Page 27 of Holiday Home 5

“Why not?” Tess said, shrugging.

“Okay,” Liam said. He looked from woman to woman, making sure they didn’t have any issues. In doing so, he also realized one that only affected him. “I’ve got less clothing on than all of you.”

“Because you don’t wear bras, yes,” Avril chortled. “I was wondering if you’d realize it.” She waved an unbothered hand through the air. “We can just have your boxers count as two points. So, once you’re down to them, you need to lose twice before they come off.”

“And how do you know he wears boxers?” Victoria asked.

Smirking toothlessly, Avril glanced at the woman sitting next to her. “Or briefs. Either’s fine in my books.”

Wisely eschewing getting tangled into further conversation with the younger woman, Victoria returned her attention to him, then nodded. It was enough to get the game going.

After passing out cards, as well as the extra pair that each of them could choose to swap into after the flop, Liam went through all the usual steps of setting the flop. He set downtwoqueens and a king—and hehadn’tcheated.

Yes, he’d purposefully gone a bit extra with his shuffling, though for no real purpose. He realized that there wasn’t any punishment for calling him a cheater, so really, every hand he shuffled might have devolved into four blind accusations. Fortunately, those weren’t the kind of players he was playing with.

However, after dropping a ridiculously unlikely flop, he saw every single one of the women around him narrow their eyes.They were sure he’d cheated, yet none of them could ascertain how. Liam tried not to look amused, but he did share after the round that hehadn’tpulled any tricks. Sometimes, the cards came out like that.

While the others struggled to figure out how to call him out for cheating right out of the gate, Liam peeked at his cards. He had complete trash: a four and a nine, and not much luck with the suits on the community cards. So, there went his hope of a flush.

In a regular game, he might have played some mind games. But no one could fold, so there really wasn’t any point in psyching out the others. Tossing away his two cards, he became the first in the game to collect his replacement cards.

They were better. In that he had a single king in there, as well as an eight. He had a strong pair. That was enough for him to think he was unlikely tolosein the very first round. He might even win.

Because of how ridiculous the flop was, it was pretty easy to tell who had face cards. Avril and Tess followed his lead, replacing their cards. The other combination of professor and student held onto their starting hands.

“We might be in trouble,” he told Avril and Tess. Okay, so maybe he wanted to playsomemind games.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Avril said, smiling. “You’ll be lucky no matter what.”

“Hard to deny it,” he said, then burned a card and added the turn to the row of community cards. The Six of Diamonds. Potentially useful, but not to him.

After pausing for dramatic effect, Liam made the final burn, then turned over the river. A measly three. Again, no help to him. He’d just have to ride on the back of his king pair.

“And now let’s all flip our cards over,” Liam said.

Avril had absolutely nothing. The rest of them did. So did Tess, who’d lucked into finding a queen in her backup hand. That pushed her above Victoria’s two pairs. They had their first winner and loser. In a way, it being the two of them, it almost felt poetic.

“Don’t even bother,” Tess said as Avril crawled over to her. “Nothing you can offer will convince me. Not for this first round, anyway.”

“Have it your way,” the beautiful redhead said. “I don’t mind.”

Smiling the entire time, she removed her top. Liam’s cock finally woke up to what this game meant, beginning to stiffen. Tossing her shirt out of the way, Avril stretched her arms behind her back and leaned forward, causing the heavy breasts sitting behind a familiar blue sports bra to bulge forward.

“Next round, go, go,” she said. “Your deal, Tess.”

Tess diligently collected the cards, shuffled, and imitated everything he’d done. This time, Liam came out with a stronger opening hand: he had a jack and a nine, and the flop offered a ten, a king, and a four. Having the means to get a straight, he stayed with his hand. He wasn’t alone; this time, only Anna changed her hand.

He hit his straight. Anna did not hit the ace pair she needed to avoid losing.

The woman to his right looked toward him. What remained of the golden light sitting on the horizon flung itself toward them, shadowing one side of her face. Her eyes wavered, though he also saw courage in them.

“I won’t be as harsh as Tess just was to Avril,” he promised.

She seemed slightly relieved, and they soon became the first whispering pair of the night.

“Is there anything you’d like, in particular?” Anna whispered into his ear. She’d scooted over to lean into him,even cupping her hands before speaking—which was pretty adorable. The others all looked on with interest, especially Avril.EspeciallyAvril.

Trading positions, he whispered back, “How about a hug? We have plenty of time, so I don’t see any reason to rush things. We can get comfortable, make sure we’ll all be okay with seeing things to the, uh, normal conclusion of a game like this. Avril needs to learn a bit of patience, anyway.”

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