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He watches me with laughing grey eyes while I put all the groceries away. When I turn away from the walk-in corner pantry, shutting the door behind me, Connor is still standing here; his hands shoved into the pockets of his charcoal-colored three-piece suit as he grins at me.
“Can I help you with something?” My eyebrows raise. Like, is he going to spring afternoon sex on me? I’d be okay with that.
“Come on.” He tips his head at the archway through to the dining room.
Uh, okay? I trail after him, bemused, blinking in surprise. He has set up the dining table with cards and chips, like in his illegal gambling den.
“What’s this?” I ask, standing in the doorway, staring at the table. Connor grins at me, holding out a hand in invitation.
I automatically reach out and take his hand. Connor tugs me against him, his arms closing around me as he kisses me thoroughly.
“I’m going to teach you how to play poker,” he says against my lips. I lean back to study his face. He looks like an excited schoolboy. Holy shit. He’s adorably excited by the idea. Clearly, I can’t say no.
“Okay.”
Connor beams at me, stepping back and gesturing for me to sit at the head of the table. When I do, he takes the seat to my right, picking up a deck of cards and doing the cool shuffling move that looks like a waterfall.
I wonder if he’ll also teach me how to do it. That would be wickedawesome.
“There are many variations of poker.”
I school my face into a neutral expression and pay attention.
“The oldest type is calledstraightpoker. You get dealt five cards, bet on your hand, and then show them. That’s usually not played very often anymore because there’s no real strategy in it.”
Okay. I don’t need to know the rules of straight poker, but I think this will be a full history of poker.
“Draw pokeris when you are dealt five cards, but you can’t look at them. You choose to play, put your money in the middle of the table, in the pot, and look at your cards. Then you can bet according to your hand. After you bet, you can discard up to three cards and take three new ones from the top of the deck. Then you all bet again and show your hands. Best hand wins.”
I’m never going to remember all of this. I hope there isn’t a test at the end because we haven’t even got to the actual rules yet.
“But I didn’t get five cards when I played. I only got two.”
What isthatone? That’s the one I want to know how to play.
Connor nods, grinning at me. “That’s community card poker. What you played wasTexas hold ‘em, butOmahais also well known. You get two cards in Texas hold ‘em and four in Omaha.”
My eyes stay glued to the cards as Connor runs through all thehands. High card is the lowest value, through pair, two pairs, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house – which I won with – four of a kind, straight flush, and the royal flush is the best. This makes sense because it literally has the word royal in the name.
“Are you ready to play?” Connor waggles his eyebrows at me. Oh, yeah. I grin back at him.
“I’m going to win,” I tell him confidently. His grin grows wider.
“You’re that certain, huh?” he asks. I nod smugly. I won against all those men at Oracle. I can do this. “Certain enough to playstrip poker?”
A blush steals across my cheeks. Okay. I don’t think I’m that certain. But I came in with confidence. I can’t back down now.
“Um, yes?” I squeak, my worry bleeding through into my tone. Connor hears it, his grin taking on a decidedly heated look.
I was too confident.Waytoo confident. He deals the first hand, and I peek at my cards. Ohh. Two aces. That’s so good! Connor throws his cards on the table. Folding.
“Wait! No! I have a really good hand!”
“I know.”
My mouth drops open. Uh. What? How? “Did you peek at my cards?”
“No,leannán,” he chuckles, shaking his head. “Ye have very obvious tells.”
