Page 62 of Burn With Me

“Are you ever going to tell me what we’re doing here?” she finally asks. “Or why you broughtmeof all people here?”

The balls release and I pick them up, setting them in the middle of the table as I start to rack. “You ever played pool?” I ask instead of answering her question.

She replies after a beat. “I don’t like pool.”

“Good, I can teach you.”

I slip the triangle over the balls and roll them back and forth until they’re all stable. Aurora huffs. “Isaac.”

“Yes, baby?”

Her lips press together at the nickname. She’s gotten used to both sunshine and goddess, but any time I call her ‘baby’ her hackles raise. “Answer me,” she demands.

“Hmm.” I hum, contemplating her request. I move over to the wall of pool sticks and grab two off the stand along with a small square of chalk. “How about a bet instead?” I offer.

Her eyebrows raise. “A bet?”

“If you beat me at a short game of pool, then I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

“Everything?” she repeats. “Even if I ask about your father?”

It takes effort to keep my face from reacting to that, but I manage. If she’s never played pool before, then the chances of her beating me are slim to none. I’ve been playing with Paris and Shep since I was practically in diapers after all.

“Anything you want to know,” I assure her.

“One game?”

I chalk a cue stick and then the other before holding the second out to her. “One game,” I assure her. “You win, and I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

Her lips press down hard against each other and she eyes the stick I’m holding out her way.Come on, goddess. Take it,I urge her silently. I want to see her here—in this dark, grungy world. A normal girl with a not-so-normal background. For a night, I just want it to be her and me. Isaac and Aurora.

Not Icari. Not Summers. Not the complexity of our relationship. Just a man and a woman.

Her fingers grasp the pool cue and she pulls it from my grasp. For the first time all night, a full-fledged smile breaks free. My lips stretch and I take a step back as she glares at me as she moves towards the table.

“One game then,” she replies. “You better keep up your end of the bargain.”

“I will,” I say, but a split second later, my smile falls away.

Aurora steps up to the opposite end of the table, with the triangle of balls pointing right at her. She grabs the cue ball and adjusts it to her liking. Horror descends as she smirks at me and lines up her stick. Just before she cracks the shot, she looks up at me. “I call stripes.”

Mother fucker.

29

ISAAC

Aurora can play pool. Not just that. She can play itwell.

Fuck. Me. That’s hot.

I watch as for the dozenth time, she bends over the pool table and lines up her next shot. Her ass pokes out, grabbing my attention as well as the attention of several onlookers that have scooted closer to watch our game.

One man whistles low under his breath as he stares. If she hears it, she doesn’t react. The whole of her focus is on the game. But I do. I hear it, and it makes my blood boil. I scowl at the man, glaring at him until his gaze lifts and he spots me across the table.

His expression turns smug. My stomach bottoms out as my fingers squeeze tight to my own pool stick and I step away from the wall too late. He steps forward just as Aurora adjusts herself, the soft sweater she’s wearing lifting up to reveal the lush curve of her ass. She jerks when his hand lands on the small of her back and he bends over to whisper in her ear.

“No thanks,” she snaps.

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