“I only won a couple of hundred dollars,” she heard herself point out carefully. “Anyone can get lucky and win that much in an evening. It’s nothing.”
He regarded her enigmatically and then answered the unspoken question. “You want me to tell you how I came to realize you’re not relying on luck? I’m not sure I can explain it completely. I think I noticed you first because there was an aura of calm certainty about you when you played. As if the issue was never in doubt. When you occasionally lost, you looked as coolly satisfied as when you won, and I knew it must have been because the losses were deliberate. I found myself very curious and very interested. Then I started watching carefully while you played.”
Alyssa shivered, remembering the feel of those golden eyes on her. An appalling thought made her ask, “Do you think anyone else noticed?”
“No,” he reassured her with a smile. “In this whole roomful of people, there’s probably not another soul who would have noticed anything other than the fact that you were alone. As they say, Alyssa, it takes one to know one.” He saluted her briefly with his glass. “Come and spend some time with me, lady gambler. A casino can be the loneliest place on earth for people like us.”
“I’m not lonely,” she whispered, caught by the fleeting wistfulness that came and went so quickly in his eyes. This man was lonely?
“I am,” he returned simply. “And I would very much like to spend some time talking shop with someone who understands.”
Alyssa swallowed uneasily, knowing the oddest sensation of being seduced. It was ridiculous, Jordan Kyle was a man she would normally have ignored completely. He was definitely not a part of her real world, and the people of her casino fantasy world were never allowed to step past the invisible boundaries she erected. Yet here he was, reaching through the illusion and tearing aside the barriers. The real excitement of the night world that had always intrigued her had never been so close.
“I don’t know you,” she whispered, unable to look away from his gaze.
“You will,” he promised quietly. “As soon as you stop worrying about who I might be, you’ll realize who I really am.”
“And who is that?” Alyssa felt strangely breathless as she waited for his response. The lure he was casting was snagging her, pulling at her. She didn’t begin to understand the spell being woven around her by this man, but it was as real as anything had ever been in her life.
“Come spend some time with me and discover the answer for yourself,” he murmured persuasively.
Alyssa frowned, common sense asserting itself for a moment. “I’m not interested in being a bed partner for you or any other man, Jordan. That’s not why I come to Las Vegas.”
“I know that’s not what brought you here. How much do you plan to take home with you?” he added matter-of-factly.
For some reason, the question goaded her. “A thousand dollars,” she tossed back, her expression defying him to laugh.
Jordan Kyle didn’t laugh. He nodded as if that were the most normal goal in the world and then asked, “Saving up for something special?”
It was Alyssa’s turn to smile. “A down payment on the most beautiful red Porsche you ever saw in your life!” Her sea-colored eyes lit with inner laughter. She didn’t need the Porsche. No one really needed a luxury like that. What was necessary was to have some goal for the money she was winning. Her original goal, the one that had first brought her to Las Vegas, had been satisfied when she had won enough money to pay her friend Julia’s maternity bills. But by the time that had been accomplished, Alyssa had discovered that she was intrigued by this new, unreal world of the night. It was always night in a Las Vegas casino. The patrons were carefully shielded from such distractions as light and fresh air and wall clocks. “What about you?” she decided to challenge.
He lowered his dark lashes consideringly. “What am I saving my winnings for? Nothing special. Just making a living.” And then the flashing grin appeared once more for an instant. “I already bought my Porsche.”
Alyssa found herself smiling in response. The spell Jordan Kyle was weaving grew more dangerous, and she was rapidly becoming more and more oblivious to the menace. Las Vegas was a city of illusion, and for the first time she sensed she could do more than pretend she was a part of it. With this man, she could find out what it was like to truly immerse herself in it.
“What else have you bought with your winnings, Jordan?”
He shrugged offhandedly. “A house on the Oregon coast, the Porsche, the clothes I’m wearing, my last meal, plane fares to Reno and Monte Carlo. You name it. Everything I’ve owned since I got out of the army. Winning is how I support myself, Alyssa. Don’t you understand? Gambling is my livelihood.”
She blinked, a little taken aback. “That’s all you do for a living? Gamble?”
“And win,” he reminded her gently. “As a means of financial support, it doesn’t work very well unless you win.”
“Your…your family doesn’t mind what you do for a living?” If her father had lived to see how she was entertaining herself these days, he would have been appalled. If she had actually started to gamble for a living, he probably would have disowned her entirely. It made her uneasy to think about it even though he was gone.
“I have no immediate family. My parents were killed when I was very young, and there is no one else who would particularly care,” he explained neutrally. “Does your family know what you’re doing these days?” he added, mouth crooking.
She shook her head. “No. My parents were divorced years ago. I was raised by my father after my mother left to marry another man. My father was killed a couple of years ago, and I rarely see my mother.” But she didn’t want to get into a discussion of that nature. Deliberately, she turned back to the original topic. “You really don’t have any trouble winning?”
“No more than you do.”
“You don’t—” she broke off, searching for a more polite word and couldn’t find it. “You don’t cheat?”
“Cheating in a well-run casino would be infinitely more difficult than winning our way,” he drawled easily. “And less reliable.”
“Not to mention rather dangerous,” she murmured. “Some of these pit bosses and floormen look like they wouldn’t be very understanding about cheating.”
Jordan flicked his well-shaped hand dismissively. “They’re professionals in their own way. Here in Nevada, at least, they run the house in an honest fashion, and they intend to keep the client honest, too.”
“No reason why they shouldn’t run things honestly when they can figure on taking twenty percent of the drop every day of the year!” The “drop” was the total amount bet by customers in a casino. It was figured on a daily basis, year in, year out. The numbers were staggeringly large and the profit correspondingly so.
“How long have you been treating yourself to spare cash in Vegas, Alyssa?” Jordan asked.
She paused before answering, wary once again at the pointed question. But what did it matter if she told him the truth? He’d already guessed most of it. “A few months ago, I decided to take what I know about math and statistics and see what happened. To tell you the truth, I was astonished. My knowledge of probability theory gave me a solid understanding of the math behind gambling, but once I started, I discovered I seemed to have a certain…a certain intuition—” She broke off, shrugging. “As I said, I was amazed. I had no idea it would be so easy.”
“It isn’t for most people,” he reminded her. “And the only reason you’re getting away with it is because you have the sense not to get greedy. You don’t call attention to yourself as a consistent winner. You’re playing it smart.”
“What about you? Have you really been doing the same thing for years?” Alyssa was a little awed at the notion of supporting oneself completely by gambling. His ability in mathematics, especially probability theory, must be as good as her own. And he must have that extra thing she’d labeled intuition.
“I’ve had a head for numbers sinc
e I was a kid,” he replied negligently. “Playing cards and rolling dice were natural outlets for that kind of skill in the neighborhood where I grew up.”
“What about school? Have you had much in the way of mathematics?” Her curiosity was growing. Alyssa leaned forward, cupping her snifter in both hands to lift it to her lips while she waited.
“Only what I’ve picked up on my own. It’s easy to get in to audit university classes, and I do that when I need specific instruction or guidance.” His mouth twisted wryly. “If we’re going to sit here and swap educational backgrounds, I’m afraid I will definitely come out the loser. You, I take it, have a lot of formal training?”
She lifted her bare shoulder in a small shrug. “I’m a statistician. I’ve got a degree in math.”
“Where do you work?”
“In California.” This time her answer was clipped. She still wasn’t sure how much she could trust Jordan Kyle. No sense giving him unnecessary details.
“California.” He nodded, accepting that. “But you’re here for the weekend?”
“Yes.” She waited, inwardly surprised by the breathless feeling of expectation.
He moved suddenly, leaning across the table to cradle her hands in his own as she held the snifter. His golden gaze flowed over her, trapping her. “Will you spend your weekend with me, lady gambler? I want very much to get to know you better. Do you realize you may be the only woman in the entire world to whom I can really talk?” This last was said on a whimsical, captivating note.
Alyssa felt a small tremor go through her and tried to rally her defenses. “A moment ago, you only wanted to spend the remainder of the evening with me.”
“Okay, I’ll settle for that. At the end of the evening, we can discuss the rest of the weekend.”
“You’re very persistent,” she tried to say lightly, fiercely aware of the strong, sensitive hands cupping hers. In this pose, they must appear to be lovers to those around them, she realized a little wildly. “And you frighten me.”
“I know. But I think you’re a very daring sort of woman,” he said with a smile. “Don’t forget, I’ve been watching you play cards for the past two hours. I know a great deal about you, Alyssa. Come with me tonight and I’ll show you my world.”
“I’ve already seen your world.”
“I think you’ve only dropped in long enough to play occasionally. Tonight I’ll show you much, much more.” Jordan was abruptly on his feet, removing the snifter from her hands and placing it on the small table.
“Jordan?”
But her small protest was overridden. “Hush, partner. It’s you and me against the world. Can’t you see that? We’re not like anybody else here in Vegas because we come to play the games on our own terms. But we can have fun on our own terms, too!” He captured her wrist in a warm grip that sent a thrill through her and strode out of the cocktail lounge, towing her in his wake.
“Jordan, please!” Alyssa didn’t know whether to laugh or scream for help. Before she could make up her mind, she was being whisked out the door and into one of the cabs lined up in front of the casino. Jordan was rattling off the name of another famous establishment before he had shut the car door. Hearing the destination and knowing she would be safe on the premises of such a major hotel casino, Alyssa gave up the small battle and collapsed back into the seat. Across the small distance separating them, she eyed her abductor with a mocking gaze. “Do you have references?”
“Sorry, in my business, references would be disastrous,” he said, chuckling. “I cultivate anonymity. The only guarantee I can give you is my word as a professional gambler that I’ll take care of you tonight.”
“Do you do this sort of thing often?”
“Kidnap lady gamblers? No, not often. But then I haven’t encountered one quite like you before. Ah, here we are.”
The cab deposited them beneath the lights of a glittering casino complex, and Jordan escorted Alyssa into the orderly confusion of gamblers, slot machines and cocktail lounges.
“Here, put a quarter in one of the slots,” he instructed, handing her the coin.
She took it, arching an eyebrow in surprise. “You play the slots? Everyone knows they’re almost as bad as a state-run lottery! The odds against the player are incredible. For heaven’s sake! The house mechanics deliberately set them to pay out only what the house wants paid out!”
“Alyssa, my sweet,” he explained easily as he urged her toward the nearest bank of slot machines. “I don’t play the slots to win.”
“Then why…?”
“I play them for luck,” he said, smiling.
“Luck!” Now she truly was startled. “You believe in luck?”
“When you’ve seen as much of this world as I have, you’ll discover that like it or not, there is an element of luck in the universe. Play the slot, Alyssa. Tonight I feel lucky.”
Lips curving in quiet laughter, Alyssa plunked the quarter into the hungry machine and pulled the handle. The colorful wheels spun madly, and then, to her surprise, two quarters cascaded into the small pan beneath the bandit. She scooped them up and handed them to Jordan with a flourish.
“Your winnings, sir!”
“What did I tell you? Tonight I am a lucky man. No more work, however. We’re here to play.” He took her arm and walked her through the crowd thronging the gambling floor. “There’s an excellent group in the lounge.”
Alyssa knew later that she would never forget that night. It was a fantasy come to life. She moved through the exotic world of the Las Vegas illusion on the arm of a man who seemed to have materialized from it. They didn’t play at the tables, although they occasionally watched others gamble and spoke softly about the odds of various games, the house edge, the bewildering variety of people who came to throw their money away joyously.
Through it all, Alyssa sensed a growing feeling of companionship, a closeness to this stranger. Jordan Kyle viewed the world of cards and dice exactly as she did, as a complex set of problems in probability that could be manipulated to a certain extent by those rare individuals who had the intuitive feel for the math involved. Instead of being the victims of the wild ups and downs of chance that hypnotized the average player, they were in control of their luck. That single fact proved a bond. They were different from the rest, a man and a woman with a shared talent.
Jordan Kyle moved in his world with the subtle confidence of a man who knows he can control it, his firm grip on Alyssa telling her that he considered her his intellectual mate in this dazzling, glittering sphere.
That realization brought up the inevitable question of whether or not Jordan was also seeking in her another kind of mate.
The question was answered when he took her into his arms on the dance floor.
CHAPTER TWO
“CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE REST OF THE weekend now?” The rich, dark voice was a deeply seductive whisper as Jordan pressed his mouth lightly against Alyssa’s hair. “Or at least the rest of the night? You must realize by now that I want you, honey.”
She was a little startled by the fine trembling she sensed in the hand that rested possessively against the small of her back. Alyssa doubted that there was very much that could cause Jordan Kyle to reveal any inner turmoil he might be experiencing. He’d had far too much practice wearing the polite, remote façade he used in this dangerous, glittering world he called home. The knowledge that she had the power to make his control slip even a little was deeply seductive in itself.
“I’d rather not talk about anything except the present,” she breathed. But her arms lifted to circle his neck, and her head found a natural place against the charcoal-gray shoulder of his evening jacket.
“Do you think the future will cease to exist just because you insist on dealing only with the present?” She could feel his strong, sensitive fingers on her back, moving with ravishing awareness, sending a thrill of almost feline pleasure up her spine. Such wonderful hands, Alyssa thought vaguely.
“The future will arrive
in due course. Why anticipate it?”
“When you work with probability theory the way we do, Alyssa, the future is always a factor,” Jordan growled half humorously.
“Because the mathematics of chance rest on the concept of an infinite future?” she teased. “It may be true that the probable outcome of a spin of the roulette wheel can be calculated only because there are, in theory, an infinite number of spins which can be made,” she went on in a lecturing tone. “But I,” she added with mocking demureness, “am not a roulette wheel.”
“Meaning I can’t possibly calculate my chances of having you in my bed tonight?”
“Precisely. Save your mental energy for the gambling tables where the laws of probability apply.” Alyssa lifted her head, gray-green eyes sparkling with mischief. Her lips parted in a gently taunting smile that drew his gaze like a magnet.
In the next instant, the mockery was being kissed from her mouth. Jordan had signaled no warning of his intentions, and he found her mouth vulnerable and invitingly open in the soft curve of a smile. He seized the opportunity with the single-minded will of a man who respects the laws of chance too much not to take advantage of a bit of luck.
Alyssa’s eyes opened wide as his mouth closed forcefully, warmly over hers. She hadn’t been expecting the kiss; not here, not yet. The future was upon her.
And it seemed to envelop her. She felt her senses spin, making her feel rather like a roulette wheel, after all. At the mercy of chance instead of in control of it, Alyssa could rally no defense. The touch of his mouth was firm and heated and deeply demanding. She felt unable to do anything other than let the professional gambler determine the rules of the game.
Slowly, inevitably, he forced her head back while he explored the unknown territory behind her lips. As the languid strains of the music swirled around them on the shadowy dance floor, Jordan probed the delicate flower of her mouth with his tongue. Even as he mastered her lips, his exquisitely erotic touch was working magic in the deliciously sensitive area at the base of her spine.