Playing With Fire by Kat Black

Author:Kat Black [Kat Black]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2015-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

‘You’re kidding me, right?’ Annabel demanded, her green eyes flashing at him.

‘What makes you think that?’ Aidan met her gaze levelly.

Her arms loosened from around his neck and the light in her eyes hardened. ‘Because that’s not the sort of game I had in mind. At all.’

Oh, he was well aware of that from the way she’d advanced on him the moment the hotel-room door closed behind them. The way she’d kissed him had nearly made him forget his plans and drop to his knees in front of her. Nearly. ‘Yet it’s the one I’m offering, Annabel.’

‘Why?’ she complained. ‘You know I can’t play poker.’

‘Which is why I’d like to teach you.’

‘Like to beat me at it more like!’ She walked away across the room.

Yes, that too. Especially as he intended making her his prize. ‘I’d like us both to get a better understanding of this blind prejudice you have against gambling.’

She spun around to face him. ‘It’s not blind!’ she said, showing a spark of temper as he’d hoped she would. Getting Annabel fired up was also the best way to open her up. ‘It’s a lot more clear-sighted than throwing money away and taking unnecessary risks.’

And there it was. The thing she was most afraid of and kept herself most guarded against. Risk. Annabel had come to equate all risk, unnecessary or not, with loss. He wanted to help her see that wasn’t always the case, that it could also lead to great reward. Because a life lived without taking any risk at all was at best only a half-life. ‘Then we won’t play for money.’

‘What then, peanuts from the minibar?’ she snapped. ‘I hardly think that’d make it much of a challenge for you.’

No, but her tetchiness was making it a real effort to keep his hands off her. ‘You’re right. Peanuts won’t do. We’d have to make the stakes worthwhile, otherwise where’s the sense of jeopardy, the thrill?’

‘Well, there’s nothing else around here.’ She gave him a calculating look before coming back towards where he stood with a seductive sway to her hips. ‘So maybe we can get back to trying my sort of game?’

He let her come to him and bent his head to take the kiss her parted lips offered because he couldn’t refuse. He slipped his tongue into her mouth, softly exploring, teasing the spots he knew she liked. Feeling her melt against him, he pulled back.

‘Actually, there is something else we could wager.’ He smiled down at her. ‘Something that will prove to be lots of fun, too. I take it you’ve heard of strip poker?’

* * *

Annabel sat in one of the hotel room’s two scroll-armed, wingback chairs wearing nothing but her last remaining item of clothing – a pair of scanty black-lace briefs – and the thickset crystal necklace around the base of her neck. Aidan had already refused to accept the latter as an adequate wager and insisted she keep it on.

Since getting as naked as possible, as

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