High-Stakes Passion by Juliet Burns Page A

into playing “just a couple of hands.” Pete hadn’t raised his eyes from her chest yet. The lecher.
    Thank goodness Ruth wasn’t playing tonight. Audreyknew another woman would have seen straight through her act.
    Mark didn’t say a word. He narrowed his eyes and raised a beer bottle to his mouth for a long swallow.
    â€œWell, you’d have to tell me what beats what and all that stuff. Sure you don’t mind?” Don’t overdo it, girl!
    Several noes were drowned out by a bellowing “Hell, yes!” Mark slowly lowered his scorching gaze to her chest.
    A tense silence hung over the table before Dalt challenged his boss. “Come on, Malone, let her play. What’s the harm?”
    Glowering at Dalt, Mark finished his beer and twisted the top off another. Finally, he gave a disgusted snort. “I can’t believe y’all are gonna fall for this Little-Miss-Innocent act.” He shifted his eyes to her and said, “Fine. Join us if you must.”
    Audrey pretended to listen intently as Jim explained about two pair and three of a kind. She even went so far as to get a pad from the kitchen and take notes.
    Dalt shuffled the deck, slid it over to Mark to cut and then dealt everyone five cards. Audrey picked hers up and kept her face blank as she fanned them out. Two jacks, an ace and two sevens!
    Mark opened with five dollars, and everyone stayed except Jim, who folded. Mark then raised five dollars and everyone stayed.
    Audrey let go of the ace, hoping for a full house. When she got back a seven, she purposely let her excitement show. Pulling a twenty-dollar bill from her pocket, she raised the stakes and everyone folded.
    She played it low-key for a while, and kept them guessing by folding with a fairly good hand or blundering a bluff.
    Several hours later, Audrey had a considerable stack ofcash sitting in front of her. It was difficult to conceal a triumphant gleam behind a look of innocent amazement at her beginner’s luck. Of course, it helped that all her opponents had been guzzling beer all night.
    â€œWell, that does it for me.” Dalt stood and stretched, throwing in his cards.
    One by one, the other men left the table. Jim had said he had to be up early and left around one-thirty. Pete had drifted off soon after that when he ran out of money.
    Audrey glanced at the clock. It was after three in the morning and she and Mark were the only players left.
    Mark dealt the next hand, and Audrey picked up three queens and two fives. This was the hand she’d been waiting for. As the bidding started, she continually raised the stakes until she knew Mark had bet all the cash he had. Perfect. The time was right.
    â€œI’ll see your ten dollars and raise you, let’s see, um, oh, what the heck, I’m feeling wild. I’ll just throw in this whole big stack of money.” She looked at Mark and gave him her best smile.
    Mark leaned forward and glared at her. “I don’t have that much money left.”
    No IOUs were allowed. Probably because, Audrey guessed, it would give Mark an unfair advantage.
    She took a sip of her iced tea, to wet her suddenly dry throat, and said a little prayer. With a casual wave of her hand, she said, “Well, I guess if you don’t want to fold, you could bet something besides money.”
    Audrey saw Mark’s jaw muscle working as he gritted his teeth. His scowl grew menacing. “What do you want?”
    She stopped smiling and looked directly into those tormented blue eyes. “I want…” Her gaze slid away, faltering under the guilt.
    Say it, Audrey! An exclusive interview. Your life story.
    She couldn’t. She couldn’t force the words out. She couldn’t bear to see the look of betrayal in his eyes. He suspected something. But that was just it. He acted like he always expected the worst of people, and she didn’t want to be another person who let him down.
    â€œI