Page 8 of Challenge Me

Something about that made me smile. “You’ve unlocked the secret to life, huh?”

“Oh, yeah. Want me to teach you?” He put his fingers over mine on the edge of the table. With his tongue, he spun the hoop in his lip.

I swallowed hard. My hand went to the hem of his shirt, and I found myself playing with it. “Maybe when we’ve figured out who the better player is.”

Without looking away from me, he lifted the pool stick and tapped the cue ball. It rolled into the pocket, and he arched a brow. “Oops.”

He started forward, so I quickly stepped around him. Grabbing the ball, I positioned it, then took aim. He stayed on the other side of the table, just watching. Once I hit it, I looked up at him.

“You made it,” he said.

“Okay.”

I had to get closer to him in order to take my next shot, and he didn’t make it easy for me as I tried to avoid hitting him with the stick. After a second, I decided it wasn’t worth the effort and let it whack him in the ribs.

“Oops,” I said innocently.

Of course the move made him smirk. That half-smile was a near-permanent part of his face. And damn, did it look like it belonged there.

I missed the next shot, which gave me a reason to worry. He’d thrown his last round, but I didn’t think it would happen again.

“You didn’t answer my question,” I said to draw his attention away from the game. “You’re not from New Haven.”

“Why do you think that?”

Now that he’d asked, I second-guessed myself. He could’ve been a Connecticut native. It wasn’t like I’d know. I hadn’t even met everyone on my street, let alone the town.

“Did you go to Yale?” I asked.

“Did you?”

“You’re kind of annoying.”

He raised a brow and kept his eyes on me while he took his shot. It was flawless. “I thought I was interesting.”

“You can be both,” I said. Though it was true on all counts, I struggled to hold back a smile. I’d have to add amusing to the list.

“Tell you what. I’ll let you win if you can guess where I’m from.”

My lip curled at the idea. “I don’t want you to let me win.”

“Competitive?”

“It’s what fuels me.”

I watched his tongue travel across his lips slowly. When a new song came on, his demeanor changed. He looked up at the speaker above us with a more diabolical smirk on his face.

“This one’s my favorite.”

I couldn’t help that I paid more attention to the song. It wasn’t something I was familiar with, and I couldn’t even begin to guess what made it his favorite.

He winked at me again, then hit the ball. Once he locked in, the game was over so quickly that it was unbelievable.

“Damn.” I breathed a laugh as I put the cue back in the stand. “I don’t know if I ever stood a chance.”

He leaned his hip against the table, and I joined him, matching his position. With my hand on the surface, I was hyper-aware of the way his settled a few inches in front of mine.

“I let you break,” he reminded me.