“Did you ever think that maybe that means something? That maybe we’re meant to be together and that’s why you let me touch you the first time I ever met you?” he asked, looking at me intently.

He looked so serious; a dark, sexy, brooding look was etched on his face. I smiled and stepped forward, putting my hand up to his face and smoothing out his forehead with my fingertips. “Careful, you’ll get wrinkles on your pretty face,” I teased, going up on tiptoes and kissing his cheek. “Pool?” I offered, walking off towards the back where the pool cues were mounted on the wall.

He laughed quietly. “You play pool?” he asked, wrapping his arm around my waist as I walked up the stairs unsteadily.

“Nope,” I replied, popping the p and grinning. “Wanna give me a lesson on how to handle a stick?” I purred, holding it suggestively.

He smiled weakly. “Anna, please don’t be getting all drunk and flirting with me, that’s not on,” he warned, grinning and shaking his head.

“You shouldn’t be so sexy then, and then I wouldn’t want to flirt with you.”

He chuckled, smirking in my direction. “Right, I’ll get to work on that and solve any issues you have with my sexiness.”

I grinned. “Okay, if I’m not allowed to flirt with you, who should I flirt with? You scope out the bar and find me a suitable candidate,” I joked, stepping to his side.

“Okay.” He tapped his chin and looked around the bar. His eyes settled on an old man who was sitting in the corner playing chess with a friend. “Oh, old guy, three o’clock. He looks like he’d enjoy a bit of flirting from a pretty, young thing,” he teased, grinning at me.

“Hmm, I do like an older man, but maybe I should go for someone younger than my dad? He does like to call people ‘son’, so I don’t think it would go down terribly well if I brought home someone old enough to be his dad.”

Ashton laughed and collected all of the balls, putting them inside a black, plastic triangle. “How about these guys right here, coming up to talk to you,” he suggested, looking over my shoulder. I glanced around and, sure enough, two guys were coming over to us, both smiling. They were both about our age and judging by their ripped jeans and T-shirts, I would say they were college students too. One of them had strawberry blond hair and brown eyes, and the other was slightly taller than the first and darker in complexion, with brown hair and dark brown eyes. As they approached, I quickly moved to Ashton’s side and he stood up straighter, a small smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

“Hey, wanna play doubles?” the strawberry blond asked, smiling and nodding towards the pool table.

Ashton smiled politely. “Anna? Wanna play doubles?” he asked, wrapping his arm around me. His touch made me feel better instantly.

“Um, yeah okay,” I agreed, shrugging.

“Great, I’m Tim. This is Rich,” the blond said, grabbing a cue.

“I’m Ashton. This is my girlfriend, Anna,” Ashton replied, smiling and nodding.

The guy called Rich stepped forward. “How about loser buys the next drink?” he suggested.

I laughed. “Are you guys trying to hustle us for drinks?”

Rich laughed. “No way, babe. All the tables are taken, that’s all. If you don’t want to play, we’ll wait until you’re done. I was just trying to make the game more interesting.”

“I don’t think we should play for drinks, I’ve never played pool in my life,” I admitted, downing my drink and pushing the glass onto the side.

Rich laughed. “You haven’t? Then I think we should definitely be playing for drinks,” he joked. “Or phone numbers?” he offered, raising one eyebrow.

Ashton’s hand closed over mine, pulling me closer to him. “She has enough numbers,” he answered for me. “Want to play or not because if you’ve just come over here to hit on my girlfriend, then you’re shit out of luck because she’s not interested.” His voice was stern and warning. You could almost hear the cop in his tone, or maybe that was just me because I knew that’s what he was.

Tim held up his hands innocently and shook his head. “Hey, no problem, we only want to play pool,” he assured Ashton, jabbing an elbow into Rich’s stomach in warning. “Ignore him, he can’t help himself. When he drinks he gets verbal diarrhoea and tries to chat up anything that moves.”

“I’ll stay still then,” I joked, which seemed to diffuse some of the tension in Ashton. He smiled and laughed, his shoulders loosening as he rolled his eyes.

Tim and Rich were actually quite likeable guys; after the flirting incident, things settled down and we all played pool, laughing and joking around. As it turned out, I wasn’t very proficient at pool at all. In fact, I barely hit a ball, and all I kept doing was sinking the white. It was pretty good thing that we didn’t agree to play for drinks because my lack of skills would have put a serious dent in Daddy’s credit card.

Ashton had tried to teach me at first, showing me how to hold the cue, how to line up and where to angle it, but as soon as he leant over me and put his hands on mine, my mind was on other things. I couldn’t keep my mouth in check and at one point pondered out loud if it would be comfortable to have sex on a pool table or if you’d get carpet burn on your butt. That had made the boys howl with laughter and Ashton look at me with a lustful twinkle in his eye that made my stomach flutter and my body temperature rise a few degrees.