“Checkin’ in,” he gave me a gentle shake, his eyes scanning my face, they were alert as if he was looking for something, “wonderin’ if we’re goin’ out tonight?”
“Out?”
“To the tables, babe. Out.”
The tables?
“What tables?”
He stared down at me. Then he dipped his face close, “Shit, babe, you don’t look too good. What happened? You got a headache or something?”
I latched onto that. “Yes, actually, yes. A bad one.”
He looked at the door then down to my hands carrying plastic bags then back at me. “Then what were doin’ outside?” he asked, letting me go, taking the bags and dumping them on the dining room table saying, “You don’t feel good, you don’t go outside. You call your man, I come and take care of you.” He came back to me and his arms circled me again when he finished, “That’s the gig.”
I stared up at him.
Wow. Cold, bitchy Cora had this guy wrapped around her finger.
In two months.
And Tor fell in love with her on sight.
How did she do that?
“Cora, baby, hello? You with me?” he called.
“I’m, um… with you. Listen, what tables were you talking about?”
His brows grew together. Then he answered with a scary, “Poker.”
Poker?
The money in my TV cabinet.
Oh shit!
Cora, or this guy, was earning money, lots of it, playing poker.
“Right, yes, right, poker tables.” I shook my head. “Sorry, um… I’m kind of fuzzy. My head really hurt this morning when I got up and now I’m feeling weird.”
“Shit, babe,” he muttered then his face was in my neck, “that’s what happens when you sleep alone.” I felt his lips on my neck and I shivered (not like Tor made me shiver, another kind of shiver) at the same time I prayed Tor wouldn’t walk in the door.
“No, actually, that’s what happens when…” Damn! What did I say? Then I hit on it, the perfect excuse. “I get my period.”
His head shot up. “What?”
“I’ve got my period.”
But I didn’t. In fact, I hadn’t had one in…
My body turned to stone again.
Oh.
Shit!
“Babe, you had your period last week,” he said suspiciously.