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“Deal,” I whispered. My stomach felt like a thousand butterflies had just taken up residence there. If my family ever found out I bet my hand in marriage, Papa would kill me, and if he didn’t, Nacio definitely would.
Sam held out his hand, and when I took it, he drew it to his mouth, placing a smoldering kiss over my knuckles. “Deal,” he murmured, his hot breath fanning over my skin.
He released my hand and took the seat across from me.
This wasn’t pool, so there wasn’t a guarantee that Sam would win, unlike the last time I made a deal with him in his back rooms.
Tension hung in the air around us as everyone watched in eerie silence while cards were dealt. This wouldn’t be like the fun, conversation-filled games I’d been playing so far tonight. The stakes were too high for that.
Someone placed a set of chips in front of each of us, and we both put in our ante bids.
I don’t think one word that didn’t directly affect the game was spoken in the room as we played through several rounds and chips shifted back and forth between us. Sam was quick to fold when he didn’t like his cards. Though since I couldn’t see his cards, maybe he was just doing that to make me think he always had an amazing hand when he didn’t fold quickly.
Thomas, who was acting as our dealer, added a fifth card to the community cards on what had to be our sixth or seventh round. I was losing count. It didn’t matter how many rounds we played. What mattered was who ended the game with all the chips, or at least enough of them that the other couldn’t afford the buy-in.
I studied the cards lying faceup on the table. An ace of diamonds, six of clubs, jack of spades, jack of diamonds, and ten of diamonds. The last two cards had bumped me from a shitty hand to one that could actually win.
It was Sam’s call, but he wasn’t moving. I could feel his gaze on me, waiting for me to look at him.
I lifted my eyes from the cards in my hand to meet Sam’s.
“All in,” he said, pushing his pile of chips into the middle of the table. His eyes dared me to bet against him, and I realized what he’d done.
It was possible for me to win this hand with a flush, but Sam wouldn’t go all in if he weren’t sure he could win. This was his version of asking me to marry him, just like agreeing to play pool with him that first night had been his way of asking me to sleep with him.
I held his gaze as I pushed my own pile of chips into the center of the table. My palms were slick with sweat, and my heart was slamming in my chest, but I refused to look away or back down.
“Let’s see ’em,” I said, my voice only slightly shaking.
The whole room seemed to be holding its breath as Sam laid down his two jacks. Combined with the two jacks in the community cards, he had four of a kind.
I blinked at his cards. His hand was beatable. In fact, if the two cards in my hand were a king and queen of diamonds, Iwouldwin. Sam had made a legitimate gamble.
“Your turn, Siren,” he said in a low, husky voice.
My hand trembled as I laid down my six and four of diamonds.
I lost.
The room erupted in a roar that all sounded like white noise to me. I couldn’t focus enough to listen to what Sam’s employees thought of his win.
Sam ignored everyone else in the room, his attention solely on me. It was hard to breathe when he looked at me like that. Or maybe that was because I’d just agreed tomarryhim.
He stood and crossed to me with slow, deliberate steps, torturing me with each one.
I held my breath as I looked up at him, not sure what happened now and not daring to move a muscle.
Sam dropped to his knees between my thighs and cupped my cheeks in his hands. “Finally,” he murmured right before he pressed his lips to mine in a searing kiss. He didn’t hold anything back, putting on a show. But I knew it wasn’t for our audience. He was proving to me that things were going to be different than before. This time we wouldn’t be loving each other in the shadows. This time he was a staking a claim for all the world to see.
The cheers around us sounded distant to me. I was lost in the feel of Sam’s mouth, the way his tongue tangled with mine in a near-violent dance.
“Boston has officially lost its most eligible millionaire bachelorette,” he growled in my ear when he broke the kiss.
I didn’t get a chance to respond before he was standing, lifting me with him. I wrapped my legs around his hips reflexively, holding on to him for dear life as he carried me out of the room. I buried my face against his neck, not caring where he was taking me. We could figure that part out later. I was choosing a life with him, and everything else was just details.
Thirty-Two
Samuel
