Page 69 of A Lot Like Love
“It’s show-and-tell time,” he said, his voice way too loud despite the noise in the room.
She dropped her cards and fanned them out in front of her, waiting for him to do the same. Parker’s face was dark as he turned his cards over, not even close to beating her.
“Lucky,” he sniggered, looking at Ryder. “Maybe you should let the little lady do all your betting for you.”
Ryder leveled him with his gaze and she couldn’t take her own eyes off him. His shoulders were squared, jaw like it was carved from stone as he considered Parker. “You saying you want to bet big again?”
Parker laughed. “What, put your ranch on the table again?”
Ryder shrugged, as if it was completely inconsequential to him. She admired the role he was playing, knew how hard it must be for him, and inside she wanted to scream. Parker had played right into their hands, suggesting the ranch before they had to try to bring it up.
“We both know you’d be too chickenshit to do that, Parker,” Ryder said in a loud voice, glancing around the table as he did so. “You’ve been wanting to get your hands on King land for longer than you probably even remember.”
“Who the hell are you calling chickenshit?” asked Parker.
Chloe cleared her throat and reached across the table, dropping her hand over Parker’s. She purposely angled her body away from Ryder, looked Parker straight in the eye.
“I’m starting to really get the hang of this. Can we just play again?”
Parker sniggered and Ryder took it as his cue, slamming his glass down on the table so hard it threatened to break. “Fuck this. I’m outta here.”
He didn’t go far, just to the bar, and she glanced over her shoulder and shrugged.
“Hey, are you sure you haven’t played before?” one of the men asked as she was dealt her hand.
“If you mean in college, then yeah,” she said, her cards on the table facedown. “Strip poker was a real favorite at the frat houses.”
She received a few laughs for that. The betting started and she matched what was on offer, making sure her breathing stayed even as she considered her cards, counted out the six seconds she was allowed to look at what she had before putting them down again. Everything she did when she was playing was practiced, consistent. She had no tell, nothing that anyone could read when they played against her. She counted out the seconds every time so she never took any longer looking at her hand, whether it was good or not.
“So tell me, Parker. Was Ryder right? Are you too scared to bet his ranch against, say, me?”
There were four of them playing now, but she could see the other two guys shifting in their seats. The last thing they wanted was to bet up that big.
“Why would I bet a ranch when you’ve got jackshit to bet against it?”
“You have a hundred grand on you?”
He laughed and looked at the other guys. “You hearing this?”
“I’m deadly serious. I want to bet a hundred, and if you don’t have the cash to join me, why not bet the ranch?” She laughed. “Unless you’re about to fold, or you’re too scared to bet against a girl?”
This time his laugh lacked confidence. “You’re good for a hundred?”
Chloe made a show of squaring her five cards into a perfect little pile before bending to retrieve her purse and pulling out a wad of thousand dollar bills. “Yes.” She pushed them into the center of the table.
“I ain’t fucking folding and you’re bluffing,” he said, knocking back the rest of his whiskey. “I’d love to take that hundred K off you, so yeah, go for it. The ranch is up for grabs.”
Chloe wished she could see the look on Ryder’s face, but she pushed all thoughts of him from her mind. She watched as Parker only discarded two cards. Her hand wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. But she knew what she had to do. The other two had folded, so now it was just her and Parker, just like it had been when Ryder had lost to him. Only the ranch was already on the table now, whereas last time Ryder had bet it right at the end. If she was playing to win with her hand she would have discarded a couple of cards, but she knew better than anyone that all she had to do was make him think she was holding the perfect hand already.
Chloe smiled at Parker, knowing there was little chance of charming him with a seductive gaze and flash of her cleavage any longer. If he hadn’t already, he was about to figure out that he’d been played by a seasoned pro. She put her cards down, glancing at them on purpose and grinned as she reached into her bag and pulled out some more cash. She slid the smaller pile onto the table, pushing it forward.
“Here’s another twenty, just to make this fun,” she purred. “What do you say?”
“I say you fucking lied when you said you hadn’t played before,” Parker growled out.
“Who, me?” she asked, drumming her nails on the table. “Now what do you say? Are you up for it, or don’t you have that kind of cash to play with,sweetheart?”
Chloe was acting a role, and it was one she loved as much as she despised it. The truth was, doing this kind of thing was a thrill, especially with someone else’s money.
