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Language:
English
Series:
Part 2 of little black dress and practical heels
Stats:
Published:
2019-07-06
Words:
1,643
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
39
Kudos:
385
Bookmarks:
14
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5,907

games

Summary:

Although she's not his usual type, Rio's having fun making Beth's ex-husband jealous, and he's curious about seeing the rest of the night through with her.

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Rio glances over his shoulder to see if the ex is still watchin’. He is, only he’s being a little less obvious about it. He’s grindin’ against his girl, but his gaze keeps flicking to Beth, seeing if she’s noticin’. Rio looks back over to her: she’s not. She’s ice cold, completely ignoring the guy, and whether that’s because she’s strong-willed or because she’s enjoying herself or because she just don’t care about him, Rio’s not sure—but he’d like to find out.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Damn. Beth isn’t messin’ around with this kiss. She gets into it, which makes Rio get more into it, and he mighta lost himself there for a minute but Annie’s making so much noise cheerin’ them on that he remembers he’s in a public place. 

Annie wolf whistles as Rio breaks the kiss and tucks a strand of hair behind Beth’s ear.  

“Hell yeah!” Annie says, lifting her glass. “This is the most fun Beth’s been in literally years.”

Beth rolls her eyes, but Rio sees that her cheeks pinken. Rio’s not surprised by Annie’s comment or Beth’s reaction. He can’t fully get a read on this woman, but whatever her ex-husband thinks she is? Rio suspects she’s a lot more than that. Sure, she’s timid, maybe even a li’l conservative (she’s wearin’ a blouse with all these flowers and shit on it—to a bar like this on a Friday night) but he’d liked her style when he watched her reject that BitCoin man. She was so polite about it, but her smile was scathing. He was into it.

Plus, then she’d rolled with Rio’s plan almost seamlessly. She was still a little uneven thinkin’ on her feet, but there was some potential there, enough to make Rio interested in taking Annie up on that offer for another drink. 

Now though? That kiss? He’s sticking around to see how this all plays out. He suspects that all that tension she’s carryin’, plus that hint of repression mixed with her obvious enthusiasm could make for a really fun night if he plays his cards right. She seems like she could benefit from letting loose.  

Rio glances over his shoulder to see if the ex is still watchin’. He is, only he’s being a little less obvious about it. He’s grindin’ against his girl, but his gaze keeps flicking to Beth, seeing if she’s noticin’. Rio looks back over to her: she’s not. She’s ice cold, completely ignoring the guy, and whether that’s because she’s strong-willed or because she’s enjoying herself or because she just don’t care about him, Rio’s not sure—but he’d like to find out.

“So, Elizabeth,” he starts.  

“Just Beth,” she corrects.

He purses his lips, squinting at her and considering. “Nah. Elizabeth’s all regal and shit, but Beth sounds kinda meek.”

 Her eyes widen. “That’s rude!”

“Beth, you literally cross stitch,” Annie says. 

“That doesn’t mean I’m meek,” Elizabeth says. “Do you know what ‘meek’ means?”

“No,” Annie admits, shrugging. “But I do like to remind you that you cross stitch whenever I think I can work it in as an insult. Keeps ya humble.” Annie sports a shit-eating grin as she says this.  

“Rude. Both of you—” Elizabeth points a finger at both Rio and her sister, “—rude.”

 Rio laughs. “C’mon, I just kissed you to make your ex bug out. You pegged me for nice?” 

“Well, kinda, yeah,” Elizabeth insists. She’s twistin’ her hair around in her fingers all nervous. “You helped out a stranger for no reason at all and got nothing out of it—that seems nice.”

“You do remember the part where I got to stick my tongue in your mouth, yeah? That’s not quite getting nothin’ out of the deal,” Rio says, smirking. Josh laughs. Rio locks his eyes with Beth’s, and he’s impressed when she doesn’t look away, even though he can see that she's not sure how to react to how forward he is. “Plus, pissing that guy off was pretty fun. I’d do it again.”

“Please do,” Annie says. “Because he is trying so hard to get Beth to notice him dancing up on Amber, and I’m pretty sure the entire bar is experiencing second-hand embarrassment.”  

“Let’s play pool,” Rio says, standing up abruptly. He’s just noticed one group desert the table and they gotta move quick if they wanna lock it down. He grabs his drink and then holds out his hand for Elizabeth’s. She hesitates but then places her hand in his own. It’s all sweaty—she’s nervous as hell, but Rio finds that oddly charming, mostly because she keeps forging ahead despite how jittery she is. 

 “We’re gonna stay here,” Annie says, and she winks at Elizabeth. If she’s tryin’ to be subtle, she’s very bad at it, but Rio suspects she doesn’t really care. “Have a lot of fun. Make good choices!” She drops her voice to a whisper and says, “Go get that D!”

“Your sister’s interestin’,” Rio says when they’re out of earshot. He grabs two cue sticks and starts chalking the tips. “A real cheerleader for you gettin’ hot and heavy. Kinda weird, but to each their own.”

Elizabeth laughs, taking the first stick Rio finishes chalking. “She’s just really, really supportive. She hated Dean. And if you couldn’t guess, it’s been a while since... you know—” She gestures vaguely.

“No,” Rio says, feigning misunderstanding, trying to make her spell it out for him. “What?”

Elizabeth stares him down, not falling for his bullshit.  

“I’m kiddin,’” Rio says. “I’m pickin’ up on all the cues. I get it. You prolly haven’t had an orgasm in, what, two years? Maybe longer. Not too sure that guy knows what he’s doing.” Rio turns to look at Dean gyrating. He aint got no rhythm, and his girl seems to be just about done with pretending she’s having fun. She drags him off the dance floor.   

Rio turns back to Elizabeth, and if he could freeze frame the shock on her face, he would. 

“You—you have a lot of nerve,” Elizabeth stammers. 

“Relax,” Rio says as he starts arranging the pool balls in the triangle. “I’m not judgin’.” He walks over to Elizabeth and stands too close to her, all up in her personal space, but she doesn’t back down. “Ladies first.”

Elizabeth breathes out a sign of relief as she steps away from him and leans over the table to take the first shot. He expects her to be bad—she doesn’t seem like the pool hall type—and her body’s working against her, since she’s gotta maneuver around a very, uh, developed chest, but she does a nice job with her first shot. 

“Aight, you got solids,” Rio says. He moves across the table to line up his shot. “So, Elizabeth. Tell me: what’s makin’ you stay here and play this game with me?” 

Elizabeth doesn’t answer, but he feels her eyes on him as he lines up his shot. He misses. The balls scatter everywhere, but all he’s done is set up multiple options for her to have a good turn. 

“I mean, accordin’ to you, I’m rude,” he says, counting out on his fingers. “And I’ve scandalized you talkin’ about your orgasms—or lack thereof. We’ve already pissed off your husband. You keep starin’ at my tattoo like it’s gonna bite you… So what are you still doin’ here?”

Elizabeth straight up ignores him, and Rio secretly loves it. She saunters around the table and he watches her figure out her options and calculate her angles.

“Here’s a question for you,” she says, once she’s finally decided where she’s gonna stand to take her shot. Because she took the harder angle, she’s rewarded with two more balls in the pockets. Jesus, he was really underestimating her skill here. “I’m obviously not your type—”

“Who says I gotta type?” Rio raises his eyebrows and scans her up and down, taking her in. She’s good-lookin’, no doubt, but she’s right. He doesn’t usually go for women like her. He usually goes for ones that are lean like him, all hip bones with hardly any curves, and he rarely pursues white ladies—and never white ladies that are so... suburban. She’s also a little older than him, maybe six or seven years. Nothin’ about her fits in with his patterns, but he keeps catching himself looking at her anyway.  

Elizabeth continues talking, as if he never interrupted. “—and you already got a free drink and a kiss… so. Tell me. What are you still doing here?”

“Maybe I’m hopin’ I might get a li’l more than that.” Elizabeth’s not givin’ anything away about what she thinks about that comment. He misses his shot again. “Damn.” 

“You’re really bad at pool,” Elizabeth says, sidling up to him and leaning against the pool table. “I was sure this was going to be a ruse so you could do the thing where you offer to teach me, but it’s really just an excuse to touch me.” 

“Nah," Rio says, moving to stand face-to-face with her. "If I wanted to touch you, I’d just ask.”

Elizabeth’s fingers twitch around her pool cue. “Oh.”

“Yeah. So." Rio steps forward so that he's just inches away from her. "Can I touch you?”

“We’re in public,” she whispers. 

“I didn’t forget,” he responds. 

“Okay,” Elizabeth says, nodding. 

Rio kisses her again, and this time he’s sure neither of them are thinking about her ex. Elizabeth’s hands are on his hips and his are in her hair. Elizabeth breaks the kiss this time, but when she does it, she drags his bottom lip through her teeth and Rio feels a tightening in his groin. 

“I’m shit at pool,” he admits. “But I am good at other stuff.”

“Oh?” Elizabeth says, playing innocent. 

“I don’t know if you heard, but I got a pretty nice car out in the parking lot,” Rio says, poking fun at her dumbass husband’s line of car questioning. But he’s serious about the offer. “Dark windows, too.” 

“That does sound pretty nice…” Elizabeth says, and he’s waiting for the “but,” for the end of the road to arrive. “But I’ve got a van. And the seats go all the way down.” 

Yeah, Rio decides, as she grabs his hand and leads the way. Her husband was definitely underestimatin’ her

Notes:

I'm confused about the differences between chapters and new parts of a series. It seems like when I add a new chapter, it doesn't appear on the home page so nobody can tell it's updated? But if I do new parts of a series, it's always chapter 1/1? I'm still new at AO3, so can anyone give me advice on what's the best way to do it?