Page 259 of A Vicious Love

“It did not come back. It is a different two.”

“They’re related.”

His mouth brushed my temple. A kiss, barely there, hidden by the angle of his face and the curtain of my hair, but I felt it everywhere.

“You are going to be a disaster in my casinos,” he murmured.

“I can stay near you.”

“That is the first correct strategy you’ve named.”

My stomach fluttered.

He tapped the cards with one finger. “Tell me what you have.”

I tilted them toward him. “A nine and a four.”

“Pair of nines with the table.”

“That’s good.”

“It is something.”

I smiled despite myself. “Should I bet?”

“Look at the table first.”

I looked.

Everyone looked back.

“That did not help,” I whispered.

His lips grazed my ear again when he spoke. “Do not look at their faces as a group. One at a time. Start with Adrian.”

I tried.

Adrian gave me a wide, charming smile.

“He looks innocent.”

“He looks guilty of being Adrian. Ignore the mouth. Look at his hand.”

Adrian’s fingers were near his chips, tapping once against the edge of a stack.

“He’s tapping.”

“He has nothing or wants you to think he has nothing. He performs too much when weak.”

“Can he hear you?”

“Yes.”

Adrian stopped tapping.

“Now he’s irritated. Good.” Jamison smiled.

I bit back a laugh.