Texas Tiger TH3 (31 page)

She didn't have any doubt that was what she meant to do. Winning might mean she could choose what she wanted to do, but what she wanted to do and what Daniel could offer her were two different things. He couldn't give her back her father's factory. He couldn't support her until she could support herself without calling her wife. He couldn't give her a man who would love her and want her for herself.

So she would give Daniel a wife. She was going to make a lousy wife, but surely he knew that. She couldn't cook. She would never be obedient or docile. She wasn't an intellectual. She wasn't as pretty as Evie. She really didn't have any idea how to go about being a wife, but she would learn. It had to be better than learning to work in a factory or to be a maid. Those were about the only other alternatives open to an unmarried woman, and they wouldn't be open to her, not in Cutlerville anyway. Too many people knew her. She really didn't have any choice, but she wouldn't tell Daniel that. If he wanted a wife, he had one. She just wouldn't let him know that quite yet.

He came back a few minutes later; whistling. He really was the nicest man Georgina had ever known, even if he was occasionally a little peculiar. Perhaps Daniel wasn't as handsome as Tyler, but he wasn't hard to look upon. The laugh lines around his mouth and eyes made her happy. The admiration beaming from his face when he looked on her as he was doing now made her feel strange inside. She wouldn't think about those times when his face got hard and his hands turned into fists. She knew he would never turn that side of him against her.

"All right, Miss Merry." Daniel pulled the table and chairs into order and threw the deck of cards on it, then refilled their wine glasses. He lifted one in salute. "To winning."

Georgina sipped hers, then searched his face anxiously. "You're insane, you know that, don't you?"

Daniel pulled out a chair and gestured for her to sit. "Most writers are. Have you thought about what it will be like married to me? Does playing this game make you a sane woman?"

Georgina relaxed slightly. "No, it makes me as crazy as you. If you win, what will you do with a crazy wife who can't cook?"

Daniel beamed happily. "Make love to her, of course." He broke the cards, shuffled, and dealt her five. "The object of this game is to build a higher hand than the other person. Would you like to make any side bets to make it interesting?"

Georgina decided it would take a lot more than winning to make this easy. Daniel's calm pronouncement of his intention of making love to her made her insides tremble, and she took a good gulp of her drink. Before the night was over, they were going to.... Her glance lingered nervously on the majestic bed. It wouldn't do to think about it.

"I don't have any money to wager." She looked at her cards with interest. What constituted a high hand?

Daniel flicked his cards into a fan like a professional then gazed over the top of them. His scrutiny fell on the curve of her bodice. "We could start by wagering buttons," he offered.

Startled, she stared up at him. "Buttons?"

Daniel pulled a pad of paper and a pencil from his coat pocket, then neatly buttoned his coat and vest. "You have a heck of a lot more than I do, but then, I have more experience at the game. That should make it fair. We wager buttons. At the end of the hand, the loser unbuttons however many the other won."

As his intent became clear, a deep blush colored Georgina's cheeks. The wager wasn't fair, and he knew it. She could tell by the wicked gleam in his eye. She would be sitting here in her undergarments in a few hands, and he would still be wearing his shirt. She had meant for him to win, but she hadn't meant for it to be easy.

She held her chin up. "Tapes and hooks count as buttons," she proposed.

Daniel groaned, but nodded agreement. "All right, but the clothes have to come off so I know you're not cheating. The last one with clothes on, wins."

She didn't think she could blush any deeper, but she felt warm clear down through her middle. Not daring to meet his eyes, Georgina stared at her cards. "Tell me what a high hand is."

Chapter 24

The remains of their meal of cold chicken and potato salad lay stacked on a corner of the table. It had taken them several hours to actually eat it, and they had ignored the rap on their door of the servant who came to carry it away.

Their second bottle of wine was only half empty, but they were making inroads on it. Sunlight still seeped through the window, but from an entirely different angle than at the start of the game. Shadows began to form around the room as they studied their cards.

Daniel's coat lay across the back of his chair and his vest was unbuttoned down to the last button. Georgina's gown gaped all the way down the back, the millions of tiny buttons completely unfastened, but the train of the gown was still clinging by a tape, so she refused to remove it.

She couldn't, however, keep the front of her gown from falling forward without holding it, and it was increasingly difficult to hold her cards, her glass, and her gown. But she noticed this worked in her favor as often as not. Lifting her glass to sip, she let the gown fall forward, and Daniel's gaze instantly focused on the rise of her breasts above the corset.

Georgina smiled and helped herself to another card. "I raise you two buttons."

Daniel marked down the bet and spread out his cards, his eyes still focused on the display before him. "Two jacks, my dear. Off with the gown."

Georgina glared at the two tens in her hand. He might be distracted, but that didn't help her luck any. With a shrug that came as much from the wine as composure, she let the gown fall off her shoulders as she untied the bustle tape.

"You're down six buttons, my dear. The tape is only one." Daniel watched in fascination as Georgina stood, letting the gown fall to her feet.

She was still fully covered in corset and petticoat, drawers and chemise, and if the truth were told, she'd be delighted to lose the corset. She just didn't want to lose it too quickly. The numbers of buttons and tapes remaining were becoming rapidly few, and the bed loomed ever larger in her mind.

Georgina unhooked the first five fastenings of the corset, and wished instantly that she had started at the bottom. Her main concern had been breathing, but now it became the spill of her breasts from the loosened garment.

Daniel was grinning blissfully as he looked his fill, and Georgina sent him a hostile glare. "Look while you can, mister. When you're down to your last buttons, I'll be buttoning up."

"I can't wait." Still beaming, he shuffled and dealt.

Daniel's stare was making her feel funny inside again. Georgina squirmed in her chair and picked up her cards, but she had difficulty concentrating. She took a sip of wine and tried to make herself think, but all she could think about was the way the warm air felt on her uncovered skin.

It was hot in here. She could feel a trickle of perspiration roll between her breasts. She reached for the napkin that had come with their dinner and patted herself dry as she stared at her cards. She heard Daniel make a noise suspiciously like a groan, and she looked up, but he was staring grimly at his cards. He must have a bad hand.

Georgina gazed thoughtfully at the hand dealt. A nine, ten, and jack of hearts stared back at her. It had possibilities. She made another mark on the pad, discarded, and took two more cards.

The buttons were piling up, but now she had the eight of hearts. Georgina eyed Daniel's fastened shirt thoughtfully. She had seen him once without it. She wasn't at all certain she could concentrate for long if she had to sit across the table from him while he was half naked. But she thought she'd like to try. It was better than the alternative.

Daniel had recovered his equilibrium to some degree and now doubled his bet, daring her to match it. She needed a seven or queen of hearts. They hadn't been discarded. They could be in there. She met his bet and took another card. The queen.

Keeping her smile to herself, Georgina let him raise her again. She was really going to enjoy this hand. He was hanging on to his cards as if they were the crown jewels, but he couldn't beat what she held. She took another drink of wine. She would need fortification when Daniel began shedding his clothes.

When he finally called and she spread her hand out for his edification, he looked at it in amazement. Then a slow grin spread across his face as he unfastened his last vest button.

"It was getting a mite warm in here, anyway," he said as he threw the vest over his coat.

Georgina watched with avid interest as Daniel discarded his collar. He wasn't wearing a cravat or tie, but he had links in his cuffs. He held them up for her perusal.

"Do these count?"

She nodded. Mentally, she tried to tally her points and the number of buttons he had remaining. She was starting to wish men still wore those old-fashioned trousers that buttoned up both sides. Her gaze inadvertently went to the band of that article of clothing. The cloth flap prevented her from seeing how many buttons were behind there.

Daniel was counting the buttons of his shirt out loud as he unfastened them. Georgina watched as the shirt gaped open. She had hoped he might be wearing some form of combinations underneath, but she should have known he wouldn't. There was nothing beneath that gaping cloth but pure male flesh.

He kept pulling the shirt from his trousers, sliding out one button at a time, until she wondered if the material reached to the floor. He finally reached the designated number, two buttons shy of the end, but that was scarcely a saving grace. The shirt gaped wide to reveal tantalizing glimpses of tanned smooth skin that moved with muscular grace as he returned to his seat. Georgina gulped and reached for the cards.

"More wine?" Daniel picked up the bottle and refilled their glasses without waiting for her response.

Georgina gulped it hastily. Things were growing a little fuzzy around the edges, and she was learning to appreciate the sight of Daniel sitting there so casually with his shirt open. She was even beginning to like the feel of his admiring gaze as she reached across the table, exposing more of herself than she had ever exposed to anyone before. She thought maybe that getting drunk was a very good idea.

"Are you hungry? Shall I order something else brought up?" Daniel asked, eyeing the level of her wineglass.

"No, I don't think so," Georgina answered hazily, letting the cards fall from her hands as she dealt them. It wasn't professional, but her head was too light to do more.

Ascertaining that she was still upright and functioning, Daniel sifted through the hand dealt while Georgina stared at hers in confusion. She was losing track of her purpose here. Was she supposed to be winning or losing? Every time she looked up and saw Daniel across the table, she got more confused. If he took off all his clothes first, did she win?

She had this rather odd feeling that she wouldn't. It didn't matter much. The hand she held was a loser, and no amount of discarding would improve it. She spent this round calculating the number of hooks on her corset that she could afford to lose.

Oddly enough, she didn't feel in the least embarrassed as she folded her hand and began unfastening the hooks. Daniel had helped her put the thing on this morning. It didn't seem strange to have him see her take it off. She ought to be horrified at sitting in a hotel room with a man while wearing nothing but her underwear, but it somehow felt perfectly natural. She even gave a seductive little wiggle as she undid the last hook and shook the corset off. Daniel sat there with his arms crossed over his chest, watching her, but Georgina noticed his eyes glazed and he seemed to stop breathing when she sucked in her stomach and pushed out her breasts before sitting down. This was getting interesting.

Daniel dropped one of his cards and had to pick it up off the floor. Georgina crossed her stockinged legs beneath the table and wiggled her ankle at him while he was down there. He was a long time in coming up.

They both had lousy hands for the next round, but Daniel lost his last two shirt buttons and had to add the shirt to the growing mound of discarded clothing over his chair back. Georgina's fingers ached to touch the bulge of his shoulders, and she had difficulty keeping her eyes away from the ridge of muscles across his chest. Her mild-mannered journalist was built like a stevedore.

Daniel looked up questioningly when she hesitated too long over a discard. "You can fold now, if you like. It will only cost you those two pretty ribbons." His gaze indicated the ones he meant, the ones tying her chemise closed across her breasts.