Page 28 of One Night Gamble
Chapter Nine
Casey found Talia a few hours later sitting in Nicholas’s game room, texting on her phone. He stood there, watching her, and felt a punch in the gut that he couldn’t identify. It wasn’t the same thing he felt when he sat down at a high-stakes poker game, or even the thrill he got from following Darien along on some crazy high-speed adventure.
It had its roots in sexual attraction, he wasn’t going to deny that. But it was more.
“I didn’t invite you tonight to work,” he said.
She glanced up with a smile on her face. “I know. But it was too good an opportunity to pass up. I have some great footage of the guests’ reactions to the illusion. I’m going to send this to the video editor on my team in the morning and have him make a clip we can start using on the presale ticket site.”
He came over and sat down next to her on the large leather couch. The room was dominated by a pool table in the middle and at the end was a round poker table with six chairs and a well-stocked bar.
As he sat, the cushions dipped and she slipped toward him, her soft curves fitting nicely against him. He put his arm around her shoulders and she glanced up at him. “Sorry about that.”
“I liked it,” he admitted. “Show me your favorite footage from tonight.”
She opened the video app on her phone and played him a few of the clips she’d got. He couldn’t help but notice how most of the people reacted to her and her coaching. The Hollywood father/son duo was by far the most relaxed in front of the camera, but Talia had done her best to get some great reactions.
“I love it. I think Nicholas will, too,” he said. Although he’d made his offer earlier in the night to show Talia that she wasn’t the only one putting herself on the line, he suddenly realized that offer probably was going to go a long way to ensuring the success of the Jokers Wild. “But I think that’s enough working for tonight.”
“Me too. I just did it to give you some time with Darien,” Talia said. “Is he okay?”
Casey couldn’t really share Darien’s problems with Talia. He’d never breach his friend’s trust. But Darien was better at the moment. Casey had found him a distraction in the form of one of Nick’s assistants—a leggy blonde.
“As good as he can be,” Casey said at last. Dare was dealing with someone from his past that he’d never expected to see again and as he’d admitted earlier to Casey, he wasn’t as immune to her charms as he should be.
“I’m glad to hear it. So, what else is on the agenda tonight?” she asked.
“Just the two of us,” Casey said. “What do you want to do?”
She nibbled on her bottom lip, something he noted she did frequently. He wondered if it was nerves or just tension that made her do it. He’d seen her make the gesture in the interview and when they were alone.
“I’m not sure,” she said. “What did you have in mind?”
He glanced around the room. “Have you ever played pool? We could play a simple game of solids versus stripes.”
“Uh, no. I’ve never played,” she said, but stood up and walked over to the table. “It can’t be that hard, can it?”
He had to chuckle at that. “It’s harder than it looks. When I was living on the streets, one of the guys I met used to hustle games. He’s the one who taught me.”
“Why were you living on the streets?” she asked.
He hated talking about his past. Why had he brought it up? He hadn’t meant to. There was something about Talia that made him drop his guard. She sort of made him feel like she already knew all the cracked, broken parts of him. And that they didn’t matter.
But he knew that they did. He used his past to create the man he was today. But in a normal suburban world, those things would seem…well less than desirable.
“Uh, I had trouble in a group home and ran away,” he said.
She walked over to him, the scent of her gardenia perfume reaching him before she did. She put her hand on his shoulder. “No one’s childhood is perfect.”
He looked over at her, saw in her eyes that feeling of being broken that echoed in his soul and he knew that she got it. He didn’t have to explain anything else to her because her own childhood had been less than ideal as well. And maybe that was why he was so relaxed around her.
“Let me show you how the game is played.”
He’d had a lover who told him that no woman wanted a man who showed too much vulnerability. Since that moment, Casey had learned to hide that part of himself. Only, it was harder with Talia. She made him believe that he could be himself, and she’d stay.
But that might be a big illusion. Bigger than Nicholas’s trick that had them all gasping and trying to figure out how he’d done it.
“Grab that triangle. I’ll rack up the balls and then you can break,” he said.
