Ryan Hunter

by Piper Shelly

  “Hey, Ryan! We’re starting a game of pool. Are you in?”

  Fuck you, Justin! I wanted to strangle my friend for ruining this moment for me. I glared over Liza’s shoulder at my friend, and he sure knew right then that he’d come at the entirely wrong moment.

  “Sorry, man,” he mouthed and grimaced.

  Exhaling a sigh, I pushed away from the counter. The spell was over. I might as well go play pool with my friends now. But I was going to do sports with Liza on Monday. I had been waiting years for that chance, so what was one more day? “There in a sec,” I told Justin.

  When he was gone and I looked at Liza’s beautiful face again, I wondered what that sweet mouth of hers would taste like. I stroked her cheek with the neck of my bottle. And there it was, dammit. The first dreamy look in her eyes that was only for me.

  “Enjoy the night,” I said in quite a soft way. “And whatever you do, stay away from the strawberries.”

  It was time to go, or I would do something stupid that was way too early in my plans of seducing Liza. So I headed for the door, leaving her a little stunned. But when I stepped past her, I couldn’t resist stroking the back of her hand with my own.

  Chapter 5

  A FEW GUYS stood around the pool table. Justin was playing a game against Alex when I came into the room adjoined to the main hall. Justin looked up and his face crumpled worse than a raisin. “Ah man, sorry, that wasn’t my intention,” he apologized again, straightening and leaning on his cue.

  “Forget it.” I grinned. “It’s all set for Monday.”

  That made him lift his brows in an impressed way and nod.

  “What’s set for Monday?” Alex demanded after he shot the yellow ball into the hole. “And what wasn’t your intention, Just?”

  “Nothing,” Justin and I shot back at him.

  “Is there money in the pot?” I tried to change the topic as I sat down on the couch between Frederickson and a guy whose real name I didn’t know but who we all called Sylvester.

  Alex tabbed the stack of dollar notes on the table with the tip of his cue at. “Twenty-five from each.”

  “I’ll play the winner.” I didn’t have to play for money to stock up my bank account, but it was way more fun playing with the guys if they had the right incentive. For one, they didn’t play pool like sissies then.

  It wasn’t easy to tell who was the better player, but this time Justin came out as the winner, because Alex holed the black eight early.

  “Fifty are in the pot,” Justin said to me with a wide sneer. “I want to see your money if you want to play.”

  I pulled two twenties and a ten from my wallet and placed them on Justin’s prize money. “I’m in.”

  Alex passed me the cue, and I chalked it while someone else set up the balls for us. Because I’d only just come in, I got to shoot first. Number twelve ended in the left corner pocket, which left Justin with the solids and me with the stripes. It was a fast game. In only four turns I had dumped most of my balls. Only the orange and white ball with the number thirteen was left, and I holed it into a corner pocket with a spectacular shot over three cushions. Now just the black eight, and victory would be mine.

  A confident smirk at Justin made the guy a little nervous. “Come on, Ryan, give a friend a chance. You can’t hole the ball just yet,” he whined.

  That didn’t irritate me. “What’s your problem, Justin? Afraid, your Mama’s going to find out you’re playing for money?” I leaned forward, focusing on the black ball, measuring my final shot.

  “My Mama doesn’t give a damn. But I really, really need this Spiderman comic. It’s an original.”

  Ah right. If it wasn’t about BMXing or girls, with Justin it was always comics. He hoarded them like squirrels hoarded nuts, and I couldn’t believe how much he was willing to spend on those books when his pocket money for a year was what I got in a month.

  He had me feeling bad for him…almost. Heck, this was a guy-thing, and I couldn’t lose, just to make a friend happy. When you were eighteen, it was all about rep.

  I positioned the cue in a perfect line to the white ball and the black eight. Then I moved the cue subtly back, getting ready to knock the ball into the pocket. I was so close to winning this game. Only, I made the mistake to look up for a second and froze.

  For an immeasurable moment, I forgot to breathe. How dare she come in here and ruin this game for me? Ah God, how dare she look so good, dammit? It only took a second for the others to realize something went wrong, and they all turned to find my personal downfall standing in the doorway.

  Liza grimaced and played uncomfortably with the hem of her top. “Is something wrong?”

  Everything was wrong. It always was with me when this girl was anywhere near. The day I had first seen Liza Matthews, I had tripped over the soccer ball and landed face first in the dirt. She always made me forget about anything else around me. And now, she’d cost me a fair sum if she didn’t turn around and walk out so I could get my head back in the game.

  No such luck. Justin made sure of that. He rushed to her side, the grin of victory sitting fat on his face. “You just saved my life, hun.”

  Liza seemed a little surprised when Justin laid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her farther into the room where the warm light from above played out the various shades of brown in her hair. For one, I wanted to kick my best friend’s ass at this moment, because he knew I’d screw up with Liza in this room and he just used that to his advantage. And secondly I wanted to kick is ass, because he simply dared to lay his fucking arm around my girl. He was going to pay for both later.

  “Ah…yes,” Liza said and looked from Justin to me. “And how so?”

  She had no idea. That was one of the things I liked about her most—that she always was so sweetly unaware of everything. Especially of the crap that was just about to fall on my head.

  “He can’t play when someone is watching him,” Justin stated the obvious. “Totally screws up then.”

  Her brows knitted together. “But you all are watching him.”

  The way she spoke to everybody else but looked only at me made me grin.

  “Yeah, but we’re not girls.” That was Alex from the back of the room, and he certainly enjoyed selling me out. Bloody bastards. Were they all against me tonight?

  It probably was time so say something in my defense, to save my honor, but all I did was fix Liza with a salacious stare as I straightened and chalked the tip of my cue.

  “Sorry,” she croaked. “I’ll leave you guys alone then.”

  Justin didn’t let her slip away. “Uh-uh, no way, hun! You’re my insurance to get that comic book. You stay.”

  His arm around her got mightily on my nerves, even though he made Liza smile. And heck, she had the prettiest smile in all Grover Beach. That kind where the upper lip slipped back a little and revealed perfect, white teeth that touched her soft, rosy bottom lip. A smile that conjured sweet dimples on her cheeks and made her pretty apple-colored eyes crinkle. One that made me lick my bottom lip, wanting nothing more than to kiss her.

  And because she still only gazed at me and no one else when she smiled, I couldn’t help that one corner of my mouth tilted up right now. I was in serious trouble. Lisa distracted me something awful. She made me lose my mind and lose this bloody game. More, she made me lose face in front of my closest friends—and she still lived. Damn, I must be in love with this girl.

  Taking a deep breath, I shook my head and leaned over the table once more. Everybody was tense and silent. Right, they would just love to see me butcher this shot. I cleared my throat, playing for more time, hoping for a miracle that would swipe Liza out of the room this second. But she remained, and I couldn’t stop looking at her. Hard as I tried to concentrate on the balls in front of me, my gaze drifted up to her face time and time again.

  Ah, to hell with it! This game was lost.

  I dropped my forehead to the edge of the table and laughed. “Take your money, Just. I give u
p.”

  They guys broke out in a rowdy cheer. Yeah, right, rub it in guys!

  Bracing my palms on the pool table, I hung my head for a moment, accepting their gloating. But when I looked up, Liza was still there capturing me with her gaze, and I knew it was totally worth it.

  “I’m so sorry,” she mouthed.

  And she had better be. Liza probably had no idea how badly she’d damaged my rep and that the boys would never let me live through this. But I wasn’t angry. How could I be? She was the sweetest distraction that had ever walked through my door.

  I didn’t let her out of my sight but smirked and mouthed back, “You are banned from this room.”

  She didn’t move an inch when I slowly walked around the table toward her. In fact, she even pressed a little harder against the wall, her eyes growing wider, her breathing coming just that bit faster. It looked like she couldn’t make up her mind whether she should shy away from me or be fascinated.

  I stood only half a foot away from her, with the cue tight in one hand. The other I place against the wall next to her head so she couldn’t escape me. “You just cost me fifty bucks.”

  “Yeah, I know. But he really, really needs this comic book.” She batted her long lashes at me. To my shame I had to admit that this simple move bulldozed right through my coolness.

  I laughed. “Siding with the enemy. I should have known.” Then I seized the opportunity to touch her one more time tonight and placed my hand in the small of her back. “For tonight, this room is off limits for you.” Gently, I pushed her through the door back into the main hall and enjoyed every second while my hand lay on her warm body.

  “Oh why? It’s so much fun to watch you…screw up.”

  She mockingly glanced up at me, and I should have bitten her bottom lip for that impish pout.

  But I resisted the urge and also to brush my thumb over her lip. Instead, I leaned in a little closer. “Off you go.”

  She obeyed, and I didn’t know if that made me happy or sad. But as soon as she was gone, I closed the sliding wood door and slumped with my back against it, facing a hoard of sneering guys.

  “Can anybody tell me why I never have my phone ready to videotape it when things like that happen?” Chris Donovan popped a new bottle of beer and saluted into the room. “Hunter screwing up a game because of Liza Matthews. This is priceless.”

  “Mitchell is so going to kill you for stealing his girl,” Alex said while rearranging the balls on the green felt.

  “Mitchell doesn’t have to know,” I sneered back. “Anyway, I’m not stealing her. That was just some harmless flirting. Nothing to blow a fuse about.”

  “What she did was harmless. What you did, man, was begging to get laid.”

  A laugh escaped me about the honesty and probable truth in that. “Fuck you, Winter. Are we playing pool now or what?”

  “You just epically failed. I’m not playing you, Hunter.” He cast me a mocking glare then turned around. “Frederickson, get your ass off the couch. We play.”

  I shoved his shoulder for that last remark, and Alex laughed as he grabbed the edge of the pool table for balance.

  Donovan hoisted himself onto the mini-bar, feet dangling, and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his thighs. The fat silver chain around his neck slipped out from under the collar of his T-shirt and swayed against his chin. “I never knew you felt anything for the chick.”

  Jeez, I’d rather we didn’t have to discuss my feelings and could just continue with a nice evening of playing pool. “I’m not saying I do.”

  “Right, that’s what you have us for,” Alex said, still struggling to stop laughing. “And, dude, it got you bad.”

  As if I didn’t know that. When I cut a glance over to Justin, the only one in the room who had known from the start how I felt, he shrugged, clearly telling me that I had no choice but to face it with the guys.

  Frederickson got to his feet, grabbed my cue, and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Sincere condolences, Ry. That girl won’t let you get within a yard.”

  Rubbing the back of my neck, I couldn’t bite down a smirk. “I believe I was way closer to her than that just a couple of minutes ago.”

  “Oooh,” a collective taunting echoed through the room. I hated it when the guys behaved like some silly chicks at a bachelorette party. But at age seventeen, almost everything was worth making a fool of oneself. I’d totally be with them if the joke wasn’t on me tonight.

  I dropped to the couch and leaned my head on the backrest, dragging my hands over my face, mostly to cover my stupid grin. “Shut up, you fuckers.”

  Alex made tsking noises before he made the first stroke and the balls were knocked in all directions. “Language, dude.” When none of the balls dropped in a pocket, he dumped his ass next to me and waited for Frederickson to make his shot. His long legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles, he cast me a sideways glance. “Seriously, you think you stand a chance with the chick? To me it looks like she’s forever happy to be Mitchell’s groupie.”

  At this point, I wasn’t sure if determination and charm alone were enough to change Liza’s mind, but I was ready to die trying. By what she showed me tonight, she wasn’t totally resistant to everything I said or did. Maybe the problem was just that she’d never considered a different future for her than one with Anthony Mitchell’s ring on her finger. But there were so many possibilities for her, if only she would open up. And, dammit, I was definitely one of them.

  “That’s because she doesn’t know what she’s going to miss while running after him,” I said to Alex.

  “You’re going to show her?”

  “Yeah. Hunter’s just the man for that,” Chris pointed out with an impish waggling of his brows. “I bet he has her in his bed before the week’s over.”

  “Twenty that she doesn’t even let him kiss her in that time,” Frederickson countered.

  “Guys!” I shouted to get their attention then nailed them all with a severe stare. “Don’t you even think of making a wager on this. Matthews isn’t a girl you fool around with for winning a bet. First, because she’s the friend of a friend. And second—” I paused then slowly lifted one corner of my mouth. “Because I would hate to see you lose your money, Frederickson.”

  That made the guys hoot and whistle, and they all wished me luck. I definitely needed it if I wanted to land Liza.

  A few minutes passed before everyone was cool again, and we could play pool for a little while without distractions. When we had raided the mini-bar down to the tonic water, I left the guys to grab some drinks. “Going to get beer. Anybody else wants one?”

  Alex said yes, and Justin ordered soda.

  As I walked into the kitchen, my hands immediately fisted by my sides, and I had trouble unclenching my teeth. Liza sat on the counter, and Mitchell stood between her dangling feet. At the first look I thought they were kissing, and my heart hurt so bad that I wondered if someone should call an ambulance because I was suffering a cardiac arrest. Until I realized Cloey was with them and Liza apparently had some trouble sitting upright. I had sent her off with Sprite. How the hell did she end up drunk?

  Cloey pulled on Mitchell’s arm, but he didn’t seem to be ready to go. “Anthony, you promised to dance with me,” she nagged him.

  And then, in spite of my rage about Tony standing so close to Liza, I had to suppress a chuckle when Liza iterated with the voice of a preschooler, “Anthony, you promised to dance with me.”

  That sure pissed Cloey off. “What’s wrong with her?”

  “She just had a little too much of the wine cooler,” said Tony. “I’ll be with you in a minute.”

  I was about to tell him he should go with her now and let me handle Liza. In her condition it wasn’t a good idea to let her deal with Cloey and the crap she didn’t know about them yet.

  But at the same moment, Liza’s head dipped to his shoulder. “I’m so tired. Can we go home?” she whined.

  Cloey took a step back and folded her a
rms over her chest, which threatened to jump out of her plastered-on black dress. “Aw, come on, Anthony. You’re not going to leave already. It’s only eleven. Take her upstairs to one of Hunter’s guest rooms. She can sleep there.”

  Oh no.

  “And not bother you any longer?” a moan came from Liza who looked like she was already falling asleep on Tony’s shoulder.

  Not up to getting involved in the drama of the night, I walked up beside Mitchell and said, “You don’t want to do that. In her state, she’s not safe in any of the guest rooms. You know how the parties go on the later it gets.” So what option did we have left? “Take her to my room.”

  “What?” Liza and Tony shouted, Liza suddenly sitting straight with her eyes wide open. So much for getting her in my bed before the week was over.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, guys.” I rolled my eyes as if the thought of doing anything with Liza was totally absurd. If they knew the truth, Tony wouldn’t trust me one bit. “She’ll be awake and gone before I even get upstairs.” Unfortunately, that was the truth.

  Since Liza was as drunk as a rum truffle, it was up to Mitchell to decide for her. He was, after all, her best friend and therefore responsible…somehow. But he was reluctant.

  “Hell, do it already, Anthony, and come back fast,” Cloey demanded.

  When Tony pressed his lips into a straight line, I thought he would never agree. But then he said, “Come on, Liz,” and pulled her off the counter. With his arm around her waist, he steadied her and walked her to the door.

  After only three steps, she slipped away from him and knocked against the fridge, bounced back, and stumbled. “Pardon me,” she said as if the fridge had just grown a soul.

  She was going to run into the counter next, so I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her tight against me. “Didn’t I tell you to stay away from the strawberries?” I growled into her ear, immediately getting high on her beautiful scent.

  “Strawberries? There was one in my last soda.” The silly girl grinned like a loon. “It was yummy.”

  “Yummy, all right.” I chuckled. Then I scooped her up. Lord, had I known that this was Heaven, I’d have tried to be a nicer guy in the past. Her body was light and soft, and her warmth seeped through my shirt, causing my skin to prickle with a certain need to feel her rubbing against me. My hands lay on places that I wouldn’t have dared to dream of touching her just a couple of days ago.