Page 71 of Blood and Trouble

What if we did end up naked together? Was he planning to fuck both of us on this table, cards scattered on the floor, whiskey and sins dripping from our lips? The thought sent another bout of butterflies straight to my groin, and I closed my eyes, locking it down before it burned out of control.

“Well, cheers to evil bastards, selfish princesses, and lost souls,” Ava said, lifting her whiskey.

I snorted a sardonic laugh and tapped my glass against hers. “Is that what I am, Ava? A lost soul?”

She shrugged, swallowed, and cleared her throat. “I think we’re all a little lost.”

“Truer words,” Lycan said. He gestured to the deck. “Go on, then. Let’s see the river.”

Lycan won the first round, and when I tossed my shirt at him, he grabbed it and tucked it under his thigh, indicating I’d have to do something undoubtedly deviant to get it back. He let Ava take off her socks, which he chucked to the side, forgotten as soon as he had them. Ava won the second hand, and after another two fingers of whiskey, forced me to take off my belt. She wore it around her throat like a necklace, occasionally fiddling with the buckle whenever she got lost in thought.

I managed to win the third hand.

“I want my shirt back,” I told Lycan.

He only sipped his drink, causing my focus to drop to the tiny drop of liquid pooling over his full bottom lip. How I ached to lick it off. How I yearned for him to make me lick it off.

“That’s not how the game works,” he said. “Your shirt is my prize. You only get to pick something off my body.”

“A shirt for a shirt seems fair,” Ava said. “Take it off.”

“Careful, Trouble,” Lycan said. “You owe him something, too.”

“You want my shirt? Fine.” Ava stood, grabbed the hem of her oversized white tee, and shucked it over her head, leaving her sitting in a baby blue lace bra that matched her eyes and made her tits look absolutely edible. She tossed it at me. “It’s Lycan’s anyway.”

When the combined scent of Lycan and Ava hit me, I fucking wilted. I wanted to stuff the cotton into my mouth and inhale until my lungs burst. I wanted to put it over my head, shove my body into it, and see how much I liked all three of our aromas mixed together. My wolf panted and paced at the back of my mind, urging me to do it.

Restraining myself, I tucked it under my seat and stared at the fucking instigator.

“Well?” he asked.

“Shirt.” My voice cracked like a fucking adolescent, and I cleared my throat to cover it up.

Lycan sighed before pulling off his black Henley and tossing it at me. “Amateur.”

The game went on, and somewhere around my third glass of whiskey, my wolf picked up on something the human hadn’t considered a possibility. When it was her turn to deal, Ava peeked at the cards during the shuffle, and when she passed them out, she drew from the bottom of the deck for her own hand. At first, I thought she might be cheating so she’d amass some great pile of our clothes. But after she sat in only her matching lace panties, I realized she’d been cheating to lose.

But she wasn’t favoring me. No, I sat in only my boxers while Lycan still had his jeans and belt. She was doing it to help him, not that he needed it. Of all the times I’d ever played with him, I could count the number of times I’d won on one hand.

I debated whether to call her out. Was she trying to get herself naked…or me? Wouldn’t she be better served by winning outright? Unless this had been her plan from the start. Did she and Lycan spend all day plotting about how to humiliate me best? It didn’t seem like she had that in her, but she was a Vanderbilt, so who the fuck knew?

“Moment of truth,” Lycan said, flipping over his cards. Ava bit her bottom lip, smiled, and revealed a three of spades and a queen of hearts. She had nothing, same as me. I sat back in my seat as I revealed my hand and looked at Lycan, who wore a smug grin with shimmering steel-gray eyes.

“Foiled again, huh?” He tutted sarcastically. “I’m afraid I’ll need those beautiful lace panties, Trouble.”

“And leave me sitting here, shivering with my bare ass on the chair?” She pretended to pout. “You’re not very nice.”

“Oh, I am a merciful winner,” Lycan replied with a laugh. “Ask Poe.”

“I don’t know if merciful is the word I’d use,” I said. “Cruel and vindictive, maybe.”

He gasped and covered his heart with his hands. “So callous for someone so young.”

I sighed and squared my jaw, preparing for what was coming. He’d have both of us in the palm of his hand after this, and then the floor would drop out from under me and send me careening into Dante’s Inferno. We were at the finish line now, nothing left to lose, all chips on the table, so to speak.

“I need your panties, too, I’m afraid,” he said to me before shifting his focus back to Ava. “Trouble, I bet if you asked nicely, Poe would let you sit on his lap to keep you warm.”

I snapped my focus to him and froze as all the puzzle pieces fell into place. This. This is his endgame.