Shine Not Burn(20)

I didn’t even look at my cards. “I could do either one right now and it would make me really happy.” The thrill that ran up my spine was nothing compared to the electricity that jolted my entire body when he leaned towards me and put his face near my ear. His breath tickled my skin as he spoke.

“I meant on the table.”

I smiled, the devil in me taking over. “Wherever, whatever. It’s your call.”

He tipped his head back and laughed, rubbing his hat on his head a few times while he grinned like a madman. “You’re somethin’ else, Andie, you know that?” He took the cocktail from the waitress who’d shown up behind us and handed it to me. I had three drinks now and I planned to drink every one of them. Once he’d gotten his beer and tipped the girl a few dollars, he raised his bottle in my direction.

“Here’s to getting lucky in Vegas.”

I grinned like a crazy fool. “I’ll drink to that.” I clanked my glass against his bottle so hard some of the drink sloshed out. He backed up really quick, pointing a finger at me. “You’re dangerous. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to get me all wet again.”

I shrugged, sipping my drink as innocently as possible. Then my mouth opened up and more ridiculousness came out. “Turnabout’s fair play.”

He didn’t say anything but he lifted an eyebrow. And I noticed for the next three hands of blackjack, all of which we both won, he got closer and closer to me, until I was turned sideways and one of his thighs was in between mine. If I scooted any closer to the edge of the stool, I’d be humping his leg, but I totally didn’t care. I didn’t even worry about where my friends were or what was taking them so long to find me. I knew Candice would return eventually, even if she had to put Kelly down for the night upstairs first. And I felt more than confident that Mack would take care of me until they came back. If I were being honest, I’d admit that while I waited for my friends’ return, I sent up a few prayers to the goddess of love, begging that Candice not be able to find me for a really long time.





Chapter Eleven





MACK GRABBED MOST OF THE chips in front of us and put them in a plastic cup with the casino’s logo on it. He flipped a chip worth twenty dollars at the dealer. “You ready to get outta here?” He sounded surprisingly sober considering how many beers he’d drunk.

“But what about these ones?” I asked, touching to the ones he was leaving behind.

“Those are yours.”

He must be confused. Or maybe he’s drunker than he looks. I felt a little panicked when I realized maybe it wasn’t confusion or beers … maybe he didn’t know that I’d been using his chips all along. I looked at the twelve hundred dollars of multi-colored chips in front of me. “Those aren’t mine, they’re yours. I kind of … took some of your chips in that first round. I’m sorry … I panicked. They said you’d lose your seat.” I grimaced at him, wondering if I’d just blown my chance at a roll in the proverbial hay with the sexiest cowboy this side of the Mississippi.

“You won ‘em fair and square. Let’s just say I backed you for a little while, ’til you got on your feet.”

I bit my lower lip as I considered whether I should insist that he take the money. I soon realized sitting still and concentrating like that was a mistake, though; the room was spinning way too much for well-reasoned, rational arguments. I decided it was more prudent to focus my energies on walking a straight line instead of denying any right to the money. I’d lost count of how many free cocktails I’d drunk in the last hour that we’d been playing, but I knew from the way the gambling pit was going round and round that I’d imbibed a couple too many. I stacked the chips up and fit them into the palm of my hand. Twelve hundred dollars was surprisingly light. “Thank you, cowboy. That’s incredibly generous of you.” I grinned like a drunk fool, which is exactly what I was. “I’ll just have to find a way to pay you back, I guess.”

“Come on, let’s go get some fresh air,” he said, holding out a bent elbow for me.

“Is that what they’re calling it these days?” I asked sliding off the stool, and shoving my hand through the hole at his side. I only punched him in the ribs a little. It was when my feet hit solid ground and I got a better hold on my dizziness that I realized what a dork I sounded like. Talk about a mood-breaker. “I did it again, didn’t I?” I asked, sighing. So much for the sexy black dress and the Jennifer hairstyle.