Nico (Ruin & Revenge #1)(37)
She looked over her shoulder, gave him a sultry glance, and ever so slightly wiggled her ass, making the chains on her belt rattle. “Do you like it like this?”
Luca choked back a laugh, reminding Nico that they weren’t alone. Heat flooded his veins, and he was instantly seized with images of Mia down on the table, naked in chains.
“I’ll break,” he said. As if she hadn’t broken him already. After that look, he would follow her to the ends of the earth.
Turning, he took his shot, scattering the balls as he tried to collect his thoughts and focus on the game..
“You’re solid.” She patted his arm, and his muscles went rock hard beneath her touch.
With a quick grab, he closed his hand around her wrist, and pulled her forward. He pressed his lips to her ear, inhaled the soft fragrance of her perfume. “Are you trying to distract me because you’re afraid you’ll lose?”
“I’m practicing my sympathy pat for your bruised ego when I win.” She pulled away, turned so her hip brushed against his shaft, hard beneath his jeans. It couldn’t be anything but deliberate, and his body responded accordingly. Fuck. If he took off his jacket, the entire pool hall would know what he was thinking about the beautiful minx on the other side of the pool table. Maybe that was her plan.
In a rush to finish the game, he ran out all his balls without giving her a shot. On the second break, he had to bank in both the four and the five but missed a thin cut on the six down the rail when she bent over to tie the lace on her boot.
Mia arched an eyebrow. “You might have warned me before we started that this was going to be a hustle.” She leaned over the table across from him, her tank top falling just enough to give him a perfect view of the crescents of her beautiful breasts and the enticing valley between them.
A hustle, indeed.
“I know what you’re doing, bella,” he called softly.
Mia took her shot, sank her stripe. “Playing pool?” she offered.
“Playing a game that you aren’t going to win.”
Frankie handed Nico a beer, and he took a grateful sip. But nothing could quench the fire raging inside him. Not just because he wanted her so much that he could barely breathe, but because it had been a long time since he’d played the game with an opponent who challenged him, and who was going to make him work for every minute he got to spend between her pretty thighs.
Mia sank three balls in a row, each shot more difficult than the next. She was a straight shooter, but not a pro, and she was giving him a run for his money, if not through skill, then by unintended seduction. Each time she bent over and wiggled her ass, Nico suffered an exquisite torture as his mind conjured up all sorts of images that involved Mia naked over the pool table with his hands on her hips and his cock deep inside her.
He also imagined beating the shit out of the guys drinking beer in the corner, who hadn’t taken their eyes off her since she’d walked into the hall.
“Do you know them?” He gestured to the men who had drawn his attention.
Mia shot them a quick glance. “Yeah, they’re here a lot. They’ve asked me to join them a couple of times, but I always turn them down. Something about them makes my skin crawl. But they don’t seem to be able to take ‘no’ for an answer.”
Nico didn’t need to hear more than that.
“Frankie. Luca.” He tipped his chin in the direction of the unwanted audience. Words weren’t necessary. They would have his back and watch over Mia, too.
“Scusa, bella.” Pool cue in hand, he walked over to the two men, assessing their size and strength. The blond had an inch over him in height but little in the way of muscle, whereas the skinhead in his muscle shirt, his arms covered in tats, looked like he knew how to fight. “Gentlemen. You seem very interested in our game.”
“It’s a free country. We can watch anything we want.” The blond sipped his beer while the skinhead smirked beside him.
“Watch something else.”
The skinhead tipped his neck from side to side, a universal sign of challenge that the primal side of him could not ignore. “You gonna make us, suit boy? You afraid your hot friend’s gonna leave you for a real man? I’ve had a taste of that pussy … “
Nico didn’t hear the rest of his words. Overwhelmed by a possessiveness that was both savage and fierce, he slammed his pool cue over the skinhead’s skull, breaking the stick in two.
“Holy fucking shit. You’re gonna pay for that.” Seemingly unaffected by the blow, the skinhead leaped from his chair so fast it toppled behind him.
Frankie came up beside Nico to deal with the blond as Nico plowed his fist into the skinhead’s smarmy face. Fuck. It felt good to unleash the beast. He countered an incoming jab with a left hook and traded punches until he saw an opening to sweep the skinhead’s leg. Following him down to the ground, Nico let loose, oblivious to everything but the need to ensure the bastard never looked in Mia’s direction again. By the time the skinhead was groaning on the floor, his face covered in blood, Luca had paid the bouncers to clear the crowd and look the other way, and Frankie had taken care of the blond friend.
“You don’t look at my girl.” Nico kicked the man on the ground, careful not to get blood on his Italian leather shoes. “She’s not a fucking piece of meat. You don’t come back to this pool hall. You don’t come to this end of town. You do, and you’re dead. Get the fuck out.”