Page 21 of Frozen Play

He frowned. “Jacks?”

I nodded and dealt out five cards each. I put the rest of the deck on the coffee table and turned the top card over. “So, we have five cards, and every time you pick up a card, you discard one.”

“So I always have five cards in my hand. Got it.”

“The goal of the game is to get the lowest score. Aces are worth one. Kings and queens are ten.”

“And jacks?”

“Zero.”

“So the best hand is four jacks and an ace.”

“Exactly. Each turn you pick up one card and discard one. You can either take the top card on the deck, which is facedown, or the top card on the discard pile, which is faceup.”

He sorted the cards in his hand. “What else?”

I shrugged. “When we’ve picked up all the cards in the deck, whoever has the lowest score wins.”

He stared at me. “That’s it?”

I nodded.

He rearranged the cards in his hand. “This game is pure chance.”

“Well, you have to make sure you don’t discard a good card.”

He rolled his eyes. “Okay, to make it interesting, what are we playing for?”

I took another sip of wine while I thought. I totally blamed that for the words that came out of my mouth. “Clothes. We’re playing strip Jacks.”

He could have laughed. Made a joke. Instead, he sat perfectly still, only his eyes moving over what he could see of my body. Then he swallowed.

“Okay. Strip Jacks it is. Who goes first?”

Phin

It was stillcold as hell outside but things were heating up in here. I was shocked when Skye suggested a stripping game, but damn if I was going to turn down that challenge.

She won the first two games. Losing was frustrating, but there was no strategy to the game. She turned up three jacks andtwo aces, and I was left with a jack, two aces, and two twos. The next game we each had two jacks, but she had three aces.

So now I was bare from the waist up, since she’d chosen both my shirts to go. I was chilly but I didn’t care, not with the way she watched my chest when she didn’t think I was looking. I wasn’t the biggest guy on the team, or the best looking. I wasn’t the most talented, or the highest paid. But Skye was looking at me like I was all of those things, and I liked it. A lot.

It was her deal again. I’d already decided on my choices for removing her clothes, and I was sure I’d get some of those gone before long. The thing about luck was that it eventually evened out. And when it did, I’d follow her lead and get that sweater off.

We wouldn’t go too far. We’d been drinking, even if only a bottle and a half of wine over the last three hours, and I didn’t want her to regret anything. But it had been her idea, and I was very curious about what she looked like with more skin showing. Skye had grown up, a lot.

I picked up my hand. My luck had changed—three jacks already. The best she could do would be a jack and four aces. Then I’d have two twos, and we’d be tied. Pretty sure in that case three jacks won.

I kept my expression blank. As we took turns picking up cards, I saw the frown creasing her forehead. I got two aces, so I knew the game was done, but I played along.

I picked up another ace. I had no choice but to discard it.

Skye looked at it for a moment. Then she lifted her gaze to my face. “Damn, you have the best poker face.”

I let my grin break free.

She tossed her cards down. “Okay, you win this one. How long did you have those jacks?”

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