Page 6 of Dark Witch: Entangled Fates

"Good." Kian nodded. "I mean, not good that your relationship with your family is strained. It's good that we don't have to worry about it."

"Yeah." She winced. "Sometimes having an unhappy family is an advantage rather than a disadvantage."

"To quote Tolstoy's Anna Karenina," Amanda said, "all happy families are alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

4

KIAN

When Jasmine had explained her family situation, Kian couldn't shake the nagging suspicion that something was off about her story. She was hiding something, but then it could be just family drama that had nothing to do with him and the safety of his people.

He studied her carefully, noting the way she forced her eyes to stay focused on his, and smiled pleasantly when he knew that he was making her nervous.

Not that her reaction to him was surprising.

Kian made most people uncomfortable, even gods and immortals, and Jasmine was just a human female. She was beautiful, which no doubt contributed to her self-confidence, but she was also an actress, and she knew how to hide her tells remarkably well.

"It's a shame that you are not close to your parents." He offered her a smile. "Family is very important to me." He cut a sidelong glance at Amanda. "Sometimes they drive me crazy, but most of the time, I'm grateful for having them in my life."

"Ooh, Kian." Amanda batted her eyelashes and put a hand over her heart. "That's as close as you've ever gotten to telling me that you love me."

He frowned. "Really? I must have told you that I love you hundreds of times."

"Maybe when I was little, but you stopped when I became a teenager."

"That's because you were a hellion."

Jasmine's eyes darted from him to Amanda and back. "What's the age difference between you? You don't look more than five years apart."

Amanda laughed. "Kian only looks young. His soul is at least two thousand years old."

He wanted to kick her leg to make sure she was more careful about what she was saying in front of Jasmine, but there was no way he could do that without Jasmine seeing.

"So, about these paranormal talents of yours," Kian said before Amanda had a chance to make another comment that she shouldn't. "My sister and my wife are very impressed by your ability to read people."

Jasmine shrugged, a coy smile playing on her lips. "What can I say? I've always been good at picking up on the little things. Body language and micro expressions are all there if you know what to look for. People call it a sixth sense or female intuition, but it's just good observational skills." She leaned forward. "I call it the 'staying quiet and letting others talk' skill."

"That's very astute. Did you learn it from your acting teachers?"

Jasmine nodded. "My coach's number one advice was to observe people. The more I learn and store in my mind, the more I have to draw on when I need to build a character."

"Interesting." Kian crossed his arms over his chest. "When did you discover that you could use your observational skills in poker?"

"It was a gradual process. I joined the drama club by the end of middle school, and I discovered poker when I was an adult, but I didn't have such well-developed observational skills back then. Not until I got professional coaching. So, I think that it was a self-feeding loop. Better acting meant more poker wins, and more poker wins made me a better actress." She leaned back to reach into her pocket and pulled out a deck of cards. "Would you like a demonstration?"

He arched a brow. "You want me to play poker with you?"

"Yeah, why not. Amanda can join us, right?"

Amanda glanced at her watch. "I don't have a lot of time, but I would like Kian to see you in your element."

Kian was not a great poker player. In fact, he tended to telegraph his emotions and had a hard time keeping them in check.

"I'm a very mediocre poker player," he admitted. "You two will have no problem beating me."

Jasmine grinned. "Good, then I should take advantage of your supposed lack of skill. If I win, you will let me onto the upper decks and allow me to attend the weddings."

Kian arched an eyebrow, amused by her audacity. Eva would have called it hutzpah, and she would have been right on the money.

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