Going Hard: Boys of Fall by Cari Quinn Read Free Book Online Page A

least it started them in the plus column. He’d sunk one stripe and one solid.
    “Dealer’s choice,” Rafe said.
    “Stripes.”
    He leaned on the rail. “Then let’s go.”
    God help her. She took the next and sank two balls. Unfortunately, Rafe’s presence was a distraction she wasn’t prepared for. And to be truthful, not used to. She’d had a crush on him for as long as she could remember, but she’d always made sure to stay out of his line of sight. They tended to argue as often as they had pleasant conversations. She’d long claimed she hated him, just to keep from fluttering around him like a complete girly fool.
    Not that even her claims of hatred had bought her much distance.
    She didn’t want to look like an idiot around him. First of all, her flirting skills were nonexistent. To her mind, if you wanted to have sex, well, why not say it? The whole coy dating game was simply beyond her.
    Not to mention that he never seemed to notice her. He’d always been too busy with her brothers.
    All that had changed when Wade had gone away to pursue his music.
    After that, Rafe had spent more and more time working, more time with his family, and less time spending his weekends at the farm with her family. Those flashes of fun he’d let her see now and then had vanished completely.
    Had he really changed so much in so little time?
    The breadth of his shoulders and whip-lean hips certainly said so to her. Gone was any resemblance to the boy she’d known. He was harsher, more focused, more intense.
    And Rafe Martinez had always been pretty damn intense. So serious all the time. Now the tiny laugh lines she remembered had been replaced with frown lines on his forehead.
    What did it say that she wanted to smooth them away?
    It said she needed to get laid. And while these two college guys were definitely not doing it for her, she didn’t want to picture Rafe in that role.
    At all.
    Why did she have to keep reminding herself of that?
    Perhaps it was exhibit A on the pool table right now? Rafe with his long tanned fingers caging the pool stick for a smooth return. The smack of balls and two more solids sinking into the pocket made her groan.
    He was about to run the table.
    The concentration on his face was the first clue; the tension in his shoulders was the next. Bobby watched in awe as each angle was meticulously measured by Rafe’s keen eye and perfect form.
    When he stretched across the table for a difficult shot, she let her gaze linger over the muscular length of his thigh and perfect ass. She’d been cozied up alongside that entire length of hard male perfection.
    Her nipples tightened under the uncomfortable material of her bra. Stupid thing had shifted and twisted in the last game. She desperately wanted to tug it down, but there were far too many eyes on her.
    She wiggled against the post beside the table. Rafe’s hair fell forward as he lined up the shot, but he must have noticed her gyrations. He frowned at her before scratching the next shot.
    Thank God.
    She took back the next two shots and prayed as Todd actually managed to sink the next one. Damn well better have, since she’d completely set him up.
    The last shot of the table, however, was nearly impossible. “Thanks, Todd.”
    College boy folded his arms. “These shots are crazy.”
    She was short and needed to crawl across the damn table to take aim. She could use the extender stick, but memories of the guys taunting her about using it made her leave it in its rack under the table.
    There was no way she was going to listen to that ridicule tonight.
    She hopped onto the table to twist herself for the shot. Rafe came up to her and laid a hand on her hip. “Try something?”
    She looked up at him. “What can you do that I can’t?”
    His raven-black eyebrow arched under the adorable curl of hair hanging onto his forehead. She had the worst urge to push it back and feel the coarse silk sift between her fingers.
    He lifted her off the table and led