The sound that arose from the bar was riotous. “You heard it here first,” Jessie said. “He’ll be the first man.”
“That I’d pay to see,” Nate said, laughing until tears ran down his cheeks.
Well, they were certainly making the splash she had hoped they would make, though it was with the crowd most likely to be friendly to them.
“You don’t have to pay,” Jessie said. “You just have to vote. Now, I am buying you all a drink, but if you want to contribute to my campaign, you can play darts against my brother, or pool against me.” She spread her hands wide. “Loser gets to help support my domination of Rustler Mountain.”
And that really kicked things off. He would say this for Jessie, she was definitely one who knew how to cause a scene. Although West didn’t seem to be picking up his darts too quickly. He did eventually, though. Flynn knew what it was like to have a younger sister who could talk you into almost anything.
The alcohol was flowing, and Jessie was handily beating people at pool. “Challenge your lady,” Dalton said. He was getting a little deep in his cups and apparently wanted to be punched in the face.
“Oh, I am already giving to her campaign.”
“Come on,” Cassidy said. “Play.”
“You better watch it.”
“Flynn?”
He turned and looked across the bar to see Jessie standing there looking at him.
“I’m going to win,” he said, standing up and making his way toward her.
“Are you?”
“Yes, Jessie, I am. But either way, I support your campaign.”
Everyone was watching them, and his heart was beating just a little bit too hard. Because there was something about her. There was just something about her.
She held a pool cue out to him, and he grabbed it, but she didn’t let go, so he ended up pulling her bodily toward him. She looked up at him, a small smile on her lips. “I’m very good at this.” She moved her hand up the pool cue just slightly, and he felt the motion resonate in his dick.
They were performing, and he knew that. Except, had they ever really been performing?
In spite of himself, he was taken in by her performance. He knew that it was for the people around them and had nothing to do with the thing between the two of them, but still … He just couldn’t be immune to her. And it was damned ridiculous, because he had known this woman for years. And all that time, he had managed to keep his distance. Here he was. It was like a study in self-sabotage.
But why not? Why not give in? You’re already working with her. You’realready helping her with her election. What difference does it make if the two of you blow off a little steam?
Except there was something inside him, the thing that had always resisted getting involved, that pulled him back even now. A part of him had known all this time that he needed to stay away from Jessie, whether it was because she was a Hancock, or because of the intensity of the attraction between them, he couldn’t say. But there had always been something. Just as the attraction had always been there, so had the aversion to giving in to it.
And yet he found himself grasping hold of the pool cue, right over the top of her hand, and rubbing his thumb across the back of her knuckles. “I’ll play, if you let go of the stick.”
Her face went bright red, and she released her hold on the pool cue. That made him feel that he had a little bit more power here. That he wasn’t being completely dog-walked by her.
He had so much experience with sex. He knew what he wanted, and he got it whenever he needed it. It had never made any sense that she felt like this mythical creature. This person right in front of him that he couldn’t reach out and touch no matter how badly he wanted to.
No. It had never made sense.
And yet, she did the same thing with him. Rumor had it she went after whatever she wanted. She was happy to flirt, happy to tease. By all accounts, she was a great time. Yet she stayed away from him. Acted as if he was as ridiculous an option as she was to him.
Maybe that was why the attraction was so hot after all this time. Maybe that was why it didn’t go away. They were the fantasy each had never indulged.
He shouldn’t be thinking about this while he was about to play pool. Because he was going to beat her. Goddammit.
She wrinkled her nose and stepped away from him, taking hold of her own pool cue and setting the balls on the table with a flourish.
“Ladies first,” he said. He felt magnanimous, actually. And of course he would never get any credit for the gesture, not from her.
Not that he needed it. He would beat her no matter who went first.
