Chapter 26
T he rules of poker are basically out the window. I play hands I shouldn't and call way too many raises. Jax keeps pushing the pot higher. The other guys fold one after another, casting glances around as they do, because clearly there's another game being played behind the cards.
Finally, we reach the inevitable conclusion. Only Jax and I are left, and I have exactly one cent left to my name.
Cayden deals the last card of the river. It's a mediocre hand—not impossible for me to win, but unlikely. In a sane world, I would fold, but Jax is staring me down across the table. He flips a chip back and forth between his fingers.
Then, with a flourish, he tosses it into the pot. "I don't think you have the cards."
I don't. But this is pure me and Jax. He pushes and I push back. The tension sizzling between us across the table is the same one that had us fucking raw and dirty up against a wall in the middle of the hallway, and something has to give.
I can't date all these men while still harboring a grudge for something that happened a decade ago.
I can't take Sergio's word about all the good Jax has done—saving people's lives in the army and taking care of my grandmother when I was in a different state—and still be mad at this guy.
I put my finger on my last chip. I start to put it into the pot, only then I hold it back.
"You're going to have to do something to earn this chip."
He shakes his head. "That's not how the game works. You call or fold. You either have the cards or you don't." His throat bobs. "This is it, Haley. Place your bet or walk away."
Yeah. I don't think so.
"I'm changing the game." After all the ways it's shifted already, I think I have that right. "You want me to go all in? You answer me a couple of questions."
His eyes narrow. "Like what?"
"Like what were you doing checking in on my grandmother the past few years?"
Okay, that seems to take him aback. His smirking mask slips for an instant. "What?"
"Why. Tell me why you did it."
He honestly seems confused. "What do you mean? She was a little old lady living alone on a mountain. What kind of asshole would I have to be not to help her out?"
The kind of asshole he's always pretended to be. But I can see through the act now. He isn't. He never was.
Even though it's the right answer, I'm unsatisfied. I shake my head. "That's not it. Why?"
"You want the truth?"
"That's all I've ever wanted."
I wanted him not to pretend to hate me all through middle school. I want him not to have lied about his crush on me.
I want him to stop hiding the fact that he's actually a decent guy.
The mask, already slipping, finally cracks.
"Because she was good to me." His gaze goes distant and soft.
"You wouldn't know. After you left, my family life went to shit.
My dad left. My mom kept getting laid off.
But your grandma would come by where I was working after school and leave me stuff.
Not take the right change. Accidentally overbuy and tell me to keep the extra.
Things like that. She was a nice lady, okay? "
His eyes shine, and it strikes me. This is the second most vulnerable he's ever let himself be in front of me.
The first time was when he admitted that he liked me, and I didn't react well. I was certainly within my rights to be shocked, to need some time to process. But I left him hanging.
And this guy—this asshole—this man who taunted me when I was a child…
He's just a person. Broken and uncertain, scarred by combat and loyal to his friends.
It's time for me to forgive him.
There's just one last thing I need to know.
I nudge the chip a little closer to the middle of the table. But I don't quite put it in. "What's your buy in to this game?"
He refused to tell me earlier, and there's got to be a reason for it.
He looks me straight in the eyes. Quietly, he admits, "The fact that I saved every single person in this room's life. They won't take my money from me after that."
My heart swells. My throat feels too big, and my vision goes a little hazy.
This man.
Without another moment's hesitation, I push my chip into the pile.
But then, too gruffly, Jax says, "I fold."
He pushes the huge pile my way, and that's it. That's the end of the game. I have enough money and enough skill that I'm not going to need another buy in tonight.
Which means he's offering me a choice. I can go kiss him because I want to, or the game carries on exactly how it was.
It's really no choice at all.
Without a moment's hesitation, I shove the pile of chips aside and climb up onto the table.
Cards and chips go flying as I crawl over them. Applause and congratulations ring out and—if I'm not mistaken—there are actual, honest-to-god sighs or relief.
But they all fade into the background as I position myself in front of this guy whose smirk has wound me up from day one. I reach for his collar, and his smirk turns into the most charming, happy grin. When I haul him in, he goes willingly.
I pause with him an inch from my face. "My chips all fell on the floor," I say breathily. "Think you can spot me?"
"Take it all."
Finally— finally —our mouths collide. The kiss carries all the heat of our banter, but without the painfulness of the conflict. We're both smiling against each other's mouths.
For a few minutes, I get lost in the kiss. My need flares, and I pull him to me, but it's awkward as hell, with me on all fours on a table and him standing next to it. We need to get down, or I have to drag him up.
There's a clearing of a throat from someone else in the room. I break the kiss and lift my gaze.
It's Cayden. He raises a brow. "You guys want some privacy, or…"
The moment shifts. Changes.
Panting for breath and so turned on I could cry, I sweep the room.
All the guys are standing around, watching us kiss.
Hunger is written on every single face, and of course it is.
I've made out with every guy in turn, but no one has found any actual relief.
Suddenly, the intense sexual energy in the room catches up with me.
It's a knot, tied so tight the string is set to snap.
And I wasn't ready to get fucked in front of a room full of guys a minute ago.
But they made me an offer. They suggested an arrangement. And just like that, I want it— bad .
I turn my gaze back to Jax. And I ask, voice cracking, "All I want is to know—who here has the biggest bed?"