Page 17 of Risky Bet

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.”

“So, is it a boy or your mother?”

Rylee wrinkled her brow. “Huh?”

“Why are you calling me? Is it a boy or your mother? Those seem to be the only two reasons you call me anymore.”

Rylee laughed at her ex-roommate's claim. But she probably wasn’t wrong.

“Sorry. So sorry. I suck. I guess it’s a boy. Though my mom has really gotten herself into a mess too, but we can talk about that later.”

“Oh goody. I love when you talk to me about your love life. It’s been a desert for you lately.”

“Hey, watch it. I haven’t done that bad.”

Carla snorted.

“Do you want me to tell you about this or not?”

Carla laughed. “Sorry. I’m all ears.”

“I got invited to another one of Hunter Novak’s parties.”

The squeal Carla let out had Rylee pulling the phone away from her ear.

“Did you meet a Dom?”

“Something like that. We played a game of poker with a month of my… well… a month of me as the wager. And I fucking lost.”

Carla whistled. “He must really do it for you if you lost a poker game.”

They talked for a few more minutes before Carla said her boss was calling.

“I gotta run, but maybe I’ll come to Vegas next weekend or something.”

Rylee grinned. “I would like that.”

“Bye, girl. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do and if you do, don’t name it after me.”

Rylee laughed at her friend’s ridiculous saying and ended the call. As she was plugging the phone in, a knock at the door startled her.

“Rylee, can you come to my office please,” Memphis said as he opened the door.

She gave a nervous nod, her heart racing at the sight of him. He opened the door wider for her to step past him and into the hall where he settled his hand on the small of her back and led her to another door. Inside, he went behind his desk and Rylee had to silently tell her body to calm the fuck down. He looked every bit the poised and powerful CEO behind that desk. He’d changed into a three-piece suit after their game, and he wore it well. Jesus.

“Rylee?” Memphis said.

“Shit. Sorry. What did you say?”

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