Page 11 of Texas Hold Em'
I’d woken up to her walking around my apartment in oversized T-shirts and no pants for several mornings. I’d seen her sun-kissed body wrapped in a towel after she showered. Her toned stomach peeking out from under her crop top was no surprise to me.
Gabriel said something that made Carrie laugh. She threw her head back and nudged him playfully in the ribs with her elbow. He grinned, flashed a devious look around at the rest of us, and began flirting shamelessly with her. She responded openly by shrugging out of her denim jacket and showing off toned arms and a low-cut shirt.
Gabriel stared right at her cleavage.
After having Carrie all to myself for a week and coveting her body when she wasn’t looking, I didn’t like that everyone else now had eyes on her. And this little act of hers? The giggles, the hair flipping, the batting of her lashes?
It wasn’t the Carrie Hart I knew.
So when she finished her food, I caught her eye and invited her to come inside with me with a nod of my chin. She got up and followed, and as soon as I had her alone in the kitchen, I turned on her.
“What are you playing at?”
She folded her arms under her breasts as if daring me to look at them. “I’m not playing at anything. I’m socializing.”
I pointed a warning finger at her. “The others might not bat an eye at this shit, but I am. What’s your motive?”
“Motive?” Carrie laughed and put a hand on my forearm. The touch was feather-light and familiar. “You worry too much, Tex.Honestly, I’m just here to have a good time. Don’t you like to have a good time?”
I glared down at her.
Suddenly, her free hand grazed the front of my jeans. I stiffened as she made another pass, this time pausing to grab a handful.
“Wow,” she murmured before releasing me and stepping back, her cheeks burning pink. “I didn’t expect that.”
Neither had I.
She ran her fingers through her silky blonde hair. “Did you want to scold me about anything else, or can I go back outside?”
“Go,” I grumbled.
She left without another word, and I leaned up against the kitchen counters, exiled until my cock no longer made a tent in my jeans.
CHAPTER 6
CARRIE
Sam pressed a beer into my hands when I returned to the back deck. She cracked the top on her own drink, some sort of foul looking flavored water concoction, and bumped it against mine, sending foam and beer drizzling onto the deck between our feet. “Bottom’s up,” she said before tilting her head back and draining half her can like she was a war horse kept from water.
I followed suit but not nearly as gracefully. I sputtered and coughed and many of the men laughed at my expense.
I wiped my lips with my hand and shook the beer from my fingertips. “I can’t drink carbonated things quickly.”
“Ignore them,” Sam said, nudging my elbow with her own.
“Easier said than done.” I tugged at the hem of my shirt. I’d done my best to look like anything but the uptight Ranger I was sure these guys saw me as. At first, I thought my outfit had done the trick. Abel and Gabriel took interest in me right away. But Tex, the one whose trust I needed to earn the most, was more standoffish than ever.
I needed to up the ante.
“Hey,” I muttered to Sam, “do you think I could ask you for a favor?”
“What sort of favor?”
“An outfit?”
Sam sipped her drink with a furrowed brow before licking her lips. “What sort of outfit?”
I cast a shy glance to the patio doors as Tex emerged from inside the house. “Something that will make me look entirely unlike myself. Something that will makehimnotice me.”
