Hustle Him (Bank Shot Romance #2)

by Jennifer Foor

  I ignored most of what she was screaming, while getting her fastened into the backseat of my truck. Once I knew she couldn’t get out, I grabbed my cell phone and called Sue’s bar.

  Hey, it’s Ramsey. I just want you to know that Vessa is with me and she’s safe.

  How come she isn’t calling me?

  She’s cuffed in the backseat.

  Come again?

  She wouldn’t listen to me, so I pulled her over and cuffed her. She’s too pissed to call you at the moment. I just didn’t want you driving by her car and getting worried.

  How long are you planning on keeping her?

  She’ll be in my custody until she hears me out.

  Ramsey, don’t make me regret pushing the two of you together.

  I hung up the phone, while she was still threatening me. If my plan backfired, that woman was going to skin me alive.

  After grabbing Vessa’s purse and pool stick, I locked her doors and headed back to the truck. I should have known she would still be cussing at me.

  “Ramsey Towers, you get me out of these cuffs, right now!”

  “You have given me no other choice. I’m taking you to my cabin and you’re going to listen, whether you want to or not.” I adjusted the mirror, to be able to see her while I drove.

  She spat out a few other profanities on the way back to my place. I was amused by the way she was acting. In fact, it was turning me on. The more angry she was, the more I wanted to pull the truck over and show her what I wanted.

  Once I was parked in front of my place, I proceeded to get her out of the backseat. “If you think you are going to take me in there and have sex with me, you are dead wrong.”

  She was handcuffed from the front, so it was easy to lift her arms above her head and shove her against my truck. I pressed my body into hers and used my free hand to rub against her jeans, right between the legs. I rubbed her hard, right where her little clit was. She closed her eyes tight, trying to fight what I was making her feel. I put my mouth against her neck. “I bet you taste amazing.”

  “Please…don’t.”

  I kissed the base of her neck, letting my tongue lead the way to her ear. “Don’t what? Don’t stop?”

  She said nothing.

  My hand slid up under her shirt. I could feel the edge of her bra. Instead of going underneath, I stayed on top of the fabric. Her little nipples were hard and I pinched at them one at a time. “You’re so damn, sexy. Let me taste you, Vessa.”

  I stood up and pressed my lips against hers, slowly letting her hands come down over my head. With her arms securely wrapped around my neck, I picked her up. As soon as I felt her legs wrapping around me, I knew we were on the same page. I pressed her body against the truck and teased her with my lips. My dick was already trying to bust out of my pants and we weren’t even in the house yet.

  I kept a good hold of her while I carried her into my cabin. With my foot, I slammed the door shut. I leaned against it, with her still in my arms, and my hands on her ass. She pulled away from my kiss and looked right at me. “Free my hands.”

  I kissed her again. “Are you going to smack me?”

  “Is that what you want? Are you into that kind of thing? I wouldn’t know, since you wouldn’t tell me anything.” I took the key out of my pocket and uncuffed her. She rubbed her wrist for a second, while keeping her eyes on mine. “Why am I here? You said we couldn’t be together.”

  She backed away from my reach and stood behind the couch. With the furniture between us, I stood up straight and just looked at her. “You’re right. I did say that.”

  She waved her arms around the room. “What is this then? Why did you bring me here? What the hell was the kissing about?”

  I pointed to the back room, where a pool table had been covered in storage boxes before. Not only had I cleared it off, but I’d been playing on it every night when I couldn’t sleep. I’d even had Shelton over for beers and basketball game. “You wanna go in there?”

  “What the…I don’t remember this.”

  “When I originally got this place, it was the only thing I brought from my old house. The place was already fully furnished. Since I never unpacked everything, it was covered up with all my shit.” I walked back there and realized she was following me. “The only problem with uncovering it, was that I didn’t have someone to play. So, I say we play a couple games. The wager will be what it was before with an addition.”

  “What if I don’t want to know anything else about you?”

  “Oh, you do, Vessa. We can keep playing this game if you want, except, I’m tired of wasting time. If you’re not naked in my bed before the night ends, then I promise to leave you alone from now on.” This was going to be good. I was going to kick her ass on this table. Sure, it needed new rails and the felt was horrible, but she sucked at pool. It was a win win for me.

  “She leaned on the table and looked up at me. “What’s the other addition?”

  “Every time the person wins, they not only get a question, but the loser has to remove one article of clothing.”

  She cocked an eyebrow and shook her head. When she held out her hand, I didn’t quite understand. Then she explained. “Give me your keys.”

  My plan had backfired. I felt defeated. Why had she kissed me back if she didn’t want to be with me. “You’re just going to leave me here and go home?”

  She didn’t answer as she walked right out my door. I should have ran after her, but with everything I had done to get her there, it was too much. While thinking that my chance with Vessa was over, she came walking back in the house and lifted up her pool case into the air. “I shoot better with this.”

  I didn’t want her to see my excitement, so I focused on something else. “I noticed the stick when you were shooting. Where’d you get it?”

  “Only the winner gets to ask questions. I think it’s time you racked the balls.” She pulled out her stick and assemble it together, while I grabbed the pool balls and got them positioned within the triangular shaped rack. I watched her chalk up the stick and something was different about her.

  I was shocked when she broke a ball and made one in the side pocket. From the moment she leaned over, I could see that something was different. She made five balls before hiding me from making my shot. With a huge smile on her face, she backed away from the table.

  It had to be luck. I’d seen the girl shoot before and she sucked bad.

  I kicked at my shot and missed. Vessa made three more hard ass shots and then called the eight ball in a pocket she’d have to bank it in. I’d like to pass out when I saw her bend down to take that shot and look at me as she did it. That damn ball went right into the pocket. With my mouth hung open, she looked at me and re-chalked her stick. “Remove one article of clothing. Rack the balls and tell me why the hell you brought me here, for real!”

  I pointed to the table. “You…you just…you’ve been hustling me this whole damn time?”

  “You aren’t allowed to ask a question until you win. I believe that was the rules that you made.”

  Holy shit. In all the games that I had played for money, I’d never imagined in a second that she was hustling me. The whole time I was getting to know her, she was losing on purpose, knowing that she wouldn’t get one single question. “This is the kind of mind shit your aunt plays,” I said as I removed my shirt and tossed it to the side.

  She smiled and watched me kneel down and start re-racking the balls. “You owe me an answer.”

  “Fuck that! I’m going stand here and be mad at you for a second.” I crossed my arms and refused to explain anything to her.

  She bent over and broke the balls again, this time making three balls. She ignored me as she made each shot with perfect positioning for the next. I was dumbfounded. “I’ve been around people with problems for a long time, Ramsey. I knew you were broken by the second time we met.”

  “The second time?”

  “Yeah, you think I forgot about the hospital?” Jesus,
who was this woman?

  “I was making sure you were okay.”

  “I figured it out when all the pieces started coming together. When the whole truth came out, I really understood why you just couldn’t leave until I woke up.” I felt like such an ass. She really did know me, even when I tried my hardest for her not to.” This time she broke and ran the whole rack out without giving me one single shot. “Second question is why am I here when you have clearly moved on to a very attractive brunette?”

  Of course, this made me laugh out loud.

  I stepped out of my pants and tossed them over where my shirt was. “Just because I love the fact that this is bothering you so much, I will answer the second question first. Renee is my deputy’s relative. She’s studying for a law degree and lives right outside of town with her lesbian girlfriend.”

  Her eyes got huge and I saw the little block of pool chalk being thrown toward my head. “You dick! You picked her to get to me, didn’t you?”

  I laughed even louder as it passed by me and landed on the floor. “No questions until you win again, remember?”

  She shot and missed finally, probably because I had her so worked up. For the next few minutes we played safe on each other, which meant we kept hiding the ball so that we couldn’t make our shots. As mad as I should have been, I was more hot for Vessa than ever before. Each time she bent down and stroked her stick with such precision made me want to bend her over that table and rip down those tight jeans she had on.

  When she missed her shot, I ran out the rack. Finally having my turn, I watched her removing her jeans, without having to ask. Her tiny little lace panties barely covered her ass. I couldn’t help but stare the whole time I asked my question. “What’s the real reason you hustled me?”

  Her face got red as she stood there in a tight shirt and a pair of panties. I let the question simmer and started shooting. Like a kid at Christmas, when I ran out all of the balls without her having a single shot, I jumped up and down. I got up in her face. “Lose the shirt!”

  She leaned her stick up against the wall and pulled off her shirt. Her bra didn’t match her panties, but I liked that she hadn’t expected any of this. She tried to stand so that her hands covered her body, but I could see through the sheer blue bra. “You owe me an answer, you know.”

  “You still owe me mine!” I walked up close to her, shocking her when I took one hand and cupped the fabric of her bra. I used my fingers to pull it away from her skin and get a peek at her nipple. I licked my lips before bending down and running my tongue over it in circular motions. Once she was breathing heavy and wanting more, I pulled the fabric back up the way it was supposed to be and backed away from her.

  “I think we should play the tie breaker first.”

  “Fine!” She racked the balls and watched me break the balls. The rack must have been loose, because they didn’t break up all the way, leaving a mess to work with on the table. Vessa seemed proud of her little cheat attempt at screwing me over. I shot at a ball and missed the next one.

  She walked by me and bent down slowly to take her shot. Before doing it, she turned her head to see me looking at her fine ass. “You should keep your eyes on the table.”

  “I’d like to put you on the table,” I whispered.

  She must have heard me, because she missed her shot by a lot. “That wasn’t fair.”

  “Life’s not fair, Vessa. You should know that more than anyone. If it was fair, you’d be happy and you’re not. There’s only one thing that’s going to fix your broken heart.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “Oh yeah, what’s that?”

  “Me!”

  Chapter 16

  Vessa

  “Did you really just say that to me? You rejected me, remember?” I pointed to the corner pocket and sunk the eight ball. When it rolled in, I tossed my stick on the table and turned around to face him. He walked up closer to me, keeping six inches between us. “You need to start explaining yourself, or I’m going to get a ride home.”

  He kissed me softly on the cheek and walked over to grab something. Then he walked back and sat it on the pool table. I watched him open it up and stare down at the first set of pictures. “My mother put this together and gave it to me when I finally got the nerve to visit my family again. This is the story of my life with my girls and I want to share it with you and you alone.”

  I looked down at a picture of a young Ramsey in a football uniform, with a pretty cheerleader at his side. “She wasn’t one of those bitchy girls. Jules always got straight “A’s” and did the right thing. That’s what I liked so much about her. She didn’t change for anyone.”

  The next picture was them at prom. Jules looked nothing like me. She had dark hair and huge dimples in both of her cheeks. They looked good together, like the typical Jock and cheerleader couple would. I traced the photo with my fingers. “Gavin was my high school boyfriend. None of our pictures turned out like these. He was always too stoned, or skipping school for events like this.”

  The next set of pictures were their wedding. I looked over at Ramsey and could see from the look on his face that this was hard for him. “It rained that day. I remember the hall we had our reception at smelled like hairspray from all the ladies hair getting wet. The pictures of our guests were horrible.”

  We both laughed.

  “My wedding was the shotgun kind. My mother didn’t like Gavin, so I just did it without her blessing.”

  More pictures of their life came as we turned the pages together. My heart broke when I saw them at the hospital holding their daughter Katie for the first time. They looked like such a happy family. I could hear him sniffling, but knew I would start crying if I looked up at his face. “She never cried much. We held her all the time. I remember she used to prefer sleeping on my chest to any other place.” He pointed to a picture of them both asleep on the couch.

  The rest of the album was all of the special moments that he’d shared with his girls. “This is beautiful.” I turned to look into his tear filled eyes. “Thank you for showing me this.”

  He put his hand over mine and took a second to relax enough to talk. “When I lost them, I didn’t want to live anymore. I shut down and stayed away from everyone that cared about me. I just couldn’t handle the constant reminder of being without them. When I moved here, I just wanted to be left alone. Everything was fine, until I got that call that night. I don’t know if it was a sign, but from the first moment I met your family, including your aunt, I’ve felt connected to you. The more I fought it, the more I thought about you. Vessa, you need to understand that I hadn’t let myself live in a long time. I fought it, because I thought you’d be better off not knowing the real me. The one who was broken.”

  We both turned around and leaned on the pool table, standing next to each other. “It wasn’t your decision to make.”

  “I didn’t want to be happy. I wasn’t ready to admit that they were never coming back to me.”

  “I guess I didn’t make things easier for you when I was practically throwing myself at you.” I just wanted to fix him.

  “You didn’t have to try hard, Vessa. I was attracted to you from the first moment I saw you. There isn’t one thing about you that I would change. Everything is sexy to me.”

  I looked into his eyes and felt butterflies in my stomach. “You mean, it wasn’t because of the kiss?”

  “No. I’d been fantasizing about sleeping with you way before that.”

  I shook my head and looked away. “That’s creepy.”

  He lifted my chin and looked me right in the eyes. “I’m pretty sure the creepy attraction was mutual.”

  I shrugged. “Even if it was, I need to know what went wrong. I’m listening and I’m ready to hear whatever you have to say. I can handle it, I promise.”

  “I’ll get to that, but I just have to know one thing. Did you only want me because you felt sorry for me?”

  That was a hard question. I had to say it right, so that I di
dn’t hurt his feelings. “At first, I was just trying to peel away the layers to what had happened to you. When I found out, I did feel sorry for you, but I was already determined to know you. Learning the truth and how compassionate you were over it is what made me want more. I can’t imagine what it was like to live through something like that. All I know is that you did live through it and I hated that you would give up on ever being happy again. I don’t know when me helping you changed into something else, but that night we shared together meant more to me than you’ll ever understand. I’ve never been touched like that. I’ve never felt so connected to another human being than I did in those moments that I was with you. It was when I knew it wasn’t just an attraction that I was feeling.”

  He reached over and grabbed my hand and lifted it to his lips. “I never meant to hurt you that night. What you felt, I felt too. God, I can’t even explain it. All I can come close to is that you woke me up and showed me that I could be happy again. I’m so sorry I sent you away, Vessa. I just had all of these feelings fighting inside of my head. I didn’t know what to do. When you left me that night, I did a lot of thinking about what I wanted. By the next morning, I knew what I had to do.”

  I let go of his hand. “Obviously, it had nothing to do with me, since it took you so long to walk back into my life.”

  He slid his body off the pool table and got right in my face. This time, he grabbed both of my hands with his. “That’s where you’re wrong, Vessa. You’re so wrong.” He kissed me softly on the lips and pulled away to look at me again. He was smiling and I just wasn’t used to seeing him act this way. “I packed my things and went home.”

  I couldn’t believe it. While I was lying in bed crying, he was going out and doing something so brave. I moved my hands from his and wrapped them around his back. My head fell against his chest as I listened to what he was telling me. I felt his arms match mine and we just stood there holding each other.

  “The gravesite was the hardest for me. Well, that, and being around my in-laws. They weren’t exactly jumping up and down to see me. Anyway, my parents had gone through Hell worrying about me. I should have never shut them out. I get it now.”