Page 36 of Lucifer's Hounds

“I may have asked Mindy for a few pointers.” He smiles. “How long have you been bartending?”

“Two and a half years. Way too long.” I cut into my steak and dip it in the ranch on my plate. Putting the first bite into my mouth, my eyes widen.

“Oh, my God, this is amazing,” I exclaim through a mouthful of food.

“Thank you.”

I finish chewing the food in my mouth before I ask Cass a question of my own.

“You said you were going out of town tomorrow. Where to?”

“California.”

“I’ve always wanted to go to California. Pack me in your suitcase!” I joke…well kind of. California sounds free and there’s nothing in this world I want more than freedom.

“I think I could fold you up and throw you in there,” he says, smiling at me.

“My company has a job that needs a tool, the government says no, so I have to convince them that they do need the tool.”

“You’ve got that handled all day long. You can be very convincing when you try.”

“I’m not so sure. Some of the people we do business with are ruthless.”

“Well, I have faith in you.”

“Thank you, even though I’m not sure faith will work.”

“It will. So, I have a question. One that I probably should have asked when I met you, but I was too distracted to think. How old are you?” she asked.

Cass chuckles. “Thirty-seven and you aren’t the only one who was too distracted. There was some smoking hot woman shooting pool with me and I can’t tell you hardly anything about her. What I can tell you, though, is I want to know anything about her. How old areyou, Miss Summers?”

My heartbeat quickens as the uncertainty of what his reaction to this number will be.

“I’m twenty-four.”

“I had no clue you were so young. I never would have guessed it. You don’t carry yourself like other women your age. Nooffense, it’s not that you look older, you just don’t act like you’re twenty-four.” Cass fumbles through his last few words, trying to dig himself out of the imaginary hole he had evidently thought he dug. He didn’t dig one, though. I smile at the thought as well as the compliment.

“It’s fine. You didn’t dig yourself a hole. I take that as a compliment, thank you.”

Our plates are both almost empty.

“You owe me a few games of pool, by the way.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Then rack ‘em, boss man.”

Tonight, I’m confident and it shows, as it radiates off of me more than it likely ever has. I’m not sure if it’s because of how Cass makes me feel or if it’s simply because I’m happy. Either way, I’m here for it. Zero complaints. Something about our time together puts me in such a fun and playful mood. He makes me feel light. Alive. He smirks at me as he retrieves the key to the pool table and unlocks it.

“Oh, free pool. I guess that’s just one of the perks of being the boss man’s play toy,” I joke as I duck into the broom closest to grab my pool cue.

“Oh, you’re being all fancy now?” he asks, eyeballing me as I put my stick together.

“Yep,” I say, leaning my stick against the wall. Cass disappears to the back and returns holding a black pool cue case.

“Someone else is going to be fancywithme,” I note.

“Break ‘em up,” he says, putting his cue together.

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