Falling for the Boss (17 page)

Thomas tilted his head to the left slightly.  “Do you deny it?”

“I…”
Victoria
tried, but knew she’d be lying and he’d know it.  “No.”

She could see the admiration in his eyes and it made her start shaking. 

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Ignore it?”
she suggested, here eyes wide with feigned hope. 

Thomas shook his head.  “We’ve been trying that for months.  It hasn’t worked.  Any other ideas?”

Victoria
could only shake her head as his body came into contact with hers again.  She gasped as he took her hands and place
d
them on his shoulders.  Then she waited in agony as his head slowly came down to meet hers. 

His lips touched hers tentatively at first, then with passion as the electricity between them ignited into flames. 
Victoria
’s head fell backwards against his arm and she moved into the embrace, opening her mouth to his when his tongue requested entry. 

Victoria
had never
before
experienced the passion that flamed between them.  She lost all sense of time and decorum
.
  It was as if the world had stopped spinning and she was caught up in a heat that was out of control. 

She moved closer, moving her arms up to wrap around his neck, her fingers fanning into the hair curling at the nape of his neck.  And she couldn’t get enough of him. 

His hands were just as restless.  They moved from her waist, to her back, then up into her hair, pulling the pony tail loose.  He heard her groan and it only made him go a little more nuts, pulling her against his whole body, needing to feel her heat and know that she was as on fire as he was. 

His lips
moved away from her mouth and kissed his way to her ear, feeling as well as hearing her gasp as he took her earlobe between his
teeth.  She seemed to jump in
his arms and he wouldn’t let her down again, liking the feeling of her slim body being held in his arms even if the bouancy of the water was taking most of her weight. 

He then moved from her ear down to her neck and got the same reaction and it quickly made him need another from her.  The need to make her want him was an all consuming force within him now. 

Laughter from another couple entering the pool was like a pail of cold water on the moment. 
Victoria
jumped back, only to find her back already against the pool wall.  She stepped out of his arms which were loose only because of his confusion. 

“I’d better get out of here,” she said and dove under the water, swimming all the way to the pool steps. 

Thomas watched her lithe body as she stepped out of the pool and grabbed her towel.  He couldn’t leave himself, evidence of his arousal
would be
too obvious.  So he simply enjoyed watching her walk out of the pool, satisfied with the knowledge that he’d affected her just as intens
e
ly as she’d affected him. 

Once the door swung shut behind her, he turned and swam laps for over
an
hour, needing to exhaust himself in order to get any sleep that night.

A week later, they were in
Annapolis
,
Maryland
.  It was another audit of one of the site offices so the work was not very intense. 
Despite the easy work load,
Victoria
threw herself into the work, trying to keep the memories of the kiss between herself and Thomas out of her mind. 
She made sure to not look Thomas in the eyes when he came into whatever offices they were working in and she only glanced at him when she was sure he wouldn’t see her. 

By Wednesday night, the team was finished with their work and all reports had been submitted.  They were scheduled to leave for
Connecticut
the following morning.  Thomas had left
the hotel suite
earlier, dressed in a tuxedo explaining that he had a business dinner to attend. 

Since they were staying in a four room suite, with a large family room area in the middle, Mike and Bob were arguing good naturedly about what to do for the rest of the evening while
Victoria
read a magazine on the sofa, laughing occasionally at some of the suggestions coming from the two men. 

“Okay, how about some poker?”

“Now you’re talking!” Mike responded.  “
Victoria
, come on over.  We need a third person.”

“No you don’t,” she said and turned the page. 
She remembered Thomas mentioning that she probably didn’t play poker well and laughed. 
“I’m sure you two could lose your money to each other without my help.”

“Ah, so you’re not willing to risk your money to our superior intelligence, huh?” Mike challenged while Bob called down to the front desk for poker chips.  “I guess I understand.”

Victoria
didn’t rise to the challenge.  She laughed, but continued reading her magazine. 

The chips were delivered by a bellboy almost immediately and the game started.  The two men sat down at the circular table that was set up just outside of the small kitchen area.  Mike shuffled
the cards and Bob cut the deck.  Once Mike dealt the cards,
they studied their cards intently, both throwing out insults to the other in an effort to fake the other one out.
  The comments were meant to rattle the other’s confidence but they knew each other so well, neither broke.  The two of them played together for fifteen minutes.  Each time one had a winning hand, the other recognized the signs and folded.  The game didn’t move very quickly.

Victoria
laughed and decided she needed to join in.  “Okay, boys.  You seem to be having too much fun and this magazine is a left wing propaganda rag.  How about if you
I join in and add a little challenge for the two of you
.”

“
Come on over, my love, and learn the great art of poker,” Mike replied, pushing out one of the chairs with his foot.

Victoria
sat down at the table and was immediately handed the deck of cards. 
She smothered a smile when Mike automatically assumed she didn’t know how to play poker. 
“Why don’t you deal this time
,
”
Mike said and handed her the deck of cards.

Bob got a piece of paper and wrote down the possible winning hands according to the poker hierarchy. 
“Here you go princess,” Bob said.  “If you get any of these, you’re the winner.  Just so you know, the odds of getting the last one, a royal flush, is
six hundred and fifty
thousand to one,
with no wild cards
.  But please feel free to shoot for it,” he scoffed.

She put the list down on the right hand side.  “Got it.  What are we playing for?  I’m not much of a gambler.”

“How about a dollar a point?” Mike suggested.

“Sounds good to me,” Bob agreed. 

The two men looked at
Victoria
and she bit her lip for a moment.  “I guess that’s okay as long as you two won’t mind if I bail out if I lose too much money.”

“What do you consider too much?” Bob asked, waiving his hands towards the deck of cards she still hadn’t touched. 

“Hmm…probably anything over twenty dollars,” she said and picked up the cards to start shuffling them.

“Deal,” Mike said.  “Now let’s play.  I need
Victoria
’s twenty for tomorrow night.  We’ll be in
Hartford
and there’s a great bar that serves incredible martinis to beautiful women.”

Victoria
laughed and dealt out five hands to the three of them. 
“Why do you think I’m going to lose?”

Bob rubbed his hands together.  “
Are you kidding?”

“I might be.”

“Eh, beginner’s luck will only take you so far,” Mike replied. 

An hour later, both Bob and Mike weren’t laughing so much.  It was
Victoria
’s turn to deal again.  She decided to ramp it up a bit since she was a hundred dollars up.  “Let’s stick with five ca
rd draw, Aces and twos are wild, one dollar ante.
”

Bob chuckled at her ease of the vernacular.  “Mike, you realize she took us for suckers right?”
he said as he viewed his cards. 

Mike shook his head.  “How were we to know?” he asked, picking up his
own
cards and putting them in order.  “She
certainly portrays the look of an innocent lady.”

“We just assumed, my man,” Bob joked.  “Never assume with a woman.  They will always sneak up and get ya from behind.”

“I resent that, gentlemen.  Just because I can calculate odds in my head does not mean that I suckered you into this game. 
Mike suggested the game.  I just joined in once I realized I could beat you both so easily. 
But I’ll agree that you both assumed I hadn’t ever played poker.”

“It’s the suits,” Bob said and Mike instantly nodded his agreement. 

“What’s wrong with my suits?”
Victoria
asked and handed Mike three replacement cards. 

“Too feminine.  You don’t appear to be the ki
nd of woman who would ever deig
n to play poker, much less be this good at it.”

“Flattery will get you no where with me.  Did you know that there are over two point six million possible hands in poker?  And just to be exact, you’re earlier s
tatement about the possibility
of a royal flush, is six hundred, forty nine thousand, seven hundred and forty to one
, depending on what you consider a full deck and what cards are wild
.”

Bob and Mike looked at her as if she’d just spoken a different language. 

She laughed at their stunned expression.  “What’s the ante?”

“What’s going on?” Thomas said, walking up to their table directly behind
Victoria
. 

“She’s robbing us blind, boss man.  Make her stop,” Bob pleaded but tossed in his requisite one dollar ante. 

“Hmm…sounds interesting.  Please continue,” Thomas said and pulled his tuxedo tie loose. 

“Care to join us?” Mike offered. 

“I’ll join the next hand,” he said and pulled off his tuxedo jacket to drape it over the back of the sofa.  He headed to the kitchen and pulled a beer out of the refrigerator.  “Anyone else need a beer while I’m up?”
he asked.

Both Bob and Mike asked for another beer but
Victoria
was too flustered to answer.  She had to concentrate on her hand, not sure how she was going to play it since Thomas had arrived. 

A moment later, a glass of wine appeared by her elbow and
Victoria
was instantly aware of Thomas standing next to her.  She was flattered that he knew her preferred drink.  “Thank you,” she said softly and took a grateful sip. 

“No problem.  I’m guessing from the large pile in front of you and the relatively small piles in front of Mike and Bob, that I need to get you liquored up in order to win this game.”

She laughed and shook her head.  “I’m sure you can hold your
own in a game of cards with an innocent lady playing with you,
”
she said and batted her eyes at Mike. 

“We’ll see,” he said and waited while they finished their current hand.