|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
Disclaimer: I don't own them. I'll put them back when I'm done.
Chris sat on the floor just beside the coffee table and slid the deck of cards from the box. He smiled over at Karen and pointed to the floor on the opposite side of the table, "Have a seat. I won't bite, not with the table between us anyway."
Karen grinned, glad that they could tease with one another again after what they'd almost shared. She could have kicked herself for moving away from him. She had wanted to feel his lips on hers, to taste him. Why hadn't she? For a hundred reasons, she answered herself.
She sat down across from him and adjusted her skirt accordingly. She giggled as the material ruffled, "This dress was not meant for sitting on the floor."
He smiled, "Neither was this tux, but it'll have to do."
"I guess it will," She smiled watching him shuffle the cards, "You do that like a professional."
"Tricks of the trade."
"What?"
"Well, it's not exactly a secret that my father was a con artist. You have to learn a few things to be a con artist, and this is one of things I learned from him. I'm not particularly happy about it, but what can a guy do?" He smiled, shrugging and dealing the cards.
"I guess not much," She said taking her hand of cards and assorting them.
"You go first," Chris smiled, peering over his cards to gaze at her.
"Okay," She said drawing a card, "So, are you going to finish the Courtney story?"
"I thought I did."
"No, you didn't," She said discarding, "You said that the next part was complicated. I'm not going anywhere."
He smiled, "Okay, if I tell you this it goes no further. Can I trust you?"
"Chris, shouldn't I be the one asking you that?"
He laughed, "Just this once. Julie
had all the money from the DL-56 patent in accounts under the name Marsha
Cooper. Frank and Courtney took the money out of those accounts and
set up one under Courtney's name. They tried to convince me that
she had been paid off by her dead husband's family. But I'm not one
to take things at face
value."
"So, I've noticed," Karen smiled as she took another turn.
He grinned, "I did a little digging and figured out that they had taken Julie's money. I called Courtney on it and she said that Frank had blackmailed her into it."
"Frank blackmailing Courtney? This I find very hard to believe."
"That's what I said. Scanlon isn't that smart."
"Chris, he is most certainly."
"It was just my opinion," He grinned, taking his turn, "Anyway, it turns out they found out a piece of information about Eve, a secret that only I knew. They tried to use it against me by trying to blackmail her."
"Why would that work?"
"They knew how close Eve and I are. They used that secret against Eve, except they made a big mistake. They tried to get the information out by using Lucy."
"Lucy?!" Karen said, "But Eve and Lucy hate each other."
"Exactly. They knew it was only a matter of time before Lucy had to confront Eve about the secret. Well, true to form, Lucy did. And Eve had a fit, especially when they tried to link it back to me."
"I don't know you very well, Chris Ramsey, but even I know that you wouldn't do something like that to Eve Lambert."
"Collins," He corrected, only half-smiling.
"Collins," Karen repeated, "Okay, please continue. What happened when Eve thought it was you?"
"She came to me to ask me about it. She actually believed it for a while."
"She believed them?"
"It came from Lucy, and this secret was big. It hurt Eve badly that it was out."
"So what did Eve say?"
"Eve tried to end our friendship before I convinced her that I would never do anything like that to her. Then, it dawned on us that Courtney had told Lucy and Frank had tried to blackmail Eve. Knowing that Courtney and Frank didn't like each other," His voice trailed off.
"You knew they were working together," Karen finished, "But why would Courtney help Frank?"
"I still haven't figured that one out," Chris answered as he discarded, "But I can only guess that she got part of the money they stole from Julie."
"Did Julie ever get her money back?"
"Part of it," He answered, "I figured out Courtney's game and turned the tables on her. It turned out that I did it at a really good time too, right after Julie escaped. Frank never suspected a thing. The money went missing and Courtney blamed Julie for it being gone."
"So you gave the money back to Julie?"
"Minus a small finder's fee for me."
"Chris, that's just mean," She said, drawing another card.
"It's not mean. I had to listen to Julie's phone calls for months until I found her money. Sane, she ain't," He said as he laid his cards on the table, "Gin."
Karen looked over his cards and frowned, "You suck."
"Only if you ask nicely."
"Chris!" She smiled, blushing.
"You left that one wide open for me. How could I resist?" He smiled.
"I guess you couldn't," She laughed.
He watched her in the light from the fireplace, the shadows dancing across her skin. Her eyes seemed to flicker along with the fire light. He wanted her so much. How was he going to live through the night?
She caught his eyes on her and smiled back at him, "What were you just thinking?"
"Can't tell you. I'm supposed to be on my best behavior."
"Nope, that's too easy an answer."
"You don't really want to know, so why are you asking?"
"I'm asking because I really want to know."
"No you don't," He smiled at her.
She reached across the table and took his hand, "Yes, I really do."
He watched her for a moment and spoke as he look into her eyes, "Honestly, I was thinking of how beautiful you are. I was thinking of how different you are from what I thought you were. I was thinking that I want you."
Karen lost her breath and knew she was blood red in the face now. Her hand never left his, and the electricity between them seemed to flicker and spark there. She looked down at their hands and back to his face, "You're completely serious, aren't you?"
"Yes," He nodded, not knowing where this conversation was going, "I am serious."
"You want to have sex with me?"
"I want to make love to you, Karen. Why do seem to find that so hard to believe?"
"Because we've never even been in a conversation together. We've never really flirted before tonight. I mean there was that dance at the Nurse's Ball, but I thought that was all an act."
"So you felt it then too, didn't you?" He grinned slowly, "When I stood behind you and ran my hands up your sides, Karen, I felt like I was touching live voltage."
"And I was the one being burned," She whispered, "Yes, I felt it."
"Then why do you find it so hard to believe that I'd want to make love to you? You're a beautiful woman, Karen. You're sexy, intelligent, and have a great sense of humor. I never realized just how much fun you could be until now."
"That's what I'm talking about. We've never really sat down with each other before now, and I didn't think I was exotic enough for you."
He smiled, "Exotic?"
"I'm not Courtney or Julie or Eve or anyone even remotely wild and fun. I used to be but I'm not that person anymore."
"Who says? Who says you're not the same girl who worked at the Paradise? True you don't take your clothes off in public," He pouted, "Much to my dismay," Which prompted a smile from her, "But who says you still don't have that free spirit?"
"I don't. I'm not the same person. I'm not even close," She said, turning her eyes away from him and withdrawing her hand.
"So who are you now?"
"I'm the woman no man wants."
"What the hell am I? Chopped liver?" He asked, teasing and holding out his hands as if in frustration.
"No," She smiled.
"But I'm not the type of man you want to attract either, am I?" He asked softly.
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to."
Karen looked at Chris and was afraid that she had upset him, "I didn't mean it that way, Chris."
"Yes you did," He smiled at her, "I'm the guy that mothers warn their children about."
"Chris, from what I've seen tonight, you're really not that bad a guy."
"Yes I am," He said, gazing into the fire and smiling softly, "Maybe I'm just exactly what everyone makes me out to be."
"You're not," She said firmly, "So deal another hand of cards, Ramsey. Enough of our self-pity parties."
He grinned, "Yes ma'am."
Chris shuffled the cards again and wondered how he'd let himself believe that Karen could want a guy like him. She had been madly in love with Joe Scanlon, the only knight in shining armor still living and breathing in the twentieth century. He decided just to forget about it. He didn't know how he was going to force himself to do it. He just knew he had to or the night was going to be incredibly long for him.
He dealt them each a new hand and went first. As he discarded, he glanced across at her, "Okay, I told the Courtney story. Your turn to tell me one. What happened with Joe?"
Karen frowned as she drew a card, "I'm not sure I want to talk about that."
"No fair," He said, winking at her.
The rush of heat that went through her at seeing him do that made her a lot hotter than anything the fire was providing. She smiled faintly as she concentrated back on her cards and began, "Chris, I have to know I can trust you."
"You can, Karen," He said, not taking his eyes off of her.
"Can I really? How can I be sure?"
"I don't know," He shrugged.
She took a deep breath, "You know that Joe was arrested for soliciting a prostitute, right?"
"Yeah, I was stunned to say the least."
"That wasn't all. He was making hundreds of dollars worth of calls to phone sex lines. He was spending time in strip clubs, sending away for sex catalogs, and I found a pair of panties in his car."
"Joe Scanlon? We are talking about the same man, right?" Chris asked, shocked.
"Yes, the very same."
"Karen, I'm no genius, but there's no way Joe would do stuff like that."
"I didn't want to believe it either but after he got busted with the hooker, I couldn't help but believe it."
Chris shook his head, "No, that doesn't add up. Something fishy about that."
"Joe kept saying it was a set-up. He just couldn't admit that he had a problem."
"Who said he had a problem?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Frank and I discussed it."
"And it doesn't occur to you that Frank and Joe aren't always on the best of terms?"
"Why would Frank do anything to get between me and Joe?"
"Maybe Frank wants you for himself. You two did get chummy for a while, didn't you?"
"Yeah, we did," She nodded, discarding, "It just didn't feel right."
"Because he was Joe's brother?"
"Yeah, it was kind of creepy."
Chris tried to figure it out. He just could not believe that Joe Scanlon would do anything remotely related to what he'd been accused of. He drew a card and sorted through his hand again, "No, no, no. That still doesn't set right with me. You and Joe break up and Frank moves in to comfort you instead of offering support to his brother. And I bet Courtney was waiting with bated breath, waiting to sink her claws into Joe."
"Well, that was the same time that Neil relapsed."
"Ironic," He answered discarding.
"Yeah, it is, but it wasn't a set-up. At least Neil's leukemia wasn't."
"I want you to tell me everything about this. I want to know how it happened and when it happened. This doesn't feel right to me, Karen. I'm a master of scams and cons," He smiled, "A dubious honor at best, but I do know one when I see one. This stinks of a set-up."
"Who would set Joe up?"
"Frank maybe."
"No, I can't believe that Frank would do something like that to Joe. You maybe, but not Joe."
"Courtney? She's not smart enough though," He frowned, "Or maybe she's just playing dumb."
"That's a possibility, but how would she make the phone calls from my apartment?"
"Tell me the whole story and let me figure that out," Chris said, sitting back as he laid his cards on the table again, "Gin."
"Okay, that's it. I'm not playing with you anymore," She laughed, "What are you doing over there? Cheating?"
"No way," He grinned.
"I bet you're stacking the deck," She smiled.
"I swear I'm not," He chuckled.
"Maybe you're hiding cards up your sleeve then."
"You're welcome to strip search me to find out," He grinned wickedly.
"You don't quit, do you?"
"Nope, never."
They both laughed as Chris stood from the floor and offered his hand to Karen to help her to her feet. Karen took his hand and let him pull her to her feet. As she did she lost her balance temporarily. She giggled and looked down at the floor, "My foot's asleep."
Chris caught her and helped her regain her balance, holding her in his arms and smiling. She looked up into his eyes, and they both froze. They gazed into each other's eyes for a moment seeing the desire for one another burning there and denying it. Their eyes floated to each other's lips, almost in a soft caress. He wanted to kiss her. She wanted him to kiss her. Both of them knew they shouldn't.
He took a slow even breath, calming the urge to kiss her. He smiled at her, "Want to sit on the sofa?"
"Yeah, I'd like that," She smiled.
He helped her over to the sofa where she took a seat, "Want another glass of wine?"
"You're such a wonderful host. Yes, I would like another."
Chris smiled at her before going to the
kitchen to retrieve another bottle of wine since they had depleted the
first. He gazed back over at the woman on the sofa and silently prayed
for strength to get him through the night.