Page 18 of Seduction in Spades

“She’s making me take her to some girly lunch place in the financial district.” Trey shoves half the donut in his mouth. “And she wants to walk.”

None of us are small men, but Trey fills a room at six-five and two hundred twenty pounds of muscles. And if that doesn’t scare off all God’s living creatures, the tattoos he wears down both arms and across his chest do. A man of few words, he’s intimidating in looks, yet I’ve never seen him lay a hand on anyone.

The dance club scene is incongruous with his looks, but he has his reasons for wanting to run that part of the casino. Reasons he hasn’t shared with us. That’s one thing with Trey. You don’t ask. You don’t push. You trust. And he does the same in return.

“Look at our badass Trey wilting in fear of his big sister. I never thought I’d see you cower.”

Trey flips me off. I picture his older sister as big and brutish as him, but I don’t want to offend him or her by joking about it.

“Doc is the only one who has met the woman who can put Trey’s balls of steel in a vise. What she like?” Ryder has a million nicknames for all of us. Drake earned hisDocstatus when Ryder learned he had a PhD in mathematics from MIT.

Drake lifts a shoulder, his eyes not lifting from his computer screen. “Sweet. Funny. Opposite of her brother. Nora really likes her.”

“She hot?” Ryderwouldgo there.

Drake lifts a shoulder again.

“My sister isnothot.”

Pissing Trey off, hell, pissing anyone off, is Ryder’s favorite pastime. “What do you think, Sealy? Wanna bet on Avery Baxter’s hotness scale?”

“Fuck off, Benton.”

Drake rolls his eyes and keeps tapping away on his keyboard.

I sit back and let Ryder dig his ass into a hole. Better to have the attention off me.

“If T-dog’s sister is heinous, he wouldn’t have argued that she’snot” Ryder air quotes, “hot. I think she’s a total babe, hence the steam coming out of his ears. He’s worried she’ll get one look at Ryder-Hard Benton and fall to her knees in hero worship.”

“Don’t the fuck do it,” Trey warns.

Ryder grins and whips out a ten-dollar bill, tossing it in the middle of the table. “Ten bucks says Avery Baxter is at least a seven.”

I’m trying to contain my laughter. Watching Ryder annoy Trey is one of my favorite pastimes. I used to be his favorite target, but after twenty-six years of friendship, he’s enjoying newer material.

“Whatdoyasay, Doc?”

Drake shakes his head. “I’m marrying my perfect ten in the spring. I’m not betting on shit.”

“Just you and me, Sealy.”

I glance at Trey who’s clenching his teeth. Even with the light brown stubble on his face, I can see he’s red with fury. Not legit fury. Fists would go flying, or at least I’d expect Trey to tip a chair, a table, hell, maybe Drake’s desk. We’ve never seen him seriously lose it. Riled up? Yeah, this isn’t so unusual.

I reach into my back pocket and take out a ten. “I’m going with a solid five. I expect Trey’s sister to be a respectable young woman. Polished. Poised. Well-mannered. Looks on the okay side.”

My answer seems to appease Trey. At least his traps no longer touch his ears. “Can we get down to fucking business now?”

For the next hour, we each run through our reports and what changes, employment, financing, or schedule-wise need to be made in our areas.

Nancy taps on the door and pokes her head in. She’s the best hire we ever made, acting as administrative assistant to Drake, but also helps Ryder, Trey, and me out as well. We have our own staff, but Nancy is the queen of it all. She’s got her hands full with a husband and three kids, so we respect her time and do our best to keep her schedule as close to nine-to-five as possible.

“Trey, your sister is here.”

It took Nancy a solid six months to not worry about tapping on the door and interrupting us when we were needed, and three more months to learn to call us by our first names instead of Mr. We may have a half dozen zeros in our bank accounts, but we’re not pretentious snobs.

Trey takes out his phone. “She’s early.”

“We’re pretty much done in here.” Drake closes his laptop. “You can send her in.”

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