“Well, it cost me thirty thousand pounds,” I said. Her eyes widened.
“Are you sure you want to put it on the line? It’s worth more than the entire pot already,” she said. Had I overplayed my hand? Why was she so reluctant? I watched her take a deep breath and add the watch to the pot.
“Ready to play?” I asked. She nodded. I watched her to see any signs of reluctance. I didn’t want to make her do anything she didn’t want to do. It was starting to feel like a repeat of the last time we were in a casino together when her husband lost her to me. I did my best to play fast and loose but it didn’t work. I ended up winning the pot.
“Christ,” she said. She buried her face in her hands. I frowned. I thought we were having fun. We were playing real money and I threw the watch in, but I thought she was rich enough to take the loss if it came to that. I didn’t win on purpose, but I didn’t think the loss would mean anything to her. Surely, she was solvent enough to take the hit. She looked up, laughing a little, running her hands through her hair.
“I’ll be bringing this up with Aunt Titania,” she said. “You’ve cleaned me out.”
“It sounds like you aren’t done yet.”
She propped her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “One more hand. Double or nothing.”
“You have nothing to double with, love,” I said.
“That’s not true.” She leaned in closer. “If I lose, you get a repeat of what happened the last night we were together. That’s got to be worth what’s in the pile. I lose and I’m yours. You lose and I get the pot.”
I smiled at her. I was so glad that there was a table between us. She couldn’t tell that I was swelling up at the prospect of another night with her again. I was never complaining when my father summoned me to London again. I had never gone into a game wanting to win before, but this time was different.
“You have a deal.” She was mine.
4
Edwina
I tried to keep it together sitting across the table from this mysterious stranger. Should I call him that? There was something wrong with me. I was losing my mind. Certifiable. I was going mad.
It was the watch. Thirty thousand pounds was more than a lot of people made in a year. That kind of money would tide us over for months before things got bad again. I needed it. I knew that was insane, but I couldn’t afford not to take the risk. Gambling was what got us into this situation in the first place, but my options were limited. If there was another way out, I would have tried it already.
I really should have quit while I was ahead. He was beating me, but my luck could turn yet. It happened all the time. His win was a fluke. He was practically letting me win. He didn’t seem to care at all that I had been beating him. He was just humoring me by agreeing to play. He’d lose. I’d win. I’d get the watch and I wouldn’t have to worry about money for the next few months. Saying I would sleep with him again was all I had left. With any other man I wouldn’t dream of making that kind of offer, but I had a good feeling about this next play. I was taking the money home.
“Are you sure? Last chance to back out,” he said.
“Are you?” I said, taking the cards he handed to me.
We played again. My cards weren’t great. I didn’t let it show. That was fine, they would get better. I barely registered the people around us. We might as well have been all alone. I was completely absorbed in the game because it wasn’t getting better. My cards were getting progressively worse.
“Oh my god,” I said out loud. He won. Again. I saw him grin and rake his winnings towards him.
No.
“It’s been a pleasure madam,” he said.
No.
I stared at him. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was supposed to win.
“I’m staying right across the street. Shall we?”
Did I have a choice? I felt myself stand and let him lead me out of the casino. I was in a daze as he paid for our drinks and led me out into the street. I didn’t actually… I didn’t actually think he would win when I offered to go to bed with him. I was after the money and I knew I could leverage our latent attraction to get him to agree to playing again. I had been watching him all night. I knew that he wanted me. If he was trying to hide it, he wasn’t doing a very good job at it.
The flashbacks came.
It wasn’t like I could ever forget. That night was one of the most humiliating nights of my life while simultaneously being one of the most sensual. He was a monster in bed, in the best way. He was thorough and so, so sexy. Sex with Russell was never anything to write home about. It was more of an obligation than anything else. I mean, it was more or less him extracting his conjugal rights from me because I was contractually obligated to do it. We never loved each other, and he had other women on the side. When we had sex, it was passionless and over fast. This man was another story completely, one that was about to repeat.
“Make yourself comfortable,” he said, opening the door to his suite and letting me in ahead of him. I burst into nervous giggles. That was what he said the first time too. I walked in and looked around. The suite was palatial, roomy with rustic furnishings. Far, far out of my budget I thought. It was foolish how much tonight and the night five years ago mirrored each other. I was going to sleep with him again, but I couldn’t be less excited.
He had given me one of the best nights of my life, but my financial situation was a little more pressing at the moment than the impending repeat performance. I was finding it hard to get sexually excited when I had just lost a huge amount of money to him. Money he didn’t need and which I had no conceivable way of getting back at the moment.