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It seemed that way.
She cleared her throat. “So that just happened. Any chance of a rematch?” she asked, looking down at the red felt of the table.
Around her, the men murmured quietly. At least they had the decency not to whoop and holler at her loss.
Memphis chuckled. “Nope. Not gonna happen. I’ll accept you backing out of our bet, though.”
She lifted her gaze to meet his and furrowed her brow. “You know I won’t do that.”
He gave a one-shouldered shrug. “Just putting it out there that I’m not a bastard who’s going to keep you here against your will.”
She shook her head. “No. I honor my bets. I’m just not used to losing so badly.”
Memphis chuckled. “You didn’t lose that bad, Ace. I just got really lucky on the flop.”
Hunter leaned against the kitchen counter, watching. “Do I need to stay, or can I get back to work?”
Memphis turned and glared at him. “You really didn’t have to be here to begin with.”
Hunter just laughed. “Of course I did. Rylee, let me know if you need a ride out of here.”
She just stared at him as he turned and walked out. A few minutes later, the movers returned and began breaking down the table. Andrew and the rest of the peanut gallery scattered while the crew worked, and they were soon loading the table back onto a truck.
“What now?” she asked when they were alone.
Memphis closed the short distance between them and bruised her lips with a harsh kiss. “Now, you go upstairs to your room and wait for me.”
She stared at him for a moment, but he smacked her ass and narrowed his eyes. “Go.”
She jogged up the stairs and into her room where she sat on the edge of her bed. How the fuck had she let him get under her skin like that? Going all in had been an idiotic move. Analyzing her gameplay, she realized she deserved to lose, but that didn’t make it sting any less. Even the knowledge that she would leave here in a month with two million in her bank account didn’t soothe the sting of such a brutal loss at the table. And in front of so many of his friends, too. Maybe it was a good thing she didn’t have an audience of her own. It had been an embarrassing loss.
Twenty minutes later, her door opened, and Memphis leaned against her door frame.
“I’m sorry if that loss was hard for you.”
“Any loss is hard, but that one was especially brutal,” she admitted. “I don’t know what happened.”
He gave a shrug. “You can’t control the cards. It was a good game. You sure you want to stay?”
She nodded. “I’m sure. I just need to call my family and let them know I’m staying in Vegas for a few weeks.”
“I’ll give you some space, then. I have some business to take care of and there will be some people here later tonight to help me get settled here. I’ll need you to stay up here while they work, but we’ll talk soon.”
“What about the guys?” she asked.
“I’m setting them up with a different poker instructor and I’ve moved them back to the strip. It’s just us, Ace.”
She swallowed as he turned and walked out. She’d been expecting him to order her to strip or something. Now she was going to be on pins and needles until they talked.
After a few minutes of sitting in silence, she stood and retrieved her phone from the desk. Time to call her mother. Not something she relished. She loved her mother, but they didn’t agree on everything, and Kathleen Colton didn’t care for Rylee’s career choice. There was no way she was telling her she was staying in Vegas for a month because she lost a damn bet.
The call went to voicemail, so Rylee took a deep breath and said, “Hey Mom, it’s Rylee. I’m going to stay in Vegas for the next few weeks. My tournament got canceled, so I’m… I’m just going to stay here and play in the casinos until it gets rescheduled. Call me when you get this. Or don’t. That’s really all I had to tell you.”
She ended the call and scrolled to a different number.
“It’s about time you call me back.”
Rylee smirked at Carla’s harsh greeting. “Nice to talk to you, too.”
