Page 8 of Triple Pucked
“Also a touch psychopathic.”
Eden shrugs.
I perk up. “Kinky card games! Bring it on.”
“When I first joined Bay Rebels, the team and I would play games for rewards like beer or the chance to choose the locker room music.”
Shay lets go of my hand, bouncing up and down with enthusiasm. “Beer sounds good. Can we throw in kisses? Cock rings?”
“Books,” Eden suggests. His gaze slides to me. “Breakfast in bed. Cups of tea. Cats.”
“Naked butlers.” All three of them look at me. My cheeks tint. “You’d be the naked butlers.”
“I’ll call the game…” D’Angelo tilts his head, considering. He deliberately ignores our suggestions. He places down his own cards on the forest floor and slides out a spare pack of cards from underneath the heap of clothes, “the deck of pucking.”
Classy.
D’Angelo fans out the cards with the skill of either an amateur street magician or someone who really has spent too long in cocktail bars.
“If we win a game, then the highest scorer gets to pick a card by chance from the pack. Each suit means a different reward.” He flips an ace of hearts, and it hits Shay on the nose. “Roleplay.” An ace of diamonds. “Fantasy list.” Ace of clubs. “Toy from our play chest.” Ace of spades. “A mystery reward that I’ll make up.”
Shay rubs his nose. “Why does the mystery one scare me?”
D’Angelo gives a devilish smile that makes me shiver. “Because you know me, cucciolo. This season is at a tipping point. We have the best chance of our lives to head to the playoffs, if we can just win the next couple of games. Now, can we concentrate? I almost have my two favorite pets naked and at my mercy in the middle of the woods.”
Shay sucks in a sharp breath next to me.
“Fold.” Eden throws down his cards.
He kicks off one of his boots into the middle of the circle.
He sits back on his hands, appearing far more interested in simply watching how this will play out.
“Why don’t you fold as well?” D’Angelo taunts.
I narrow my eyes. “Not a chance. Those diamond cufflinks are mine.”
Shay is glancing nervously at D’Angelo’s shark smile now. But he’s not conning me. Shay loves being the prey.
He set himself up to lose.
“Are you sure?” D’Angelo tightens his tie. “You’re about to lose…” His gaze scans down the line of my curves to my white, lacy panties. “…everything.”
“What have you got?” I turn to Shay.
Shay hesitates, before sheepishly tossing down his cards. “Nothing.”
He doesn’t even pretend to be sad about his loss as he rips off his socks and hurls them onto the floor because being naked out here in the open to him is winning.
His enthusiasm infects me.
I challengingly raise my eyebrow at D’Angelo, before placing my cards onto the log with a flourish. “Pair of aces.”
D’Angelo stares at the cards just long enough for me to think that I’ve beaten him.
Then a beat too long.
Uh-oh.
