Page 34 of Dating the Rebel
Was that how he always got such a good deal from the deck?
How he won enough to buy hotels and helicopters?
“You wiped me out,” one of the older players commented. As tired as he looked, he might have been talking about more than his lost money. “Time for me to call it a night.”
Another player groaned. “Me, too.” He turned toward her. “Although I’ll stick around if you are...or I’ll leave if you’ll come back to my room with me.”
She laughed and disengaged the man’s hand from her knee. “No, thanks.”
“Leave,” Grant told the man, his voice gruff and his words clipped as if he’d ground them out through gritted teeth. A muscle twitched in his cheek.
He really didn’t like anyone else touching her.
What if she touched someone else.?
As if she’d read her mind, the hostess leaned over her shoulder and whispered, “You need to up your game if you want to beat Grant. Kiss me...”
So Miranda turned her head and did just that, brushing her lips across the soft ones of the dark-haired hostess. The woman deepened the kiss, swiping her tongue across Miranda’s lower lip.
The only excitement Miranda felt was generated from knowing that Grant watched them, and—if she played her cards right—she might be doing more than kissing him soon.
Because she couldn’t deny that even though she didn’t trust him, she wanted him.
Badly.
He wanted her.
So damn badly.
Watching her kiss another woman probably should have excited him. It certainly excited the other men left in the suite as they whistled and cheered.
Grant didn’t feel like cheering. He felt like firing his best gaming hostess. But he didn’t blame her for this display. He blamed Miranda. He knew she was just trying to get to him. And she was damn well succeeding...
Just as she always had.
He clapped his hands together, and the two women stopped kissing and laughed at him. “I think it’s time for a break,” he announced.
“Do you need to go be alone for a while?” Leo Decker asked. “I know I do...” He pushed his chips toward the dealer and said, “Cash me out.”
Not that he had a whole hell of a lot left.
What Grant hadn’t taken from him, Miranda had. She was good. How the hell had he never known that she played?
And of course, like everything else she did, she played damn well.
But this was his game, and she was not going to win.
He was so confident that he decided to up the ante but just with her. While the other players cashed out during the break, she walked over to the bar in the corner of the suite. Alberta stood behind it, mixing drinks for the losers who were leaving. But she dropped those on the bar to turn to Miranda. “What would you like?” and she wiggled her eyebrows at the blonde.
A powerful emotion gripped Grant, making his stomach churn and his muscles tighten.
This must be jealousy...
He wasn’t sure if he’d ever felt it before, and he didn’t like the sickening surge of emotion churning inside him.
“She wants me,” he burst out, making everyone turn toward him.
Miranda arched one of her blond brows and asked, “Really? Why would you think that?”
