Jake
Blue jeans hugged her in ways I tried hard not to think about, and the neckline of the soft black tee she wore stretched just enough to make me imagine my mouth dragging along her collarbone.
Her long, brunette hair was down, wild in a way that made me want it wrapped around my fist. It looked like she’d been running her fingers through it before I picked her up tonight, the same restless habit I’d already noticed in her.
Eden fidgets when she thinks. I’d watched her do it enough to know.
Hell, I’d watched her enough to know a lot of her tells, but I wasn’t close to done.
I wanted to know it all. Her habits, her tells, her secrets, the shit she thought she’d buried too deep for anyone to notice.
Like the way she chewed the inside of her cheek when she was trying to stop her brain spilling out her mouth and the little hum she made when she got lost in thought.
I wanted her scars and the stories behind them.
The fears she never told anyone. I wanted every piece until there was nothing left hidden from me.
She turned to me with that smile she gets when she’s nervous. Chin up, eyes bright like she’s dared herself to do something. “Okay,” she said, biting her lip. “Destroy me.”
I lifted a brow. “At pool?”
Colour climbed her cheeks. “Obviously.”
I grinned before I could stop myself. She had a way of doing that, pulling smiles from me. “We’ll start with your grip and stance. Then we’ll tweak your aim and stroke before practicing your bridge.”
I racked the balls. Eden stepped in beside me to watch, hip brushing my thigh, heat skating up my side. I breathed it in and kept my concentration on the table. The triangle, the tight cluster, the click when I lifted it away.
“Are you always this focused and exact?” she asked.
“Depends what I’m doing.” I glanced at her and caught the flare of understanding in her eyes. “Grab the cue.”
She did as I said, and I took my time walking her through stance and balance. Left foot forward, right planted, and the angle of her hips.
Sliding in behind her, I set my hands on her hips, guiding until her body tilted just right over the table.
“Like this, so you can bend easy.” My chest brushed her back as I leaned in and tapped two fingers against her forearm.
“Move your hand forward, so your elbow lines up over the cue. You’re holding too far back. ”
She shifted, adjusting, bent now and lined up to shoot.
I dipped lower, my mouth grazing her ear as I nudged the cue beneath her chin. “Now look straight down the line.”
“Okay,” she said, and fuck me, I could hear how turned on she was.
I reached for her right hand that was gripping the cue like she never planned on letting it go. “You’re strangling it. Loosen up, let the cue breathe.”
“It’s kind of hard to relax when you’re...”
“When I’m what?” I fought a grin. I knew what she meant but I wanted to hear her say it.
“When you’re so close. And being all...instructor-y.”
“Want me to back off?”
“No.” Her answer came quickly. “Definitely don’t back off.”
“Okay, eye the ball you want to hit.”
She did as I said and then formed an open bridge with her left hand, placing the pool cue where she wanted it.
“Line it up. Cue, wrist, elbow all pointing where you want the ball to go. Drop your chin and keep your eyes steady.”
Her hair fell forward, and I tucked it behind her ear without thinking. She stilled, the air between us thrumming. It was the kind of magnetic moment that would be easy to ignore, if I were the kind of man who ignored things.
I leaned in close. “Yeah, I felt it too, darlin’.”
She made a strangled noise and muttered, “Seriously? You can’t say that while you’re teaching me. Do you want me to miss and take out the light fixture?”
I laughed against her hair. “Aim for the pocket, not the ceiling.”
She grumbled something about hot bikers that I didn’t quite catch and then took the shot. Her bridge slipped at the last second, cue tip skimming. The ball crawled an inch.
Cursing, she straightened and turned to face me, her face undone and radiant, so goddamn gorgeous I almost forgot we weren’t alone. “That fail was sponsored by your corruption of my hand-eye coordination.”
I crowded her against the table until there was barely a breath between us. Her back met the edge, cue trapped at her side, and I didn’t bother hiding what was written all over my face. The kind of desire that wasn’t fit for a public setting.
She sucked in a breath and grabbed my shirt, the tug sending a ripple through me.
“ Eden .” My voice was ragged.
Her lips parted, eyes hungry, the current snapping between us, pulling hard. Christ, I wanted to devour her. Instead, I stole one rough kiss, fast and firm. Not the kiss I burned for, but the one I could get away with in a room full of people.
She made a quiet, desperate sound, her hand sliding from my shirt to my hip, fingers digging in like she needed me to hold her up.
“Teaching you pool might’ve been a fuckin’ terrible idea for this date,” I said after I broke the kiss.
Her grip tightened. “Yep. Awful idea. I’m one bad angle away from riding your thigh until security kicks us out.”
I chuckled and pulled back to look at her. “Okay, let’s see that shot again. I’ll do my best to keep you from my thigh.”
She scrunched her nose at me like I’d said something she hated, but her eyes were smiling. “How boring.”
“Don’t fuckin’ tempt me, sweetheart. I’m only just keeping my hands to myself.” Then, I took a step back, jerked my chin, and said, “Show me what you’ve got.”
We played for the next hour, and I coached. Eden wasn’t hopeless. She had flashes of talent. But mostly, she was spectacularly chaotic. She rushed each shot and aimed with hope instead of geometry.
So, I slowed her down and made her breathe. When her elbow drifted, I set it. When her aim was off, I showed her the spot to hit and reminded her to think about the follow through.
She eventually sank a couple back-to-back. Then she went soft on the next shot, easing it instead of driving it. The ball sank, but the cue ball died right where it landed, which would have been perfect if her goal was to ruin her next move.
She grimaced as she realised the mistake she’d made. “That felt right. What did I do wrong?”
“You lifted your head too soon.” I rolled the cue ball back and reset the shot for her.
She glared at the table like it was at fault. “Rude.”
“Try again.”
She nodded, eyes bright with the stubbornness I’d been seeing all night as she filed corrections into a mental list. Data points, that’s what she’d called them earlier. Eden catalogued everything. I loved watching it happen.
She took the shot. Nailed it.
“Yes,” she hissed, fist tight in victory.
I watched her bask for a second. I wanted to put a thousand of those looks on her face.
While she lined up the next shot, I let my eyes take a tour down to her throat, to the slope of her skin where her T-shirt slid off one shoulder, to the tiny scar near her elbow I wanted the story for.
Then back up to her mouth that was making shapes as she calculated angles, muttering to herself under her breath.
She had no idea how fucking beautiful she was when she thought too hard.
For the first time ever with a woman, I was making myself wait.
It didn’t mean I wanted her less. Hell no.
I’d wanted Eden from the second I’d laid eyes on her.
That morning she’d been collecting an Uber Eats bag, ripped black jeans hugging her legs, tiny white T-shirt barely covering her tits, hair a dark mess around her shoulders.
I’d been hauling a dresser and almost dropped the fucker because I was so distracted by her.
And now that I had her in my life, I wanted to take my time getting to know her.
I didn’t want to rush even a second of it.
She made her play and missed, the ball rattling the lip of the pocket before rolling wide.
“Seriously?” She pulled a face, scrunching her nose for the second time tonight, and shit she looked cute when she did that. “I did what you said.”
“Yeah, you did,” I agreed. “But you need to slow down. Rushing makes it harder to control the cue ball’s speed and path.”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment before hitting me with a sexy smile. “So, what you’re saying is, I need...more practice?”
The way she said it, like she knew exactly what string she was pulling, went straight to my dick. My mouth curved before I could stop it. “Darlin’, I’ll give you all the practice you want.”
Her eyes sparked at that, and heat blazed through me fast enough my control frayed at the edges. If we kept going like this, I’d be bending her over this pool table.
I dragged a hand through my hair, forcing in a breath. “But first, we should get a drink before I forget where we are.”
She cocked her head, eyes lit with mischief as she shot back, “What, already tapping out? I thought bikers had stamina.”
Christ. It was a good fucking thing she didn’t know much she affected me without even trying.
I dropped my voice low, just for her. “Watching you chase this game like you’re debugging it, muttering to yourself, logging every shot and adding data points to that list in your head.
..it’s got me imagining you giving that kind of attention to me.
Another second of you lookin’ at me like that and I won’t care who watches me make good on the filthy thoughts runnin’ through my head. ”
She didn’t sass me back. Didn’t throw out a cocky grin. For the first time all night, her bravado slipped, just a fraction. Her hand tightened around the cue, her gaze slipping for just a second, like she was thrown by the effect she’d had on me.
She really didn’t see it. Didn’t see how every version of her—bold, awkward, nerdy, flustered—was straight fire to me. She was the kind of woman men dreamed about, and somehow, she was surprised by my reaction? Christ, she had no idea.