After Midnight by Katherine Garbera Page B

around him.
    She’d had more sex in the past twenty-four hours than she’d had in the previous ten years; which was both great and confusing. She couldn’t keep the compartments she needed Carter to stay in straight in her mind.
    “Stay or hit?” he asked.
    They were playing poker...well, blackjack or twenty-one, at her kitchen table. She wore her flannel pajamas and Carter had on just his boxer briefs. It felt intimate and cozy and would be if she’d just let it be. But she couldn’t.
    She glanced at her cards, trying to recall the rule that Carter had shared with her for taking cards. She had an eight and a three. She needed twenty-one and had eleven. Seemed pretty safe for a hit.
    “Hit.”
    He turned a card up in front of her.
Ace.
    “Damn.”
    He laughed. “I’m guessing you want to stay?”
    She shook her head. Had she given the game away? She hated to lose, so she needed to pay better attention, but the truth was Carter was a distraction with his naked chest and tattoos sitting across from her. The light from the kitchen shone down on him, his face hidden by the shadows cast on him.
    “No,” she said. No guts, no glory had always been her motto. “Hit.”
    He gave her another card. It was a seven. A nice, safe little seven card that kept her from going over twenty-one.
    “Stay.”
    “Think you can beat me?”
    He had a face card showing, so chances were he might have a twenty but... What? She’d just said no guts... “You bet I do.”
    He took a card and got another face card.
    “Ooh, that’s twenty. Did you bust?” she asked.
    He flipped up his card to reveal a two. “Why, yes, I did, gorgeous. That means you win.”
    “That’s right, I win,” she said, smiling. This was good. Competing against Carter reminded her of all the things that were usually between them.
    “Now you have to tell me the one habit you are hoping to break this year,” she said. They’d been playing loser-tells-all for their resolutions.
    “Fair enough, but I’m going to ask you about sexual positions. Sure you don’t want to know about them?”
    “I don’t have to win a game to get you to tell me about them,” she said. “Now, what habit is it that you want to quit?”
    He scratched his chin. “I think I’d like to quit... Wait—does it have to be a vice?”
    “Not at all. You get to choose.”
    “Well, then, I will quit answering these questions,” he said insolently.
    She narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s
already
your habit. And we both agreed to the terms. You have to answer.” He leaned back in the chair so his expression was visible now. She looked over at him, trying to figure out what was going on behind his handsome face. He was too sexy for his own good. It would have been better if he’d been average looking with that personality of his. He was used to charming anyone—man or woman—into doing whatever he wanted. She was determined to be different.
    Hell, that had been her attitude from the beginning. Had she been attracted to him all this time?
    “Well, if you must know...” he said. “I’m going to give up pulling all-nighters. I think I’m past the point where I can keep drifting through life.”
    She almost laughed, but she knew he was being sincere. He was one of the top athletes in winter sports and he thought he was drifting through life. She kind of got it because that was how she felt now that skiing had been taken from her.
    “So what does a serious Carter Shaw look like?” she asked.
    “Ah, that, gorgeous, is a second question, and I’m afraid you’ve only earned one,” he said with that half grin of his that she found way too irresistible. “Besides, that’s not on the resolutions list. I might answer it if you win again.”
    “So deal,” she said. Now that she was getting the hang of the game and she’d won, she was ready to keep winning. It was a sort of safe way for her to find out more about Carter. Learn all the intimate details about him while keeping her