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“Why did you ask me what I could hear?” Not that I minded. I would gladly recite the Declaration of Independence for an orgasm like that, if he wanted it.
He smoothed my hair away from my face. “To get you out of your head. You weren’t with me, and you were thinking too hard to come.”
It struck me as absolutely true and ridiculously sweet that, in the midst of sex and while finding his own pleasure, he still noticed that I wasn’t there. I stroked my finger down his face. “I wish…”
“What do you wish?” He was still deep inside of me, but I was sated and would be happy not to move for a long time.
I shook my head, deciding the words were too ridiculous to say aloud. Why bother admitting I wished I told him sooner, so he never would’ve hooked up with Sylvie the Sleek, and so he could’ve been mine for years.
But I didn’t want to bring her into the moment. It was ours.
So, instead, I smiled at him. “I wish I had rethought the poker idea.”
He answered my grin with his own. “You don’t even know if I have a poker set.”
A very good point.Although I was pretty sure he would’ve mentioned it already if he didn’t. “Do you?”
“Yes.” He kissed me again. “Undies on. Don’t clean up, Bridget. I want to think about it all night.”
I groaned when he pulled out of me. We had people coming over. I blinked. No, Michael did.I don’t live here. It was his place, and I was a visitor…for now. I had to keep it straight in my head, so I didn’t make another dumb mistake. I shouldn’t say things that would make me seem sappy or even think them anymore, if I was being logical. Sure, he said he was in love with me, and he repeated it many times now, but it didn’t guarantee us a happily ever after. There were a lot of things to work out first, and nothing could be decided while there was someone trying to kill us.
Resigned, I pulled on my panties, but I couldn’t hide my small smile. Even knowing I should be logical, I would be happy to not clean up until after the poker game.
* * *
“Warning, boys...”Michael looked around the poker table, his hand on my knee where it had rested most of the night. If I moved, he readjusted it. I loved the feeling. It was like he was always there. “She’s smarter than us. My guess is she asked us to play poker so she could trounce all of us. Just be aware.”
I shook my head. “That is not true. I’m only moderately good at cards.”
Roy grinned at me. “I think you might be hustling us, Red.”
Michael pointed at him. “No nicknames for Bridget from you.”
I shook my head. “I’m not hustling you.”
Stephen whistled through his teeth. “So fun to see the boss fallen like this. Thank you for finally putting him out of his misery.”
Tito threw up his hands. “Are we going to play or are we going to talk?”
He has a good hand. That’s why he’s anxious.I didn’t know how I knew it, but I did. I wasn’t good with people, but I was aware of him. He had a tell. He shook his leg, and he pushed because he wanted to win. I smiled. It was nice to know something for a change—but I was sure if I knew it, then Michael certainly did, too.
He leaned over and kissed my cheek and I mock elbowed him. “Don’t think you’re going to see my cards because you’re being affectionate. I’m onto you.”
Everyone laughed.
Playing with them turned out to be ridiculously fun, even knowing what we did right before everyone else arrived. I could still feel the slight stickiness between my legs, and when Michael occasionally squeezed my knee, I was fully aware that he remembered it, too.
In the end, I won. Everyone won a bit but, yes, I won the most. Surprisingly, Michael seemed incredibly proud every time I won. Each time I took a hand, he’d grin at me.
It was right at the conclusion of the game—sometime around midnight—that Michael’s phone dinged. He stared down at it, his expression sobering.
“Looks like it’s tomorrow, boys.” He leaned back in his chair. “I assume everything is in place?”
I stared between them, trying to read their expressions. The game helped me get to know them better, so I considered how they played. Stephen never bluffed. If he didn’t have the cards, he didn’t have them. Tito shook his leg and plowed forward when he got a winning hand. And Roy did most things with a grin, but he could fake that when he wanted. Michael? He seemed to have them all trained to believe that if he acted like he was winning, they should believe him. What was more, he never showed his cards unless you went all the way to the end with him. If everyone folded, we never saw his cards.
Right then, Tito’s leg shook.Something big is happening.
Roy sat back in his chair, but he wasn’t smiling. “Who is where?”
