“Please,” I scoffed. “You grew up in these swamps, same as me. You know what our upbringing was like. I can drink a grown man under the table.”
He unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt and regarded me with a slow smile. “Not this grown man.”
I rolled my eyes away from the toned flex of his forearms.
“Another hand,” he proposed. “Different game, different stakes.”
“What do you have in mind?” I picked up the cards, stacking them up and shuffling through them, the cards stiff and unused, like they were just pulled from the plastic.
“Rummy is the game. And the stakes…” he pushed his sleeves up to his elbows and settled back down at the bar. “Three kisses.”
“Three kisses?” I curled up a lip. “First you take away the alcohol, and now we’re back in kindergarten?”
He chuckled, his eyes pinned on me, and it was the sexiest look I’d ever seen. “Play my childish game for a moment.”
“Fine.” I cut the deck and shuffled again, then passed him the stack. “Three kisses. Though I must tell you, I had bigger expectations, given your reputation.”
He dealt us each ten cards, then flipped over the next card, the seven of hearts. I picked up my hand and glanced over the lot.
“You know,” he said quietly, from behind his hand. “You never did have a chance with Dario.”
I picked up the seven of hearts and tucked it beside my six, glancing at him as I discarded a King. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I talked to him, the night he took you to dinner.” He picked up a stock card and met my eyes.
“And...?” I hadn’t thought that anyone knew about our date. I’d wanted to keep it under wraps, given our jobs at the casino. But Tripp and Dario were close, as close as brothers. So, I wasn’t entirely surprised that—
“I told him not to date you.” He tossed down a card and folded his hand into a stack, leveling me with his gaze. “I told him that you were mine.”
“You WHAT?” I wouldn’t have been more surprised if he had confessed to being gay. “But you hate me.”
“Did it seem like I hated you in that bar downstairs?”
“Well, no. But—” I scrambled through the memories of the last four years. “You fired me last year. You told Rand I was incompetent.”
“I didn’t fire you. I had a bad day, and you happened to be the closest thing to me when it happened.” His mouth quirked up in a half smile. “Plus, I like it when your temper flares. You get a look that makes me hard.”
“Am I giving you that look right now?” I growled, fighting the urge to throw my cards in his face.
“Why don’t you come over here and see?”
Heat hit my cheeks, and I fell back on my stool, my heart beating faster at the thought of him, stiff in his pants, and all over a look. I picked my hand back up and stared down at the cards.
“I couldn’t let him have you.”
I drew a card. “Did it ever occur to you to ask me what I thought of things?”
“I could tell what you thought of things. You thought Dario Capece was a knight in shining armor. You tripped all over yourself, trying to get his attention.”
I glared up at him. “If I was so pathetic, why did you want me for yourself? And at least I tried to go after who I wanted. You just sat over there, keeping people away from me and acting like a teenage boy.”
He lifted his chin. “Seems to have worked out pretty well for me, considering I’m about to fuck you ten ways to Sunday.”
“You got lucky,” I countered. “And I’m not entirely sure we are having sex.”
“You came apart from my finger in the middle of the bar. I’m entirely sure that you aren’t up here for free tequila.”
I laid down a set and ignored the point, which could be underlined in red Sharpie by the arousal throbbing between my legs. The truth of the matter was, I’d come up here precisely for that goal … only now I felt thoroughly confused. My body was still barreling down the path toward kinky happy times with Tripp, but his comments were turning my brain into mush.
He tucked a Jack into the end of my set and laid down his own set, discarding a five and giving me a cocky grin. Game over.
I tossed my hand down. “Fine. Three kisses. Pucker up.”
“Oh… Steph.” He swiveled on his stool and patted his thigh. “It’s not going to be that easy.”
I slowly rose to my feet, coming around the end of the bar and stopping before him.
He patted his thigh again, his meaning clear.
I moved forward and carefully perched on his leg, crossing my ankles and pinning my knees together. “I’m a little too old to sit on your lap.”