Falling in Love by Dusty Miller Page B

cards she
had dealt him.
    He discarded, all well and
good.
    “ Give me two.”
    She gave him a couple of cards. This
one was in the bag anyway. Never start a battle you can’t win—her
crazy dad again.
    “ So what do you mean?”
Austin’s eyes regarded her from across the blanket.
    He looked down at his hand, and up at
her again.
    “ Here’s how it works. I
deal, you make the bet. We switch back and forth. When you deal, I
get to make the bet. It’s only fair.”
    “ So if I win, I get my
wish?”
    “ Yep. And if the dealer
wins, then you have to keep your side of the bargain. The bet is a
fair trade. Promise? Do you promise?” His nod was quick and
assuring, so she went on. “That makes it interesting for both of
us. You can refuse a bet, but you have to make an alternate trade
for something else.”
    “ Got it.” Austin looked at
his cards and thought for a second. “I still don’t know what we’re
betting for…”
    She just let that one lie for a
moment.
    Her look seemed to imply that he did
know. His heart stopped cold.
    He had no idea of what to wish for…he
didn’t dare speak.
    “ Just this once, I’ll go
first.”
    Austin nodded, eyes darting right and
left, taking a small sip of wine as he looked at her with the most
profound solemnity on his face.
    She had a gulp of wine and puffed the
smoke. Austin picked it up and had a haul off of it.
    “ Socks for
socks.”
    He looked at her.
    “ If you lose, I get your
socks. If I lose, you get my socks…see, it’s easy, really.” She
looked archly at him, blowing him a little kiss.
    Austin grinned at the relief.
Something small to start with.
     
     
    Scene Three
     
     
    Within four or five hands, Austin was
sitting in his gotchies, blushing beet red and with a big bulge in
his white cotton briefs announcing to the world that he was a man,
and a very aroused one at that. Within the first few hands, Austin
was in love with Bethany. She could do anything she wanted with
Austin. No problems there as far as he was concerned.
    She regarded her prey.
    Austin had the longest legs, with big
feet and shanks that kind of stunned her, all covered in curly
auburn hair. His chest could have used a little meat on it. His hip
bones stuck up. There was a thick patch of belly hair and smaller
tufts on his chest and around the nipples. His shoulders were good
and the stomach looked hard as a rock, an impression reinforced by
ribs rippling below the skin. Ian had always given the impression
of gently rounded shapelessness and pale, clammy flesh. She hadn’t
known any better at the time…
    Austin worked in construction and had
a nice tan on his back and shoulders, although the legs were pretty
white. His ropy arms were tight with muscle and stark with tendons
and big veins going all up and down…the bones of his wrists stuck
out. He had strong, beautiful hands.
    She sat across from him. Her feet were
bare and he’d managed to win her slender gold wristwatch. Oh, how
she enjoyed watching him crow over his little moments of triumph.
If only he knew. He seemed fascinated by her thin gold ankle
bracelet.
    With unconscious grace, she removed
the band from her hair, shaking out the long, coppery tresses. She
gave him an appraising look, with her clear, intelligent, grey-blue
eyes.
    “ So that’s a freebie,
then?”
    She smiled her Mona Lisa
smile.
    “ Why sure,
baby.”
    “ Thank you for your
kindness to a stranger.”
    She just smiled.
    Austin was a goner.
    “ Well, stranger. You don’t
seem to have too much more to lose.”
    Austin looked down at his underwear
and then at Bethany sitting there cool and calm as an iceberg, her
high breasts poking at the cloth of her blouse. She didn’t much
look like a librarian.
    Not anymore.
    It was better to say nothing, not a
thing. He chewed his lip.
    She showed no discomfort at sitting in
a room alone with a man who was virtually naked. He was the one
that was scared. He was afraid to ruin it. She stubbed out the
smoke and