Page 42 of Royal Flush

“Good to meet you, Jameson. Enjoy your evening.” I walked away before he could respond, leaving him no doubt highly perplexed. First task accomplished.

Now it was onto the more entertaining part of the evening.

Taming a wild animal in the form of a koala.

The beautiful raven-haired girl would soon learn that attempting to run away from me only resulted in the appearance of the primal beast.

And I was hungry for a hunt.

CHAPTER 12

Jasmine

Boring.

Usually, these events were boring as hell. It was a perfect excuse for men and women who wouldn’t ordinarily allow their hair down to do so while pretending it was all for a good cause.

It was barely after ten in the evening and the number of drunk people was startling.

Granted, the high dollar booze was free, the appetizers flowing, and the music topnotch. The company though left much to be desired.

There seemed to be nothing but old people attending the functions in DC, entirely different from where I’d grown up. Maybe Australia was more progressive in some ways.

The thought brought a smile as a cute waiter shifted through the crowd headed right for me. I’d provided him with a nice tip twice, but I seriously doubted that’s why he was making a beeline for me.

My flirtation skills were spot on when I needed, including batting my long eyelashes and laughing at jokes on cue.

At least with the hottie, the flirting was easy.

“Here you are, Ms. Sinclair.”

“Thank you, Doug. I do so appreciate it.” I brushed the tips of my fingers down his cheek, giving him what I liked to call my best Marilyn Monroe smile. Even though I’d seen maybe three pictures of her in my life.

Whatever. It worked.

He was blushing.

“Of course. Let me know if there is anything at all you need.”

“I will.” I even added a little cherry on top by blowing him a kiss as he left.

Of course, pretty much every man at the roulette table was watching, which I planned on using to my benefit.

I wasn’t just here to drop off a very generous check after all. I was in the mood to do something naughty and right now, men were out of the question. With videos of the animals our donations were helping playing on several big screens throughout the casino room, I opted for one more game of blackjack. Acting like this so close to my father’s recent appointment was close to the riskiest thing I’d ever done. But it felt damn good. Maybe this was in retaliation for the man continuing to treat me as a child.

It took a true expert to try to count the cards that had been used while keeping track of what the dealer was passing out.

So far, I’d won almost fifty thousand dollars, all of which was going to the charity of course. This was all about feeding my need for winning given my horrific loss only a few nights before. Well, I had scooped up my earlier winnings, shmoozing the guy who’d kept my casino chips like a good boy. I’d tipped him a banana, a cutesy nickname used for a thousand dollar chip.

When the round began, I kept it cool, sipping on my champagne and smiling provocatively at the other men at the table. It was funny that every one of them was sweating. I found that curious.

An evil smile formed on my face.

One by one the players went bust, but none of them walked away.

When the dealer looked in my direction, I smiled brightly. “Again.”

The dealer lifted a single eyebrow as if I was nuts. Three twos had been doled out, which meant there was one left in the deck. It was close to being a mathematical impossibility the next card would be what I needed.

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