Chapter 49

• HUN! I could hardly believe my ears. Surely this couldn’t be innocent speech – could it? – I wondered, yet her face betrayed no emotion. Either she was naively unaware of the effect she was having on me, or she was teasing me, I decided. The possibility that she was genuinely flirting with me seemed too far-fetched to consider.
• I set up the fifteen balls on the table and unpacked my cue. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her run her slender finger around the rim of her glass. It seemed oddly erotic. I glanced at her face, her slightly lined throat, and at the rise and fall of her ripe breasts under her satin shirt. I was about to demonstrate how to hold the cue and how to angle it for the break.
• “Whoa!” she laughed. “You need to explain the rules and what the aim of the game is first!”