Page 15 of Billionaire Unexplained: Kaleb

I was just Anna to him, the woman he was getting to know without the outside world intruding into our space.

He chuckled a little before he finally replied. “I’m not usually an open book to anyone, but I think maybe you’re right. I think you might be exactly what I need.”

Kaleb

“Full house!” Anna said triumphantly the following afternoon as she laid her cards down on the table.

Her dark eyes sparkled as she looked at me, and for some strange reason I didn’t want to pop her bubble of delight, but…

I laid my cards on the table. “Four of a kind.”

She glared at me after looking at my hand, which I shouldn’t find adorable, but I did.

“Impossible!” she said as she shook her head. “You’re dealing. Did you stack the deck or what? Every time I have a good hand, you beat it. Who has that kind of luck all the time?”

I grinned at her as I picked up the cards. I’d been in the small blind position, so I had been dealing this time.

“Not all the time,” I corrected. “You’ve pulled out some good hands.”

“And you usually manage to find a hand higher than mine,” she mumbled unhappily.

I hadn’t cheated, even though my brothers and I had tried to pull one over on each other during a few of our poker games in the past.

I had to admit, Anna was a damn good poker player. Despite her protests, she had won a respectable number of hands during our heads-up Texas Hold’em session. However, she had a few ‘tells’ that I’d picked up on almost immediately.

If she didn’t have a good hand, she squinted very slightly at her cards, as though she was trying desperately to see a better hand than what she had.

Maybe some people wouldn’t notice the small things she did that gave her hand away, but I was an expert at reading people across a table from me.

She also couldn’t quite contain her exuberance when she had a good hand. I could see a quick glint of satisfaction in her expressive eyes when she was holding a decent hand.

For the most part, she could squelch most of her emotions while she was playing, but there were signs if a person really searched for them.

Unfortunately, watching Anna and trying to figure her out was becoming an obsession for me.

“I can’t read you at all,” she grumbled. “It’s annoying.”

I grinned wider. “I think you’ve learned plenty about me.”

We’d talked all morning about little things. Nothing earthshattering or important, but we were slowly getting to know each other’s habits, likes, and dislikes.

For some reason, I couldn’t seem to be the asshole I usually was when I was around her. I couldn’t go back to being guarded now that we’d spilled our reasons for being here.

Despite her protests, I’d bundled up this morning and waded through the snowstorm to get her suitcase, so she had everything she needed for her brief stay here.

Fuck knew that she deserved to be comfortable while she was stuck here.

The fuss she’d made over me after I’d returned from getting that suitcase was a bonus I hadn’t expected.

I’d also gotten a lecture about going out in horrible weather like I’d just risked my life going out in the blizzard. She’d also reminded me that she was in bad shape when she’d made the trek herself.

I hadn’t bothered to remind her that my situation and hers had been totally different for several reasons. I’d had the appropriate clothing to go out in the storm, it was broad daylight when I’d gone, and I’d known exactly where I was going. I also had a lot more bulk to fight the winds.

Truthfully, I’d kind of enjoyed her tirade for some reason. I never thought I was the type of guy who would actually like a woman fussing over me, but I’d definitely liked that she seemed to care about what happened to me.

The blizzard wasn’t waning much. I’d touched base with Tanner and Devon earlier, and they’d warned me that I’d be here for at least two days until the storm cleared.

I hadn’t told them about Anna. I wasn’t sure why because I shared a lot with my siblings. But I would have felt like I was breaching Anna’s privacy if I’d mentioned that she was here with me.

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