CHAPTER TWELVE
CADI
Cadi reached for the door, but a low grunt beside her made her pause. She turned to find Elias staring down at her, a single eyebrow raised.
Message received.
Rolling her eyes, she took a step back and held up her hands in resignation. He flashed her a satisfied smirk as he stepped forward to pull the door open, revealing the bustling interior.
Cadi crossed her arms, the urge to be irritatingly obstinate overwhelming her desire to rescue Sera from her choices.
“Am I allowed to go inside now?” she asked, blinking up at him innocently.
Elias huffed out a laugh, shifting to rest his forearm above his head. His tongue darted across his lips in a tiny movement that nearly made Cadi’s brain short-circuit as he leaned forward with a crooked grin. “Get in the bar, Kismet.”
It had never been so difficult for her to hide a reaction as it was in that moment. The gentle command in his voice nearly had her withering onto the sidewalk, but instead, she schooled her face into a look of boredom, making sure to shrug as she stepped past him.
Somehow the bar felt even more crowded than when she’d left, and she had to push up onto her toes to have any hope of finding Sera. Elias quickly reappeared at her side, bending down to shout over the booming music, “When I left, she was headed toward the pool tables.”
Cadi nodded, trying hard not to think about how close his face was to hers. Friends. Friends. Friends.
But her thoughts dissolved into nothing more than static when Elias pressed his palm against her back, and the strange fluttering sensation stirred in her chest again as he guided her forward into the crowd.
He cut a path for them with ease, navigating the mess of tables, chairs, and shoulders while Cadi was doing everything in her power not to trip over her own feet.
There was no way this many people didn’t violate the fire code.
Just as they skirted around a large group hovering at the edge of the dance floor, a bleary-eyed manticore lumbered into their path, and Cadi had to stumble backward to avoid being smacked in the face by its wildly swinging tail.
Elias’s hands wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her back flush with his chest to keep her steady as the mythic passed. The heat from his body soaked through her shirt, stirring up all sorts of unwelcome, yet not entirely unpleasant thoughts.
Friendsfriendsfriendsfriendsfriends.
“Sorry,” he said, his breath skimming her neck and sending a current racing through her body. For a moment, she had to remind herself how to breathe.
“It’s okay,” she replied, turning her head to look at him over her shoulder. “No harm done.”
His lips twitched, and Cadi’s attention went to his mouth before she could stop herself. She quickly pulled her attention away, though she could feel his eyes still locked on her. This wasn’t going well. Space. She needed space. And air that didn’t smell like him.
“Do you think it’s safe to move?” she asked, tossing her chin toward the archway that divided the main bar from the small room with the pool tables. Elias blinked, like she’d interrupted another thought before he nodded, gently pushing her forward.
With her fists clenched at her sides, Cadi slipped around the end of the wall and into the next room, relief washing over her as she stepped from the crowd.
Across the room, Cadi spotted Sera leaning against a pool cue, completely enthralled in what appeared to be a very flirtatious conversation with the pair of sirens that had helped them out with their minotaur situation earlier.
Apparently, Sera really wanted to express her gratitude, and was doing it well based on the way she had them both giggling.
She glanced up as they approached, excusing herself to step around the pool table and meet them.
“Hey! Everything good?” she asked Cadi, shouting to be heard as the band started up their next song.
Cadi nodded, making the very easy choice not to go into detail about why she had needed to step outside. Especially when the reason was standing right next to her. “Yep! All good. It was just getting stuffy and I needed some air that didn’t smell like beer.”
Sera tossed her head back in a laugh. “Fair enough. Either of you up for a game?”
She brandished the wooden cue still clutched in her hand, her eyes flicking between the two of them. Cadi felt Elias shift to look at her.
“You want first?” he asked.
Cadi waved him off, shaking her head. “You go ahead, I’ll play winner.”
He shrugged, crossing in front of her to the rack of cues hanging on the far wall. “Suit yourself.”
Cadi climbed onto a lone barstool tucked against the wall next to the table and watched them set up.
She pressed her knuckles to her mouth, failing to suppress her laughter when they immediately started arguing like a pair of siblings about the proper way to rack the balls, noting that neither of them was correct.
Their bickering didn’t stop there. Every shot was challenged, every angle debated. At this rate, they were never going to get through their first game.
“Seriously?” Elias groaned when Sera once again slipped away from the table to chat up the sirens, who were still seated at the high-top. “Are you gonna play, or are you gonna flirt?”
Sera let out an irritated sigh, pushing up from the table and turning to face him.
Her head swiveled between Elias, the pool table, and the beautiful female mythics drawing seductive lines up and down her arm.
“Flirt,” she declared, shoving her cue into his free hand and turning her back to give her attention fully to her chosen activity.
Elias shook his head, but Cadi saw the hint of a smile beneath his irritation. His eyes shifted to hers, and she instantly felt her skin heat. The look wasn’t even close to smoldering, but her body didn’t seem to care.
“Looks like you’re up,” he said, handing her the cue with a playful smirk.
Cadi wrapped her hand around the polished wood, her pulse jumping when his finger skimmed against hers.
Her eyes flicked to his face, watching for any indication that he’d noticed, but his expression remained disarmingly neutral. If he’d felt it, he wasn’t letting on.
“You play much?” he asked, rounding the table to gather up the colorful balls and place them back into the molded plastic triangle.
Cadi shrugged, slipped from her seat, and held up her first finger and thumb to indicate that she’d only played a little.
She studied the cue in her hand, checking out of the corner of her eye that Elias was sufficiently distracted before quickly stepping back to the rack and exchanging it for the shorter, more appropriate option.
“Well don’t worry,” he said, rolling the full triangle back and forth across the felt. “I’ll be gentle.”
The band’s final note cut out, and his words echoed in the abrupt silence that followed. Elias’s eyes flared wide, and Cadi pulled her lips between her teeth to hold back her giggle.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered, dipping his head low. The skin at the top of his ears shifted from the light tan of summer to the faintest hint of red as the singer’s voice boomed from the stage.
“Alright folks, we’re gonna take a quick break, but don’t worry, we’ll be back soon.”
Scattered applause followed, and Cadi felt a piece of herself relax at the promised reprieve for her eardrums.
“Ladies first,” Elias said, gesturing to the table.
Cadi widened her eyes to a look of surprised innocence. “You want me to break?” she asked, edging her voice with just a touch more sweetness than normal.
Elias smirked, leaning against his cue. “If you’re up for it.”
She pulled in a breath and pushed her mouth into a hard line of uncertainty. “Alright. I guess we’ll see how this goes.”
She bent over the table, making a show of balancing the cue against her hand as if still trying to figure out her angles until—
Crack!
The sound of crashing resin reverberated through the room. Cadi chewed on her lower lip to keep from grinning as two balls sailed smoothly into opposite corner pockets. Right where she wanted them.
“Nice! I’ll be stripes,” she said, picking up the small cube of chalk, not missing the way Elias’s eyebrows shot up. Circling the table, she spied her next shot and bent low to sink another ball with a calculated tap.
“Huh.”
She looked up as Elias stepped forward and leaned against the table next to her, eyes narrowed.
“Don’t play much?”
Cadi waved a hand in dismissal. “Oh, just here and there.”
A small twitch tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Right.”
She could tell him the truth. That her dad had played in pool leagues in every town they moved to, securing multiple championships across the southern region and teaching his daughter everything he knew.
But this was so much more fun.
Elias studied her for a moment, the sharpness of his expression softening slightly, like he had just noticed something new about her. Something that he couldn’t quite figure out. An electric tingle began to grow just beneath her skin when she saw him angle the slightest bit closer.
Cadi cleared her throat. “Excuse me.”
He tilted his head, and Cadi had to fight her smirk at the look of confusion on his face as she gestured to the table behind him.
“You’re blocking my shot.”
“Right!” he said, threading his fingers into his hair as he stepped to the side. She lined up the shot, briefly considering holding on to the offensive and clearing the table, but that just didn’t feel polite. After all, they were still new friends. No need to completely destroy him.
Yet.
Aiming wide, she sent the cue ball rolling past her next target to bounce harmlessly off the bumper.
She snapped her fingers in an obvious show of feigned disappointment, stepped back, and began spinning the chalk cube against the edge of the table.
Elias just rolled his eyes at her and stepped forward for his turn.
“So,” he said, circling the table, searching for the perfect point of attack. “Where’d you learn to run a table like that?”