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Lisa shook her head. “Not my game. I don’t think I’ll play.”
“Aw, come on, Lis.” Bailey grabbed her arm and pulled. “You’ve got free chips and everything. We’ll start with roulette, then. Will that work for you?”
“Uh, sure. I guess.” What the heck? She did have chips.
They walked toward one of the less crowded tables. Lisa’s gaze fell on the dealer, and her pulse fluttered.
Ace.
In a tux.
He’d shed his jacket, and the crisp white shirt provided a delicious contrast to his coffee skin.
Oh. My. God.
He eyed her and beamed. Warmth crept along her flesh. She backed away, but Bailey grasped her hand and tugged her forward.
“Chips, ladies?” Ace’s voice was as husky and sensual as it had been earlier. More so even, with the added smoky and erotic ambiance of the casino.
“Yeah, we have chips.” Bailey set hers on the edge of the table.
Lisa stood, numb.
“Come on, Lis.” Bailey took the chips from her hand and set them down beside her own.
Ace handed them each a different colored chip. When his fingers grazed her palm as he handed her the dark pink chip, a jolt of sexual energy rippled through her. Had he felt it, too? She lifted her gaze to his as his fingers slid slowly away. His sexy half-smile contained a spark of mischievous lust.
A moment later, he was back to business. “Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen,” Ace said as he spun the roulette wheel.
Lisa placed her pink chip on the number 21.
“Lis.” Bailey grabbed her arm. “That’s a straight bet. You’re going to lose all your money. Try an outside bet.” She placed her blue chip on the part of the table that said “Second 12.”
“Twenty-one is my lucky number. I want to bet on that.”
“Twenty-one’s your lucky number, but Blackjack isn’t your game?” Bailey shook her head. “You don’t make any sense sometimes, girlfriend.”
Lisa said nothing. Bailey had a point. Twenty-one wasn’t her lucky number. She’d set her chip down on a whim.
“It’s a long shot,” Bailey continued. “There are thirty-eight slots. You only have a one in thirty-eight chance of winning.”
“I don’t care.” Okay, maybe she did care. But she’d never played roulette before and she didn’t know the rules. She didn’t want to look like a complete moron in front of Ace.
“Have it your way.” Bailey rolled her eyes.
Ace spun a small white ball around the perimeter of the roulette wheel. The counterclockwise movement of the wheel, combined with the clockwise roll of the ball, seduced Lisa. Her gaze never faltered, and when the wheel slowed and the centrifugal force lightened, Lisa’s heart sped up. Twenty-one. Come on, twenty-one. The numbers blurred together, and when the wheel slowed to the point that Lisa could actually read them, she saw twenty pass and gasped, and then realized the numbers were not in chronological order. Indeed, twenty-one was on a red background, sandwiched between thirty-three and six, both on black. Was there no rhyme or reason to this? Purely a game of chance. Bailey was right. She had fucked up. Majorly. There went her chips. She looked away from the table, wondering what to do now. Especially if Bailey ended up with a mittful of chips. Maybe she’d give Lisa a few.
“Twenty-one.”
Ace’s sexy voice slid over Lisa’s body, heating her. She looked up and locked onto his dark gaze.
“That’s your number, pretty Lisa.”
“Lisa!” Bailey pulled on her arm. “It pays thirty-five to one!”
Ace chuckled. “In a real casino, yes. Tonight, as long as you win, you double your chips. No matter where you place your bet.”
“That means you win too. Right, Bay?”
