this, I could be strong.
“Alright, Fin,” I tried for casual, but I knew his name sounded forced and awkward on my tongue. Plus it didn’t help that I had to bite down on my bottom lip to keep from following up his first name with his last.
“See?” Fin smiled down at me. “That wasn’t so hard. It was actually kind of nice. You’ve got this soft, gentle voice; it’s actually kind of sexy.”
He leaned toward me and his eyes dropped to my mouth, which was, of course, hanging open. And that’s when I realized he was doing it again!
“Stop flustering me!” I demanded. At this rate I was never going to say what I needed to!
Fin broke out in a crooked, triumphant smile then, his gaze finding mine again. “But you’re so fun to fluster,” he admitted.
I let out a growl of frustration and watched as his smile grew. Brat.
“I can’t do this,” I rushed my words out afraid one more compliment from him and I’d be signing over my soul. “I can’t help you, or work for you or do whatever it is you want me to do. I don’t owe you the money. My roommate does. And I don’t know where she is, or where your money is, but I do know that none of this is my responsibility. And even though I want to help you find her, I do not want any part of your illegal gambling…. thing. Nor can I be of any help because I know nothing about gambling or poker or Texas shuffle them or anything!”
“Wait,” Fin commanded and I didn’t want to admit this, but if he told me to do anything in that voice I probably would, it was probably why I was here right now even when I wanted to be anywhere else. “Texas shuffle them?”
And before I could respond he burst into laughter, throwing his head back and all.
“Or whatever it’s called,” I finished on a sigh.
“It’s not called Texas shuffle them,” He sobered and then looked me over as if he were really seeing me for the first time. “It’s called Texas Hold ‘em and we don’t even play that here. We play Five Card Stud.” He paused, visibly gathered patience and then continued, “Ok, here’s the thing. This is going to work for us because I need to hire help and now that I’m out seven thousand dollars I can’t afford to pay someone. You owe seven thousand dollars and need a way to pay that off. You solve a problem for me and I solve a problem for you. On top of that, you can’t prove to me that this isn’t your debt. Not just by your word. I want to believe you, Ellie. I do. You don’t seem to have any clue about any of this. And you seem genuine enough. But whenever I decide to believe you, I start arguing with myself. It’s not like the gambling version of you knew what they were doing either. Sure you were up for a while, but honestly that could all have been blind luck because as soon as you started losing you really started losing. Like a ball of burning flames kind of losing. So I gave you time, I gave you twenty four hours to come up with something else, some way to prove to me that this isn’t your debt. Right? If this really isn’t yours you could have gone to the police, you could have tracked down your alleged roommate, or what I really expected you to do, you could have gone to your brothers. I know Beckett, and I know Grayson, and whether this debt was really yours or not, I know they would have stepped in for you and tried to settle this. So, when I remind myself of all that, I can’t talk myself into believing this debt isn’t yours. I am going to make this very simple for you. We won’t even need to go to the police or anything. First of all, I’m going to tell you what I want. I want you to work for me. Maybe, ten hours a week. Nothing
“Alright, Fin,” I tried for casual, but I knew his name sounded forced and awkward on my tongue. Plus it didn’t help that I had to bite down on my bottom lip to keep from following up his first name with his last.
“See?” Fin smiled down at me. “That wasn’t so hard. It was actually kind of nice. You’ve got this soft, gentle voice; it’s actually kind of sexy.”
He leaned toward me and his eyes dropped to my mouth, which was, of course, hanging open. And that’s when I realized he was doing it again!
“Stop flustering me!” I demanded. At this rate I was never going to say what I needed to!
Fin broke out in a crooked, triumphant smile then, his gaze finding mine again. “But you’re so fun to fluster,” he admitted.
I let out a growl of frustration and watched as his smile grew. Brat.
“I can’t do this,” I rushed my words out afraid one more compliment from him and I’d be signing over my soul. “I can’t help you, or work for you or do whatever it is you want me to do. I don’t owe you the money. My roommate does. And I don’t know where she is, or where your money is, but I do know that none of this is my responsibility. And even though I want to help you find her, I do not want any part of your illegal gambling…. thing. Nor can I be of any help because I know nothing about gambling or poker or Texas shuffle them or anything!”
“Wait,” Fin commanded and I didn’t want to admit this, but if he told me to do anything in that voice I probably would, it was probably why I was here right now even when I wanted to be anywhere else. “Texas shuffle them?”
And before I could respond he burst into laughter, throwing his head back and all.
“Or whatever it’s called,” I finished on a sigh.
“It’s not called Texas shuffle them,” He sobered and then looked me over as if he were really seeing me for the first time. “It’s called Texas Hold ‘em and we don’t even play that here. We play Five Card Stud.” He paused, visibly gathered patience and then continued, “Ok, here’s the thing. This is going to work for us because I need to hire help and now that I’m out seven thousand dollars I can’t afford to pay someone. You owe seven thousand dollars and need a way to pay that off. You solve a problem for me and I solve a problem for you. On top of that, you can’t prove to me that this isn’t your debt. Not just by your word. I want to believe you, Ellie. I do. You don’t seem to have any clue about any of this. And you seem genuine enough. But whenever I decide to believe you, I start arguing with myself. It’s not like the gambling version of you knew what they were doing either. Sure you were up for a while, but honestly that could all have been blind luck because as soon as you started losing you really started losing. Like a ball of burning flames kind of losing. So I gave you time, I gave you twenty four hours to come up with something else, some way to prove to me that this isn’t your debt. Right? If this really isn’t yours you could have gone to the police, you could have tracked down your alleged roommate, or what I really expected you to do, you could have gone to your brothers. I know Beckett, and I know Grayson, and whether this debt was really yours or not, I know they would have stepped in for you and tried to settle this. So, when I remind myself of all that, I can’t talk myself into believing this debt isn’t yours. I am going to make this very simple for you. We won’t even need to go to the police or anything. First of all, I’m going to tell you what I want. I want you to work for me. Maybe, ten hours a week. Nothing
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