Chapter 13

Out of all the crazy shit Eva had tried over the years, Nadia wasn't sure she had ever heard – or seen – something so unequivocally barbaric.

Yet here she was, sitting on the bed she shared with her wife in this hotel, watching as two women sat down to a game of poker with a brand-new deck.

The fact they had come back to Eva's room instead of finding neutral territory meant she was confident she would win. I'm not sure how good you are at poker, Eva, but I have a feeling Lacey knows more than you do. Nadia was so uncomfortable that she had half a mind to leave and tell these two that they could get it on if they wanted, but she was off to hang out with Jasmine for the rest of the night.

Yet Nadia didn't leave. Nor did she interject herself and assert her opinion about her body and her sex life. Did these two think she was a piece of flesh to gamble over? Did they think they could trade her with each other as if they had gone halfsies on an escort for the weekend? I bet they've done that. Maybe not together, but they've definitely done something like that at some point! Nadia wanted to be incensed.

Wanted to be incensed…

Yet here she was, literally on the edge of her seat while wondering which one would win.

Come on. It has to be Eva! If Lacey wins…

If Lacey won, Nadia would turn her down. That was all there was to it. Besides, just because Lacey entertained this antagonistic farce for an hour didn't mean she would actually go through with dragging Nadia away from this room, caveman style, all so she could throw Nadia on a bed and have her way with another woman's wife…

"Look at her." Lacey shuffled the cards with the expertise of a woman who had been in casinos for most of her adult life. "She's thinking about me right now."

Eva drank a glass of wine she had poured from a bottle delivered to the room only a few minutes before. Lacey had a glass as well, as if they were two gal pals chilling at the end of a long day instead of gambling over who got to sleep with Nadia.

"You wish." Eva leaned back in her chair and cocked her knee wide open across her leg. She almost dribbled red wine across her sleeveless top. "She's thinking about me. She knows how good she gets it with me." She placed the glass back down on the table by the window. "You should have seen us last night. Had to call housecleaning this morning because we made a huge mess after your date last night."

Nadia flung herself onto the bed, burying her face in a pillow. Lacey laughed.

"Why am I not surprised she hopped right into bed with you after I left her last night?" Lacey glanced at Nadia when she dealt five cards to them both. "You were the whole reason I couldn't close the deal with a woman who was clearly into me. Some misguided yet noble promise that you two made in your wedding vows, I'm sure."

"You've never been married. How would you know?"

Lacey studied her cards. Nadia couldn't see them, but she could see Eva's. That's not much at all. Yet Eva was calm as she rearranged her cards, the Jack next to an eight of the same suit. That's good, right? Nadia attempted to recall what beat a straight flush in poker. Royal flush. What were the odds of either Eva or Lacey getting something like that in one hand?

Also, why did she care? She was supposed to be putting her foot down!

"Women like you don't know how good you have it." Lacey discarded three cards and picked up three more from the deck. "A good woman for a wife is what most of us look for."

"I hear you play for multiple teams, Cruz."

"Only one of those teams is to my long-term tastes. You don't take an offer to play for a team you think is only going to give you what you want for a year. Not even for more money or more glory." Lacey rearranged her cards while Eva kept all but her Jack and eight. "Like I said, you don't know how good you have it. You've won the lottery in more ways than one."

Eva's cards weren't much better from before, but she at least picked up another eight. This game goes by so quickly! What was even the point unless they were playing best two out of something? Three out of something? It's already over! Eva had two-pair, and that was it. If Lacey had anything better…

Even Nadia knew that two pair wasn't shit!

"Nadia is the best woman in the world. I should know. I've had my tongue in every part of her by now."

"You have not!" Nadia slammed her butt onto the bed before Eva got any ideas.

Both Lacey and Eva ignored her. "I'm the one with the most to gain," Lacey said. "Show me your hand."

"I have the most to lose. You show yours."

"I'm the guest. You have to go first."

"Fine." Eva put down her two eights. "Two-pair. Read ‘em and weep, Cruz."

Lacey considered those cards with a slight smile. Has she won? Am I… She almost said "fucked," but that didn't come out right. Not even in her own head.

Nadia waited with bated breath for Lacey to put down her cards. When she did, Nadia wasn't sure how she felt about the outcome – not that it mattered, of course. But it kinda did.

Lacey had nothing. Not a pair, and definitely not a straight or flush. Her highest card was a king, but that wasn't saving her from being beaten by a two-pair. But maybe the same wasn't so bad. It could have been much worse.

"You remain the winner by doing the absolute bare minimum," Lacey observed. "How nice for you, Warren. Let me know how it feels sometime."

"Come on. Would you have really made off with my wife if you had won?" Eva leaned against the table with her wineglass in hand. "I would've been so lonely in here by myself. I might have insisted on coming with you."

"Is that what you want?"

"Maybe, but it's not what our minx gets during this Vegas weekend."

They both looked at Nadia with such plotting in their eyes that she had never felt so exposed in a room that was her own. She pulled the pillow across her chest and attempted to hide her face behind it. She still couldn't escape their lecherous looks.

Is this what happens when you give an inch? Eva takes a mile? It wasn't beyond Nadia's wife to be an unrepentant flirt. It was practically her specialty – and she never minced what kind of "perversion" she had locked away in her imagination.

Nadia could only imagine it now!

"Tell you what." Eva uncurled her body from her seat and motioned for Lacey to lean across the table. "I'll strike you a new deal. In the name of fairness. After all, she led you on."

"I did not!"

Neither Eva nor Lacey was interested in Nadia's rebuttal. Eva covered her mouth with her hand when she bent toward Lacey's ear and whispered something Nadia couldn't hear.

Based on the look soon swarming Lacey's face, though, she was both scandalized – and intrigued by Eva's plan.

"What do I get out of that?" Lacey said loudly enough for Nadia to pick up. "Pointers?"

"That's the thing." Eva flopped onto the bed, shaking the whole frame and jostling Nadia as she attempted to maintain decorum. "It's not about you or me. It's about her. Don't you want to be part of an integral moment of her journey through sexual liberation?"

"Eva…" Nadia's breath was hot against her lips as she hissed in her wife's direction. "Don't embarrass me."

"That's the thing." Eva's arm snaked around Nadia's rear as she turned over. "It's not embarrassing if you're into it."

"What did she say to you?" Nadia asked Lacey.

Their guest contemplated a few things before answering Nadia's inquiry. "Nothing I haven't done before."

"Uh-huh," Eva said with a candid chuckle. "She's a freak like me, you know."

Nadia blurted the first thing to come to her masochistic mind. "She asked if you wanted to watch, didn't she?"

Lacey only slightly blushed. Enough that Nadia felt guilty.

"Like I said…" Lacey attempted to play it cool, but that was nigh impossible when such a thing was on the line. "Nothing I haven't done before. Maybe not with you guys, but…" She couldn't hold back her grin anymore. "It might be the only way I get to see you naked, Nadia."

Eva pushed herself up, long legs kicking over the edge of the bed as she shoved her whole face against her wife's shoulder. "You blew your chance at the threesome of your dreams, babe," she growled directly into Nadia's ear, mischief dripping from every word, "but I'm willing to throw you a bone."

Both women were watching her. A shudder ripped Nadia from head to toe.

She didn't know what it meant. She was afraid to ask her own body.

If there was one thing Nadia wanted to be true about herself – and her marriage – it was that she never lost a sense of adventure. Never forgot what it was like to be young, dumb, and free. Maybe she was not the kind of woman to jump headfirst into new experiences, but she would think about them. Contemplate their effect on her mind, soul, and body. If it appealed to her? If it made her worry about regret down the road? Maybe it was worth exploring. Maybe it was time to throw Eva a bone… while also chewing on her own.

Nadia got up from the bed and grabbed the bottle of wine off the table. She made her decision between drinking as much as she could in one go and slamming the bottle back down.

"Let me go powder my nose." Nadia marched toward the bathroom, willing her courage to not fail her now. "I get to kiss her before she leaves!"

The last thing she heard before closing the door and turning on the fan was Lacey's laughter – and Eva's I told you so.