Page 46 of Love You Wild
“We’ll see about that.” He returns it effortlessly. He’s good, but I’m better; I’m sure of it.
“How much did you have to drink?” I ask when I’m up by six points.
“Why?” Avery’s brown eyes flit up to mine and the split second that he takes to drink me in is the perfect opportunity for me to send the ball slamming onto his side of the table. He doesn’t even see it coming until it’s rolling on the floor. He blinks at me, mouth halfway open.
“’Cause it’s like you’re not even mentally here. This is fun.”
I pick up my beer and take a long sip while Wyatt claps my hand in a high five, and then my ass. I’d be mortified, but it reminds me of guys on a sports team, like he’s just cheering me on, and I feel all comradery with him. Avery’s gaze narrows though, zeroing in on Wyatt’s hand and then his face, wearing a scrumptious scowl.
“Fucking right, Claire,” Wyatt booms with a laugh. “This is way too much fun to watch.” He clinks his glass to mine and leans in close. “Take him down, baby.”
Avery huffs and serves the ball over to me. “Stop fucking bragging.”
“It’s not bragging if you can back it up.” I wink at my drowning opponent.
He starts getting a little cocky when he wins back three points in a row, but when I send my eleventh point over and win the game, Avery lets out a long-suffering groan and drops his palms to the table, hanging his head and looking just as defeated as he actually is.
I flip my paddle in the air and it lands with a thud on the table while I throw my hands up and walk away. Okay, it might be a saunter. I’m sauntering.
“Game over.” I stop in front of Avery to give him a patronizing pat on his hard, sculpted chest. “There, there, little buddy. You know what they say, don’t you?”
His dark gaze slants, fingers closing around my hips, pulling me in. “Enlighten me, oh mighty one.”
“You have to learn to lose before you can truly appreciate winning.” I lean up and press my lips to the corner of his mouth and dance away before he can say or do anything. I smile when I hear him growling and everyone else laughing.
Nearly three hours later, he’s pushing my still-bragging and incredibly intoxicated ass into the elevator at the condo.
“Not gonna take your private elevator, Richie Rich?” I ask him when he presses for my floor and then punches in the code for his. “Gonna grace us common folk with your presence?” I sweep my arms out in an exaggerated flourish at the otherwise empty elevator. His eyes glitter. He thinks I’m funny.
“Someone’s gotta make sure you make it all the way to your door, you lush.”
“I am not a lush.” Pouting from across the elevator, I lean back on the railing to study him through hooded eyes. God, he’s so hot. “You’re just mad because I beat you. Three times.”
“You cheated. Three times.”
I gasp and press a hand to my heart. “How dare you!”
He smirks. “Your brother told me you guys had a ping pong table growing up and you played every night.”
I wave him off, enjoying the way his gaze drags over me, his teeth skimming his bottom lip. “That’s not cheating.”
“No,” he agrees softly. “Not cheating. Just withholding information and using it to your advantage.”
He steps toward the doors as the elevator climbs closer and closer to my floor. I follow him. I’m not sure why. Maybe because I’m getting off in thirty seconds? It’s definitely not because I feel any type of magnetic pull toward him whatsoever. Nope. Nuh-uh.
His eyes shift sideways to me. “It’s not nice to trick people, Claire.”
I fold my arms over my chest. “What are you gonna do about it?”
A wicked grin slides into place as he turns his body to me, getting right up in my space. It’s electrifying, and the air between us sizzles. I have an urge to cower away from him, but my feet are cemented in place.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
***
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Claire
