Page 81 of Make You Love Me
“Chicken,” I accuse.
“Not chicken. Smart. I’m in this for the long haul.”
Again, he stares me down, his eyes laying the meaning out on the table.
“So am I.” I toss in a few more chips and flip over my cards without dropping his gaze.
“We have blackjack. The pot goes to the lady in black,” the dealer adds amidst a chorus of groans and whines.
“Better get crackin’, handsome. I’m up two.”
Jordan wins the next two hands, bringing our friendly competition back to even. Three beers and four hands later, there’s still no clear winner. Only a drunk ex-Marine and hisfriend. We cash in our chips and head to the slots to settle this bet once and for all.
Setting a timer, we decide the person with the most money when the bell chimes buys dinner. Somewhere along the waytonight between winning and losing and shots, I agree to go to Josie’s show—as if I could resist the smile that accompanied the invitation.
Pulling the levers and pushing blinking buttons as fast as we can, bells and random noises sound off from both machines. It’s obnoxious, but all I care about is racking up points and hearing Jordan’s contagious laugh for the rest of the evening. It doesn’t matter who wins at this point. Isn’t a romantic dinner in either New York City or on the James River a win-win? We both want to go, but this last game is for bragging rights. And I never back down.
Happy tears blur my vision. I can’t see who’s winning. If it isn’t me, it’s not like I know enough about how to play this machine to change my fate. I’m just pushing and pulling when prompted, hoping to hoist an invisible trophy when the timer goes off. I check the clock and there’s two minutes left.
Before the timer sounds, the large red light on top of his machine goes off, making me jump. He’s either broken it or won the jackpot.
“Yes!” His arms fly up in celebration before he snatches me off my stool, pulls me into his lap, and dips me back with a kiss that fills me with primal desire all the way down to my toes. All ten of them curl inside my shoes, and I pull him closer, needing to feel more of him.
When he releases me, I’m not ready and equally unprepared for the tender way he brushes the hair from my face. He’s about to kiss me again when casino staff join us to congratulate the grand winner.
Ten thousand dollars. He won ten frickin’ thousand dollars at a slot machine in Charlestown, West Virginia.
“What will you do with your winnings?” the exuberant woman at the customer service counter asks, handing him a receipt to sign.
“I think my beautiful…friend and I will live it up in New York this weekend.”
“Jordan, you should use that for your—”
“Come on. Let’s go celebrate with a drink.”
He drags me down into his lap again and rolls us to the bar. I giggle like a smitten teenager all the way there, my arms wrapped around his neck and my legs stretched out to the side. Either I’m drunk, or have untapped a side of me I never knew existed. A side that could be unabashedly happy.
Giving into the feels, I kiss his face all the way to the bar—his forehead, cheek, jawline, ear. That last one had him jumping to his feet and setting me on mine. A grimace scrunches his face.
“Is that from pain or something else?” My eyes fall to his shorts.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
He hobbles closer to the bar, steps up to the stools, and offers his hand.
“Such a gentleman.”
He waits for me to sit before sliding himself onto the stool beside mine with a long sigh. While we wait for the bartender to return with our drinks, I realize it’s already after 10:00 p.m.
“Jordan.” I place a hand on his arm. “I think we need to get a hotel room.”
His eyes double in size as they travel over my body.
“No. Not for that.” My hand slinks away, and I miss the feel of his skin under my palm. “It’s getting late, and I’ve had too much to drink to drive back tonight.”
“Works for me.” He leans closer. “But we should get two beds. I can’t have you traveling over to my side when you get—”
“Not a problem.”
