CHAPTER 1
JOSH
Chips were piled in front of the five of us like it was a Vegas tournament instead of my condo, not that any of us had glanced at them in the past hour. When the real bets started.The fucking bets. The kind that had nothing to do with money and everything to do with ego. Each of them designed to be more embarrassing than the last, like an elaborate game of truth or dare. No one had lost yet, no matter what we went through.
The stakes were high and the gamble was not knowing what you were doing until you won or lost. It kept us in check, and from quitting the game too early. No one had ever backed down. Needing the game to end, Carlos offered a double-or-nothing hand.
Milos and Jake had already folded. Kev was debating his hand. Carlos had already declared he was in on the flop. I did my best to keep stoic, despite my eyes drifting to the five cards in my hand, a full house, aces high. It was my best hand tonight.
Carlos shifted in his seat impatiently. A tell he had something, but was mine good enough to take him down?
Kev sighed. “Fold.”
And then there were two. For a split second, I hesitated. Carlos was the worst of us to lose to, but if I bested him, the payback I could inflict was too fucking tempting.
Carlos’s thick, bushy brow arched as if he were daring me to continue. “Scared?”
His taunting was enough to push me over the edge. Fuck it. My hands released the cards as I flipped them over face down up in front of me.
“Full house!” I smacked the table hard, declaring my preemptive victory.
Jake clapped. “Nice.”
“Very nice,” Carlos agreed with a smirk. He squeezed my shoulder and leaned over the side of me, his beard brushing past me as he laid his cards out. “But not nice enough.”
He took his time revealing each card, one by one my stomach dropped.No fucking way. Milos and Kev edged closer to take a peek. My eyes nearly bugged out of the sockets when I saw four fives next to the Ace of Hearts. Someone let out a low whistle.
Mother fucker.
My hands flew to my hair and tugged at the strands. The sweet taste of victory that had been lingering in my mouth disappeared and was replaced by the sour taste of my stomach contents churning. How did he pull four of a kind?
My head hung and my fists clenched. He gripped my shoulder tighter; I could feel them rising to my ears. “Sinceyoulost your bet tome, I think I have the ultimate challenge, just for you.”
I grabbed the glass with my whiskey neat, took a large swig, and waited for him to finish the awful dialogue he pulled every time he won a significant bet. The gleam on Milos’s face made me wish I’d folded, too.
I’d like to say I wasn’t waiting with bated breath to see what ridiculous stunt he was going to make me do, like hand over a car, try to get me to do his sweaty laundry for a monthusing a toothbrush, or some shit like that. But when he inched closer, his scruffy cheek brushing against mine, a tingle passed through me. Something was not right. For the love of Christ, I wished he would back the fuck up.
“Josh, how’s that supermodel, Veronika?” he asked, referring to my latest date for the end-of-season awards ceremony we had celebrated not long ago. Why was he choosing this particular line of questioning? Inquisitive faces staring back said they were curious also.Not good.
I shrugged my shoulder and shoved him away from me before I answered. “Fine. I guess.”
He raised his unusually thick eyebrows. “Youguess?”
“You know how I roll.” Implying I hadn’t seen her since.
A smirk spread across his face. “Ah, yes. The playboy life.”
A flash of my latestfansran through my brain like a Rolodex of beautiful women, all eager to be the one to change my ways.Ha. As if.No rules, and no responsibilities, except for my team and the coaches. Why the hell would I want to complicate that?
“You know, Josh, maybe a little…structure might do you good.” He smirked.
What did that mean?
He stopped behind me, placing his large catcher hands on my shoulders. The hair on my neck stood up. “What are you getting at, Carlos?”
“Love,” he whispered, barely audible.
As it came out of his mouth, it turned my veins to ice and caused me to sputter out my whiskey. “Excuse me?”
