Hustle Him (Bank Shot Romance #2)(35)
Author: Jennifer Foor

“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 didn’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.”