Black Number Four (29 page)

“Well,” she says, her eyes lighting up again. “Then why don’t you skip the gym and let me work you out instead?” She licks her lips and arches a brow, challenging me.

“You’re relentless, woman,” I tease, but silently pray she’ll give it up. I’m just a guy, for fuck’s sake – I can only say no to sex so many times. “I really do need to go. But not before you give me a kiss with those lips you like to bite so much.”

Erin still doesn’t seem satisfied, but at that, she smiles and leans in to plant her lips on mine, running her fingers through my hair to pull me closer. I hate myself for kissing her back, for dragging her into this mess in the first place, but again I remind myself of the bigger picture. Erin is a small table, Skyler is the final one. I have to go through one to get to the other, and unfortunately no one cares much about the small table.

My level of asshole-ness is just growing by the minute.

The Palm South campus is a beautiful one, but perhaps one of their biggest bragging points is the gym. With two floors of machines and equipment, three studio classrooms, a spinning studio, a pool, and three full size courts for Intramural games, it’s massive – and my favorite place to burn off steam. The view of the Atlantic through the large glass windows only adds to the experience and they just put in a smoothie bar this semester. They didn’t have gyms anywhere close to this nice in Kansas, and I’ve taken full advantage every chance I’ve had.

My triceps are on fire as I grip the weight bench, lowering myself down to the ground and back up again. Each dip sends a burning pain through my arms and up to my shoulders but I grit through it, staring straight ahead and focusing on the house music blaring through my ear buds. Sweat drips into my eyes and I blink it away, counting the reps in my head. Suddenly, someone walks up beside the bench. I ignore them, but their presence pulls my focus.

What the fuck?

There are twenty other benches, stalker. Stop creeping on mine.

Just as I lift myself back onto the bench and let my arms fall like Jell-O to my sides, my right ear bud is ripped from my ear.

“What the fuck?” I yell louder than I intended as I look up to confront the offender. Skyler stands with her arms crossed, smirking. Without realizing it, my eyes fall from hers to the tight workout clothes hugging her curves.

Goddamn it, this is not part of the plan.

“Easy there, killer.” She laughs, throwing her hands up in surrender. “I just saw you over here when I was walking to Spin Class and thought I’d say hi. Clearly disrupting your lift session is a serious offense.”

I shake my head, realizing the scowl from my initial reaction is still cemented on my face. I trade it in for a smile and stand, rolling my shoulders back and pulling my left arm across my chest to stretch. “You’re damn right it is. Do you even lift, bro?”

She giggles and it’s the cutest fucking thing.
Why
does it have to be the cutest fucking thing?

“Remind me not to ever need a favor from you when you’re working out,” she says, her eyes playful.

“Who says you get any favors from me at all?” I arch my brows and her face falls, her eyes dropping to the ground. I laugh, nudging her with my hand as I switch arms and stretch the right one. “I’m joking, Sky. You ready for tonight?”

Her smile returns and she scoffs. “Please, I think the better question is are
they
ready for
me
tonight? The people playing tonight will definitely recognize me, which means I don’t have to worry about playing dumb. I can bring my A game. These poor suckers won’t know what hit them.” She winks and tosses her towel over her shoulder and I laugh.

“Well damn, looks like I’ll finally get to see the famous Skyler Thorne in her own element.”

“I bet you can barely contain your excitement,” she teases, but my eyes won’t listen to me and they fall to her chest. The sports bra she’s wearing paired with the low-cut tank top is enough to unravel me.

“You have no idea,” I murmur.

Skyler shifts uncomfortably under my stare and I lift my eyes again. She looks at me through her lashes, biting her lip just a bit – almost not enough to notice. I swallow and she clears her throat, pointing behind her with her thumb. “Um, you need to get in some cardio? I’ll let you bike next to me if you promise not to kill me with that lifting glare of yours.”

I laugh, crossing my arms across my chest. Skyler’s eyes follow the movement and I flex even though I don’t really need to in this position. “I got in plenty of cardio earlier, trust me,” I say, winking.

I realize immediately how that sounded as Skyler’s face turns white, her eyes wide. I was referring to running the circle around campus, but I know that’s not what she’s thinking. By now, she knows Erin stayed the night, and I watch as she puts two and two together.

My smile grows and I hold my ground as Skyler stares. It’s too easy to get caught up with her, to fall into our comfortable banter, but this slip up actually plays into my hand better than I could have planned. I’m supposed to weaken her, and comments like that might be the key to achieving the mission.

“Oh, uh… okay. Um,” she stumbles, backing up as I arch my brow. “Well I have to go, class is starting. I’ll see you tonight.” She turns on her heel and rushes toward the spin studio.

“Pick you up at five!” I yell to her back and she throws her hand up in a wave of acknowledgement.

Well shit, I definitely didn’t expect to run into her here. It makes sense that she would be at the gym, given how in shape she is, but this couldn’t have worked out any better for me. I smile, walking to the free weights. When I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, my cocky smile fades. I look into my own blue eyes, searching for a compassionate man that I know must exist in there somewhere. There’s got to be a better part of me that wants me to stop what I’m doing.

I guess he’s not speaking to me right now.

Can’t say that I blame him.

“You look different tonight,” I observe, eying the baggy black hoodie and dark jeans Skyler’s paired together. She taps her sunglasses on her leg nervously and stares out the window as we ride to the casino. The tension that built between us earlier at the gym has only magnified since we got in the cab. Skyler and I don’t do close very well. Or, rather, we do it
too
well, which is why I know my comment earlier got under her skin.

“I told you, they know me here. That’s why I waited until last minute to enter. Last time I entered early, they ended up using me on fliers to get people to sign up.
Come Challenge Skyler Thorne – Hot Young Poker Star!
” She rolls her eyes and I smile, snagging the sunglasses from her fingers.

“You wearing these tonight?”

“Definitely,” she says, glancing at me quickly before turning back toward the window. I didn’t think I knew Skyler’s weaknesses that well, but apparently I stumbled upon a nerve earlier. She’s clearly affected and as much as I want to take a small victory lap, I hate it, too. I don’t want to fuck her up. I don’t want her to not be on her game. Not necessarily just because I want to see her play at her best so I can beat her at her best, but because I saw how much she loved playing after the auction. Her smile, her cocky façade – it’s amazing to watch.

“Well, that really sucks,” I say, sliding them back into her hand. She turns back to me slowly, a questioning look playing in her eyes. I trail the pad of my thumb slowly down her temple to the side of her eye while my fingers brush the hair from her face. “You have incredible eyes. I know if I was at the table, I’d be distracted by them.”

Skyler’s eyes search mine, her face torn between two emotions that I’m not sure I can decipher. Slowly, sadness overtakes the other contender and she turns her face away from my hand and back toward the window.

Damn. Not even a corny line can shake her? The Skyler I knew definitely would have called me on my shit. Or at least joked around about me being a lame ass.

“Are you nervous?” I ask, thinking maybe a more blunt approach might get her to open up. We pull up to the casino and before the cab has a chance to stop, Skyler swings her door open.

“Nope, I’m fine.”

I stay in the cab for a moment, watching as she storms toward the tall glass doors before finally paying the driver and climbing out myself. I catch up to Skyler and we walk in silence to registration, the lights and bells of slot machines mocking our lack of joy along the way. There’s a thick cloud of smoke already building and the faces lining machines and tables range from playful and hopeful to miserable and desperate. I’ll never understand why my father loves casinos and gambling so much. If you ask me, it’s just as sick an addiction as smoking or drugs. Some people ruin their whole lives on this false hope of hitting a quick fortune.

After May, I’m done with this shit. With casinos, with poker, with gambling, and with lying. None of this is worth the trouble. My dad? Yeah, he’s worth it. We don’t exactly get along, but he’s been there through a lot of shit in my life and I know at the end of the day, he always will be. I owe him this and I honestly
do
want to let him live this dream through me. I get it. But damn, this turned out to be a lot more than I signed up for.

Skyler checks in and gets her first table assignment. An older man is running registration and explains that the final table most likely won’t start playing until eleven, so we should expect a late night. By the looks of it, there aren’t a ton of people here for the tournament and they have twenty minute blind levels, so that should get the less aggressive players out quick. In theory, this should be an easy night for Skyler, but judging by the look on her face, you would think we were in Vegas already.

“We have fifteen minutes. You want to grab a drink?”

She nods, sliding on her sunglasses and pulling her hood over her head before leading the way to the nearby bar. We slide up on the stools and Skyler puts five dollars in the computer game built into the bar. She mindlessly plays Keno as I order us a couple of beers.

“Hey.” I nudge her playfully, smiling. “After you rob all these chumps, wanna go skinny dipping?” I waggle my eyebrows and she deadpans before focusing on the screen again. I sigh. “What’s wrong? Talk to me. You can’t go into the tournament like this.”

Her finger hovers above a number and she stops short. Suddenly, she turns in her seat to fully face me. “Who the hell made you think you could tell me what I can and can’t do? In case you forgot, you haven’t worked with me on this since the first night you saw me play. You don’t know my style, you don’t know my before-tournament rituals – you don’t know anything about me. So back off.”

“I know this isn’t you, Skyler.” I cut her off, refusing to let her make this into a fight about us. “You don’t want to talk about what’s on your mind? Fine. But get your shit together and focus on winning this tournament. It’s a waste of money and both of our time if you blow it over your need to be moody.”

Her mouth flies open and I know I’m being a fucking dick, but I don’t know how else to get through to her. I tried joking around, I tried being genuine, and apparently she’s not shy when it comes to throwing out low blows so I’ll throw her some of my own.

“Skyler?” A voice comes from the seat beside Skyler and we both turn to find a short, smiling blonde. “Skyler Thorne? Wow, what luck! I’ve been searching for you everywhere in here! I figured you would be hiding out and I should just give up. Then I sit down to get a drink and you fall into my lap! Funny how that works. Oh, sorry, gosh I’m so rude. I’m Lacy – Lacy Moondella. I’m with Big Blind Magazine,” she rambles on, but Skyler immediately turns to me and even through her glasses I can tell her eyes are wide.
Shit.