Chasing Kings (13 page)

“I’m clean, I swear to God. There’s a chance the money ended up buying drugs, but that wasn’t why I borrowed it.”

“Tell me why, and maybe I’ll help.”

“It was for a production investment. Kelly—the
other
Samantha Hart, that’s her real name—she said she had a sure-fire plan if we could get the money ASAP. I should have known better. Kelly has had…problems. But I never thought she’d fuck off with my money and leave me in a lurch. Anyway, I was supposed to have more time to pay this guy off, but he’s calling it in now, and if I don’t get him his cash…he owns me.”

“Owns you?”

“He… It doesn’t matter.”

“No, explain what you mean.”

“He uses us. People in the industry who owe him cash or favors. He rents us out.”

“He
prostitutes
you?” Sam’s mouth went slack, and she could do nothing to conceal her shock. “That’s appalling. Is that what he was talking about when he said you were supposed to be at a party tonight?”

“Yes. And I skipped it. It’s not my idea of a good time, Sam. And you can understand why I don’t want to owe him anything else. So can you
please
help me?”

She sat beside him on the tub, scrubbing her sweaty palms on her dress. All she had to do was look at him to know she would do anything she could to help him, but she still didn’t know how playing poker would…

“You want me to play high-stakes, don’t you? If I’m going to be playing for a big pot, I’m going to need money to put in. I don’t have that kind of cash.”

Ethan looked relieved, taking her words as an acceptance of his plan. When she saw the way his body sagged, as though a huge weight had been lifted, she found it impossible to tell him she hadn’t actually said
yes
yet. Her acquiescence was now a foregone conclusion.

Who was she kidding, though? The second Ethan Silver had walked into her hotel room, she’d been a lost cause. Ever since he’d kissed her that first night in Vegas, she’d become a sucker for him. Anyone who could make her body tingle from temples to toes was bound to be a problem for her willpower. And here he was proving that.

Only now it wasn’t her body that ached for him, it was her heart.

The defeated look on his face wasn’t one she’d ever expected from brash, confident Ethan Silver. This wasn’t
her
Ethan. The man she knew was all sexy swagger, and she didn’t think he had any quit in him. That Julian could crush him so easily…it broke Sam’s heart. And that feeling was all she needed to know that Ethan was more than a vacation fling. He
mattered
to her, and she would save him, come hell or high water.

“I have some cash, enough for a decent buy-in,” he told her. “You just need to play safe, win a few hands and get out. That’s it. Smart bets, make the ten grand and
walk away
.”

“Could I get in trouble for this?”

“For gambling in Las Vegas?”

Sam glared at him. “You think now is the best time to be cheeky with me?”

Ethan turned towards her, taking her hands in his and giving them a squeeze. “I’m sorry.” He brushed back a strand of her hair, making her heart beat three times faster. “No, you won’t get in trouble. We’re not doing anything illegal.”

“Then why does it seem so…seedy?”

“Because a relative stranger is asking you to gamble on his behalf.”

“To pay off his pimp,” she added. “And you’re not a stranger. Not anymore.”

Ethan grimaced at the word
pimp
, and Sam instantly regretted the phrasing. It was obvious Ethan didn’t relish the situation he found himself in. And owing money to a guy like Julian who would use his hired muscle to…well, looking at Ethan made Sam feel physically ill.

He was asking for her help in getting him out of a shitty situation, and all she had to do was play a few hands of poker.

How hard could it be?

Chapter Fifteen

Winning was going to take a miracle.

Sam was staring at the two cards in her hand, showing all the comprehension of someone trying to read Russian for the first time. Ethan rubbed his temples, willing himself to be patient by repeating the mantra,
She’s helping you, she’s helping you, she’s helping you.

“You look confused,” he said, trying to gently goad her into admitting what her issue was.

“Give me a second.” She continued to stare at the five cards he’d laid out on the coffee table, then back to the ones in her hand, gnawing on her lip.

“This shouldn’t be—”

“I said
give me a second
,” she repeated, furrowing her brow.

He wanted to be annoyed, but she was so damned cute when she was concentrating, it was hard for him to be upset. He had to remember why he was in this mess in the first place, to keep himself focused on the plan, but all he wanted to do was kiss the wrinkle between her eyebrows.

Ethan had trouble remembering how seriously fucked he was thanks to Sam’s terrible habit of distracting him. Maybe that was a good thing. He could use something bright in this dismal situation. Sam’s poker skills would not be that hopeful beacon, however.

She had a weirdly serious concentration face, one that made it seem like her entire being was focused solely on one thing.

“I fold,” she announced, slapping her cards down.

“You fold?” Ethan reached across the coffee table and picked up the two blue cards, examining them for himself. “Well…you
could
fold. Except you had a straight.” He put the five and seven she’d held in line with the four, six and eight in his dealer hand. “Which is a pretty good hand, all things considered.”

“Oh.” She blushed, her embarrassment evident. “I’m sorry. I was never good at this, and you’re asking me to learn it in an hour—under some pretty stressful conditions—and then go play a high-stakes table? I once lost twenty dollars in a quarter slot machine. That’s the biggest gambling loss I ever wanted to have on my record.”

“This one won’t be on your record. It’ll be my money. And you’re not going to lose. You’re going to do fine.” He tried to make it sound like he meant it, but when he said
fine
his voice hitched up, cracking slightly. He was having misgivings about this plan, but it was too late to look for help elsewhere, and Sam was
willing
. Where else was he going to find someone who would go out on such a limb for him?

How sad was it that a woman he’d known so briefly was the most reliable person in his life?

“Let’s try again.” He shuffled the deck as she sighed and flopped backwards on the couch.

Sam picked up her cards, once again demonstrating her total inability to maintain a poker face. “What do your parents think about your job? Do they know what you do?”

Ethan fidgeted with the river card, flicking the cardboard edge with his thumbnail. He wasn’t sure why she was asking, but maybe she was as desperate for a change in subject as he was. “I have two brothers and a sister. Two of them are lawyers and my younger brother is in his residency to become a cardiac surgeon. My mom is a university professor, teaching medieval history, and my dad is, shockingly, a lawyer. It’s safe to say who the black sheep in the Silver clan is.”

“But you told them anyway?”

“Of course I did. They always said we should do what we loved. Turns out they meant do what you love as long as it earns you six figures and makes
them
proud.”

Sam threw a hotel soap into the pot. “Did you ever think of doing anything else?”

“You own a bookstore, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Did
you
ever think of doing anything else?”

“Sure. I wanted to teach overseas after university, but then my mom got sick and since Dad was already gone there wasn’t anyone around to help out. Patrick, my brother, he was married and had moved, so it was just me and Mom. When she died, I had to figure out what to do with the store so…other plans went by the wayside. I did what I thought was right. I don’t regret it.”

Ethan stopped playing with the cards and stared at her, absorbing the way her face and voice changed when she talked about her parents and the responsibility she’d taken on.

“I never thought I was good at anything else,” he said, allowing the words he’d never spoken before to be set free.

“You really thought sex was all you had to offer the world?”

He shrugged and held out his hand for her cards. “I guess I never put a lot of thought into seeing if I could do anything else. I knew I had skills.” He winked, but the gesture felt hollow. “Anyway, I ended up here, and I’m okay with that. I like my life most of the time. Just not when I’m being harassed by a balding shithead like Julian.”

“Well, hopefully after tonight you never have to hear that name again.”

She’d bet on two pairs, which depending on the hands around her wasn’t the worst idea she’d had all night. “The threes were a bit low—you might want to be careful on those next time—but the kings were good.”

“So I did okay?”

“Yup.”

She made a delighted squeal, an unexpectedly joyous sound considering their previously serious conversation, and clapped her hands.

“Don’t get too excited yet. You’re going to be playing against some heavy hitters. I want to go a few more rounds before I’m comfortable letting you swim with the sharks.”

“Do you have to make it sound so ominous?”

“It’s a serious situation, Sam.”

“
I know.
” She stared at his face, her gaze lingering on the bruises instead of his eyes as she whispered, “You think I don’t know that?”

“I need you to focus.”

Sam picked up one of the plastic-wrapped soap packets and hurled it at him, landing a direct hit to his chest. “Did you figure this was my idea of fun? That I wanted to come to Vegas and help a porn star pay off his bookie? Trust me, this is
not
my idea of happy-happy-fun times, okay? I’m doing this to
help
you, so try to remember that before you get snippy with me.” Tears were welling in the corners of her eyes, and her voice had gotten high and shaky.

Where had all the fire come from all of a sudden? The Sam he knew was mostly timid with an occasional bitchy streak, but otherwise personified the ideal of
girl next door
. This Sam had spunk and a serious sassy side to her.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know you’re helping me. I’m just a little freaked out.”

“You think
I’m
not freaked out?”

Ethan tapped the cards, too startled by her intensity to meet her gaze, especially when it looked like she might cry. Her commitment to helping him was surprising, even to him, and he was touched by her concern so much it made his chest hurt. Why did she care so much what happened to him?

There was work to be done before he’d have an opportunity to get philosophical about Sam’s emotional attachment to him and what it meant.

He still needed to teach her how to
recognize
when she had a good hand, which was proving to be more difficult than he’d anticipated. She quickly grasped the basics of the game, but it was the various combinations—full houses and flushes—she hadn’t gotten a handle on quite yet. With the night growing later, he needed to get her ready so she could play and hopefully win.

If she didn’t win, he could royal flush his life down the drain.

Chapter Sixteen

Sam toyed with the hem of her dress, trying to pull it lower to give some illusion of modesty.

“Where’s the rest of it?” she asked, touching the back of her thighs and wishing they weren’t so damned
bare
.

“Stop playing with it.” Ethan lightly slapped her hands away from the bottom of the dress and stood back to give her an assessing look. “I don’t know how, but you manage to make even that dress sort of
proper
.”

Sam glanced at herself in the mirror and met Ethan’s gaze before he did another once-over of her body, his eyes seeming to lock on to her ass.

Which was dangerously close to claiming its freedom.

“What was wrong with the one I had on?”

“You looked beautiful in that dress. Men would have admired you, but no one was going to be
distracted
by you in that thing.”

She tugged the new dress again, dreading how much it would inevitably rise when she sat down at the gaming table. As it was, the thing barely covered both cheeks. There was a very real possibility she’d flash her underwear at someone when she sat down.

Thankfully, considering what she’d hoped to be doing with Ethan that night, she had opted for her fanciest, laciest pair of panties, so if someone
did
see them, at least they’d think she had taste. Unfortunately the person they were meant for was too busy trying to keep her from fidgeting to notice the effort she’d gone to.

“I don’t see why this is necessary.” In addition to the barely there hem, the dress was cut low in the front, giving the world a good eyeful of her assets both coming and going. She looked more like the girls she’d met at the AVAs than herself.

Her height didn’t make matters any better either because the dress made her stupid legs look about a foot longer, so she felt like a baby giraffe in a black bandage dress.