Love, Diamonds, and Spades (9 page)

Oh lord. With him, she had no doubt she’d like that too. Very, very much.

“Now it’s my turn.” He drew back and tilted her face up to his, pinning her with a single look so hot, so possessive, so male, she had to grip his shoulders to keep from melting on the spot.

His eyes burned hotter at the touch. “If I kiss you, just so we’re clear, I’m not waiting two days or playing any of those other dating games." He slid both hands up to cradle her face gently. "I’m calling you tomorrow."

“That okay with you, sweetheart?”

Was what okay? Did he ask her a question? Everything was getting so hazy. God, he smelled good. What on earth was he waiting for?

He bent down and repeated his question in her ear. “Can I call you tomorrow, honey? Just to talk and see how your day is going?”

Seriously? The gentleman thing? Was the man trying to slay her heart on the spot? “I gave you my number. It was pretty much implied,” she replied, trying not to shiver when she felt his lips ghost down her neck.

“That’s not the same thing as you wanting me to call you.”

His lips were finally on her skin and he was
still
talking.

“Do you?” he asked as his mouth skimmed back up to her ear. “Do you want me to call you?”

“Yes. Okay, yes. I’ve wanted you to call me even before I gave you my—”

His lips captured hers before she could finish.

Goodness, the man could kiss.

He slanted his mouth to deepen, dominate the kiss. An erotic web of electricity blanketed over her, made her skin tingle as she felt his tongue slip past her lips and explore, tease,
torture
.

And all the while, his entire body covered hers, wrapped her in a cocoon of hot, hard muscles carved to perfection.

He tugged her hips closer and moved a hand up to cup the back of her neck as he took control of the kiss, deepening it until she whimpered, slipped her hands under his shirt—

“Hi Rylan! Hi Mom!”

Quinn almost jumped right out of her skin.

Penny, hand in hand with Cooper, gave her an apologetic look. “Just so you know, we made A LOT of noise coming up the walkway.”

They did?

One look at Rylan confirmed he hadn’t heard anything either.

That was a hell of a kiss.

Penny was smiling ear to ear as she gave Rylan a thorough once-over. “I’m Penny, by the way. Quinn’s sister.”

Rylan offered her his hand—always the gentleman—and replied warmly, “I’ve heard a lot about you from both Quinn and Cooper. Your babysitting stories are pretty legendary.”

She beamed. “I do my best.”

Rylan chuckled. “Well, they’re both lucky to have you.”

Penny sighed, head nodding as if he were the smartest man in the world. “I tell Quinn that every day.”

Uh oh.

Poor Luke. Quinn was pretty sure she was going to have to break the news to him that he now had to compete with Rylan for Penny’s utter adoration.

* * * * *

IT WAS NEARLY
one a.m. when Rylan managed to disentangle Cooper’s octopus grip on his neck and move him from the rocking chair to the bed.

Man, that was one cute kid. Rylan was growing really fond of the little guy.

Closing the door quietly behind him, he made his way over to the kitchen, where Quinn was waiting for him with a cold beer.

“I’m sorry he shanghaied you into reading him all those stories,” apologized Quinn. “You could’ve stopped after seven books.”

“I tried,” he chuckled, remembering the stubborn look on Cooper’s face when he’d tried to tuck him in five stories ago. “But I do believe he was hopped up on caramel corn from the fair Penny took him to.”

He nodded at all the various prescription boxes and bottles lining the counter beside them. “That breathing machine he was on for the last half hour. Is that for asthma? All these medications, too?” He’d heard Cooper wheezing that first day he’d met him, and again today. It’d sounded pretty bad.

“Yes, unfortunately. Cooper has had asthma since he was born and needs the nebulizer nightly, sometimes twice a day. He actually had life-threatening respiratory complications right after delivery and he’d had to undergo seven surgeries all in the first six months of his life.” Quinn sighed at all the medications. “The cold, dry weather makes it worse. Same thing with too much exertion, which is such a pity because Coop’s a natural at sports.”

Rylan made a mental note to go learn more about asthma so he could be prepared in case Cooper ever had an attack. “Poor guy. You’d never know it from how happy and energetic he is all the time.”

“I’ve tried to do what I can to keep it that way, but there’s only so much he can do. All these steroids aren’t good for him to take for his whole life but so far, it’s our only option. He’s had pneumonia four times since he started preschool, and he’s been to the E.R. over a dozen times already.”

Seeing the glum expression on Quinn’s face in the silence that followed, his heart went out to her. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how tough all this must have been for her. “Hey,” he ventured then, “have I ever told you that I make the world’s best hot cocoa?” It was an utterly random conversational one-eighty for sure, but he hated the idea of her ending her night on a sad note after all the fun they’d had earlier. “I
could
be persuaded to make you a cup.” Without waiting for an answer
—
because really, who could turn down his hot cocoa
—
he headed straight for her pantry in search of some ingredients.

With a silent, smiling headshake, she opened a cupboard for some mugs. “Anything I can do to help?”

“You could find us a deck of cards to keep us company while everything is heating up.”

She furrowed her brow in thought for a second and then brightened, turning to rummage around in a few drawers before emerging triumphantly with a slightly larger than casino-standard deck of cards.

He chuckled. “A Disney Princess deck of cards? Things just got serious.”

She fanned out the colorful deck with a smile. “My nieces are still smack dab in the royal Disney phase. So what do you want to play?”

“You know how to play poker?”

Pause. “Yes. But I don’t actually like poker.”

That was an understatement. The mere word seemed to give her a visibly
visceral
reaction.

“Then what say we play a few easy rounds of High-Card-Draw,” he suggested without missing a beat, determined to keep the dark shadows back. “It’s a total luck-based game so we
—
and by that, I mean
you
—
have an equal chance to win.” He tossed the last over his shoulder with just the right amount of goading to ruffle her feathers right up.

Hearing her snap the cards up into a testy shuffle, and deliver a potent glare that was drilling a hole into the back of his head, he kept his smiling gaze on the stove as he continued his explanation, “Simple rules. We each make a wager, we each pull a card, and the high card wins.”

After getting the milk in the pot, he rejoined her. “Okay, so what are you going to wager?”

“I don’t know.” She studied him carefully. “How big a bet are you going in with?”

Smart girl
—
keeping her cards close to her chest. He’d make a gambler out of her yet.

Grinning,
he said simply, “If I win, I get to pick what we do on our next date. Anything I want, no questions asked.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Will we have our clothes on?”

His knees almost gave way. “Good lord, woman, don’t put those kind of images in my head.” He shifted his jeans uncomfortably and slid behind the kitchen island.

Her lips twitched to the side but she said nothing.

“Yes,” he finally remembered to answer. “We’ll have our clothes on the entire time. But again, no questions asked. Anything I want.”

“‘Anything you want’ is way too broad—”

“Nope. No trying to change the wager,” he cut in. “This wouldn’t be gambling unless you felt some amount of risk.”

“Fine. IF you win, we’ll do anything you want
with
our clothes on.” Suddenly, a big mischievous smile lit up her face. “Okay then, if
I
win, you have to do all the laundry in this house for a month—me, Cooper, and the dog’s.”

He blanched. “Honey, let’s not get crazy here. I wagered with a pebble and you’re countering with the moon—”

“Nope. No trying to change the wager,” she parroted him. “Take it or leave it.”

Ah, the thrill of the game. Seeing her dancing eyes, he raised a brow. “See. You’re feeling it too, aren’t you? The appeal of gambling. The fun.”

Her grin faltered, and then she started chuckling. “I guess you’re right. Now quit stalling. You taking the bet or what?”

He slid the colorful princess deck of cards—so wrong to be gambling with these—forward. “Want to cut the deck?”

She tapped a finger on it.

“Okay, sugar, you pull first.” She picked up half the deck and they both looked at the card.

“Nine of hearts.”

She shuffled the deck and slid it forward. “Your turn.”

He loved that excited little smile on her face. She was having fun. Eyes locked on hers, he picked up about a third of the deck and lifted it up.

Nice.

“Ace of Spades.”

“I win!” she declared quickly.

What in the?

“Babe, the Ace of Spades is literally the highest card in the deck.”

“Says who?”

“Says everyone.”

She shook her head stubbornly. “Not in my book. The ace is the same as a one, so it’s the lowest card in the deck.” She jutted her chin out and dared him to argue that logic.

The little sneak.

“You didn’t establish that the Ace wasn’t a one,” she continued all business-like, sighing forlornly. “I guess the only fair thing here is to pull again.” Laughing blue eyes blinked innocently at him.

“You’re lucky you’re cute. Fine, we’ll pull again. But this time, we’re establishing that the Ace is the highest card.”

“I agree a hundred percent,” she said straight-faced. “Too bad you didn’t mention that earlier.”

God, he couldn’t get enough of her. “You pull first my pretty little cheat.”

She picked a card.

“Queen of Diamonds!” she announced smugly.

“Uh huh, sure, I can see you
really
hate gambling,” he teased as he went to pull a card. Glancing at it, he burst out laughing. “King of Hearts.”

“What?!” She crossed her arms in front of her with a huff, but she couldn’t stop the laugh trickling out of her. “Darn. And I was already planning to make you wash all our comforters and sheets, too.”

He shuddered. “That’s karma for you, sweet thing. Because of your heinous wager, the universe saw fit for me to win.” Grinning, he tilted his head and studied her now slightly nervous expression. “So...anything I want, no questions asked...” Damn, that inspired all sorts of wicked ideas.

“Wh-what are you going to pick for us to do?”

He leaned over to plant one long, hungry kiss on her lips and then whispered, “You’ll have to wait and see.”

“That’s mean. You’re just drawing this out to make me crazy.”

He thought about it and gave her a nod. “Yeah, that
does
sound like something I would do. So let’s go with that.”

CHAPTER NINE

QUINN STUDIED
Rylan warily, listening to his seemingly innocent question with supreme skepticism. After that epic first kiss that she’d been hoping for an encore performance of for the past
week
, Quinn had absolutely no idea what was going on in their relationship. She’d yet to even see second base with the man, and lately, he’d been keeping them both firmly planted in the dugout. But today, however, the man was a walking suggestive comment.

She suspected he was keeping her guessing on purpose.

Or he was secretly hiding multiple personalities.

Honestly, she just couldn’t believe this steamy-eyed man sitting before her now was the same knight in shining armor who’d shown up at her home last night armed with dinner for five.

Yesterday afternoon, her sister Penny had called to explain she needed to stay late at work exactly five minutes before Penny’s usual sitter had dropped Quinn’s twin nieces off on her doorstep. While she loved her nieces to pieces, they were two more crazy preschoolers to watch and make dinner for, and she was out of groceries she couldn’t go out and get because she only had one booster seat in her car. So, Quinn had immediately called Luke for back-up.