Chapter Six: Caleb

Jones dealt, and I looked down at my cards. 20.

"What'll it be?" He asked her with a smirk.

"Hit me." She said as she tilted her head to the side. That one card could determine a lot. I glanced over her, and my eyes were drawn to the ink on her arms. She was magnificent. I wondered if she had more that I would be able to see tonight after a few rounds.

The smirk on her face made me want to curse as I realized that she had gotten the card that she wanted. As we went around the table two more people hit, but no one put their cards down. I held. Jones had 14 showing and turned over a king.

"Fuck!" He shouted. "Alright, alright. Let's see them." He said with a pout.

I glanced around the table, and I couldn't help but smile when I saw she had 20 as well. The others at the table had a collection of the high teens, and I quickly turned back to the bandit smiling at me.

"What would you like?" She asked me, and my eyes zoomed in on the pink tongue that slid out to wet her bottom lip.

You.

"Anything that you want," I said, and I cleared my throat when I realized how raspy I sounded. It was like I hadn't had water in days.

"I'm thinking Las Vegas Strip style, yeah?" She asked and raised her eyebrow at me until it disappeared under her mask. I opened my mouth to respond, but at the risk of sounding stupid again, I closed my lips and gave her a nod. "Okay, cowboy. You can keep the hat and boots, but the pants have to go."

I laughed as Jones muttered angrily to himself as he complied. He pulled his boots back on, defiantly tucked the bandana that had been in his pocket into the band of his boxers, and hung his pants over the back of his chair before he slumped down into his seat. Her eyes scanned over him briefly, and I felt jealousy flare in my chest until she made eye contact with me again. I couldn't see her cheeks to tell if she was blushing, but her eyes held the same challenging stare that she gave me before and drew me back in to focus on her and only her.

The next few rounds went quickly, and one of the girls at the table was almost naked. I grimaced at how drunk she was, and the guy to her left kept giving her worried glances as she struggled to read her cards. It was just about time to cut her off and have her friends or one of the trusted pledges take her home.

The brunette across from me that still held the vast majority of my attention, and all of her clothes, put her cards down with a groan. "Bust." She said reluctantly, and Jones whipped his head over to me with a smile and a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"Lay them down," Jones said from his seat with his boots and socks kicked off next to him after the rest of the table got to make their choices. I put down my 19 and eagerly glanced around the table until I noticed Jones at 20.

He let out a loud 'whoop' as he slammed his hand down on the table. He sent me a wink, and I glared at him before he turned to her. "Shirt, off. Now."

At this rate, she probably thought that he was the one trying to pick her up. Every time I started to open my mouth to talk to her, my tongue turned to cement, and I couldn't get a single word out. I was lucky I was able that I was able to talk to her at all after winning that first round with her. Jones was very obviously getting frustrated with me. If he kicked my shin one more time, it was sure to bruise.

I felt angry that he was going to see her without her shirt, but at the same time, everyone at the table, beside her, was at least shirtless. Plus, it wasn't like I knew her or had any right to want to keep her body private from everyone. She wasn't mine. Hell, I didn't even know her name.

My chest almost caved in when she met my eyes and grabbed the end of her shirt. There was no blush, no heavy breathing to indicate nerves, only her heated gaze as she pulled the fabric from her body. I thought the sight of her in that black lacey bra was the sexiest thing I had ever seen until I noticed the ink that ran along her side and disappeared under her pants.

I almost lost control at the sight of her sitting across from me in her bra and mask. It was by far the sexiest thing I had ever seen, and I had never been happier to be single as I was at that moment. She downed the shot in her cup before she gently placed it back on the table without as much as a grimace.

It was impossible to stop my eyes from straying down to her breasts as they pushed against the top of the fabric with each inhale. My molars smashed together as she ran her delicate fingers across the right side of her chest twice as if she were trying to draw my attention while feigning an itch. Little did she know that she didn't need to do anything to grab my attention, it was already hers.

My eyes reluctantly dragged back up her slender neck to the plump red lip that she was deliciously biting. I took a deep breath to bring myself back to the present as pain radiated through my calf again from my best friend's boney toes. I must have jumped from the surprise of his kick because the beautiful woman across from me let out a light laugh that made my chest constrict with the need to hear it again.

My God, that woman is dangerous.

Jones raised his eyebrows at me as I turned to glare at him for his most recent assault. The message was as clear as day on his face, asking what the hell was wrong with me. No one had ever made me speechless before, but there had also never been a woman who had been able to take my breath away with just one brief moment of eye contact.

"Oh, no." The drunk girl mumbled from a few seats down, pulling my attention to her. I watched, unable to look away as she started to sway in her seat before she spewed onto the table. There was a loud yell between the game's occupants in disgust and protest, and we all jumped away to avoid being in the splash zone. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a delicate hand wrap around the top of the bottle of tequila, taking it from the table before a flash of black and white stripes caught my attention.

When I looked up, the mystery bandit was gone, and so was our handle of Jose.