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Or at least, that’s how I was selling it to myself.
Anyways, the whole thing allowed Kiki to maintain her pride, and let me rest easy at night or it would, if I ever got to sleep.
After coming down from what looked to be a fabulous orgasm, Kiki settled in to play a few more rounds. I looked on approvingly, happy to see her face light up with not just a smile, but with genuine relief. I’m doing the right thing, I told myself. She was in good spirits, and that’s what mattered.
When she’d played three more rounds, Kiki turned to me.
“I can’t play another,” she admitted, her voice rising high with nerves and excitement. “I don’t wanna lose it all. This is the luckiest streak I’ve ever had in my life.”
I put my hand over hers, which rested on the green felt.
“Then let’s tap out,” I agreed, knowing that if I pushed my luck, she might discover that I’d rigged this whole thing. After all, winning three rounds — and what I estimated to be over fifty-five thousand — was straining believability.
She thanked the dealer, pushing more chips in the woman’s direction than I would’ve anticipated. I smiled, loving Kiki’s generosity. The moment she was up in cash, she redistributed it to others. Now that’s a special kind of person.
We scooted away from the table, leaving the actors to feign the game for a few more minutes until we were safely out of view.
As soon as Kiki and I went through the velvet curtain, she pivoted to me and squealed.
“I’ve never had such a lucky streak in my life!” she shrieked, throwing her arms around my neck and planting kisses on my face. “You must be my snake eyes.”
“I’m your fuzzy dice,” I agreed. Little did she know.
“Tate, this is over half of what I need to get my dad out of debt.”
“Congratulations, babe.”
I brought my lips to hers for a quick smooch. She relaxed into it for a moment, before pulling away.
“Not here,” she said, blushing. “My coworkers might see.”
That made me laugh. “I just fingered you under a table, with people all around us, and you’re worried someone might catch us kissing?”
“Call me old-fashioned,” she said with an open-mouthed chuckle. “Speaking of coworkers, I gotta get back to work. This money is definitely gonna put a dent in paying off my dad’s debts, but it’s not enough.”
I sighed, and tried not to let my frustration show.
Even after pulling off an elaborate ruse, I hadn’t done enough to get Kiki the money. One hundred thousand? I could easily spend that in a day. It made me mad, seeing how what was a pittance for me was so very much for her. She deserved to never worry about money, to never feel financially insecure. She deserved to be treated like a queen.
But, knowing that she’d be outraged if she found out about my little scheme, I had to let her go to avoid suspicion.
“Okay,” I agreed. “Have fun at work. Tell your coworkers that you’re the new big poker fish in town.”
She snorted. “Oh, hardly. Those people were just idiots. Have you ever seen such rich men play so poorly?”
No, I thought to myself.
Aloud, I shrugged it off. “The more money you have, the looser you are with it.”
“I guess… anyways, I’ve gotta jet. Maybe I’ll see you later.”
She brushed her hand up against my stomach before abruptly turning away and waltzing back to her station. In the immortal words of somebody or another, I hated to see her go, but I loved to watch her leave.
I tilted my head at an angle, hoping to get a better view of Kiki’s ass as it swayed side to side, rustling the little gold-fringed bodysuit.
“Tate?”
“Huh?”
I tore my eyes away from her round little ass, and forced them onto a far more unpleasant view — Jack.
He was, as usual, in a lather. How the fuck had he tracked me down here?
“What is it?” I demanded, in no mood for his reindeer games.
“Sir…”
I clapped my hands together. “Faster, Jack.”
“You’re not gonna like it.”
“I never do, but tell me anyways.”
He wiped a hand across his upper lip, and said slowly, “Did something happen between you and Mac?”
Jack didn’t have to give a last name. There was only one Mac in this town.
“Maybe. It’s not your business.”
“Well, sir, it is, actually. Mac’s been, um, on a bit of a tear this morning. I guess something transpired between you, I don’t know what, but because of it… the thing is, he’s telling other casinos to blackball Dazzlers.”
The floor dropped out from beneath me.
“Excuse me?”
“Yes.”
My head was reeling off its axis. I knew exactly what “blackballing” meant in the world of Vegas and casinos. It’d been done before, to Gush and MeMeMe, amongst others, both of which had closed within a week. Blackballing was a nearly feudal action undertaken when the thing at stake was pride.
