Page 6 of Lord of Passion

She gives him another brisk professional smile as we head to the table with the other finalists. I wait till she's seated to make surethat I'm directly across the table from her again. Liria is grinning maniacally, Alexsey's arm around her as he whispers to her. She nods, her eyes on me, saying something that makes him laugh. Maybe she's mentioning to her husband that her cousin Caroline is a fucking card shark and I suspect she was toying with us during that first round.

Let's see how she handles herself now.

It's me, Caroline, Uncle Maksim, my mother Tania, who is terrifyingly good at poker, Dmitri, and oh,fuckAlexi Turgenev is here. We address Alexi as uncle, because our families are close. He's the patriarch of the Turgenev Bratva, and even in his mid-70's, he still looks like the Angel of Death. Blond, stern, and you don't want his gaze to fall on you.

Ever.

"Hello, Uncle Alexi. Sir." I nod respectfully. "It's good to see you again. Are Konstantin and Vadim with you on this trip?"

He makes a low noise in his throat, like boulders rumbling down a mountainside. "My grandson and I were addressing an incident in Chicago." His voice is like far-off thunder. "Vadim stayed behind to…" He smiles, and it's possibly the most horrifying thing I've seen in the last decade. "To tidy up."

The table is dead silent, and then everyone makes a nod or a pleasant noise, indicating they've heard and they really don't want to know anything more.

Andrey and Judge Meacham are sitting on a couch, close enough to see the action but far enough to discuss business in private. The judge's eyes are glued on the cleavage of their server, a redhead who gives him a flirty smile before walking away.Judge Meacham likes redheads. Andrey never leaves anything to chance.

Turning my attention back to the table, I watch as our usually unflappable dealer hands out the cards, his fingers shaking very slightly as he deals to Uncle Alexi, then moves on. He's sitting next to Caroline, and they share a brief smile before taking a look at their hand.

At least, I think that was a smile.

I'm not sure I've ever seen him smile before. It looks like an upward curve of his mouth, anyway. My mother is watching this with a little grin of her own before she glances at me and then attends to her cards.

In the second round, Caroline says, "Raise." She pushes most of her chips to the center, no hint of excitement, despite the aggressive bid. She still has a good-sized stack in front of her, at least another million. Third round, more cards dealt. Caroline looks at her new hand expressionlessly, and I watch her closely.

It's for her tells,I assure myself.

Her long fingers are resting calmly on the table, her red lips still pursed in the same thoughtful pout. She's holding on to her end of summer tan, so there's no telltale flush of excitement.

"Raise," my mother says, shoving a giant stack of chips across the felt. Mother is an excellent player, but she loves pushing her luck with a crap hand and I suspect that's what is happening here.

Uncle Maksim does the same, and the towering stack of chips grows higher. Uncle Alexi pushes in another pile.

Dmitri tosses his hand on the table, "I fold."

Caroline's long fingers stroke her remaining chips for a moment and I can't look away. Why isthatso fucking erotic?

"Raise," she says decisively, pushing everything she has onto the pile. The pot has to be well over twenty million and she looks at me, arching an elegant brow. I push my remaining stack of chips towards the center. The pot is around twenty-five million now.

Everyone shows their hands. I was right about Mother’s; it's a terrible hand. Uncle Maksim, Four of a Kind, Uncle Alexi, a Full House.

Caroline looks at me, her head tilts just slightly. "Gentlemen first," she says in the sweetest tone, sugary enough to give me a cavity.

I flip my hand over casually, spreading the cards wide. "Straight Flush." A low murmur runs through the watching crowd, like the wind circling a meadow.

Studying her, I still can't discern a thing from her expression. There's no grin of impending victory, but her shoulders aren't drooping in defeat, either. Turning her cards over, she expertly fans them out in perfect precision. One card is exactly equidistant to the next.

"Royal Flush," she says, her lips spreading into a luscious smile.

There's applause as I stare at her hand. Ace of Hearts. King, Queen, Jack and ten.

Liria bends down to kiss her on the cheek and hug her from behind, laughing. Uncle Maksim pats my shoulder heavily. "Better luck next time, my boy," he says before striding off to find Aunt Ella. Mother gives me a sympathetic smile and a kiss on the cheek.

Caroline rises and Uncle Alexi reaches over to shake her hand very gently, like he knows that anything harder would knock her off her feet. Which from him, it would.

"Well done," he says, and most of the room falls silent.

She, however, grins up at him. "Thank you so much!" she says happily. "It was so good to see you again. I hope you will be bringing Lucya on your next trip?"

I'm not the only one who's staring. Uncle Alexi is talking about his family with ahotel manager?I wince inwardly. Hell, I sound like a fucking snob.