A Lot Like Love

by Lane, Soraya

  “Settle down fellas, I’m just here to let my girl have a flutter.” Ryder nodded at Parker. “I haven’t forgotten what I owe.”

  All the men had a chuckle at that, but one of the older guys stood up and pulled a chair over, making space for her straightaway.

  “Come and sit next to me, love. I won’t bite.”

  Ryder’s hand was steady against the small of her back, the tiny amount of pressure he was applying telling her he was there for her. But it was all up to her now. Ryder would be in the room, but otherwise she was on her own.

  “You supplying the ready cash?” Parker asked. “Don’t take offense, sweetheart, but you ain’t exactly gonna have enough money from tending the bar to play here.”

  Chloe forced a giggle and leaned back to press a kiss to Ryder’s jaw, lazily wiping away the lipstick she’d left. “He’s a real darlin’, this one. Said I could bet all I wanted just to learn the game.”

  “Hey, so long as he hasn’t forgotten about our last bet, I don’t have no problem taking more of this asshole’s money.”

  Chloe watched as Ryder’s jaw tightened, his actions giving away how he really felt about Parker.

  “So can she play or not?” Ryder asked.

  “You joining us?”

  Ryder shrugged and glanced at Chloe. He’d planned on just getting a drink and watching, but he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. “Yeah, why not.”

  He pulled up a chair from another table as Chloe made her way around the other side, sitting between two of the other guys. Ryder waved for a couple of drinks.

  “Y’all have to go easy on me, boys,” she said with a giggle. “I’ve only played a few times in Vegas.”

  “Watch and learn,” Parker said, opening a fresh pack of cards. “I’ll never say no to cleavage like that joining the table.”

  Ryder’s temper flared but he just took the drink placed in front of him and enjoyed a long, slow sip. He could pummel the guy’s face in later; tonight was about following Chloe’s plan.

  “Any of you fellas keen to tell me how much money we’re playing for?” Chloe asked.

  It was almost impossible not to smile at her doe eyes and glinting smile. Chloe was making the perfect impression of a dumb woman wanting a flutter with cards, and he couldn’t wait to sit back and watch. He owed her so much if she won, more than he could ever repay, and he intended on making his appreciation well known as soon as he got the chance.

  “You actually played this game before?” Parker asked. “We ain’t got no time to teach you.”

  Ryder pulled his chair in closer to the table, looked the other men in the eye. He didn’t need this turning sour before they even got started. “I’m good for whatever she bets. She’s got cash in her purse to get her started and she knows an ace from a queen.”

  There were a few sniggers, but even Parker looked more relaxed.

  “You got me those keys?” Parker asked, raising an eyebrow as he dealt out the cards. “And we’re playing straight poker here darlin’, not Texas Hold ’Em.”

  Ryder took a slow sip of his drink, keeping his gaze firmly trained on the enemy. “Just getting a few things in order first.”

  He was desperate to clench his fists and slam them into something, but instead he glanced at Chloe, returned her smile.

  “Come on, let’s play poker,” Ryder said. “It’s time I showed this lady how to win a card game.”

  Ryder was prepped to lose. Chloe had told him what to do if he ended up having to play, to distract the table by him losing an amount that’d make most people cringe.

  The cards were dealt and Ryder took a peek. Nothing remarkable. He thumbed the edge of his stack of five, watching the others as they took a look at theirs. Chloe was grinning, glancing down at hers more often than any seasoned gambler would.

  Parker looked to his right. “I’ll bet a grand to get things started.”

  Ryder nodded. “Yep.” He pushed a wad of cash into the center of the table.

  One of the guys folded and Chloe looked up, wide-eyed. “Um, me too. One thousand.”

  Parker sniggered, then discarded two cards and dealt himself two. They did the rounds until they were back at Chloe again and she shook her head.

  “Sweetheart, if you’re not happy with your hand, you remember what to do, right?” Ryder asked.

  She laughed. “I might be blond but I’m not slow.”

  The betting got to five thousand before Ryder folded, losing his money. Chloe folded and dropped her cards faceup so everyone could see them. A classic mistake and one she’d made deliberately.

  Ryder groaned loudly, shaking his head. “Chloe, that was an okay hand.”

  “You’re lucky she’s got money,” one of the guys grumbled. “This ain’t some learners table, King.”

  He waved to the waitress for another two drinks. “Sorry, boys. She’ll get the hang of it this time around.”

  Ryder winked at Chloe as she bent forward, her full breasts almost spilling from the low-cut dress she was wearing. A necklace dipped dangerously low into her cleavage, as good as swallowed up, and Ryder glanced at Parker and saw he wasn’t the only one who’d noticed.

  “You wanna stop checking out my girl?” Ryder asked, slamming his hands down on the tabletop.

  “Hey, you brought her here. There’s the door.”

  Parker’s smarmy smile cut straight through Ryder. He knew exactly what Parker had in mind for Chloe, or would have had in mind if he had it his way. There were plenty of women who regretted getting into bed with the town’s local asshole, which was one of the reasons Ryder had wanted to knock him down a peg the last time he’d come up against him. Ryder might like bedding women, but he also loved the fairer sex—he’d never raise his fist to a woman, and he’d never take pleasure in sharing every intimate detail of what happened between him and any woman, either. He still remembered the last time he’d seen Parker humiliate a girl at a bar, and it made him sick.

  Chloe’s dress was starting to stick to her, perspiration beading lightly across every inch of her skin. She wasn’t nervous, but the buzz of being back at the table and playing for big stakes was a thrill she couldn’t deny. It didn’t help that the men were a bunch of idiots, most of them drunker than they should have been to bet so much cash, but it was Parker she had her sights set on.

  Her hand was good, and it killed her to act like she didn’t have half a brain. The men she’d played against in the past had known who they were up against, whose daughter she was and that she wasn’t a featherweight, but these men had no idea. And it was working to her advantage. Only now was she starting to play like normal, not giving anything away.

  “I’ll raise to ten.”

  Parker sniggered. “Dollars?”

  “Grand,” she quipped straight back. Ryder was looking at her but she ignored him, slipping dangerously away from the persona she’d been playing and wishing she could take her words back. She cleared her throat. “Is that too much?”

  “For me? Don’t fuck with me, little lady.”

  Parker matched her bet and Ryder bowed out. He’d lost close on twenty thousand for the night, and she was sure he’d be sweating it by now. She’d lost her fair share too, but it was time to turn the game around.

  She held her three queens. It wasn’t unbeatable by any means, but she’d been studying Parker long enough to be fairly confident that he was about to lose. Ryder had gotten cocky when he’d played him, had been drinking too much and only looking at the obvious signs, but she’d watched the man like a hawk, as well as the others. When he had a good hand he stared a little too long, and with this one he’d barely glanced at it. There was no change in his face regardless of what hand he had, except the smack he talked when he was trying to make out like he was about to win, but she knew what she’d seen and he definitely had a tell.

  The rest of the table had folded; it was just the two of them now. Chloe waited, watched him, nauseous just acknowledging the way he looked at her, the way h
e licked his lips and glanced at her cleavage almost every few minutes.

  “It’s show-and-tell time,” he said, his voice way too loud despite the noise in the room.

  She dropped her cards and fanned them out in front of her, waiting for him to do the same. Parker’s face was dark as he turned his cards over, not even close to beating her.

  “Lucky,” he sniggered, looking at Ryder. “Maybe you should let the little lady do all your betting for you.”

  Ryder leveled him with his gaze and she couldn’t take her own eyes off him. His shoulders were squared, jaw like it was carved from stone as he considered Parker. “You saying you want to bet big again?”

  Parker laughed. “What, put your ranch on the table again?”

  Ryder shrugged, as if it was completely inconsequential to him. She admired the role he was playing, knew how hard it must be for him, and inside she wanted to scream. Parker had played right into their hands, suggesting the ranch before they had to try to bring it up.

  “We both know you’d be too chickenshit to do that, Parker,” Ryder said in a loud voice, glancing around the table as he did so. “You’ve been wanting to get your hands on King land for longer than you probably even remember.”

  “Who the hell are you calling chickenshit?” asked Parker.

  Chloe cleared her throat and reached across the table, dropping her hand over Parker’s. She purposely angled her body away from Ryder, looked Parker straight in the eye.

  “I’m starting to really get the hang of this. Can we just play again?”

  Parker sniggered and Ryder took it as his cue, slamming his glass down on the table so hard it threatened to break. “Fuck this. I’m outta here.”

  He didn’t go far, just to the bar, and she glanced over her shoulder and shrugged.

  “Hey, are you sure you haven’t played before?” one of the men asked as she was dealt her hand.

  “If you mean in college, then yeah,” she said, her cards on the table facedown. “Strip poker was a real favorite at the frat houses.”

  She received a few laughs for that. The betting started and she matched what was on offer, making sure her breathing stayed even as she considered her cards, counted out the six seconds she was allowed to look at what she had before putting them down again. Everything she did when she was playing was practiced, consistent. She had no tell, nothing that anyone could read when they played against her. She counted out the seconds every time so she never took any longer looking at her hand, whether it was good or not.

  “So tell me, Parker. Was Ryder right? Are you too scared to bet his ranch against, say, me?”

  There were four of them playing now, but she could see the other two guys shifting in their seats. The last thing they wanted was to bet up that big.

  “Why would I bet a ranch when you’ve got jackshit to bet against it?”

  “You have a hundred grand on you?”

  He laughed and looked at the other guys. “You hearing this?”

  “I’m deadly serious. I want to bet a hundred, and if you don’t have the cash to join me, why not bet the ranch?” She laughed. “Unless you’re about to fold, or you’re too scared to bet against a girl?”

  This time his laugh lacked confidence. “You’re good for a hundred?”

  Chloe made a show of squaring her five cards into a perfect little pile before bending to retrieve her purse and pulling out a wad of thousand dollar bills. “Yes.” She pushed them into the center of the table.

  “I ain’t fucking folding and you’re bluffing,” he said, knocking back the rest of his whiskey. “I’d love to take that hundred K off you, so yeah, go for it. The ranch is up for grabs.”

  Chloe wished she could see the look on Ryder’s face, but she pushed all thoughts of him from her mind. She watched as Parker only discarded two cards. Her hand wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. But she knew what she had to do. The other two had folded, so now it was just her and Parker, just like it had been when Ryder had lost to him. Only the ranch was already on the table now, whereas last time Ryder had bet it right at the end. If she was playing to win with her hand she would have discarded a couple of cards, but she knew better than anyone that all she had to do was make him think she was holding the perfect hand already.

  Chloe smiled at Parker, knowing there was little chance of charming him with a seductive gaze and flash of her cleavage any longer. If he hadn’t already, he was about to figure out that he’d been played by a seasoned pro. She put her cards down, glancing at them on purpose and grinned as she reached into her bag and pulled out some more cash. She slid the smaller pile onto the table, pushing it forward.

  “Here’s another twenty, just to make this fun,” she purred. “What do you say?”

  “I say you fucking lied when you said you hadn’t played before,” Parker growled out.

  “Who, me?” she asked, drumming her nails on the table. “Now what do you say? Are you up for it, or don’t you have that kind of cash to play with, sweetheart?”

  Chloe was acting a role, and it was one she loved as much as she despised it. The truth was, doing this kind of thing was a thrill, especially with someone else’s money.

  “Would you rather it be thirty?” she asked, not breaking eye contact with him for a second, smiling to herself when he glanced down at his cards in a panic. He never turned them over, he wouldn’t have needed to, but she’d fast learned that his tell was the glance down.

  “You little bitch,” he sneered, slamming his fist into the table and standing, leaning forward in an obvious attempt to intimidate her.

  “It’s just a card game, isn’t that right, fellas?” she said with a giggle.

  No one laughed, Parker’s anger tangible in the room. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ryder move away from the bar and come toward her. She was still staring at Parker but her heart was starting to pound—there was nothing harmless about the man she’d just swindled. To him, she doubted it’d be losing the ranch that was the problem, it was being humiliated and beaten by a woman in front of his gambling buddies.

  “Fuck you,” he yelled, throwing his cards down before his hands moved fast, cupping the table and hurling it over.

  Chloe jumped up but she didn’t move fast enough, stumbling back on her heels as glasses came flying in her direction, smashing around her, the table hitting her leg as she went sailing across the floor. She fell back, arms flailing out to break her fall, anticipating the thud of her head, but her fall was broken by someone else. Ryder was on his knees, big arms catching her as fast as she’d gone down.

  “Chloe?”

  She leaned back into Ryder, sighed as he peered down at her like she was broken. The room was spinning a little but she was fine—thank god she hadn’t had more than one drink otherwise she’d really be tripping.

  “It’s no big deal,” she muttered, tugging at her dress to make sure she wasn’t showing off more than she’d intended on.

  “He’s dead,” Ryder snarled, setting her on her feet and running a hand down her back.

  “Leave him,” Chloe murmured, slipping an arm around Ryder’s waist to pull him closer. “We did it, I won the game, so let’s just go. The ranch is yours.”

  In the seconds between the table being flipped and Ryder coming to her rescue, she’d forgotten about the hothead who’d sent her flying, but now he was coming at them like a furious bull about to charge.

  “You watch your back,” Parker snarled. “No one makes a fool of me and gets away with it.”

  Chloe grasped Ryder’s hand, as much to settle him as to hold him back.

  “Get out of my face, Parker. She beat you far and square, her hand was better than yours. You knew what you were playing for.”

  She relaxed at the tone of Ryder’s voice. She’d expected him to be all fists blazing, but he was staying calm.

  “Come on, baby, let’s go,” Chloe said, bending down to gather up their money while Ryder and Parker squared off, neither moving an inch. She
stuffed it all in her purse, wanting to get out as fast as she could.

  Once she’d finished, Chloe stood and looped her hand through Ryder’s arm, playing the part of dumb blonde one last time as she winked at Parker.

  “Thanks for the game,” she said, her tone as sweet as pie. “Now why don’t y’all hurry off home and stop making empty threats.”

  Her leg hurt from the fall, but she squared her shoulders and walked on her heels as effortlessly as she could, not wanting him to take any satisfaction in what he’d done. She’d beaten him, it was over, she’d bluffed and he’d folded. Now she just wanted to get the hell out of dodge.

  “I don’t make empty threats, darlin’.”

  Chloe paused when Ryder did, but she didn’t bother looking back. She let him do the talking—she’d won his ranch back, the rest was up to him.

  “Oh, they’re empty,” Ryder said, his voice low and menacing. “Because if you even think about hurting this girl? It’ll be the last thing you ever think. Or do.”

  Ryder didn’t waste time hanging around. He tugged her tight to his body and they walked out of the room, through the bar, and out into the parking lot. Once they were finally outside, the cool night air shocked her back to reality.

  “We did it,” she whispered, spinning in Ryder’s arms and looping hers around his neck. “We actually did it. I was so worried I’d ruined my winning streak in Vegas, but we did it.”

  He shook his head, dipped down to press a slow, lingering kiss to her lips. “No, Chloe, you did it,” he murmured against her mouth. “And I never doubted you for a second.”

  She sighed as he kissed her again, arching her body so she was pressed tight to him all the way from her pelvis to her breasts. For once she didn’t have to stand on tiptoe, her heels making up most of their height difference.

  “I’m so pleased you have your ranch back,” Chloe told him. To start with she’d thought he was an idiot, a guy with too much trust fund money to appreciate what he had. Now she realized that he’d just made a stupid mistake, and she doubted he’d ever do anything so reckless again.

  “You’ve got no idea,” he muttered. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank you enough.”