The Gambler

by Molly O'Keefe

  The Gambler

  Molly O’Keefe

  Contents

  THE BAD BOY COMES HOME….

  Reader Letter

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

  THE BAD BOY COMES HOME….

  Don’t do it, you idiot. The air around us crackled. She will take off your head and feed it to a dog, man. Do not be stupid.

  But in the end I ignored the voice because she was a magnet to everything in me searching for a direction. I stepped close, close enough to breathe the breath she exhaled. Close enough to smell her skin, warm and spicy in the sunlight.

  Her eyes dilated, her lips parted, but she didn’t move, didn’t back away and my body got hot, tight with a furious want.

  The air was still between us, as if we were frozen in time. But inside I raged with hunger for her. Always for her.

  I lifted my hand, slow, careful, ready for her to snap but she didn’t. I placed my calloused, shaking fingers against the perfection of her cheek. Her breath hitched and for a moment—the most perfect moment in ten miserable years—Juliette let me touch her.

  And then, like the good girl she was, she stepped away from the riffraff.

  “You’re way too good for the likes of me, Juliette Tremblant,” I murmured

  Reader Letter

  Dear Reader,

  * * *

  Tyler O’Neill – in case it’s not obvious when you read the book is 100% based on Chris Evans. Both the man and the characters he played and I gotta ask – is there a better inspiration? Yeah. I didn’t think so either. He’s charming with a hint of danger. A good guy in a bad boy package. And that grin.

  * * *

  It’s been fun getting Tyler O’Neill out of trouble with the help of Juliette Tremblant—a dangerous woman Tyler loved and left behind. For me, the sparks flew off the page. Please drop me a line at molly@molly-okeefe.com and let me know if they did for you, too. I love to hear from readers. For more news and exciting giveaways join my newsletter.

  Follow me on Bookbub

  And join my reader group

  * * *

  The Gambler was published in a completely different form as a Harlequin Superromance. I have sexed it up for your enjoyment!!

  Here’s the skinny on the rest of the series! I would read these in order to get the most out of the Notorious world!

  The Sinner

  ONE CLICK HERE

  I’m ready to lie, cheat and steal to get the evidence I need to save my father. Evidence I believe Savannah O’Neill is hiding behind the crumbling walls of her mansion and her cold untouched beauty. So, I pretend to be the broke handyman she needs in order to get close to her.

  But I never expected Savannah to be so…vulnerable and sweet. Or the chemistry between us to be so hot.

  I use both to seduce her secrets from her. And soon it’s my heart that’s in jeopardy.

  When all my sins are revealed is the damage I’ve done to Savannah’s heart too much to be repaired?

  The Gambler

  One Click Here

  Ten years ago, I walked away from Bonne Terre. No explanations. No good byes. Leaving behind Juliette Tremblant who had no business giving her heart to the likes of me.

  Now, I’m coming back to town a rich man to try and repair the mistakes I’ve made.

  Juliette is not the heart-broken girl I left behind. She’s Chief of Police and, she’s in trouble – real trouble. And I’m the only one who can help her.

  She might be immune to my wealth and my charm, but she can’t resist my touch. The fire that burned between us is as hot and sweet as it ever was.

  Can I convince her that gambling on us is a safe bet? Or am I all out of luck?

  The Saint

  ONE CLICK HERE

  The key to life is no emotional entanglements. No relationships. No family. Just work.

  Everything was going according to my plan until a beautiful pregnant woman I’ve never seen before claims the baby she’s carrying is mine, creating a scandal that puts everything I’ve worked for in jeopardy.

  Zoe is quirky and wild and unpredictable and now we’re going on fake dates just to calm the storm she created. The more time I spend with her, the more she challenges what I thought I wanted.

  The more I know her, the more I want her.

  Until these fake dates aren’t so fake anymore and it’s not just my career on the line.

  It’s my heart.

  * * *

  Happy reading!

  Molly O’Keefe

  Dedication

  For Adam, who understands and helps and listens.

  I love you more every year we’re together.

  1

  Ten years ago

  * * *

  Juliette

  * * *

  July in Louisiana had us in its grip. The moon turned our skin to silver and even though it was a million degrees in The Manor’s sleeping porch I could not stop touching Tyler. I slipped my fingers along his ribs, over his chest and down the other side. Back and forth a thousand times. I lifted my fingers and sipped his sweat from my skin.

  “Babe,” he breathed, panting a little. Which made me smile. This sex we were having – it was seriously aerobic. “We are so good at that.”

  I laughed. The truth was – I had never in my life had sex the way that Tyler and I had sex. I’d never been touched the way he touched me. Or loved. So loved it sounded corny and ridiculous but he loved me so much I felt cherished. In the dirtiest way.

  And considering he was Tyler O’Neill and his bad reputation in Bonne Terre had been secured when he was in high school maybe even grade school– I was happy he was as blown away by our sex as I was. And that he felt my love, too.

  I cherished him and I wanted him to feel it. The guy hadn’t had a lot of cherishing in his life.

  I spent hours already this summer trying to figure out why we worked like this. Why I lost all my weird little self-conscious idiosyncrasies. Why I was able to stay out of my head and deep in my body when he touched me.

  Chemistry and trust was what I came up with. It was a powerful one two punch.

  “Like gold medal good, don’t you think?”

  “World champs,” I said, kissing the skin closest to me which happened to be his armpit. Which should have been gross, but no part of this man was gross to me. The boys I’d messed around with in college were nothing compared to Tyler O’Neill. Not that I was going to tell him that – the man had a swollen head already, being the first man to make me come.

  “I didn’t expect you out at Remy’s tonight.” Tyler rolled slightly to face me. He brushed the back of his hands down my arm to my hand. He linked our fingers together. God. We could not stop touching.

  “The band sounded good,” I said. “Gatean on the trumpet was great.”

  “Yeah, I think we’re getting that second set pretty tight. But still, Jules, you don’t have to be out there every night.”

  “I told you, Ty,” I said. “If you’re out there. So am I. Isn’t that the girlfriend’s job?”

  “Well, if the girlfriend is you I think the job is studying for the LSAT.”

  “Tyler, that’s months away.”

  He ran the knuckles of our jo
ined hands across my collarbones. “It makes me nervous when you talk like that.”

  “Like what?” His fingertips brushed my nipple.

  “Like law school isn’t important.”

  Right now law school felt a million miles away. A problem to worry about later. I wanted to just be in this moment. This sweat-soaked, sex-fueled, happy as fuck moment.

  “It’s summer, Tyler,” I said, which was the same excuse I gave my Dad when he asked me about studying and why I was out all hours. “I’ve got the rest of my life to work.”

  “I think,” he drawled and dropped my hand so he could palm my breast. I took a deep breath. We’d just had sex. The orgasm had rolled through me and left me weak and with one touch I was ready for more. “I’m rubbing off on you.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “You are the serious student, the girl with plans and the big future.”

  “And you’re what?”

  “Trouble, baby.” He grinned but I knew it was just a show he was putting on. The whole town thought he was trouble. Too reckless. Too charming. Too lazy. Too O’Neill, for most people’s taste. But he’d shown me the real him.

  And the real him was vulnerable. And smart. And so sweet he broke my heart all the damn time.

  “Well, I have an idea,” I said, pushing myself up against his chest, because frankly, two could play this game and as much as he turned me on, he’d made it real clear that his hunger for me was non-stop.

  And I liked that so much I could barely stand it.

  “What’s your idea?” he whispered as my hand traveled over his chest and down the tender skin of his belly. “Fuck, Juliette.”

  “When I go back to school in September, come with me.”

  “To Oklahoma?”

  “Actually, I’m thinking about a transfer to Tulane.” I’d already put in the paperwork, mostly just to see if it was possible. And it was. I hadn’t made any other moves because I wanted to talk to him. But I knew Tyler and he needed some roadblocks knocked down before he’d believe we had a future.

  “New Orleans?” His eyes went wide and I knew I had him. This future I saw for us was possible.

  “We can get a place together. I’ll go to school you can play piano in the clubs.” I wrapped my hand around his dick and he hissed, his eyes fluttering shut. “You’re so good, Tyler,” I told him. “You just need a place bigger than Bonne Terre to get your start. Think about it, you could stop playing cards and just focus on your music.”

  “You’re going to manage my music career too?” he asked with that gorgeous half-grin.

  “No,” I said with a laugh. “I’m going to be busy with school and you can manage yourself just fine. But…you think it’s possible?”

  “Possible? Baby? You and New Orleans? I mean…” he shook his head. “It’s perfect.”

  “Tell me,” I said, wanting to hear him dream a little, because he so rarely did. Growing up the way he had.

  “We’ll get one of those apartments above a bakery so it will smell good all the time.”

  “Lots of windows.”

  “You can pretend to grow plants.”

  I laughed because my green thumb was extraordinarily black.

  “I’ll bring you breakfast in bed,” he said. “And make your coffee.”

  “I’ll order you dinner.” Because I wasn’t much of a cook, either. “I’ll put ice on your hands after your gigs.”

  “We can get a dog.”

  “A cat.”

  “Both.”

  I laughed and kissed him. “What do you think?”

  “I think I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” I whispered. But then he put his hand over mine, so I stopped stroking his dick. “But law school,” he said.

  “I’ll worry about law school.”

  “See,” he shook his head. “That makes me nervous. You’ve been dreaming about Law School since you were in Kindergarten.”

  “Yeah, and some dreams don’t make it to adulthood. It’s natural.”

  “I just don’t want you to give up law school for me.”

  “I’m not giving up anything.”

  “And what about your dad? He won’t like it.”

  “You’re bringing me down here, Tyler. I’m a grown woman.” I said. “I make my own decisions. My own choices. And I choose you.”

  “Yeah you do,” he breathed. I didn’t have to ask about his family, thrown as they were across the country. Mom and Dad missing. Brother off at school. His sister and grandmother were in Bonne Terre and they were happy just to see him happy.

  He let go of my hand, reaching for me and pulling me up over his body as he rolled onto his back. I sat up, shaking out my hair, bracing my hands on his chest. He grabbed my hips, rocking me forward so I could feel the hard length of his cock against my pussy. Another rock forward and his dick hit my clit, making me gasp.

  Again. And again. He wasn’t inside me, just pushed up tight against me. Delicious hot pressure and I could come this way and he knew that. Just like I knew that he liked watching me come. Chemistry, right? I mean, we had it so good between us. So hot and sweet at the same time.

  “Just like that, Jules,” he said. I reached up and cupped my breasts, pulling the nipples until the pleasure just turned towards pain. “Look at you,” he breathed, rocking me forward, harder. “How did I get so fucking lucky.”

  “Both of us,” I gasped.

  He rolled over, trapping me beneath him. In one hard high thrust he was inside me, so deep I could feel him in the back of my throat. So deep my eyes rolled back in my head. “This is what I’ll give you, Jules,” he whispered against my lips. “Every night, every day, we’re together.”

  “Yes,” I breathed.

  “I’ll fuck you so good.”

  I was undone beneath him.

  I held on as tight as I could and fell to pieces in his arms. And then held him, so in love it felt like a hunger, as he fell to pieces in my arms. And it was cheesy and romantic and I was not a cheesy or romantic person but I couldn’t pretend that it didn’t feel like home.

  Like Tyler was the only home I needed.

  * * *

  “You don’t want to stay?” he asked, walking me to the shadowed front door of The Manor. He was in a pair of boxers and I was back in my dress from earlier in the night. Beneath the cotton I was sticky from sweat and come and Tyler. I needed a shower and a meal, ten hours of sleep. And then more Tyler. Always more Tyler.

  “Of course, I want to stay,” I said. “But Dad’s already in a tizzy when I’m gone so late. If I didn’t come home he’d have the entire police force looking for me.”

  “I don’t want him finding you here. I don’t need the chief of police to hate me anymore than he does.”

  “Hate is a strong word,” I said.

  “And totally accurate.” His grin cut through the shadows and I stepped forward to kiss him. Wishing he was wrong.

  “He’s just… protective,” I said.

  “If I had something as precious as you, I’d be protective too,” he said. “Hey,” he grabbed my hand. “Did you mean it. The Tulane thing?”

  “I already applied to see if my credits would transfer. They do. I just need to sign the paperwork and it would be done.”

  “I mean… I could go to Oklahoma-“

  I laughed. “There’s a shortage of jazz clubs in Oklahoma, Tyler. No. New Orleans works best for both of us.”

  “Fuck,” he breathed. “Is this… I mean are we really thinking about this?”

  “We really are.”

  We were twenty years old. Well, he was twenty-one. And maybe we were too young. Maybe it was a mistake, but it just felt so right. He felt right. And the future I wanted I saw with him in it.

  “I’ll call you later,” I said and with one more kiss slipped out the front door. I felt him watching me as I ran to my car. Nearly midnight. Crap.

  Dad was going to be pissed.

  * * *

  TYLER


  * * *

  The night felt like honey. Thick and sweet. A little sticky. Or maybe that was just me. I watched Juliette drive away and then went back inside to the kitchen. Between the club and Juliette, I was worn out in the best possible way. Like I’d spent hours working up a sweat doing the good work I was supposed to be doing. Music and Juliette. I mean, could anything be more perfect?

  It would help if her Dad liked me. But The Notorious O’Neills and the Bonne Terre Chief of Police were natural enemies. My father was a con man and my mom was a thief. I won most of my money in illegal card games in the catholic church basement and had, before Juliette came home from college a grown-ass woman, taken some pride in being a thorn in Jasper Tremblant’s side.

  The fridge opened with a pop and a sigh and I pulled out a bottle of ice cold Abita.

  And now I was fucking his daughter. Loving her. And thinking about moving in with her. I mean…the guy was going to hate it. And the law school thing, if Juliette was really thinking about giving it up, that seemed like bad news. But if Juliette had faith we could figure it out, so would I.

  There was a knock at the door and I ran back through the hallway to open it before Juliette woke up Margot or Savannah.

  “Hey, you forget your key?” I asked, pulling up the door.

  But it wasn’t Juliette standing there. It was Officer Owens – not a fan of mine, as much as I wasn’t a fan of his.

  And next to him was Jasper Tremblant.

  “Is there a problem?” I asked, feeling something cold snake through my body.