Page 54 of Reluctant Surrender

My breath caught in my throat.

“Now you,” Lukas said.

I swallowed and dropped my hand.

“Hmm.” He leaned over my hand then looked up at the dealer. “I’m a little rusty, does my four of a kind lose to her flush or did I win?”

The dealer’s lips twitched. At least someone was enjoying the moment. “You’ve won the hand, sir,” he announced and Lukas clapped his hands together once.

“Amazing.” He leaned back in his chair. “I beat her.”

“All right.” I picked up my glass of wine that had gone mostly untouched for the past hour and downed the Pinot Grigio. “You made your point.”

“Did I though?” he asked with a tilted head.

“Don’t be cocky, Lukas, it makes you look bad.”

He laughed. “Hmm, spoilsport.” He gathered up the chips and stuffed them all back in the two trays.

“What was the point of us just playing together? There was no real risk, since you’re getting all your money back anyway, and you didn’t make any more?” I stood from my chair, stretching my back. We’d been sitting for several hours, and I was stiff.

He carried the chips to the cashier cage with me following right behind him. After he handed them back over to the gentleman and handled the money transfer, he wrapped his arm back around my waist and hauled me up to him.

“There was risk, Maggie. You could have won, and then I would have to deal with you working at that godawful office. But I won, so you’ll quit and focus your time on studying for your test.”

“You’re really going to make me quit?” I asked as he led me through the rest of the casino. The players had thinned out at the slot machines, but the craps table and the roulette wheel were still crowded with people praying for a big win.

“It was the wager you agreed to,” he reminded me.

“Lukas—”

He pulled me to the side after he handed off the valet ticket. “If you had won, you would have expected me to pay up, yes?” He leveled his blue eyes on me, his brows risen with curiosity.

“I… yes, I would have.” No sense in lying, the man was a walking lie detector test when it came to me, anyway.

“Okay, then. Tomorrow, you’ll give notice. Friday is your last day.”

“Tomorrow is Friday,” I pointed out.

He grinned. “I know.”

“Why do you hate Tony? He’s a good boss.”

“He looks at you like he wants to lick every inch of you.” His smile dropped into a fierce frown. “You can do better than that place anyway. I looked into his company. He’s barely making a profit, and considering he’s an accounting firm, that’s not saying much for him.”

“It’s a startup; they’ve only been in business five years.”

“I don’t really care. You’re my concern. That building isn’t safe, and as I’ve said repeatedly, I don’t like him.”

“You’re being possessive, and jealous, and ridiculous,” I stated, folding my arms over my chest. I had agreed to the bet because I had been overly confident that I would win. I hadn’t considered any other option, but with Lukas, I should have considered all options.

“As your husband, I could simply force you to quit.” He put pressure on my back to get me moving toward the car when it pulled up.

“You’d do that?” I stared up at him from over the car door that he held open for me. “You’d take that away from me?”

“No, of course I wouldn’t. I mean, you don’t need to work. You’ll never need to, but you enjoy it. So no, I wouldn’t take it from you. But I don’t want you doing it there. Find a new job, closer to home. In a safer neighborhood.”

“Somewhere you don’t have to waste one of your men’s time babysitting me?” I half joked.

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