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Chapter 4 : Lily - The Wager
Lily stared at AJ in shock. His raspy whisper echoed in her brain.
“Tell you what ... why don’t I cover your bet for one last hand.
If
you win, you get to keep everything on the table. If I win, you’re
mine. For
the whole night.” She’d jerked around to look him in the eye
-- there was
no mistaking what he meant. Just to clarify, though, he’d whispered,
“Upstairs, in my bed, whatever I want.”
She just stared for a few minutes, until the dealer caught her
attention. “Miss? Are you in this hand or out?”
Lily looked at AJ ... then at the dealer. Alex, the bitch,
had left her
to fend for herself, so she had no one to fall back on. She looked
back at
AJ. If she stayed in ... she would either end up with $200, or
in his bed.
Quite frankly, if she was being honest with herself, they were both
extremely attractive options. She found herself sitting back
in her seat.
“I’m in.”
AJ chuckled softly beside her as he threw in enough chips for
both
of them. Lily heard their audience murmuring, wondering what
was going
on. She blushed ... if she lost ...
The dealer dealt them each two cards, one up, one down.
Lily
looked at her up card. A queen ... not bad. She peeked
at her other card.
Only a four ... dammit. Her eyes slid over to his cards ... he
had a six facing
up. That told her nothing.
“Hit me,” she told the dealer, praying for anything but an eight,
nine, or ten. The card came up -- a deuce. Shit.
What the hell was she
going to do with a sixteen? The dealer hit AJ once ... he looked
at his cards,
smiled, and decided to stay.
That wasn’t good, Lily decided. He must have something decent
...
I’ll never win with a sixteen, she thought. “Hit me again.”
Oh god, oh
please, she repeated silently, though what she was praying for, she
wasn’t
sure.
An eight.
She slumped back in her seat and flipped her cards over.
She barely
heard the dealer ... “House has seventeen ... and the gentleman has
twenty.
Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” AJ said, gathering his chips.
He stood and leaned against the table. Lily, who had been
studying
the floor intently, slowly lifted her gaze ... her eyes trailed up
his entire
body, until she was looking him in the eye.
Some might say the look in his eye was pure evil. Others
might say
it was pure sex. Lily somehow knew it was a mixture of the two
-- and that
both frightened and excited her.
AJ took her hand and lifted it to his lips. To the observers
it
probably looked very gentlemanly, but Lily felt a key slip into her
hand.
“Room 1436,” he murmured. “Ten minutes.”
She stared as he walked away. If she really wanted to, she
could
disappear into the crowd and never see him again. She should
walk away,
go upstairs to her own room, put on her pajamas and watch television.
She
should go lounge in the jacuzzi with Jade. She should find Alex.
She
should do anything but go to AJ’s room.
The key seemed to burn in her hand. Slowly, Lily got up
and
walked towards the elevators.
She was a woman of her word.
