Callie had forgotten two things—how much she disliked playing pool and the reason she had played it anyway during their courtship.  Having Hayden standing behind her to make subtle adjustments to her position fired her hormones as much now as it had five years ago.  Though he kept an appropriate distance between them, she felt his heat along the surface of her skin.  She should have headed home after tea.

It was too late now.  She couldn’t leave, even though she knew she courted danger by staying. 

“Your posture is too stiff,” Hayden said. “Relax.”

“I’m trying.”  How could she relax when she longed for the forbidden to happen, right here at the pool table?

“Maybe this will help.”  His hands covered her shoulder muscles, his thumbs kneading the base of her neck in a circular motion. 

She hadn’t wanted this, truly.  But her body craved the familiar touch all but forgotten by her long dormant desire.  “Mmmm.”  Her head dropped forward to allow him greater access to the ultrasensitive skin at her nape.

His thumbs and fingers pressed into the tight muscles along the slope of her shoulders, gradually returning to her neck to rub his thumbs up and down the length of it from the base of her skull to the neckline of her sweater.  Her pool cue dropped to the felt top with a dull thud, and Callie gripped the edge of the table while willing herself not to be seduced by a pair of skillful thumbs.

The pressure of his touch changed.  She knew that caress, knew she was losing her internal battle not to react to it.  As of its own volition, her sweater slid down her arms and she gasped when Hayden’s palms made contact with her goosebump-covered skin.

His lips were hot on her neck, and Callie’s nails dug into the felt bumper on the pool table.  “Stop me, Callie,” he murmured against her skin.  “Say no.  Say it now.”

“I can’t,” she moaned.  I can’t.

His arms circled her waist, drawing her into his heat as his mouth continued to explore the exposed skin along her collar.  Enough.  It was time to tell him to stop or to turn around and kiss him properly.

Her body chose the latter course, and somehow she turned inside his embrace to meet his lips with her own.  Their mingled hunger shocked Callie.  She clutched his shirt in her fists as he pressed her backside into the rim of the table.  She pulled at him, wanting him closer, needing what she had missed every night during the past two years. 

Breaking the kiss, Hayden tipped her head back with his thumb.  She struggled to catch her breath, gratified to see that he was panting too.  If he hadn’t been as needy as she was, Callie would have been embarrassed.  Instead she experienced a surge of passion and forgotten tenderness toward the man she had once loved.

Her arms and legs twined around Hayden, and he carried her to the couch where he set her down on a mound of pillows.  Their kisses grew more obsessive until Callie thought she’d go mad if they didn’t take it to the next level.  She wanted him on top of her, possessing her completely. 

The mountain of cushions quickly became uncomfortable, and she pulled a couple of pillows from under her back and threw them.  “Help me,” she mumbled, unable to tug more of them from beneath their combined weight.  Hayden lifted her up and tossed the rest of the pillows.

When she’d arrived at his front door, this was the last thing Callie had expected to happen.  A bitter fight had seemed a lot more likely than shared lust, flat on her back under her ex-husband, happy as hell about it.