Mother, Please! - By Brenda Novak & Jill Shalvis & Alison Kent Page 0,20

Ashton couldn’t lie or cheat. She was so straitlaced and prim that she hadn’t even known how to kiss properly—although she did now, thanks to him. She must have four of a kind or better.

Just for the heck of it, he leaned forward to see if he couldn’t get a peek at her cards, but she immediately drew them close to her chest. “Uh-uh,” she said. “No cheating.”

Gunner’s betting reserves were running low. He was down to a $100 Grand bar, his favorite, and some wintergreen Life Savers he liked to carry with him. If he lost anything more than he’d already bet, he’d be out of the game. So he gave up on the pork rinds and simply called her bet, only to have her throw four more candy bars into the pile.

“I’ll match your two and raise you two,” she said. “Your turn.”

He flipped over the last flop card, hoping for a seven, or even another ten or a king. But it was a two of hearts. He didn’t have his full house, and considering how cocky she was, she had to have something pretty spectacular.

Taking a deep breath, he decided to cut his losses now and try to take her on the next hand. “I fold.”

“Really? You?” She sounded surprised and inordinately pleased with herself.

“Really,” he said with some irritation. He hated folding, even though it kept him alive for another hand. He’d never had a lot of practice at losing.

Setting her cards carefully in front of her, face-down, she started to rake in the pot. He reached out to see her hand, but she stopped him. “Sorry.”

“What do you mean, sorry?”

“You don’t get to see what I was holding.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’ll just use the information to try and figure out what my facial expressions mean. Why should I give up that information?”

“Fine.” He pretended to accept her refusal and began reshuffling. But the moment she shifted her attention to her snacks, he grabbed her cards and turned them over to reveal a three and a four.

He blinked in stunned dismay. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You had nothing.”

“I told you I was a good bluffer.”

He’d underestimated her. Probably because she was so damn appealing with her honest smile and wide dark eyes.

He made a mental note never to do that again.

“I have enough junk food to keep me busy for a while.” She sorted through her snacks. “If you want to switch to strip poker now, I think I’m up for it.”

Only because she thought she’d win. “No way,” he said.

“Why not? It was your suggestion.”

“That was before you kicked my ass. I’m not going to be sitting here butt naked with you fully clothed. A man can only take so much.”

She laughed, so freely and sincerely it was almost childlike. “You’ve lost your nerve?”

“I’m trying to learn from my mistakes.”

Standing, she stretched, and he tried not to notice how her shirt lifted to reveal a smooth, flat stomach. “Well, if you’re not going to strip, the game’s over.” She eyed his pork rinds with disdain. “There’s nothing else here I want.”

“Except to see me naked?” Ordinarily he wouldn’t have been surprised. The women he dated were generally pretty warm to that idea. But this was April….

“If you lose, you lose,” she said.

“Or we could forget about the game and take off our clothes together. Then we both win.”

“No, thanks.” She peeled open a Butterfinger. “Too bad you didn’t win one of these.” Closing her eyes in appreciation, she took a bite and moaned, acting as though it was food for the gods.

He narrowed his eyes and gazed meaningfully at her mouth. But instead of getting nervous, as he’d expected, she licked her lips in a slow, seductive manner.

“I could take it away easily enough,” he warned, standing up and moving closer—in case she didn’t realize she was starting a whole new game, one with higher stakes than the last.

“There’s that overconfidence again.”

She was flirting with him. April, who’d only just learned to kiss. Moving more quickly, he swept her off her feet and pinned her beneath him on the bed.

“What were you saying?” He fit one leg snugly between hers and purposely applied pressure where he knew she’d like it most.

Her eyes widened as she stared up at him, and he offered her a challenging smile. “I think you’re in over your head. Are you sure you want to provoke me?”

“Maybe not entirely,” she admitted breathlessly.

He chuckled. Then, bending his head, he trailed kisses