“Stripes. I meant I had stripes. You’ve never heard anyone say that before? Little balls for solids and big balls for stripes?” I continued circling as I rambled to him. I knocked three more in before I finally missed my mark. “Damn, that was the easiest shot I had.” I couldn’t help the small pout that graced my lips. I was doing so well until I looked up to see him worrying that plump lower lip between his teeth. I really wanted to be the one biting that lip.
“Yeah, but you left me with nothing.” He grinned and shook his head, taking his time to circle the table counterclockwise. “And, no, I’ve never heard that before. The guys always say solids or stripes, but the next time we play I’m definitely calling someone little balls.” He chuckled to himself and my mind flew off in a tangent of ball sizes. Shit. There I go again.
“I’m sure the face of little balls is going to love it,” I sassed back with a smirk. It did sound kind of funny. Jack and Grim always argued over their balls when I said it. It always made me laugh, until they needed a judge, and then I was gone. “To answer your previous question; my Dad, Charles, bought CBP. My Father, Nathaniel, owns a few nightclubs, bars, and dungeons along the eastern seaboard. And my Papi, Samuel, is the headmaster at a boarding school for demons.” I spilled all that before I caught myself. Small talk with Vaughn was easy. Too easy. It would be best to keep to the lighter subjects. My life was confusing and complicated. I didn’t want to talk about deep shit with someone I’d just met.
I also didn’t want to talk about work. Thankfully, he seemed to be on the same page as me.
The next three hours passed us by in a blur of good-natured banter, jokes, and laughing. I honestly thought he let me win the game of pool we played, but not at darts. He had perfect aim. I watched his muscles bunch across his shoulder and upper arm through his thin t-shirt with each dart he released, mesmerized by the fluid movement.
We ran through topics like we’d known each other for years. The longer I was near him, the stronger I felt that odd pull. I almost asked him if he felt it too. Three times. I almost worked up the nerve to ask him three different times. Lighter subjects. Stick to the lighter subjects.
“What’s your favorite color?” I asked as we sat down to take a break on the oversized black leather couch in the game room.
“Mmm, blue. Like the color of the sky on a cloudless day. You?”
“Black,” I grinned. “Like… black.”
“What’s your favorite type of candy?” He returned my question with another.
I tapped my lips with my index finger as I thought about candy for a moment. I didn’t eat much of it, but when I did it was always the same thing. “Cherry Jolly Ranchers or Skittles, but only the red and purple ones.”
“Sour Patch Kids. All the flavors.”
“Favorite season?”
Vaughn flashed that coy melt-your-panties-off smile again. “Winter.” The low quality of his voice had been doing a number on my hormones. I could die a happy woman if he whispered in my ear while bending me over the arm of this couch.
“I like them all for one reason or another, but I think spring is my favorite,” I blurted out before I let my imagination run rampant. Again.
He tilted his head to the side and watched me while he thought of his next question. His heavy-lidded eyes skimmed my body in a trail that I wished his hands would follow through with. The slight curl of the right side of his mouth exposed a dimple that I’d love to brush my lips over. “Tell me a drunk story.”
His request made me chortle, because I had a few good ones. I rubbed my fingers along the edges of my jaw and looked down at the floor with squinted eyes while I thought it through. I could tell him about last night. It still made me smile to think about the looks on those shifters faces when I told them to strip.
“Last night, Jack and I went to this small shifter bar. It was gross.” I shuddered as I spoke, and he laughed under his breath. “Anyway, after getting a little tipsy I decided I was in a bit of a betting mood. So, I picked out a group of the biggest males I could find and bet them a hundred dollars each that I could beat them in darts. I let them win the first round, and then I won the next few rounds. By the time they figured out that I was hustling them, they couldn’t pay up on their debt, so I made them strip down naked in the middle of the bar and I took their clothes. I left their shoes, though. I’m not an awful person. Then I threw the clothes out the window on the way home.” I ended my short story with a sly smile and a nod of my head.
Vaughn stared at me for a few seconds in disbelief and then laughed. The sound of his laughter brought a bigger smile to my face and made me squeeze my thighs together. That pull in my chest grew a little stronger too. I didn’t know how I felt about it, other than not hating it. I still wasn't quite sure what it was exactly. And I was not going there tonight either.
“I have a few friends that I’d love to see you hustle,” he told me after he calmed down.
“We can arrange that. Just tell me where and when to be there.” I winked at him. We’d been flirting all night. It was a dangerous little dance between my mind and my body. I had originally tried to keep distance between us, but every time we passed by each other, we touched. We were sitting so close that I could feel his body heat. My legs were tucked under me. My knees brushed against his right leg while he sat with his back against the arm of the couch to face me better. I was like three accidental brushes away from lunging at him.
Jack knocked on the door moments after the thought of lunging at Vaughn crossed my mind. It was 5:30am, and he came to tell us the club employees were ready to go home. Perfect timing. I really didn’t want to do something stupid and regret it next week when I had to see him at work. I sighed and put the darts away. Grabbing my long ago ditched shoes after shoving the envelope from my father into my purse, I headed to the door with Vaughn. Jack escorted us downstairs and I gave my thanks to the bartender, Simon, and Courtney for staying late. I slid into Simon’s mind and told him to put Vaughn’s tab on mine. That bottle of tequila was expensive. I didn’t know what Simon was thinking when he handed it over, but I was happy that he did.
Once we made it outside, Vaughn walked me to the SUV waiting for me at the curb. He lifted my left hand to his mouth and placed a soft kiss across my palm before saying, “Until another night, Ms. King,” in that sexy, low whispered voice that’d had me needing new panties for hours. Then he stepped away like a proper fucking gentleman. That pull snapped tighter the further he went. I rubbed at the center of my chest, right above the junction of my breasts, like that might ease the ache. It didn’t, though. I had a feeling that sensation would be too hard to avoid. I didn’t think I wanted to avoid it either.
Jack was glaring at me from the doorway. He was so disappointed that my morning didn’t include a naked fae in my bed, and I almost agreed. Almost. I didn’t want Vaughn to be a one-night stand. That was not something I liked to admit. I didn’t like to feel those feelings. That was why I didn’t get close to people. My life was complicated, and having feelings just brought in more complications than I was ready for.
I’d experienced those feelings before. They led to something stronger than I was ready for at the time. They nearly broke me when it all came crashing down, too. Would it be any different this time? Could it be any different? I wanted to ponder the situation more, but I also wanted to get to know him better. It seemed counterproductive to turn new feelings into something more than they were. Was it a chance encounter or an accidental first date? I didn’t know what he saw it as either, since I couldn’t read his mind. I didn’t want to be the person catching lopsided feelings for someone when they had no intentions of reciprocating them. I could add “commitments” to the short list of things that terrified me.