Without looking at her, he chalked the end of his cue. His face expressionless, he eyed the table. Bending down, his voice curt, he said, “Six ball in the corner pocket.”
He proceeded to clear the table of balls, making one impossible shot after another. When he’d taken care of all the solids, he spoke, his voice slicing through the silence. “Eight ball in the side pocket.”
With a sharp report of white against black, the black ball few into the pocket as if spring-loaded.
CHAPTER7
“That’s the way to put her in her place, O’Neill. How about taking on a real man?” Dane Bryant stood close to the table and Lana cursed her luck. She saw the anger in Sean’s eyes intensify and focus on Bryant.
That’s all she needed was for these two to brawl. Sean took a step, but she deliberately blocked him, feeling the heat of his big, male body come up against her back, his groin nestling against her buttocks.
“A real man doesn’t push a woman down and then slash her tires.”
“What the hell are you talking about, O’Neill?”
Sean did a dodge around Lana. Before she could stop him, he grabbed Bryant. With the force of a Mack truck, he propelled the man across the room and up against the wall.
“You know what I’m talking about, so don’t pretend,” Sean said through gritted teeth.
Lana rushed up to them, Rosa flanking her. Lana grabbed Sean’s arm and tried to pull him off Bryant. It was like trying to move a concrete foundation.
Even with all Lana’s strength, she couldn’t budge him.
In a detached part of her brain, she was awed and totally turned on by Sean’s strength and protectiveness. She hadn’t realized the gentle friend she knew could be so tough.
Lana knew part of it was that he was so angry with her he wanted a fight. She could see it in the taut lines of his body.
“Don’t do it,amigo,” Rosa said softly. “He’s not worth a night in jail.”
“She’s right,” Lana said quietly. “Let him go.”
Sean held on a moment longer and then let go. Lana grabbed his wrist and jerked him out of the pool room, through the bar and out into the night.
She pulled him over to her car and ordered, “Get in.”
Sean stiffened and turned away. “I brought my own car.”
She grabbed at his arm. “I can’t trust you to go home. I’m afraid you’ll go back and kick Bryant’s ass.”
“Why would you care? You don’t even like him!”
“And since when have you been the kind of guy who wants to punch people’s lights out instead of being reasonable?” Lana yelled.
“Since things between us became complicated,” Sean yelled back.
He got into her car and slammed the door. They sat for a moment in silence. “I’ve decided not to be easygoing Sean anymore. I’m the Sean who takes what he wants, when he wants it.”
Without warning, Sean reached for her and dragged her across the plastic console, settling her into the cradle of his thighs.
The darkness outside the car and the tinted windows kept out most of the light and shielded them from unwanted scrutiny.
“Sean,” she whispered against his demanding mouth, but he wouldn’t stop kissing her. She tried to pull away to get a word in but decided that a little sex would soothe the savage beast in him. She was aroused from Sean’s display at the pool table and his protective episode with Bryant. Her laidback buddy was turning into this dark, sexy knight, and she liked it. She knew that they couldn’t go back to being just friends. The thought of their relationship changing from one that was simple to this…this out-of-control intimacy was a bit terrifying. But she would embrace it. It’s what she’d really wanted from Sean.
He cupped the nape of her neck and dragged her face to his for another rough, plundering kiss. He pressed her down against his erection, his hands fisting in her hair. Taking her mouth, with a deep groan his hands were hard, insistent, right on the edge of painful, but it was a delicious tingling pain.
She wished she could see his face. Using her hands instead, she reveled in the texture of his skin. She felt intensely vulnerable and so excited she could melt into a shimmering cloud. She squirmed against the rock-hard bulge beneath her bottom and kissed him back hungrily.
He vibrated against her, sliding his hand down between the waistband of her jeans and panties and her quivering skin, absorbing the cry with his mouth as he touched her where she so desperately needed to be touched. Lana clutched at him, her body going rigid, and he brought her face against his neck as she involuntarily arched against the stroking pressure of his fingers. An explosion detonated inside her, and a chain of convulsions ripped through her as she came apart.