One Night Gamble

by Katherine Garbera

  “We are. Since you and I are going to be dating, I’ll tell you about it sometime.”

  …

  Talia had a lot of fun that evening. The illusion that Nicholas had unveiled had been breathtaking and she knew when he debuted it at the Jokers Wild Casino, it was going to immediately become one of the most popular shows on the strip. It was everything that made a good illusion—intriguing, mysterious, and, of course, thrilling.

  The reaction from the people in the room left no doubt that the illusion—the newest piece of his show at the Jokers Wild—was going to be a huge success.

  “I wonder if he’d consider doing a kids’ camp, showing them how to do illusions?” Talia said as she stood between Casey and Darien.

  “Uh, no. He’s not a teacher,” Casey said. “He doesn’t have the patience for dealing with kids.”

  “Do you think we could hire someone?” she asked.

  “That’s a good idea. Someone like Rio would be perfect,” Darien said. Darien was on his fourth Jack and Coke and Talia could tell by the way Casey watched his friend that he didn’t normally drink that much, or that quickly. She wasn’t sure which—she just noticed that Casey was watching him.

  “Yes. Someone like that. They don’t have to give away any of his secrets but maybe a class where kids could learn the basics would be good,” Talia said.

  “Why are you focused on kids?” Darien asked.

  She didn’t realize she was. “I guess I see them as the ones who need something to do while their parents are enjoying everything that Sin City has to offer.”

  Casey put his arm around her. “I think it’s a great idea.”

  “Of course you do,” Darien said.

  “What does that mean?”

  “Nothing. I’m being an ass,” Darien said.

  “Yeah, but that’s not unusual,” Casey said. “What’s up with you tonight?”

  Darien finished his drink and signaled the waiter for another one. “Nothing.”

  Talia realized that Darien wasn’t going to say anything else while she was standing there. “I want to go and get some reaction from the other guests. I think I saw a couple of Hollywood A-listers. If I could get a quote from them, it would look great on the website and community pages. I’ll be right back.”

  Casey leaned over and kissed her cheek, whispering, “Thanks.”

  She walked away feeling…well, that they might have the makings of a good couple. Except, they weren’t a couple. Sure, they’d decided to try dating, but that wasn’t the same thing as being a couple.

  She made a beeline for the Hollywood people she’d mentioned. One of them was a veteran actor who’d made his career in the nineties doing action films, and as she got closer, she realized he was accompanied by his son—a young actor who, according to speculation, had gotten his roles due to his last name.

  “Hi, I hope you’re enjoying the evening. I’m Talia Spencer and I work for the Jokers Wild Casino. I wondered if you’d share your reaction to Nicholas’s illusion with me,” she said. Then groaned. She was so much better behind the scenes.

  The man nodded. “Hello, Talia. I’m Liam Donnelly and this is my son Callum,” he said, holding his hand out to her.

  She shook it. “Sorry I’m not better at small talk.”

  Liam just laughed. “Usually people gush. It’s a nice change.”

  Ugh. “Of course, I love your movies. And Callum, you were great in that series on Netflix.”

  Liam just laughed. “I like you. So, what do you want from us again?”

  “Well, I just wanted to know…did you like it?”

  “Hell yes,” Callum said. “I’m dying to know how he did that. Dad and I couldn’t figure it out.”

  “We thought the illusion was going to be something different,” Liam said. “It was a very good show. The lead-up to it was great.”

  “Yay. I was hoping you’d say that. How do you feel about either giving me a quote I could use on our social media platforms, or maybe even doing a video talking about your reactions?” she asked. “I wouldn’t want you to give too much of the illusion away. But it might tempt people into visiting the Jokers Wild when the illusion act opens.”

  “I don’t think we could endorse it,” Liam said. “But a video would be fine.”

  “Perfect,” she said. She wanted to get people’s reactions to the illusion tonight, while the act was still fresh. She wished she’d known what Nicholas was doing. She could have had a video crew here. She looked around and realized that the bright lighting in the foyer would make a video shot on her smartphone look crisp and clear.

  “Do you mind doing it over here?” she asked. Then she looked around at the other guests. It would be great to get as many video reactions as she could.

  She led the way to the foyer and Liam and Callum followed her. She noticed that Liam was speaking quietly to Callum as she moved some stuff around on the table in the foyer of Nicholas’s house, right under the portrait of the grand illusionist himself, in an all-black suit with his arms crossed.

  Liam was coaching Callum on how to stand and what to say. And Talia felt that bit of envy that she’d often had when she saw other fathers in action. Her dad had taught her not to bet on red and that a winning streak could be nursed. She knew she really shouldn’t be complaining, but she was keenly aware of what had been missing in her own life.

  She got them staged and shot three versions of the video—all fantastic. She thanked them and took down their details so she could have a release form sent to them.

  Then she looked around for Casey.

  Chapter Nine

  Casey found Talia a few hours later sitting in Nicholas’s game room, texting on her phone. He stood there, watching her, and felt a punch in the gut that he couldn’t identify. It wasn’t the same thing he felt when he sat down at a high-stakes poker game, or even the thrill he got from following Darien along on some crazy high-speed adventure.

  It had its roots in sexual attraction, he wasn’t going to deny that. But it was more.

  “I didn’t invite you tonight to work,” he said.

  She glanced up with a smile on her face. “I know. But it was too good an opportunity to pass up. I have some great footage of the guests’ reactions to the illusion. I’m going to send this to the video editor on my team in the morning and have him make a clip we can start using on the presale ticket site.”

  He came over and sat down next to her on the large leather couch. The room was dominated by a pool table in the middle and at the end was a round poker table with six chairs and a well-stocked bar.

  As he sat, the cushions dipped and she slipped toward him, her soft curves fitting nicely against him. He put his arm around her shoulders and she glanced up at him. “Sorry about that.”

  “I liked it,” he admitted. “Show me your favorite footage from tonight.”

  She opened the video app on her phone and played him a few of the clips she’d got. He couldn’t help but notice how most of the people reacted to her and her coaching. The Hollywood father/son duo was by far the most relaxed in front of the camera, but Talia had done her best to get some great reactions.

  “I love it. I think Nicholas will, too,” he said. Although he’d made his offer earlier in the night to show Talia that she wasn’t the only one putting herself on the line, he suddenly realized that offer probably was going to go a long way to ensuring the success of the Jokers Wild. “But I think that’s enough working for tonight.”

  “Me too. I just did it to give you some time with Darien,” Talia said. “Is he okay?”

  Casey couldn’t really share Darien’s problems with Talia. He’d never breach his friend’s trust. But Darien was better at the moment. Casey had found him a distraction in the form of one of Nick’s assistants—a leggy blonde.

  “As good as he can be,” Casey said at last. Dare was dealing with someone from his past that he’d never expected to see again and as he’d admitted earlier to Casey, he wasn’t as immune to her
charms as he should be.

  “I’m glad to hear it. So, what else is on the agenda tonight?” she asked.

  “Just the two of us,” Casey said. “What do you want to do?”

  She nibbled on her bottom lip, something he noted she did frequently. He wondered if it was nerves or just tension that made her do it. He’d seen her make the gesture in the interview and when they were alone.

  “I’m not sure,” she said. “What did you have in mind?”

  He glanced around the room. “Have you ever played pool? We could play a simple game of solids versus stripes.”

  “Uh, no. I’ve never played,” she said, but stood up and walked over to the table. “It can’t be that hard, can it?”

  He had to chuckle at that. “It’s harder than it looks. When I was living on the streets, one of the guys I met used to hustle games. He’s the one who taught me.”

  “Why were you living on the streets?” she asked.

  He hated talking about his past. Why had he brought it up? He hadn’t meant to. There was something about Talia that made him drop his guard. She sort of made him feel like she already knew all the cracked, broken parts of him. And that they didn’t matter.

  But he knew that they did. He used his past to create the man he was today. But in a normal suburban world, those things would seem…well less than desirable.

  “Uh, I had trouble in a group home and ran away,” he said.

  She walked over to him, the scent of her gardenia perfume reaching him before she did. She put her hand on his shoulder. “No one’s childhood is perfect.”

  He looked over at her, saw in her eyes that feeling of being broken that echoed in his soul and he knew that she got it. He didn’t have to explain anything else to her because her own childhood had been less than ideal as well. And maybe that was why he was so relaxed around her.

  “Let me show you how the game is played.”

  He’d had a lover who told him that no woman wanted a man who showed too much vulnerability. Since that moment, Casey had learned to hide that part of himself. Only, it was harder with Talia. She made him believe that he could be himself, and she’d stay.

  But that might be a big illusion. Bigger than Nicholas’s trick that had them all gasping and trying to figure out how he’d done it.

  “Grab that triangle. I’ll rack up the balls and then you can break,” he said.

  She took the triangle off the wall and handed it to him. He set it up and Talia pushed the balls to him down the green felt-topped table. He caught them and put them in the right positions.

  He rolled the balls around in the triangle and then took it off the table, hanging it back up before taking down two cues. He handed one to her and she tipped her head to the side as she expertly lined up her cue stick with the cue ball.

  …

  Talia had seen enough games of pool over the course of her life to know the basics of what she needed to do, but as she lined up her shot, she knew she was out of her element. And when she pushed the cue forward, barely tapping the white ball, she realized he now knew it as well.

  “Damn, woman, I thought you were hustling me for a minute,” he said.

  “I wish I was,” she admitted. “But honestly, I have no clue what I’m doing.”

  Casey took off his dinner jacket and walked around the table to stand behind her. “Let me show you.”

  She turned around and realized he was closer than she’d noticed. She handed him the pool cue and started to step aside but he stopped her with his hand on her waist. “You can’t learn from watching…only from doing.”

  It sounded like a line and she wasn’t sure he hadn’t used it on a woman before but there was something in his eyes that made her want to wrap herself around him and hold on forever.

  She realized that she probably should be beating a hasty retreat, but instead she arched one eyebrow. “And how exactly are you going to do that?”

  “Face the table and hold the cue again,” he said. Then he moved around so that his body was pressed against hers. His arms rubbed along the outside of hers as he positioned her hands on the long, slender cue.

  His hands were big, his nails manicured, and she shivered as she remembered the way they’d felt on her body. He’d been gentle, but it was clear Casey kept a tight rein on his strength.

  His hips brushed against hers as he covered her back, putting his chin on her shoulder. She turned toward him and he kissed her quickly. “Watch the table, Brown Eyes, not me.”

  She turned back to the table, her body on fire from the nearness of his. Her mind was running a million different scenarios and fighting against what she’d agreed to earlier.

  Casey was dangerous—to her career…and her heart. She never should have slept with him. Each touch on her body had hit her like a gateway drug to the most potent high that she’d ever experienced. A smarter woman…well, she probably wouldn’t be here right now. Her body urged her to stop thinking and enjoy this moment.

  She started shaking as she realized that she’d never allowed herself to enjoy anything. Her experience with her father had shown her to fear pleasure, had made her realize that any type of joy had to be monitored.

  “Talia.”

  “Hmmm?”

  “Draw the cue back,” he said.

  He was still talking about pool, showing her how to play a game that she had no interest in. But she had to fake it, had to focus on what she was doing, not on how he made her feel.

  She was going to be smart.

  Except she wasn’t, she realized, as she shifted back on her heels and her backside brushed against his erection. He wasn’t as immune to their closeness as he’d been pretending and that eased something inside of her.

  She drew the pool cue back and then Casey tightened his hand over hers at the back of the cue, put his hand on her waist, and drew her toward his body. “Don’t do anything yet. Relax back into your heels.”

  When she “relaxed back,” she pushed her buttocks closer to his erection and she felt the tautness of his chest against her back. He moved his head closer to her face. “Lean down so that you can line up your shot. You want to hit the white ball right in the center, so that it will hit the green ball at the center of the triangle. You want a good split of all of the balls.”

  She took a deep breath. His words made absolutely no sense to her. All she could think of was whether he’d closed the door when he’d come to join her in this room, and if he’d have a problem with having sex in someone else’s house…while there was a party going on.

  “Ready?”

  Yes. She was ready, but not to play pool. But she was on fire and he’d done nothing but surround her with his body. She wanted to think that he was ignoring his hard-on, so maybe she should try as well. But she couldn’t.

  She shifted her hips so that she rubbed the cheeks of her butt over his erection as she leaned forward. She looked down the pool table, but was very aware of his groan. His hand clenched on her waist, drawing her back against him for a moment before he relaxed.

  She took a deep breath and pushed the pool cue forward. This time, it hit the white ball with force and the other balls scattered around the table. One of the solid-colored balls rolled into a pocket.

  “Good job,” he said, his voice husky.

  She was pretty damned sure he wasn’t paying any attention to the game, either. His voice was raw, and suddenly, she knew she didn’t want to play games.

  She put the cue on the table and straightened, glancing at the door and seeing it was closed. Just to be sure, she walked over and locked it. Then she turned back to him.

  He was leaning back against the pool table, his arms crossed over his chest. His posture suggested he was at ease, but the ridge of his cock pressing against the front of his pants told her he wasn’t. Lucky her.

  …

  “I’m upping the stakes,” she said, and his heart dropped.

  “You are?” he asked, his voice raspy, even to his own ears. He didn’t
care. He knew he wasn’t the only one who had something other than pool on his mind.

  She nodded. “Or maybe I’m finishing what you started.”

  He shifted his legs to make room for his erection but otherwise stayed exactly where he was as she stalked back toward him. The dress she wore tonight was a slim fitting sexy red sheath and all night long he’d had the hardest time keeping his hands off her. Even Darien, who was knee deep in an obsession with a woman from his past, had mentioned that red was definitely Talia’s color.

  But Casey knew it wasn’t the dress or the fabric that made his heart beat faster. It was the woman in it. He was a goner where she was concerned. He’d been waiting and wanting her since the moment he’d woken up alone in his bed. He craved her back at his side. Naked and writhing underneath him or riding him or anyway he could have her.

  “What did I start?” he asked. He liked this playful side of Talia and he wanted this moment to last.

  Right now, he didn’t want to be anywhere else or with anyone else. There was a freedom to admitting he wanted her, he realized. There was no need for him to keep on hiding.

  “Oh, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Who teaches another person to play a game by wrapping their body around them?” she asked.

  “Were you turned on by that?” he asked.

  “You were,” she said, raising both eyebrows at him. “It was kind of hard to ignore.”

  “Good.”

  She stopped walking and stood a few feet away from him. She had those killer stiletto heels that made her seem like she was all legs. He was barely holding on to his mind and he knew that playing any sort of game with her wasn’t going to end well for him.

  He wasn’t on his A-game—hell, if he was honest, he wasn’t playing. He couldn’t hide his reaction to her and the worst part was, given his track record, he didn’t want to hide it. He didn’t mind that she knew how much he wanted her.

  Because he wanted her to want him the same way.

  He had no idea how to make her fall for him, but he couldn’t hide what he felt. For the first time in his life he couldn’t bluff his way through this.