“You’ve been here and done this a few times yourself, haven’t you?” she asked.
“The dreams go with the territory for sensitives like you and me. When I’m on my own I usually pour myself a couple of glasses of scotch and play some solitaire.”
“I know an herbalist back in Oriana. He mixes up a special herbal tisane that I use. But I didn’t bring any with me.” She glanced hesitantly at the deck of cards in his hand. “I sometimes play solitaire, too.”
He didn’t say anything just stood there, waiting.
“Okay,” she said, feeling more reckless than she ever had in her entire life. “Let’s play some blackjack.”
He moved into the room. She closed the door. Abruptly they were enveloped in darkness. The sense of intimacy was almost overpowering.
She switched on the lamp that stood on the table near the window. In the warm glow the bed—just another piece of furniture earlier in the day—now loomed very large. She was uncomfortably aware of the tangled sheets and rumpled pillows.
Inviting him into her room had probably been a very big mistake but she could not bring herself to ask him to leave.
Zack walked casually across the room. He didn’t appear to notice the bed but she couldn’t seem to get her mind off it.
She seized the bedspread and yanked it up over the pillows. The maneuver did nothing to reduce the aura of sexual intimacy that pervaded the small space.
Zack flipped on the gas fire. Instead of sitting down at the table, he lowered himself to the carpet in front of the hearth and sat cross-legged. He shuffled the cards.
“Let’s make this interesting,” he said.
She held her breath. “How?”
“We’ll play for real money.” He removed his wallet out of his back pocket and took out some bills. “My stake is twenty bucks.”
So much for wondering if he was going to suggest a game of strip poker.
She went to the table, opened her purse and took out her wallet. She counted out twenty dollars in ones and fives. With the money clutched in her hand she turned back to him.
It dawned on her that, attired in her nightgown with only the knee-length robe for modesty, she could not assume a similar cross-legged position. After a few seconds of close thought, she sank down onto the carpet and folded her legs, mermaid-style, to one side. In that position the robe covered her in what she hoped was a decorous fashion.
Zack dealt the first cards, one each, facedown.
She peeked at her hole card. It was the queen of hearts.
Zack dealt the next two cards, one each, faceup. The jack of diamonds for her. His up card was a three.
“Hold,” she said. She shoved a one-dollar bill under the cards.
Zack shrugged and dealt himself a third card. They both looked at the red ten. He flipped over his hole card. Another ten.
“Busted,” he said
She smiled. “I’ve always been pretty good with cards.”
He looked amused. “Yeah, I can see that.”
He scooped up the cards and shuffled again.
She watched his hands, fascinated by the easy competence of the way he moved.
“Don’t you ever take that jacket off?” she asked.
Good grief, where had that come from? If he removed the jacket he would be down to just his T-shirt and pants.
He paused in mid-shuffle and gave her a considering look. After a moment he seemed to make up his mind about something. He put down the cards and peeled off the black leather jacket.
She stared, transfixed, at the gun in his shoulder holster.
“Oh.” She cleared her throat. “I see.”
He picked up the cards and went back to dealing.
Twenty minutes later she had won his twenty-dollar stake and another forty to boot. She realized she hadn’t been troubled by the freak’s voice since Zack had arrived at her door.
“You’re right,” she said, delighted. “This is working. All I can think about is winning all of your money.”
“You’re doing a pretty good job of that.”
She laughed. “You noticed, did you?”
“Good thing I put my room on my credit card.” He gave her a slow, dangerously knowing smile. “But in my own defense, I can tell you that my mind is not on blackjack tonight.”
The unmistakable heat in the words caught her completely off guard. He was watching her with a searing, undisguised sexual intensity that seemed to have come out of nowhere. A moment before he had been playing a friendly game of cards. Now he looked as if he wanted to strip her naked and take her right there on the carpet. No man had ever looked at her with that kind of heat.
Her initial suspicions had been correct. Zack had been very aware of the chemistry between them. He had been biding his time, letting her invite him into her space, putting her at ease. The blackjack game was a form of seduction. He’d used it to drive out the voice of the freak, leaving her open and vulnerable.
That knowledge ought to make her very wary, she told herself. And it did, it surely did. But it also increased the level of excitement shimmering through her.
“This is probably not a good idea,” she whispered.
His smile got a little more dangerous. Invisible energy pulsed in the air around them.
“Thought you were a gambler,” he said softly.
Not when it comes to this kind of thing, she tried to say. But for some reason she could not get the words out of her mouth. Her heart was beating very quickly now. Things inside her were threatening to melt.
Slowly, deliberately, he removed her glasses, reached up and put them on the table. Then he unfastened his holstered gun and set it aside.
He leaned toward her, giving her plenty of opportunity to avoid him. She did not even try to retreat. He caught hold of her and hauled her gently across the short space that separated them, scattering the cards.
Instead of informing him that she was not into one-night stands, she put her arms around his neck.
His mouth came down on hers, heavy, demanding a response. Her body gave it to him. The smoldering fire that had been burning inside her since she opened the door to him roared into a full-blown conflagration. She had never experienced anything like it, had never realized she was capable of such a raging response.
But what really made the blood run hot in her veins was the knowledge that Zack wanted her just as badly as she wanted him. Not like Bradley, she thought, elated. Zack wasn’t afraid of the voices. A glorious sense of triumph arced through her.
She pressed herself closer, kissing Zack with all the pent-up energy of a woman who has never before been able to abandon herself completely to her own sensual nature. She was vaguely aware of his hands on the sash of her robe. The garment vanished.