Page 21 of One Night Gamble
In that moment, she wanted to hate him. Wanted to tell herself that she regretted sleeping with him, but she knew that was a lie.
“Then prepare to end your winning streak, because I’m not an easy prize,” she said, turning on her heel and walking away from him. As she stepped out into the steamy Vegas night, tourists crowded the sidewalk, but she felt alone, isolated, and not sure. She hated that. She hated this city.
And she hated that no matter how hard she tried to forget the past, it clung to her like a cheap leather skirt. She walked to the parking lot, jumped in her car, and drove out of town as if the devil himself were chasing her.
Chapter Seven
Casey knew better than to sit down at the poker table in the mood he was in. He’d always known his limits and tonight was no different. He waved off Yoshi and went to the penthouse apartment he kept at the top of the Jokers Wild Casino, but he was restless. He stared down at the strip, at the bright lights that promised whatever thrill he wanted but he saw through it.
He always had. That was the reason he’d gone on the road. Now he’d come home supposedly wiser, but with Talia he felt like an untried boy, someone who didn’t know his limits and was gambling out of his league.
Darien walked into the living area of his apartment, looking tired and as aggravated as Casey felt.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing I can’t handle. I need… Want to go for a ride?” Darien asked.
A ride with Darien more than likely meant something hair-raising and dangerous. It was exactly what he needed tonight.
“Yes. Bike or car?”
“Given the mood I’m in tonight, I might kill us both in a car,” his friend said.
Casey couldn’t let that pass. “What is it?”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Want to hit the clubs instead?” Casey asked. “If you’re having women troubles, there’s nothing like mindless sex to take your mind off them.”
Darien walked to the wet bar and poured both of them two fingers’ worth of Jack on ice.
“That didn’t work for you last time, did it?”
“What?”
“Nick told me we hired your hookup.”
“Fuck Nick. That’s not why we hired Talia.”
“Talia? Rio thinks she hung the moon,” Darien said, walking over and handing him the glass.
Casey downed it in one long swallow. “She’s good at her job.”
“So why are you so restless?”
“Same as you,” Casey said, venturing a guess. Besides, no man wanted to think he was the only one who kept making the same mistakes.
“Mine is a woman from my past. One who I thought was different…but that’s because I’m a fucking moron. You’ve always been smarter.”
Ha.
“I’m not,” Casey admitted.
“You hide it better than me, then,” Darien said, going back for the bottle and collapsing on the couch as he poured more liquor into his glass. He set the bottle on the end table and Casey walked over to pour himself a bit more.
“I’ve told you for years that you needed to work on your poker face,” Casey said. “You are good at it when it comes to fear but everything else you wear out there for the world to see.”
Darien nodded. “I’m pissed, Case. I’m really not sure that doing the show here is going to work for me.”
