you following me?”

I stepped back, confused and… no… just straight up confused at the odd question, not to mention the way she was scowling at me – like a little army of flaming arrows were ready to be fired from the narrow slits of her eyes.

“Um, no.”

“Are you a student?”

I slowly spun around, in case she was speaking to someone else, but all I could see was another crowd of students, and the boys watching like they were only missing a bucket of popcorn.

“Do Ilooklike a student?”

I tried to hold in the smile as she gave me a once over – slow enough for me to determine she liked what she saw, but not so slow that she thought she was making it obvious.It was a move I knew well, from years of girls hoping to get my attention, but from her it was different. She’d had my attention since the first time I’d spotted her. Finally, she leaned back with her arms crossed over her chest, and a face full of suspicion. “Then why are you in here?”

Yes! Now we had a question Icouldanswer. “Honestly, no fucking clue. Why areyouin here?”

“My friend wanted to play pool. We just finished.”

“I saw. Congratulations on the victory.” I grinned again, leaning against the bar for the sole reason of getting closer to her height, and so I could breathe her in; memorize every note of her scent. She tracked my movement, flashing to my muscles again and back to my eyes which had never left hers.

I just about stopped my chest from puffing.

“Were you watching me?”

“Yes.”

“And now?”

“I came to save you,” I replied.

“Save me?”

“Yeah.”

I don’t know how she managed it, but her eyes narrowed even further. I couldn’t even see the gold of her iris, and judging by the way her lips pursed, boy, was that the wrong thing to say.

“Do I look like I need saving?”

I should have said no, and left it. Any minute now she’d be breathing fire. I could almost feel a ball of it building inside her, ready to shoot my way. Ishouldwalk back to the boys, but my mom always taught me you’d never live with regret if you tried first. Plus, I was finding this fierce, argumentative little blondie kind of hot.

Yeah, the longer she looked at me like that… I was definitely getting turned on.

“Kinda.” I grinned wider, wondering if that ball of fire inside her might actually explode. “Let’s call it a preemptive save because you’re on your own, and I couldn’t help but notice you seem very popular tonight. So, I came to ask what you would like to drink, then you’re going to give me your number.”

She let out a cute little snort, like I’d imagine a baby dragon would make, followed by a less cute splutter, but managed to rescue herself before she broke into an all-out coughing fit. Her arms tightened across her chest. “Oh really, and what makes you so special?”

Another easy answer. “Look at me.”

Her mouth dropped open, just like I hoped it would. There’s no way she wasn’t used to guys hitting on her, but from the way her cheeks flushed and her eyes widened in shock, you’d never guess. I liked it. I liked making her blush. It wasn’t often that I met a girl who didn’t immediately put their hands on my chest, or run them along my biceps and tell me what an enormous fan they were of my game… among other things.

Maybe I never had.

This whole time my focus had been glued to her and her alone, but my sixth sense had been in overdrive. Right now, the alarm was sounding about a couple of guys inching closer to us, both of them holding phones. They hadn’t realized the mirrors behind the bar were reflecting every step. Morons.

I didn’t play center field for nothing. My lightning reflexes attested to that as I reached behind me and snatched the closest one from the hand of its owner.

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