Home Is Where the Heat Is (23 page)

“The lower the probability of a winner, the higher the payout,” Kurt concluded.

“Exactly.” The nerd picked this up quick. He’d do well.

“What are the green zeros for?” Claire asked.

“Another way to bet.”

They watched a couple of rounds. The gamblers placed chips in strategic locations on the board until the dealer called, “No more bets,” and dropped the ball on the track. It whirled around the wheel until its momentum gave out and it settled on seventeen black.

Kurt nodded. “So the player who put his chip on the end of the row wins.”

“Right. If he’d put it on seventeen, he’d have a bigger pot, but still a good bet.”

Claire nudged JT. “There’s a chip on the black diamond, too.”

“Yep. That’s a small risk and a small reward, but it can get you enough to keep playing.”

She bounced beside him. “Let’s play.”

JT laughed and held her back. “Hold on. There’s a certain etiquette to this. We should watch a little longer then ask if we can join.”
Long enough to find out if the table is favoring red or black.

Once JT had his answer, he approached the gamblers with his protégés in tow. “Room for three more?”

“Have a seat,” the dealer said.

JT offered the stool to Claire and stood beside her.

Kurt’s phone rang and he scowled at the screen. “My boss. I gotta take this.” He walked to the edge of the gaming area, away from the noise.

Claire placed her bets with JT’s help. “I had no idea Kurt would be here. He never told me the electronics show was in Vegas.”

JT spotted Kurt near the slot machines, still occupied with his phone, and a risky strategy took shape in his head. “Never said anything to me either.”
Start slow.
“You know he likes you.”

“Yeah.” She glanced toward the geek and smiled. “He’s a sweet guy. I’d go out with him if I wasn’t with you.”

Or jump in with both feet.
A small bet would get him nowhere, and he’d analyzed this game long enough. “Why not do both of us?”

She tore her gaze from the spinning wheel and raised her eyebrows at him. “Seriously?” She shook her head and lowered her voice. “That only works in porn.”

But JT pressed his luck, leaning close and whispering in her ear. “It works for your boss too. You told me you’ve always wanted to be the center of attention. Kurt wants you, I want you. Let it ride, baby.”

“What does that mean?”

“Gamble your winnings instead of cashing in. Go for the big prize.”

Her chest heaved, and she caught her breath as his suggestion took root. “So you and Kurt are my winnings?”

“I am.” He grinned. “Getting both of us together… that’s the big jackpot.”

The dealer called out the winning number. “Twenty-nine black.”

Claire clapped her hands. “That’s mine! I won!”

The dealer swept the losing chips off the board and placed a stack in front of the lucky paralegal.

JT kissed her and collected a few chips as well. “Well done.”

They placed their next round of bets while Claire chewed her lip and cast a sideways glance at Kurt. “Do you think he would do it?”

Oh hell yes.
“He’d be a fool to pass up an opportunity to be with you.”

She slid closer to him and stroked his arm. “And you’d do it?”

Tingles sparked his skin under her touch, and his crotch stiffened. “I’m no fool.”

Her face clouded and she sat back. “But why?”

Why what? Did she just…?
“Are you calling me stupid?”

“No, why do you want to…?” She hunched close and her voice dropped to a whisper. “Have a threesome with me and Kurt? I thought guys would rather screw two girls.”

A torrid memory hardened his dick further and he winked. “Who says I haven’t?”

“Oh.” Claire rested her chin in her hand and tapped her fingernails on her cheek. “Do you want to do Kurt?”

“No. Not my thing.”

“Wait—are you drunk?”

“Nope. Are you?”

A goofy smile lit her eyes. “Happily buzzed but nowhere near hammered.”

JT signaled a waitress. “Then let me buy you another round.” He clamped his mouth shut and wished he hadn’t offered to get her drunk. She could use that as grounds for an appeal if things went bad.
Jesus, I’m thinking like her.
But he liked it.

“No, no, no. If we’re going to do this, I want to remember it.” She dismissed the waitress and watched the wheel spin.

“Double zero.” The dealer announced the winning number, but neither of them had bet on green.

Claire placed her chips, seemingly engrossed in her strategy. “I get why you want to have a threesome. That’s a no-brainer, for me at least, but why would you let me actually have sex with someone else?”

JT dropped three five-dollar chips on his favorite number, thirteen black, defying bad luck as if it meant nothing to him. “Because I want to spoil you. I want to give you everything you want and watch you enjoy it. I have all this stuff—a big house, my own plane, and a job that gives me a lot of freedom.” He slid one chip on seven red to counteract his risky bet, then leaned close to Claire and wrapped his hand around hers. “But I don’t have anyone to share it with.” Still, he left the most important reason unsaid. The last time he’d offered someone so much, she panicked and ran, but this time the odds against Claire rejecting him weighed heavily in his favor.

She nodded. “All right, that makes sense. But why should I do it?”

While her question appeared to be more difficult, the answer came to him with little effort. “You need to indulge. You spend your days doing things for someone else. Tonight is all about you.”

“Thirteen black.” The dealer counted out five hundred and twenty-five dollars in chips and slid them to JT. He distributed the whole pile around the board, risking more than he’d win, but the real prize sat next to him.

A sly smile twisted Claire’s lips. “Let it ride and go for the big score.”

“Damn right.” He glanced over her shoulder as Kurt pocketed his phone. “Follow my lead.” He waved the guy over. “Hey Kurt. Let’s make this interesting.”

The geek adjusted his glasses and frowned at the spinning wheel. “I don’t even know how to play.”

“You’ll catch on quick. I’ll spot you a couple of practice rounds, and then we’ll raise the stakes.”

A light bulb switched on as Kurt sat down next to Claire. “May I join?”

She blushed and cast a sidelong glance at JT, then smiled at Kurt. “Please do.”

JT handed him a short stack of chips and helped him place his bets. They all won small bets, and Kurt placed the next round on his own.

“It appears strategy is more beneficial than luck in this game,” he said to JT.

“If you’re only interested in small change, but you won’t win big unless you risk big.”

“Hmm….” Genius added two more chips to the one he’d placed on red thirty. “I’ll be thirty next month. Might as well have some fun with it.”

“There you go.”

The ball skittered around the wheel, bouncing in and out of the red thirty slot and settling in black twenty-eight. Kurt groaned. “Oh, that was close! I think I’ll stick with strategy.”

Claire had bet on that row, so she won a small payout. “I’m building a good pile here.” She gathered her chips.

JT winked at her, then grinned at Kurt. “Ready to kick this up a notch?”

“You’re on.”

He crooked his finger at the unsuspecting nerd. Kurt leaned close, squeezing Claire between them as JT laid out the stakes. “If it hits black, I spend the night with Claire.”

Kurt’s eyebrows pinched together. “Isn’t that a given?”

“If it hits red, you get to sleep with her.” The wheel had been hitting black more often than red, but even if Genius won, JT doubted he had the balls to go through with it.

“Whoa….” The geek sat back and blushed as red as the thirty.

JT raised his hand. “But if it lands on either green slot… she gets us both.” Improbable odds, huge risk, and a reward big enough to satisfy all of them… if Claire wanted it, too.

Claire giggled and squirmed, biting her lip as Kurt blinked at her. “Are you up for this?”

Chapter 17

JT is absolutely right.
She’d made a career out of serving other people—spending five days a week plus overtime helping Alex, judges, attorneys, and anyone else who walked through the office door.
Why not spoil me for a change?
Granted, having sex with two men at the same time fell at the naughtiest end of the pleasure spectrum, but
damn
, her thighs quivered just thinking about it.

She reached under the table and squeezed the thighs of the two men she sat sandwiched between, as an image of all three of them naked like that curled her toes.

“Yes, I am.”

Kurt raised an eyebrow at JT. “And if it’s red, you’ll let me sleep with her?”

“You didn’t claim your prize last time. Do you have the balls to do it now?”

The computer whiz’s thigh tensed under her hand and he scowled at his challenger. “Hell yes.”

Hell yes. A nerd with balls… hot!
“Wait… last time?” Claire interjected.

Kurt deflated a little. “I was supposed to ask you out when I beat him at pool, but I panicked and ran.”

That fact that they’d gambled for her company should’ve bothered her more than knowing Kurt hadn’t collected his winnings. She leaned close and breathed in his ear. “I would’ve said yes.”

His lanky frame quivered, and he placed his hand on top of hers, gave it a squeeze, then reached over and fingered the hem of her skirt, teasing her hot thigh. “Let’s do this.”

Claire placed half her stack of chips on the single green zero and the other half on the double green zero—everything she’d won. The game would be over after this spin, so she had no more need for the chips no matter where the wheel stopped.

JT groaned and shifted in his seat. “Fuck me with a jackpot, Rebel. You just gave me a hard-on.”

She rubbed his leg, her fingers inching closer to his crotch. “Good. You’ll need it.”

Kurt scattered his chips on every red number, and JT did the same with black.

“No more bets.” The dealer spun the wheel.

The ball skittered and bounced. Red, black, red again. Black. The momentum slowed and the ball rolled toward black ten, but then jumped high in the air and came down in the double green zero. And stopped.

Claire’s heart skipped. Her breath caught and she clapped her hands over her heaving chest. “Oh my God!”

“You won.” JT’s voice trembled with awe.

“Wow.” Kurt exhaled and turned a little pale.

The dealer counted, and kept counting. The other gamblers gasped as chips piled high in front of Claire.

“You just won ten thousand, six hundred and thirty-five dollars.” JT swiped his hand over his face.

She heard the amount, and the applause that accompanied his announcement, but the only number that meant anything to her at the moment was two. Two men naked in her bed. Two men pleasuring her. Two sets of stroking hands, two flickering tongues, two hard cocks.
Fucking hell!

The room turned hot as her pulse roared in her ears. She wobbled on her seat and reached for JT as he and Kurt gathered her winnings and theirs.

“Let’s cash in before we… um….” Kurt fumbled his chips and scrambled to pick them up.

“Our room is on the fifteenth floor in the Augustus tower,” JT said to him. Then he clapped his hand over Claire’s as she dug into his arm. “Are you okay? You haven’t said a word.”

Feeling warm solid muscle under her fingers grounded her, and she found her voice. “I’m okay. Just a little… stunned.”

“Us too.” JT helped her stand.

Claire searched his eyes. “Were you expecting that? I wasn’t expecting that. There are only two green slots on the wheel, the odds against winning must be….”

“Thirty-seven to one,” Kurt informed her. “Not too bad, actually.”

JT led them to the cashier. “Expecting what? Winning that much or hitting green?”

Jesus crackers.
“How much did I win again?”

“Over ten thousand, six hundred dollars.”

Her brain said ‘wow,’ but no sound came out of her mouth.

“Eighteen to one that it would hit green, but almost a fifty percent chance of getting black or red.” Kurt rattled off probabilities like a calculator. “You beat all the odds to win that bet.”

Their bet.
She stopped in her tracks and caught her breath as her heart raced, sending a surge of energy through her limbs. She’d won the opportunity to have sex with these two men for a few hours… and also raked in a shitload of money. “I won!”

JT grinned and handed her chips to a stoic cashier. “Yes, you did, sweet thing, and we’re going to help you celebrate. Our job is to make sure you get what you want. Tonight is all about you.”

The color returned to Kurt’s face as JT’s proclamation rang in Claire’s ears.
All about me….

“Is this yours, ma’am?” The cashier handed her a debit card loaded with over ten thousand lucky dollars.

She clutched it to her chest as wicked ideas assaulted her sparking brain.
All about me… and these two gorgeous men.
“Take me to bed, boys.”

***

Kurt had had every intention of collecting his winnings if the ball had landed on red. If JT was stupid enough to offer his woman as a prize, he’d have gladly accepted. If the number had come up black, he could’ve walked away. His choices had been simple: take her or leave her, but sharing her? That equaled a loss in his mind.

The smile on Claire’s face shone through the befuddled haze surrounding Kurt and touched his heart. How could he refuse to please the woman he longed for?

She grabbed their hands, and they sprinted through the crowded casino.

Kurt skidded and nearly ran her over as she stopped in the lobby to figure out which way to go.

“Here.” JT turned down a corridor and guided their little group to the elevators. He punched the up button and swept a giggling Claire into his arms, kissing her while they waited.

Should I watch? Wait? Do I get to kiss her next?
The doors slid open before he got an answer.