Poker Face: A Small Town Romance (The Beaufort Poker Club Book 1)

by Maggie Gates

  ✽✽✽

  Isaac: Fun fact. Telling a pissed off girl you want to show her a sex tape isn’t the best opening line. It may have made it better. May have fucked it up. Your guess is as good as mine. Good luck, bro.

  Isaac: Also, fuck you. Where the hell did you find a woman like Maddie and why have you been hiding her from me? She’s a fucking dime piece. She got any friends? Hook a brother up.

  Isaac: By the way, your Nonna is still cool as shit. You think she’ll adopt me as an honorary DeRossi?

  Just fucking great. I tried calling Isaac back, but he wasn’t answering. Probably because he knew I’d kill him for whatever he said to Maddie. Then again, he couldn't really make things much worse. I’d already done a bang up job of that.

  I paced the deck of Maddie’s houseboat, surprised that I hadn’t worn a hole in the wood yet. Maddie had only been gone for three days, but the mood when I walked into the kitchen at Revanche yesterday when I showed up to fire Astrid was nothing short of homicidal. Scott looked like he was ready to dice me up and put me on the dinner menu, and Carol seemed like she wanted to gag me with the linens and stab me with a fork. Everyone knew why Maddie had gone to interview for a job in New York. Everyone had seen the damn Instagram post.

  The one that I had filed a libel lawsuit over.

  The one that I fired Astrid over.

  The one that I was willing to put every dime I had toward fighting.

  I wasn’t bullshitting Astrid. I’d go broke if it meant that I did everything in my power to prove to Maddie that I was worth her love. I wrung my hands and crossed my arms over my chest. Halloween was right around the corner, and the frigid air blowing in was fitting for the chill I’d felt ever since Maddie called me to end things. The moment she hung up the phone, I knew that we were far from over. I’d fight for her—I’d fight with her. All I knew is that I wasn’t done with Madeline Dorsey. Not since the moment I laid eyes on her ten miles of pearly blonde hair swinging back and forth at the gym. Not since I fucked her hard in the kitchen of the restaurant. Not since I pushed her to take a chance on me.

  I had lost track of how long I had been at Maddie’s house. All I knew is that I got a cursory text from Steve telling me she’d be back today. It was the most I had to go on, so I showed up, and I waited.

  My mind went back to my conversation with Mrs. Dorsey—when she said the kind of love I felt for Maddie was the love that sticks. She didn’t say it in so many words, but I could tell there was something in her that wanted to ask if I’d stand by Maddie even when the going got tough. Even when someone was ready to walk away.

  Hell or high water, I was going to stick.

  A car rumbled up the drive, and I felt my heart nearly rip through my ribcage. Headlights flashed across the grass and lit up the water. The light inside Steve’s sports car turned on, and I saw Maddie sitting in the passenger’s seat. They exchanged a few words before he cut the car off, jumped out, and popped the trunk. He pulled her suitcase out and set it outside her door.

  “Just give her a minute,” he said as he wandered over to the dock. “She’ll talk when she’s ready.”

  I nodded and shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket. With the hood flipped up over my Yankees hat, I looked more like Luke from the first night we met than the Luca she hated.

  Truth was, I wanted to be both people. I wanted to be Luca DeRossi—who the hell wouldn’t? I worked hard for what I had and had earned where I was in life. I wasn’t about to apologize for being proud of that. On the other hand, I wanted the ability to be a chameleon when I wanted to. Beaufort gave me the luxury of anonymity that came with people not giving a flying fuck how many zeroes were at the end of my bank account balance.

  If she’d just hear me out, I knew she could handle both sides of me. She could handle the pressure of the public eye with grace and that sass I loved so much. Maddie liked the small town life as much as I did. This was her home. I wanted—no—I needed it to be our home. Still, if she decided to take the job in New York, that wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me. I wanted her more than I wanted anything else.

  The passenger door clicked as Maddie pushed it open. She stood up and looked at me with dead eyes. Great. Just fucking great. She came back home, but not back to me.

  Maddie took measured strides across the grass at a peaceful pace. Her long, silver and gold waves shined brightly against her leather biker jacket. She wore a pair of light, acid-washed jeans that looked like they’d been painted on. I stood frozen on the deck of her houseboat as she walked down the dock. She looked back over her shoulder at Steve’s house. The lights were off, but his garage door was open, and I heard the faint sound of weight plates being loaded onto a barbell.

  Maddie turned her head to me and looked down at the inch of water between the dock and the boat. “How’d you know when I’d be home?”

  I took a step forward until less than a foot separated us. “Well, I’d like to say it’s because I waited here for three days until you came back, but that’d be a lie. Steve texted me this morning and said you were coming back today.” Inhaling a deep breath, I added, “Truth is, I wouldn’t have waited for you to come back. I would have come after you.”

  She bit down on the corner of her lip and shuffled her feet back and forth, working her toe against a loose slat on the dock. “Luca…” Her voice disappeared into the wind. She looked up at the stars and shook her head. “What happened with us?”

  “I need to know if I’m losing the love of my life and my pastry chef or just my pastry chef.”

  That got her to look me in the eye. “What?”

  “Look,” I shrugged. “If working for Toussaint is something you want, then I’m happy for you. But I’m more concerned about whether I’m losing the one person I care about most in this world. It doesn’t matter to me if you’re on my payroll or not. I just need you—however you’ll let me have you. If New York is something you want, I’m there.”

  “Are you happy?” She asked.

  “Not since you walked out of my life.”

  “Good,” Maddie said as she hopped over the lip of her houseboat and closed the distance between us. “Because neither am I.”

  “Tesoro,” I said in a near growl. It had been a month since I’d touched her, held her. I need all of her, and I needed it right fucking now. Static-filled tension hung heavy between us. I wanted to lay my hands on her as much as I wanted to breathe, but I drew on my last bastions of self-control and gripped the inside of my jacket pockets instead.

  “I was scared,” she admitted.

  “Why? You know how much I love you.”

  “You can love someone and still leave.” Her voice softened to a whisper. “Everybody leaves.”

  “But you left me this time.”

  “I thought it would make it better, but it didn’t. I thought if I was the one leaving that maybe it wouldn’t hurt as bad.”

  “And?”

  “It fucking sucked, Luca,” she said with a tremor in her words.

  I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “Hey,” I soothed. “I should have come to see you before I left to deal with shit in California.”

  Her dark eyelashes batted like feathered wings as she slowly wrapped her arms around my neck and looked up at me. “Isaac dropped by for a visit when I was in New York.”

  “I, uh, I may have heard something about that.” A minuscule smirk curved up the corner of my mouth, and I added, “I can’t be held responsible for whatever the hell he said. He doesn’t have a filter.”

  Maddie’s face lightened, and she let out a quiet giggle. Those dimples that I loved so much popped out on either cheek. “He’s somethin’ alright.” Her fingers gently stroked the back of my neck, and I felt her belt rock against the bulge in the front of my jeans teasingly. “He told me everything.”

  Slowly, I pulled my hands from my pockets and settled them on the dip in her waist. “As much as I want to hear whatever the hell he said, it’s been way too fucking long
since I’ve seen you, and I can’t wait another damn minute,” I croaked out as I pulled her flush against me. “God—I missed you so much,” I murmured into her hair. “Missed you so fuckin’ much, beautiful.”

  “Nonna came to see me too.”

  “She did, did she?” I chuckled.

  “Any idea how she found where I was staying?” She asked as she cocked her head to the side and raised a suspicious eyebrow.

  I grinned and brushed my lips against hers. “I may have done some digging to find you.”

  Maddie tipped her chin up and nipped at my bottom lip. “I figured that much, smartass.”

  “I took a stab in the dark and guessed that Crawford must’ve made the introduction for Toussaint. They’ve always been tight, so I called him up. He told me what hotel you had booked.”

  “And you sent Nonna instead of coming yourself?”

  “Mad,” I began as I tucked her hair behind her ear and rested my palm on her cheek. “I wanted to be there, but you didn’t need me. I will always be your biggest fan. There’s no way in hell I would try to screw you over if that job was something you wanted, no matter how much I want you to be here.” I drew her in and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. “And it might be selfish, but I want you here.”

  She leaned into my caress and closed her eyes. “I missed you.”

  I couldn’t take it anymore. I grabbed the back of Maddie’s neck and crashed my lips to hers. My tongue swept through her mouth, and I swallowed down the little whimper that escaped her lips.

  Pulling back, I let out an unsteady breath and said, “Whatever you decide—I don’t want to change your mind, but I will not make saying goodbye easy. I’m gonna make you miss me.”

  Maddie looked up at me. The lights from the deck of her houseboat danced in her eyes the same way that the moonbeams glimmered on the water. “Luca DeRossi, you are the love of my life and the biggest pain in my ass.”

  “Say you’ll stay,” I begged in a hoarse whisper.

  She looked around and then finally turned back to me. “How could I leave?”

  “Maddie—”

  “I’m staying.”

  “Say it again,” I murmured as I kissed her hard. A tear streaked down her cheek and I wiped it away with my thumb.

  Maddie trembled and I cradled her against my chest. I rested my chin on top of her head and held her close. “I’m staying.”

  “I love you, Mad.”

  “I love you more.”

  I cracked a smile and kissed the top of her head. “Doubt it, but I’ll let you have the win for now.”

  I needed all of her, and I needed it right fucking now. The details could wait. What she found out from Isaac could wait. We could talk about her conversation with Nonna later. I needed Madeline Dorsey more than I’d ever needed anything. I lowered my lips back to hers, and with a reckless hunger, walked her backward to the front door of the houseboat. I put my hand in the back pocket of her jeans and gave her ass a hard squeeze. I slid her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door. We stumbled through the kitchen, grabbing at each other’s clothes, and sending fabric flying everywhere.

  My shirt ended up in the sink. One of her boots was on the threshold of the front door, and the other was by the bathroom. We ping-ponged through the narrow hallway toward the bedroom. Maddie barely made it onto the bed before I was grabbing at her knees, spreading them wide, and diving between them like a desperate man. I kissed a path up the supple skin of her inner thighs and let my hot breath linger over the slick folds that were seeping wet just for me.

  Maddie whined a wanton, “I need you.”

  That was all it took to make me snap. Madeline Dorsey was a taste I’d never get enough of. She was more complex than the finest wines. Sweeter than the best dessert with a spice that rivaled the hottest peppers. She was the kind of savory that could sustain a man for life with the unexpected notes that would keep things interesting.

  Everything about her was a craving that would never be satisfied.

  I licked my way up her center with the flat of my tongue. She let out a shocked gasp and fisted the bedspread. I pushed her legs further apart and dove in deeper, sliding two fingers into her core, curving them up, and slowly stroking that magical spot that had her mewling in delight. I bit down on her clit and sucked as I felt her shatter. Maddie’s body was wracked with tremors as she reeled from her orgasm.

  I wasn’t giving her a single second to recover. I grabbed her thighs and flipped her over to lay on her stomach. “Hands and knees, beautiful.” Maddie scrambled to obey, presenting me with that gorgeous ass nice and high. Her back arched seductively, and I trailed my finger up and down, teasing the cleft of her ass as I lined myself up with her opening. “Do you want me to get a condom, Mad?”

  We’d started going without them. Maddie was on birth control, and both of us were clean. Still, I asked, because like it or not, Astrid forced Maddie to doubt my integrity.

  “I swear to you, I haven’t been with anyone else,” I said as I placed an anchoring hand on her hip. I decided to back off and grab one before she felt forced to make that decision. As much as I wanted her to trust me, I knew it would take time to earn that privilege back.

  Cool air rushed between us as I went in search of my jeans. I think they ended up in the bathtub when I kicked them off. “Luca—” Maddie called out.

  “Yeah?”

  “Come here.”

  I blindly fumbled around the dark room, desperately looking for my pants. “Just a sec—I just gotta find my—”

  “Luca, I swear if you don’t get on this bed and fuck me in the next three seconds that I’m gonna grab my vibrator and do it myself.”

  “Maddie—”

  “I trust you, Luca. I wouldn’t have been able to come back if I didn’t. I’m here, and I fucking need you so bad that I think I might die, so please—” She was begging at this point and damn if it didn’t inflate my ego just a little. “God, Luca—I love you and I’ve been dying without you. I just—”

  I tackled her like a linebacker and threw her back down on the bed. She let out a little squeal as she bounced back up toward me. I pinned her arms to her sides and shut her up with a kiss. “Say it again.”

  Maddie’s eyes found mine in the dim light. “I love you,” she choked out. “I think I always have.”

  42

  ———

  MADELINE

  “Astrid convinced Celeste to post it as a publicity stunt for the article,” Luca said as we filled each other in on the bits and pieces of what the hell happened while we were apart. “I let her photograph the new house, but I didn’t know they were gonna… you know.”

  We were laying under the covers, a tangle of arms and legs in a mess of sheets, the glow of sex still rampant on our skin. I had told Luca what I knew. Isaac apparently met Celeste at some nightclub. She got a little tipsy and while they were dancing, some girls recognized her from Instagram and asked if she was hooking up with Luca.

  Being the devilish playboy he is, Isaac convinced her to go back to a hotel room with him. He kept feeding her shots until she spilled the whole damn thing. He recorded the entire drunken conversation on his phone and brought it to me as proof. Apparently Celeste wanted to get freaky and make a sex tape to prove she actually hooked up with Isaac Lawson. He used the brains inside that pretty head of his and turned the tables on her.

  Astrid came up with the hair-brained scheme to boost Luca’s sex appeal—not that it needed boosting. She just wanted me out of the picture since I didn’t exactly fit the mold of who she thought was appropriate for Luca to be seen with. Ladder climbing bitches are sneaky little fuckers. Astrid was worried that Luca’s image would go swirling down the toilet if he wasn’t with some kind of socialite and was willing to do anything to send me running.

  She almost won too.

  Luca wiggled down under the covers and tucked me into his side. It was a small gesture that I’d come to love. “How’s Nonna?”

 
I giggled as I traced the lines of his tattoo sleeve with my finger. “She brought me wine.”

  “Ah, I see. So, she’s your favorite now, huh?”

  “She also made me promise to come visit for Thanksgiving,” I said as Luca reached around and pulled me so that I was on my knees, straddling his waist. I felt the solid length of his erection pressing into the apex of my thighs. I swear—the man was never not hard. “And I think that if I don’t show up, she’ll put some ancient curse on me or something,” I teased. It had been a long time since I’d had a family Thanksgiving, and with November right around the corner, I was just a little bit giddy. Usually I spent the day—or at least as long as I could—with my mom, eating hospital-grade turkey and mashed potatoes. I was always invited to Steve and Heather’s or to join Hannah Jane’s family, but I hated being the third wheel.

  His chest rumbled with a deep chuckle, and it had my heart on a tumble dry setting. “I, uh, I was thinking…”

  “Hm?” I murmured as I leaned down and pepper the expanse of his chest with featherlight kisses.

  “We should host.”

  I sat up, smirking as his cock twitched against my ass. “Host?”

  Luca propped himself up on his elbows, and I caught a glimpse of that mischievous smile on his mouth. “Have my family come down here. Have your friends join. Steve will probably need somewhere to eat. You can invite Kristin and her crew. Hell, we’ve got the room. We can fill all those empty rooms at the house with my batshit crazy family and all their little rugrats and whoever else.”

  I’d never hosted a holiday before, but the idea of being surrounded by everyone here did stupid things to my already reeling heart.

  Luca shifted until he was sitting up against the headboard. One hand slid between my legs and teased my pussy. The other brushed my hair off my shoulder and cupped my cheek. “What do you say?”

  I dropped my head back and groaned in delight. “You keep doing that, and I’ll say yes to anything,” I gritted out.