Now, his face is next to mine. Into my ear, he growls. “Drop it.”
I swallow hard, nearly shaking. I want him so much, but he’s playing hard to get, so I search for another topic. Anything to keep him from pulling away from me. “Sorry to interrupt your game,” I tell him, nodding toward the table as I drop my hands to my sides.
He follows my gaze, and then looks back up at me, one eyebrow raised. “You want to finish it?”
I frown in confusion. “What?”
“You want to finish the game with me? You can be stripes since I was solids.”
I laugh. “Dan, I’ve maybe played twice in my entire life.”
“It’s okay…” I could scream when he backs away from me, heading to the cue rack. He pulls a cue down and tosses it to me. I catch it with both hands, still feeling unsure and way too turned on to be playing fucking billiards. “I’ll teach you.”
“That really isn’t what I had in mind when I was looking for you,” I admit, watching him chalk the end of his cue.
“Don’t worry,” he rumbles, looking at me with a hooded gaze. “You’ll like it. I promise.”
“Dan—”
“How about this? If you win, you can ask me to do whatever you want.”
Now, my interest is piqued. My grip on the cue tightens. “Whatever I want?”
“That’s what I said,” he confirms.
“And if you win?”
“I get to do the same, of course.” He gives me a Cheshire grin. Just like that, I’m on board. Either way, I think he will be touching me, and that’s all I can think about.
“Fine,” I say, tilting my chin up stubbornly. “Let’s do it.”
I don’t know how to play billiards. Honestly, I don’t even know the rules, but from the first play, it’s clear Dan is throwing the game to let me win. This information makes me giddy because it means he’ll give me whatever I want from him. Still, the game is more enjoyable than I would have thought, and after a moment of play, I’m no longer in any rush to end it.
Dan shoots wildly, missing most of the time and just shrugging it off as if it wasn’t on purpose. When it’s my turn to go, he comes up behind me, wrapping his body around mine as if he’s my shadow, his arms outstretched and guiding each of my shots. Ball after ball sinks down into the holes.
“It’s not fun if you’re not actually playing,” I tell him. His face is only inches from mine as he helps me make the shot. He grins, pulling back just enough to nip at my shoulder. I make a small noise of surprise.
“Are you saying this isn’t fun?” he quips, and I can feel his lips moving against my skin.
“Maybe a little,” I concede.
Once the last ball goes in, and I win officially, the already tense energy in the room becomes downright suffocating. We both know exactly what is going to happen next. Lust is so heavy in the air that I feel like I can reach out and touch it.
Dan is still embracing me from behind to help me with the last shot, but as soon as the last ball disappears I let the cue roll out of my hands and onto the table. Dan wraps his arms around my middle, his mouth going to the back of my neck, pulling my hair aside and peppering the skin there with kisses.
“So…” he says between the presses of his lips. “What do you want as your prize, Miss Elise?”
It’d be all too easy to stay just like this and let him touch me, kiss me, at his leisure, but I’m the winner. It’s time for me to take what I want into my own hands. So I turn in his embrace, pressing my hands against his chest and locking eyes with him.
“I want you.”
And, without wasting any more time, Dan closes the small gap between our lips and kisses me with such intensity that I gasp. His mouth is unforgiving, his arms around me so tight that I can barely breathe. It doesn’t matter though. I need no air, food, or water. Just this kiss to sustain myself. I feel like I might die without it.
Dan’s tongue sweeps across the seam of my lips, and I open for him without hesitation, letting him sweep into my mouth and claim me. I moan, hands pushing up the back of his shirt just to feel his skin in any way I can. His grip around my waist tightens, and he lifts me onto the billiard table. On instinct, I wrap my legs around him and pull him into me, until I can feel his erection through the thin fabric of my dress. If I had thought I felt out of control when I was drunk, it was nothing compared to this. Feeling him against me makes me almost frantic with need.
Moving with confidence, Dan runs his fingertips down my shoulders and arms, then back up again, leaving goosebumps in their wake. He gently cradles my head while his lips and tongue map out every inch of my lips, jawline, and neck, and when he sucks on the tender flesh behind my ear, it sends a surge of pleasure down my spine. My core is aching, and I feel drenched. Almost embarrassingly so, but I’ve been wanting this forso long.
“More,” I moan, when he nips at my bottom lip again, refusing to touch me in the places where I need it most. “Please, Dan.”