Queen Of Glass

Chapter 14

Celaena Sardothien aimed the cue at the white ball in front of her. Steadying her hand upon the green felt surface of the table, she shot the wooden rod forward. And she missed it completely.
Cursing, Celaena tried again, this time hitting the cue ball in such a way that it merely rolled to the side, gently knocking into a colored ball. Well, at least she hit something.
She had finished her last book an hour ago and had soon remembered how boring her rooms were. With nothing better to do, the assassin had attempted to relearn the game of billiards.
She had such a table in her game and music room, but she had never used it, considering it a game much better played with company. But boredom had gotten the better of her and she had picked up the cue with high hopes that the game wouldn't be too hard to learn. She had never been more wrong.
In the past hour, Celaena had hit air more often than she had hit the cue ball. She was rarely bad at anything that she tried hard at, but to be blunt, Celaena was awful at billiards. Why anyone would ever want to play this game was really beyond her.
Celaena moved around the table and took aim again. She missed. Gritting her teeth and growling, Celaena considered snapping the cue in half. But her pride refused to let her quit. She would master this ridiculous game or would end up destroying it. It was nearing sunset—the blazing red and orange hues streaming into the room from the windows made her eyes water.
Stupid light. Stupid game. Stupid cue.
Celaena jabbed the cue again and hit the ball with such force that it went flying into the back wall of the table and rebounded, knocking three colored balls out of its way before it settled along a protected edge of the table. She grumbled as she walked over to the ball, trying to position herself and the stick so that she could hit it. Positioning the stick vertically in the air, she shot down at the ball. All that she hit was felt. She missed it again? What sort of sadistic game was this?
Celaena took the white ball in her hands and aimed it at the piano across the room. Before she could cause some serious damage to the instrument, she took a deep breath and put the ball down where it had been. She cocked the rod, but then stopped, her hand darting out to move the ball a few inches away from the edge. What fun was a game if you didn't cheat a little? Celaena repositioned herself and looked out at the fifteen colored balls, all of which refused to go into the six side pockets. They had made gaps too small!
She'd play until she got them all in...

Celaena hit the cue ball and watched it knock into the number three, sending the red orb across the table, headed straight for a hole. There was no way that she could miss this one...
It stopped rolling at the edge of the pocket.
Howling with rage, Celaena ran over to the pocket and hopped up and down in fury. She first screamed at the ball and then took the cue in her hands and bit down upon the shaft, still screaming through her clamped teeth. This cave- womanish behavior went on for a few more seconds before the assassin stopped, and slapped the red ball into the hole. It would have gone in if the table wasn't defected.
O-o-o-O-o-o-O
Dorian DeHavilliard tried to keep himself from laughing, feeling as if his insides would burst if he held in his laughter any longer. He had been watching from the doorway for the last five minutes as Celaena Sardothien tried her hand at billiards, arriving in time to see her leap around, screaming and biting the cue. That had only been the beginning.
At one point, she had taken the cue ball in her hands and hurled it at another ball on the table, causing it to fly into the air and take a chip out of the stone wall. Five minutes later, the cue ball had succeeded in knocking itself into one of the corner pockets. When she had gone to get it, her hand had gotten stuck in the hole. This had produced such howls of rage and contempt that Dorian feared she'd rip the table in two.
He watched her aim and miss. Twice. Three times. Four.
"You're the worst pool player I've ever seen, Celaena Sardothien," he said as he stepped out from the doorway. She swung towards him, her eyes bright with anger. She didn't seem to care that she was only wearing her under-shorts and a lacy, frilly undershirt. Dorian kept on walking towards her. "You've been playing for only the gods know how long and you're still pathetic. I've seen court ladies who can play better than you. They at least hit the ball." All of this was in jest, but Dorian smiled anyway to make sure that she understood it.
"If you're just going to insult me," she growled, "you can go back to the sewer that you came from."
Dorian laughed. "You have to realize how amusing this is to watch—are you planning on biting that cue anytime soon? I want to invite a painter in here so that I can forever remember that sight."
She looked up from where she was leaning on the table and raised an eyebrow. "You've been here that long?"
Dorian found heat rushing to his cheeks. Who would possibly leave or interrupt a sight like this? "You're very amusing when you're literally hopping mad," he said with a grin.
"Funny to you, infuriating for me," she snarled and shoved the rod forward. And missed...again.
Dorian clicked his tongue. "For the world's greatest assassin, you are offensively awful at billiards. Here, let me show you how to do it." The prince walked over to her and took her cue from her. He nudged her out of the way and positioned himself. "You see how my thumb and my index finger are always holding the upper end of the cue? All that you have to do is—"
Celaena knocked him out of the way and took the staff from him. "I know how to hold it, you buffoon."
Buffoon? Now that was something he'd never been called before. Celaena tried to hit the ball again...and, not surprisingly, she missed.
"Your body isn't moving the right way. Here, just let me show you..." Dorian reached over her and put his hand on top of the one gripping the bottom of the cue. His other took the hand that supported the tip and positioned her fingers on the wood, his fingers then dropping to her wrist. He had never been this close to a woman without having his clothes off...Dorian felt another blush rising to his cheeks.
His eyes drifted down to her face, and to his relief, he saw that her face was as red, if not more so, than his. How many times had she been with a man? She was young, so probably not many...He couldn't think about this now, not when he was so close to her and she was dressed in her undergarments...