Come Out Swinging (Reach for the Moon Book 2), Sam Hall [leveled readers .TXT] 📗

because of something that he’d done, then spent his life trying to school me so I wouldn’t make the same mistake.” He shook his head and snatched up the last shot. “It just made it worse, so much worse.”

I’m not sure why I did what I did. There was a part of me, instinctual and full of the devil, that rose sometimes, and now it reached over, closed my fingers around his, and tugged the drink towards me. There was a bottle in front of us, so I could have lined up a row of shots and smashed them down without even acknowledging Aidan. Instead, I brought his to my lips, his eyes trained on every movement, as they parted, as we tipped the drink back, as I swallowed the burning contents down, feeling that slow, steady warmth pulse out for the short period of time wolf shifter biology allowed. His fingers wrapped around the empty glass, his thumb brushing against my bottom lip, capturing the last few drops before my tongue flicked out to suck them down too.

“Fuck, Paige…”

“Hey, baby.”

The spell was broken by a deep voice, a set of arms going around me, the smell of the leather, musk, and the night air upon him as he buried his nose in my neck.

“Mason…” I gasped, my eyes closing as he surrounded me with his body, his scent, him. He was marking me, I realised, claiming me before everyone in the bar, including Aidan, making clear I was his in a ham-fisted, entirely exhilarating way. Had the guys argued about who was to come down and keep an eye on me? Had they realised that Mason would be the best bet because any kind of public display thrilled me to the core, overlaying all that old pain and building something new?

“How’d it go? Did you get what you need?” he rumbled.

“Just more questions,” I forced out, fighting the urge to squirm against him. It was too much, the feel of him, the burn of Aidan’s eyes as he watched my mate hold me tight, the thumb I’d licked clean drumming on the counter with the others.

“Looks like you guys are up for another round,” Stevie said. “Anything for you, Mase?”

“I’ve got everything I need right here.”

Which somehow resulted in me playing pool with the two of them.

“Can’t play doubles,” Mason said as he racked up the balls. “Not enough people.”

“Oh, I think I can hold my own against you two,” Aidan replied.

“Yay, male posturing and innuendo,” I muttered to myself.

“Whaddya reckon, Paige?” Mason asked, coming to settle behind me, making me painfully aware of the way his hips fit against mine. “Me and you against Aidan.”

“Or, y’know, we could sort out whatever weird psychosexual shit is going down here?” I asked.

“What?”

They both looked on as I grabbed a cue, chalked the tip, then leaned down to smash the white ball into the cluster at the top of the table. I stood back, watching where they stopped, several dropping down into the pockets.

“What’s going on here? You walk in to find me sucking his thumb,” I jerked mine at Aidan, “so you plaster yourself all over me, marking me like a dog does a tree?” I glared at Mason. “Then you want to ‘play pool.’ What’s on the table? Winner gets to bone me in the pub carpark?”

I was being entirely flippant, but each man let out a low growl.

“Not the carpark,” Aidan said in a silky voice. “I’ve got an empty property two houses up. Fully furnished, so we’d—”

“I was joking,” I snapped, holding up a hand to stop that mental image flooding my brain. Oops, too fucking late. “OK, so that’s what you get if you win. What do I get?”

Mason’s hands went to my waist, his mouth upon the nape of my neck sending shivers down me.

“Whatever you damn well want.”

All righty, then.

I bent over the table, Mason not moving an inch, and when I looked up, Aidan had his eyes trained on where my butt was jammed up against another man’s hips. I took advantage of his distraction, taking several shots before my last one failed, the blue ball hovering perilously close to the pocket before I stood up.

“Your turn,” I told Aidan, and it took a second for him to register what was happening. I snickered when he went to the cue rack with a dazed expression. “What the fuck?” I asked Mason, who seemed to be doing his best imitation of a shadow right now. I never thought I’d see the day when the feel of his body against mine raised my hackles, but I had to know who exactly this was for. I turned around to face him, and he surged forward, slotting in between my thighs, a cocky smile on his face. “Who’s this for, Mase? Me, you, or Aidan?”

“You’re feeling a lot better,” he said, punctuating his answers with kisses, which was dirty pool right there. My hand went to his hair, digging into that short crop, wanting, needing the taste of him as soon as his tongue touched mine. “I’ve watched you bleeding out on the floor. I’ve watched you fight to breathe, buried under a mass of cords and cables in the hospital, and I’ve watched Micah and Declan make you fucking come hard. I’m done watching, Paige. I wondered how the hell this was gonna work, but it’s through communication, isn’t it?” I nodded. “Well, I’m communicating an intent. Whatever you’re up for tonight, I need to be there. I need to feel you, taste you, stroke you—”

“It’s your shot,” Aidan said bluntly, holding out the cue.

I grabbed Mason’s jacket, holding him still for a moment, which made him smile.

“I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for you to say that to me.”

His smile widened, then faded when he saw how serious I was, his hand reaching up to stroke the side of my face.

“Then I need to say it a whole lot more. In the