Seth's Cravings: An Endless Series: Book 2 Read Online Free

said in hopes that it would be
too pricey for her and she’d bow out.
         Her eyes came back to me glittering brightly.
Wordlessly, she reached into the small purse and pulled out a roll of bills setting
it on the table. Her gaze held mine the entire time like she’d known what I was
thinking, and the longer she looked at me the warmer and tighter my body seemed
to get. When she finally looked away I was relieved. Her eyes had seemed to
burrow into me.  
         I wasn’t certain but I thought I might have seen her
look as discomfited as me for a second before her gaze had shifted away.
         “Alright, a thousand it is.” Jax said rubbing his hands
together before reaching for Nadezhda’s bank roll.
         The rest of the table presented their money and Jax
collected it placing it all in the chip box while Roman divvied out the chips
to each person. Everyone threw the ante in the middle of the table geared up to
play.
         “Texas Hold’em, straight up, no wilds.” Jax declared
shuffling the cards.
         Everyone at the table nodded in agreement; this was how
we played every time. Seconds later Jax started distributing cards and the game
was on…and I found out that Nadezhda was more than a pretty face with card
tricks up her sleeve. She knew how to play. Moreover, she utilized every
advantage she had. She flirted in both obvious and subtle ways as a form of
distraction, using words and physical gestures. She didn’t make contact with
anyone, but she would touch herself in a way that brought everyone’s attention
to what she was doing; twirling her hair, playing with her earrings…five in all,
running a finger over her bottom lip or tugging at it with her teeth, taking
deep breaths that made her chest jut out, and numerous other small things that
were hell on a guys libido.
         It sure as shit was hell on mine. I fucking knew what
she was doing, and even as I told myself to focus and ignore her I still found
myself watching her in an almost obsessive manner. I could see she affected the
other guys as well but had to wonder if it was to the same degree as me,
because it was difficult to say whether it was her game or her diversions that
were winning most of the hands.
         Two hours later Nadezhda had roughly four thousand
dollars in front of her. Greg had gone bust two hands ago and Roman was headed
that way either during this hand or the next. Landon was doing the best out of
all of us, but he had only around seven hundred. The game was basically over
unless we all added to the stakes.
         The funny thing was that most of the guys didn’t seem
to care that they’d lost their shirts…not that they really had. A thousand
dollars was a week’s allowance to some and a months for the others…in other
words, not their money…but still, you’d think they be more upset at losing.
Instead, they continued to flirt and joke around with the girl that had cleaned
them out.
         Landon was of course upset because this was the second
time he’d lost to a girl, and he was competitive enough that he hated losing at
all to anyone, but he was still handling it somewhat amiably.
         I on the other hand was the only one that appeared
truly angry about the entire night. I wasn’t actually certain why, I just was. No
one at the table was aware of my anger though. It simmered just below the
surface and I kept it there as I quietly watched everything around me.
         Nadezhda had tried to engage me in her flirting a few
times during the game, but I’d only given grunts in reply. Jax’s response to that
had been; “Don’t take it personally, Nadezhda, that’s how he talks to
everyone.”
         She’d given me another one of those impassive
expressions, but I’d thought I’d seen an inquisitive shine to her eyes as she’d
looked at me. A small smile had come and gone that had looked completely
different, more genuine, from the ones she’d been showering around