Winning Hand (Poker Loser Book 3) Read online

"I'm just making a projection into the future," he said, giving her a little slap on the butt as she started to roll out of bed. "But I don't think there will be a problem."

  She tried to punch his shoulder but he just laughed and swung around behind her again, giving her butt another love tap to start herding her towards the shower. Yeah, she could definitely get used to living like this.

  *******

  "Whew," said Allison as she collapsed on the couch. "We're done!"

  With a loud, over dramatic groan, Todd fell down on the couch too - directly on top of her.

  "Oof!" she pushed at him. "Get off me you big lump!"

  "Cant... too... tired... dying..."

  The fit of giggles that he put her into didn't help with her efforts to dislodge him from her lap, neither did the fact that he outweighed her by a good forty pounds of mostly muscle. Finally she just accepted that he was going to lay across her and fell back against the couch laughing, just enjoying his general silliness. While Todd could be so serious, so dominating sometimes, there were other times when he was like a little kid, and she loved to see the boyish laughter in his face. He had so many conflicting sides to him and she was enjoying uncovering them all.

  One of the best parts about living together was uncovering each other’s secrets, all the little things a person did when they were at home, comfortable and felt like no one was looking. Although of course now there was something looking, but Allison felt comfortable enough to let him see her do things like clip her toenails or tweeze her eyebrows. Some things she didn’t do around him yet, but she knew that eventually they’d come. Every day she became a little bit more comfortable being around him and letting him see all the little things that she’d be afraid to reveal to anyone else.

  Like the mask that she sometimes put on her face to help open up her pores. Or the fact that she was terrified of touching raw meat – she picked it up out of the packaging with a fork to put it on the cutting board, sprinkled the spices on, and then used that same fork to pop it into the pan. She knew it was weird but she just couldn’t help herself. So far he hadn’t caught her doing that but she knew that eventually he would, and while he would probably tease her about it she felt pretty sure that he would also love her for it.

  Todd wriggled around on her lap until he was lying face-up, his head nestled on her legs so that she could stroke his dark hair. She loved to run it through her fingers, never tiring of the little intimacy that so clearly said he belonged to her.

  "So... now that we have furniture and, basically, a house... do we have a housewarming party?" he asked.

  "Do you want one?"

  "I just kind of assumed that's what people do. You know," he said teasingly, "your kind of people. Have people over, show off their stuff, accept gifts..."

  Allison laughed. "You just want presents."

  "And admiration. Lots of fawning compliments. Maybe a bit of jealousy."

  "Silly man," she murmured, focusing her attention on smoothing her fingers through his hair. It was so thick and soft, she loved to play with it and try to mess it up, although all he had to do was run his hand through it and it would fall back into place again. "I don't know about a housewarming party, but I'd love to have Diana over. Maybe Chad. Any of your friends that you'd like to invite."

  Todd raised his eyebrows. "Are Diana and Chad the only friends you have?"

  "The only close ones that I've had in a while," she said indifferently. Somehow she rarely found herself missing any of her old friends. Occasionally Chrissy, but whenever they talked on the phone it became more and more apparent that she and Chrissy weren't as close as they had once been. "I have some friends at work and some acquaintances through classes but..." She shrugged. "I stopped talking to a lot of my old friends. We don't have much in common anymore. I don't really have time for more friends right now though."

  "I have a couple friends I wouldn't mind inviting," said Todd. "We'll keep it small. Four friends and they can each bring a date."

  "Will I need to cook something?"

  "A few things," he grinned up at her, tapping his finger on her nose. While Allison had slowly been learning to cook over the past year she wasn't sure that she was up to doing anything that she'd be proud to serve at a party. "We're keeping it small and casual, remember? Nothing too fancy. And I'll grill. You can just do sides and dessert."

  "Mmm, carrot sticks and instant mashed potatoes, yum!"

  They both laughed and Todd pulled her face down for a kiss. Allison couldn't remember the last time she'd been so happy.

  *********

  Allison smiled as she looked around the rather successful party. It truly was casual, nothing like the parties her parents threw that she had played hostess for. There was a distinct lack of judgment in the air for one. And her new home was nothing like theirs. It had come out rather nicely however, she thought. While she and Todd had resumed their usual schedules of work for him and work and school for her, they'd had time in the evenings to put a few final touches in place before the weekend. Like the print of a painting on the wall in front of her. She'd stopped to study it on the way out to the backyard, thinking how marvelous it was to have a print of a painting. Her parents would have an apoplexy at the idea of not having the actual painting, but she rather liked it.

  Especially because it wasn't an expensive print; she'd picked it up at BB&B. Already framed. Thirty bucks. Another thing her parents would have had a fit over. But she liked the man and woman dancing in the rain, the entire thing in black, white and grey except for the red dress the woman was wearing. When she looked at the painting it made her think about love, but it also seemed like a comfortable, comforting piece. It reminded her that it was the little things in life, like dancing in the rain, that were important.

  Smiling happily, she turned her attention back to the party outside. Todd had invited a couple of friends, surprisingly only one from his frat, the rest were from work. Brad and Chris, friends from work, had brought their wives, Wendy and Tina, and his frat buddy Jake had come alone. He and Chad were having a grand time of it joking about forming a bachelor's club and arguing about whether or not Todd would qualify.

  The big surprise guest of the day was Roger. When Diana had first called to ask Allison if she could bring him, she had at first hesitated at even bringing it up to Todd. After all, that was kind of awkward wasn't it? Diana had insisted it wasn't necessary, she just wanted to ask, but Allison realized that if Roger and Diana continued to date and she wanted to spend time with Diana then it would be best to set the tone now. Make sure that Todd realized there was nothing romantic between them anymore and that she didn't feel that hanging out with Roger was a big deal.

  When she'd asked him about it, she thought that she'd seen a flicker of something in his eyes, but he'd readily agreed that Diana could bring her boyfriend. Even though he was Allison's ex. But he knew that Allison had never been in love with Roger, she'd reassured him of that before, although she didn't bring it up again when asking if it was okay if Roger came to the party. Extra reassurance on top of what she’d already given him just seemed like making a bigger issue out of it than it needed to be. And he hadn’t really seemed to need it.

  So far it hadn't been awkward at all. Except that Todd and Roger seemed to have disappeared. She'd gone inside to see if perhaps they were in the kitchen but she hadn't seen them anywhere at all. Returning to the outside, she scanned the yard. It wasn't like it was that big a yard. Pursing her lips, she wondered where they had gone.

  "I have to say, as great as this house is, I miss living with you." Coming up beside her, sipping on one of the fruity mixed drinks with colorful swirly straws that Allison had provided, Diana managed to look simultaneously happy and pathetic. She widened her eyes to increase the latter.

  Allison grinned at her. "I miss living with you too. I'm glad you can make it today. Any idea where your man has wandered off to?"

  "Somewhere with yours," Diana said making a face. There was something in
her expression that made Allison feel like her friend was hesitant to say more. Which, for Diana, was extremely unusual. She was one of the most outspoken people Allison knew. It was one of the things that had attracted her to Diana as a friend.

  "Do you know what they're talking about?"

  "Unfortunately yes." Stirring her swirly straw, Diana stared at her drink rather than at Allison. The petite Asian was a pretty confident, confrontational type of person, so Allison was surprised to see her looking so uncomfortable. It made her nervous as well. Before her own nerves could get the better of her, Diana sighed. "Your dad told Roger he should try to get back together with you."

  "What?!"

  "Yeah I know," Diana said, rolling her eyes. There was both frustration and anger in her voice, probably as much on Allison’s behalf as on her own. "Roger told him that he had a new girlfriend and then your dad asked if Roger had a friend he could set you up with."

  "Unbelievable," said Allison, fuming although she wasn't really shocked or even all that surprised. Just frustrated and annoyed. It was just like her parents to try and insert themselves into her life through someone else now that she wasn’t talking to them, and who cares what she wanted. Then something else Diana had said caught her attention. "Wait, so you guys are official now?"

  Diana giggled and finally met Allison's eyes again. "Well, we weren't when he said that, but I guess now we are. I don't mind."

  "And ah... is he everything you hoped he'd be?" Allison asked, teasingly referring to the talk that she and Diana had had when Diana had first admitted that she was interested in Roger. After watching Allison's relationship with Todd, Diana had finally realized that she wanted a man who was more dominant than her in the bedroom, but for some reason most of the guys that she ended up with weren't. She would put up a challenge for dominance and they would end up rolling over for her.

  Dating Allison had definitely changed Roger, and while he wasn't who she wanted to be with, she hadn't been at all upset that Diana was interested in him and she wasn't that surprised that he was willing to meet Diana's challenge. At least, she assumed he had since he was still around and she knew that was what Diana wanted. After she’d broken it off with Roger she’d seen him start to relax a little more from his usual gentlemanly demeanor, allowing some of the alpha male that she’d always sensed in him to come to the fore. She suspected that deep down he wanted it just as rough and dirty as she did, but she wasn’t the person to show that to him because she didn’t want it from him, she wanted it from Todd.

  "Most of the time," said Diana. "He's not... you know, super arrogant like Todd, but he definitely doesn't let me take charge all of the time. And if I try to push him towards something that he's not that interested in I can't budge him, not like most guys."

  "Yeah, he's definitely not a pushover," said Allison. Although, of course, the times when he’d resisted being pushed around by her had been when she was trying to push him away from his perceptions on how a gentleman and a lady behaved; somehow she didn’t think that was quite the same as what Diana meant.

  "And I'm definitely expanding his horizons." Diana snickered, a rather wicked look on her face. Allison felt too awkward to ask for further details, but she could definitely guess. Diana was not shy about asking for what she wanted, and unlike when Allison had been dating Roger, she had no qualms about asking for things that Roger might not consider 'proper.' When Allison had been with him she'd been doing everything she could to be the perfect girlfriend, the perfect woman, and Roger had been all that was tender and gentlemanly. They'd both changed since then. She'd admitted what she really wanted, and she had a feeling that Roger was starting to realize that he had another side to himself as well. There was no way that Diana would make excuses for some of the requests she made, like Allison had when she'd realized how shocked Roger was at something as simple as wanting rough sex.

  "Good," she said. It was a little weird that her best friend was dating her ex, but she was happy that Roger had found someone that suited him better. And Allison knew that she was happier with Todd. "I just hope he told my Dad that he could go to hell."

  "Uh... not in so many words." Diana laughed. "They do have to work together."

  "Yeah, I know," Allison muttered. But she wished that someone would tell her Dad to go to hell. It would probably be good for him. Oh right, she’d already basically done that. It didn’t seem to have made much of an impression.

  Todd and Roger suddenly appeared in the backdoor, heading out to the porch. They were chatting amiably, but Allison could see a tension in Todd's shoulders that hadn't been there before. Dammit. Roger must have told Todd what her father had said. Not that it was going to change anything between her and Todd; she'd made her choice and she was going to stick by it. Her parents were being absolutely ridiculous, basically cutting her out of their lives unless she lived her life the way they demanded. Not going to happen.

  Just looking at Todd and Roger she could see the differences between them, and it was like confirming her decision all over again. Roger was definitely handsome, with his golden good looks and fit body, but he had the kind of pampered air that can only come from an upbringing of money. He moved with a kind of easy gracefulness, befitting a guy who had actually learned fencing when he was a teenager. In contrast, Todd was like a dark panther, his eyes held a wariness of the world that came from having to fight for everything he'd achieved, and he moved like he was ready for another fight at any given moment.

  When he looked over at her, she couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face. Just looking at him made her feel warm and tingly all through her body, even if she was feeling anxious. Todd smiled back at her, but she could tell that it was a little bit of an effort for him. The crinkling around his eyes and on his forehead said that he was angry about something, and considering what a damn gentleman Roger was, she had a feeling that he had just told Todd everything.

  Shooting Roger a little glare, she trotted over to where Todd had gotten held up by Brad to chat, and slipped her arm around his waist. Immediately Todd's curved around her shoulders, pulling her in close so that she could smell his slightly spicy, masculine scent and snuggle her head into the nook of his shoulder. Brad's wife Wendy gave Allison a little smile and snuggled closer to her own husband; they shared the kind of look that only women thoroughly contented in their relationships could.

  However much she might want to talk to Todd about whatever Roger had said to him, now was obviously not the time. Patience might not be one of her virtues, but it was occasionally necessary.

  Chapter 2

  The rest of the party was enjoyable, although she had a small knot of tension in her stomach because she knew that eventually the party would end and she would have to talk to Todd about what Roger had said to him. But in the meantime it was fun to listen to him expand on his plans for the backyard to their friends, showing them where he wanted to put the pool and how he wanted to extend the patio. The guys seemed suitably impressed and all the women were excited by the idea of a backyard pool. Eventually they migrated inside and started playing pool on the table in the basement that Todd had set up. The competition between Roger and Todd seemed a little more tense than usual, but playing on teams helped with that and Allison didn't think anyone else had noticed.

  Finally, everyone slowly trickled out the door. Diana and Roger left in the middle of the pack, which was a relief to Allison. She hadn't really talked to Roger all day but she'd decided she was okay with that. They were friendly but considering the fact that her parents apparently wanted her to get back together with him, she definitely hadn't wanted to do anything that would make Todd or Diana feel insecure because there was no way that was going to happen. Before her conversation with Diana this afternoon she wouldn’t have worried about it, but since she knew that it was likely to be a sore spot, thanks to her father, she’d decided not to rub at it.

  Once they had picked up everything outside, they moved inside. Todd stood at the sink doing t
he dishes as Allison cleared away the trash and started to put away the alcohol that they'd set out. Beers in the fridge, liquor in the pantry.

  Examining the bottle of Jim Beam she commented, "The Beams were not an attractive family."

  "Probably why they started making alcohol," Todd said, flashing her his sexy smile. Allison giggled.

  "Bourbon goggles. They explain so much!"

  Todd looked mournfully at the picture on the bottle. “She was only a whiskey maker but he loved her still…”

  If it hadn’t been for that little bit of emphasis, Allison might not have caught it. She gasped with horror. “You didn’t.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “We’re going to have to set some ground rule for living together Todd,” she said warningly, glaring at him. “Rule number one-“

  “Seems kind of late to set ground rules. You’re already moved in and we even had a party to prove it.

  “No punning.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said in his best innocent voice. “Pun? I never pun. Puns are the lowest form of humor.”

  “And your favorite.” Really she didn’t mind, but she knew that he enjoyed it when she gave him a hard time about it. Laughing was rarely an option, unless it was accompanied by groans, so she just chastised him instead and he adored it. She grinned back at him as she finished putting the alcohol away. They'd stocked up for the party, giving them a pretty good spread of whiskey, bourbon, vodka, rum and liquors. Looking at all the bottles, most of which hadn't even been opened during the party, she shook her head, frowning. "This pantry makes us look like hardcore partiers."

  Todd laughed. "Well we won't drink it all at once."

  "Oh darn, and here I thought we were going to have one hell of a night."

  Wiping his hands off on a dishtowel, Todd walked over to her and slid his arms around her waist, pulling her hard up against him. Allison grinned as she ran her hands over his chest, letting her head tip back so that her lips and face were turned up to him, eyes glittering with excitement.