High Stakes: A Texas Heat Romance

by Camilla Stevens

  She just gave a noncommittal hum as she walked in ahead of him. Before he could close the door she spun around, nearly losing her balance.

  “You know, I don’t really sleep with men on the first date. Or first and one-third? one-quarter? I forget what this one is.” She giggled.

  Yeah, definitely some room service.

  “Well, as much as I would love to break that record, I think you need food in you more than you need…” he stopped, realizing the sleazy finish to that sentence.

  Juliet just hiccuped a laugh and finished it for him “…dick in me.” That got another bout of giggles out of her.

  Even Chance had to laugh at that one.

  She came in closer to him, putting her arms around his waist and looked up at him with that soft smile again.

  Then all her signals shifted. A wrinkled brow. A frown overcoming her lips. Her nose scrunching as if she had just got a whiff of something unpleasant. Her eyes went wide.

  “Oh my God,” she said, putting a hand to her mouth urgently.

  Chance watched her with alert, wary eyes. Juliet immediately let her purse slide down her arm to the floor and ran to the bathroom. She somehow managed to slam the door behind her before, one second later, a series of sounds that could only be one thing ensued.

  Chance didn’t need an interpreter to comprehend those hurls and retches. It didn’t bode well for the rest of the night.

  Even if he had still been interested in anything happening tonight—and he was man enough to think this didn’t entirely kill the mood for him, not with those shoulders and that smile—he doubted Juliet would even be able to look him in the eye let alone have sex with him after this.

  Once the noise of Juliet expelling everything she had eaten and drank today ended she stayed in the bathroom for a while. Chance sensed her hesitation on the other side of that closed door. He could actually picture her staring into the mirror, trying to pump herself back up enough to come back and face him.

  When she finally opened the door, he made sure to firmly hide the smile that wanted to come to his face at how crazy this night had gone.

  Oh poor, sweet Juliet.

  The defeat and humiliation was written all over her: the bottom lip being chewed to death between her teeth; the one arm crossed over her body while the other hand went up to cup the back of her neck; the head bowed in embarrassment; the wrinkled brow that would have prefaced an onslaught of tears if she was still a little girl.

  Chance quickly walked over to comfort her. “Hey, it’s okay,” he soothed before the apology that was written on her lips could be uttered.

  “I’m sorry,” she said anyway. “It must have been the ice cream with all that candy and the champagne, then the thought of eating something else.”

  He put one firm arm around her and guided her to sit on the bed.

  “Really, it’s okay, Juliet,” he said again, adding a chuckle for good measure.

  It was hilariously disastrous from his point of view. Even during his hot streaks at poker he’d never spent this much on a woman, certainly not for a first date. Luxury hotel room? Champagne? It was a good thing Juliet’s stomach was probably in no condition for caviar.

  Despite that, he wasn’t put out at all. Definitely one of his more memorable dates. Something to tell the grandkids one day.

  Before he could bounce that last thought around in his head to figure out where it had come from, she spoke up.

  “No, it’s not okay. You spent all that money and….I just…. It was two glasses! For Pete’s sake, I’m a 31-year-old woman!” she cast a quick, panicky glance his way.

  Chance just smiled reassuringly. He had four years on her. Her age was irrelevant, and 31 years old was nothing, especially since she wore hers so well.

  “I should be well past the days of this. How in the world could—?”

  “Like you said, it was probably a combination of the champagne and ice cream. Mostly my fault though. I do have a tendency to make women sick to their stomach when they look at me.”

  That got a genuine laugh out of her. Damn how that tiny little rasp in it just tickled his dick. He squeezed her shoulders reassuringly, reminding his cock to ignore how smooth that skin felt under his hand.

  “What do you say to this? We’ll skip the room service and we can just lie back against the headboard and talk all night. No sense in wasting this room and that view of Houston.”

  She looked up at him, smiling gratefully. She even managed to show a few teeth.

  “My favorite memory?”

  “Yeah,” Juliet said.

  Chance was against the headboard and Juliet leaned back in to his chest. Everything about it felt comfortable, perhaps because any remaining walls between Juliet and him had been flushed down the toilet along with her dignity. Not the ideal way to go about it, especially from her angle, but here they were.

  “Coney Island,” he said without pause. He didn’t even need to think about it.

  “I was twelve and my dad had just won another poker game. Not even a really big one, but he was feeling good. When he came back home, all he said was ‘pack your bags Katiebird,’ that’s what he called my mom, ‘we’re headed to New York’.”

  Chance chuckled. “It was summer and you certainly didn’t need to tell Chip and me twice. We eagerly packed our bags and road-tripped it up to New York. The four of us were there for a week, doing the tourist thing, Central Park, Empire State Building. The Towers were still up then so we did that as well. But it was a side trip to Coney Island we took that sticks with me.”

  He laughed at the memory of it. The scene in his head had a hazy summer glow and smelled like popcorn. He could still feel the salty sea air against his skin and hear the laughter and noise surrounding him.

  “My mom grew up around there and she enjoyed it more than any of us. I think that’s why my dad picked it. Anyway, Chip got so sick from cotton candy and all the rides that he eventually…well, I guess you’re familiar with what happened next.” Juliet elbowed him in the ribs making him laugh. “I was young and evil enough to tease him mercilessly about it, until my parents finally took pity on him and told me to quit it.”

  “My dad dragged us to one of those pitching booths to go a few rounds. We were all shocked at how good he was. That was the first time I learned he had played baseball in high school. He told us they fill those bottles with sand to make them harder to knock over, so you have to have a strong pitch to make it work, and boy did he.”

  “He won one of those big teddy bears. All they had left were the pink ones so he gave it to my mom. She loved that damn bear.” He laughed as he remembered his mother lugging it back to their hotel room, not letting anyone else hold it. “Even with the jewelry and trips he would impulsively buy her, I don’t think she ever loved a gift from him more than that pink bear. She still has it to this day.”

  Juliet gave a soft laugh at that.

  Chance felt the smile fall from his face as the memory continued. “We were on the boardwalk and had some guy take our photo, complete with that damn bear. It was my dad’s favorite and he kept it in his wallet. I think it must have been one of his favorite memories too, though according to him it was because of the way my mom looked in her shorts. He was always telling us he had fallen for her because,” he grew heavy on the East Texas drawl to mimic his dad, “‘she had legs that could bring tears to a man’s eye, even from across the room’.”

  The smile came back to his face. “So that’s my favorite memory. How about yours?”

  He looked down and found Juliet fast asleep against his chest. He gave a soft chuckle as he studied her. Her slightly almond shaped eyes created alluring slants when closed shut. Her lips were parted slightly forming the same tempting shape they had in anticipation of a kiss. Her breathing was soft and steady, her chest pressing gently into his side with each intake.

  Chance could already feel the archives of his mind etching this picture to memory. It would be one of his favorites.

&nb
sp; 8

  “Hey there, sleepyhead.”

  Juliet had just blinked her eyes open. Her head was lying on something firm, someone’s chest. It took a moment to register where she was and who she was with. The night before came raging back to her head and she cringed at the memory.

  She looked down to find herself still wearing the white dress from yesterday. Chance was still in his shirt and jeans as well.

  So that answered that question. Apparently, all her data was wrong and Chance didn’t have a 100% chance of getting laid last night. On the other hand, her initial calculations certainly hadn’t included her throwing up in the bathroom.

  “What time is it?”

  “Almost checkout time. At least one of us got a pretty good night’s sleep.”

  Juliet sat up and wrinkled her face. “Really? I slept that long?”

  “Yep, and can I say it’s a pleasure to find out that you don’t snore?”

  “Chance, I don’t know what to say. I thought—” she blinked up at him then darted her eyes away.

  “Yeah, I thought too,” he said with a slight uptick of one side of his mouth. Then he chuckled. “Hey, at least I get to tell all the boys back on the rig that I got to sleep with a beautiful woman.”

  Juliet laughed. It was nice of him to not take it so seriously. She could think of a few of her prior dates who would have been pissed about getting a room at the Hotel ZaZa only to have their date hurl and then fall asleep on them. It made her like him all the more, if that was even possible.

  “We could still….” She offered and not entirely out of guilt. Even after sitting up half the night he looked like sex on a stick that morning. Juliet would have been more than happy to indulge.

  Chance actually laughed, which made her frown. Perhaps she didn’t look quite as appealing as he did the morning after. She reached up to smooth down her hair.

  He reached out a hand to stop her. “You look positively, sinfully delectable. It’s not that. It’s just the last thing I want is a pity fuck from you.”

  He cocked his head to the side and gave her a coy look. “Besides, I gotta leave something to have you comin’ back for more. Who knows what the next Simon might bring to the table these next two weeks I’m gone.”

  Juliet went through her mental portfolio of men from eHarmony, OkCupid, and Match. Not a single one even came close to competing with the one sitting on the bed next to her.

  “So today’s your last day here?”

  “Yep. Two weeks on, two weeks off. That’s how it works.”

  Juliet felt her heart sink with disappointment. Two whole weeks before she even had a chance at seeing him again. It felt like a lifetime.

  She had clicked with men before but never like this. Even beyond the pure lust she felt yesterday, there was something about this man that was not just different, but amazingly different.

  “I would actually like to see you again when you get back.” There was no point in being coy about it, despite his teasing remark. Everything that had gone down in the past 48 hours told her that he maybe felt the same, and not just for the sex.

  “I’d like to see you again, too,” he said, giving her that lopsided grin that made it seem more cocky than it should have been. “Maybe we can pick up where we left off. Meet at the usual place, two weeks from now?”

  “Sure,” she said smiling happily.

  That lopsided grin transitioned into something softer and more thoughtful. “How about I buy you breakfast. You probably need it.”

  She smiled brightly at him. “Only if you let me buy. I owe you that much.”

  They were waiting in line at the Breakfast Klub. Despite the heat outside, the line was wrapped around the building. The two of them fit in well with the diverse mix of people standing outside the well-loved soul-food restaurant.

  “So what’s the plan in two weeks…or should we just play it by ear again?”

  “Well, it’s summer and I’m on sabbatical anyway, so the whole time is free for me. That’s long enough for almost anything.”

  “Hmm,” he said, then put his hand to his head and closed his eyes in concentration. “I’m imagining a world map and a dart in our future.”

  Juliet laughed. “Not that kind of anything.”

  He opened his eyes and smiled down at her. God how she loved that face!

  “How about we just stick to the plan of meeting up at the usual place two Saturdays from now and see where it goes. Who knows, maybe by then you’ll be open to the idea”

  “Yeah, don’t get your hopes up,” she said, laughing.

  “Hello there, Chance.”

  They both turned at the interruption, which had a heavy dose of a Russian accent tied to it. The man attached to the voice was short with closely shaved black hair. His face would have been attractive enough but was scarred with the result of what was once a horrible case of acne. The eyes were what really ruined it, dark as coal and in a permanent state of intensity, as though they were trying to hypnotize the object of their gaze.

  He was a perfect stranger to Juliet, but he obviously knew Chance well based on the smile he was pointing in his direction. The smile had a tinge of something sinister and almost taunting in it. She looked up at Chance searching for an answer there.

  “Alexi,” Chance replied, his face cool and unreadable. “Don’t tell me you were just in the neighborhood.”

  The man laughed as though Chance had said something hilarious. Something in that laugh caused Juliet to instinctively inch closer to Chance. He brought a protective arm around her shoulders and drew her in even more.

  “As a matter of fact I wasn’t,” he shrugged with a guilty smile on his face. “But I was close enough, I thought I’d be the one to give you the good news personally.”

  Juliet felt Chance’s hand instinctively tighten around her shoulders.

  “Well, as you can see I’m here with someone. Perhaps this good news can wait.”

  “Ah,” Alexi said, now looking at Juliet. She instinctively shivered. He put an apologetic hand to his chest. “Forgive me. I did not mean to ruin your little date.”

  He turned to Chance with that taunting look again. “She is a very pretty lady. Perhaps she would like to hear the good news as well?”

  As quick as a viper, Chance brought his arm away from Juliet’s shoulders and grabbed the man by the shirt. There was an almost comical look of surprise on Alexi’s face. He exclaimed something that sounded like “Chto za huy” as Chance began dragging him away.

  “I’ll be right back,” he said calmly to Juliet, as though excusing himself to the restroom.

  By now, everyone in line was watching with fascination as the much larger man dragged the other down the sidewalk and around the corner out of sight. Juliet was one of them, even more open-mouthed than the people around her.

  What in the world was that about?

  9

  Dmitri Kosloff. Alexi was one of his minions, low enough on the totem pole that Chance didn’t feel too bothered about roughing him up a bit. He had been willing to let it go until the bastard decided to involve Juliet.

  Chance half-dragged, half-walked Alexi, who was still cursing in Russian, around the corner until there was no one to see or overhear them. Then he slammed him against the wall of the nearest building.

  “So what’s this good news, Alexi?” he said into his face, his expression anything but amicable.

  “Fuck you!”

  Chance gave him a cold smile. “That’s not exactly what I would consider good news, especially since you aren’t my type. Frankly, I had no idea you even batted for that team.”

  Alexi spat in his face.

  Chance was momentarily shocked, but found his cool easily enough. He held Alexi against the wall as he grabbed the man’s shirt to wipe his face.

  “Now that was uncalled for, Alexi,” he said in a measured voice. Alexi’s eyes grew wary at the tone, then widened in surprise as Chance slammed his fist into his face.

  Chance stood ba
ck to give Alexi a chance to recover. A series of gurgled curses followed in a mix of English and Russian that Chance half understood. Raising two strong-headed boys, his mother had done enough cursing in Russian during his youth for him to get a general idea of what was being said.

  Alexi eventually came around and stood up straight to face Chance, now with a bloody nose. A hateful sneer was painted on his face.

  “You,” he snarled. “You just fucked yourself.”

  “How’s that?” Chance said in a bored tone.

  “Dimitri’s dead.”

  Chance was an expert at hiding his reactions, especially in the face of startling revelations. Usually, such revelations came in the form of a royal flush or full house. This one was a doozy, but hell if he was going to let Alexi know that. He was pleased to find the searching look on his face fall in disappointment, obviously hoping for more of a reaction.

  “Let me guess, you’re the ambitious individual who’s stepped in to take his place.” His voice was full of sarcasm, but there was a definite probe in that taunt. Chance waited for Alexi to take the bait.

  After another resentful sneer, Alexi collected himself and gave Chance a cool look. “Leo Petrov.”

  Chance kept the half smile on his face to keep Alexi focused on his taunt as he processed that. It made sense, even if Leo was too young and, worse, far too impulsive to be the head in Houston.

  The worst part was, Chance couldn’t tell if this was indeed good news, as Alexi had said, or if it just made things worse. He was unlikely to get much more in the way of answers from Alexi, who looked as though he wanted to do more than spit on Chance right about now. He was smart enough to refrain. That original punch contained only half the power Chance was capable of. Performing manual labor on an oil rig had its perks.

  “Well, you’ve said your piece. Now if you don’t mind, my date is waiting.”