“What are you doing?” His mouth hung slightly open. She’d never seen him look so nonplussed. Judging by the sideways glances thrown at him by the other players at their table, she wasn’t the only one who thought his expression was unusual.
“I’m placing my bet.”
He recovered his usual stoic expression. “I wouldn’t advise it. The odds—”
“Yes. You told me. Thirty-eight to one.”
The croupier dropped the ball into the spinning outer circle, a streaking silver blur.
“You can still change your mind,” he said.
“Nope,” she said. “I’m all in.”
The ball began to fall from the rim and the croupier called, “No more bets.”
Danica found herself crossing her fingers, and she relaxed them. Beside her, Luke’s disapproval was evident in the rigid set of his shoulders and the straight line of his mouth.
But sometimes risks were worth taking. Her parents took a risk when they left their war-torn homeland. She took a risk, moving to California without knowing anyone. Taking on Luke’s cockamamie search for a wife was the biggest risk of all. Certainly to her professional reputation, if word got out. But she wouldn’t exchange her time with him for all the regular pay slips in the world.
She just had to remember not to risk anything else around him.
The ball flashed around the roulette wheel, clattering and clicking. Danica held her breath, waiting for the moment when the ball would drop into the slot—
“Three red. Odd,” the croupier intoned. She left a marker by Danica’s pile of chips and turned her attention to the rest of the table. After the croupier paid out the smaller bets, she began to add chips next to Danica’s stack. And more. And still more. When the croupier was finished, Danica could build her own minifortress out of her winnings.
“What was the strategy you recommended?” she asked Luke as she raked the chips toward her, careless of their denominations. “I won, so I should bet one less chip this time?” She grinned up at Luke, catching his gaze.
It was a mistake. She thought he might be amused or perhaps annoyed she had gone against his advice. Instead, his gaze was warmly admiring, a bright glow shining in the dark blue depths. She nearly knocked a quarter of her chips onto the ground.
He probably used that expression with any female in his vicinity, she admonished herself sternly. He was Luke Dallas. He couldn’t help it. Besides, he made it crystal clear this was a business outing.
Yet he’d looked at Felicity as if he couldn’t wait for a polite reason to leave the party...
“That was bold,” he said in his low rumble.
Danica wrenched her gaze away and began playing with a chip. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained, et cetera.”
“You could have lost everything.”
“Or I could’ve gained far more than I had before. Which I did.”
“You got lucky,” he said. “It paid off. But it was a—”
“I know the odds. But sometimes you have to put yourself in the hands of the universe.”
“Fine when playing with fake money. But in real life? Not an advisable strategy.”
She had the distinct impression they were no longer talking about casino games, but she didn’t know if she was up to examining the undercurrents. She grabbed a five-hundred-dollar chip off the nearest pile. “Here. Go ahead, risk it all in one place,” she said with a wide smile.
Luke took it from her, his gaze intent on hers. Their fingers brushed, electricity traveling the length of her arm and heading deep inside her. Instead of placing the chip down on the table, he tucked it into the inner pocket of his tuxedo jacket. Next to his heart. “Are you hungry?” he asked.
She was. For what, she couldn’t quite put into words. She nodded, and Luke turned to the croupier. A few exchanged words later and Danica’s mountain of round plastic circles had turned into a written receipt with nearly more zeros on it than space allowed. He handed it to her. “I’d repeat my advice not to risk it all in one place, but you might break the bank.”
She folded up the receipt and placed it into her dress pocket. “No, you’re right. I’d probably lose all my money on the next spin. That’s what is exciting about it.”