This monthly high-stakes poker game was no joke. The players took it very seriously.

Two other guys held on to Gary as he threatened to cut the other player’s nuts off and shove them up his ass. The pieces of a shattered glass tumbler sat forgotten on the floor.

“You can bill me for that, Kane,” Gary said, glaring at the younger guy whose nuts were apparently in danger.

“I’m not worried about it,” I said. “I’ll send someone in to clean it up. Did you guys want to order food now or later?”

“I’m starved,” one of the players said, standing up and tossing his cards to the table. “Let’s order now.”

“Yeah, okay,” Gary said, shaking out of the hold the two men had on him.

Food never failed to break up a brawl in this group. They were all wealthy businessmen who had plenty of money to lose, but hated the ego-thumping of a loss.

I jogged down the wide marble staircase and assigned a server to get appetizers into the poker room and find someone to clean up the broken glass. I caught Rosie’s eye from across the crowded room and he gave a slight tilt of his head. I walked over and spoke in his ear over the loud music.

“What’s up?”

He turned to speak in my ear. “Your woman’s here and she’s lookin’ fine.”

“Viv?” I looked from side to side. Rosie gestured at a tall table along the wall.

Fuck me hard. Viv sat on a high-backed stool, her long, sexy legs bare beneath a short skirt. She had a dark shirt and a colorful scarf and her hair was piled on top of her head loosely, a few curls framing her face.

I walked over, the sight of Viv laughing making me look at the other side of the table. Her blond friend Cara was there, wearing a tight black dress and hooker boots.

Viv saw me approaching and our eyes met. Her smile–or maybe it was her legs–made me want to drag her back to my office and get under that skirt.

“Hey,” she said, reaching an arm up and around my neck. She moved to kiss my cheek but I turned and kissed her on the mouth, feeling her pale pink lipstick on my lips. When she moaned softly and tightened her hold around my neck, I swept my tongue across hers, wishing like hell we weren’t in the middle of the crowded club right now.

“You made it,” I said.

“Of course I did.” She nodded at her friend. “You remember Cara?”

Cara wiggled her fingers in a wave.

“Hey, Cara,” I said, sliding my hand around to Viv’s lower back.

“How’s your night going?” she asked me.

I shrugged. “Usual. You guys want to eat? I’m booked upstairs but you can eat in my office if you want.”

“We ate earlier. I just wanted to have a drink and see you. We’re going to some other club Cara wants to go to after this.”

A small stab of jealousy hit me in the gut. I didn’t like the idea of Viv at another club, where men could hit on her without me there to intervene.

“I promise not to like it,” she said in my ear, reading my expression. “I won’t cheat on Six. It’ll still be my favorite.”

She nipped at my earlobe and I slid my hand underneath her shirt at the small of her back. I traced the ridges of her spine upwards with my fingertip as I spoke in her ear.

“So we’re on for tomorrow night?”

“We’re so on. No interruptions this time.”

“You look so hot, Viv.” I put my free hand on her knee. Her smooth, warm skin made me immediately hard.

“Jesus, get a room, you two,” Cara said over the music.

Viv smiled, ignoring Cara and moving in for another kiss when my phone buzzed in my pocket with a text.

“Fuck. Sorry,” I muttered, pulling it out.

Drea: Need you in SS 3. Clients getting it on with door open. Saying they are exhibitionists and won’t let me close it.

I rolled my eyes at the phone. “I have to go. Problem in a sky suite. I’ll let my bartender know you guys are on the house.”

“You don’t need to do that,” Viv said.

“You should totally do that,” Cara said. “The drinks here are like fifteen bucks, Viv.”

“When’s the last time you bought your own drink?” Viv challenged.

Cara arched a brow and grinned. So she was one of those.

“Nobody’s buying you any drinks but me,” I said to Viv. “Not at the next club, either.”

Her lips curved up in a smile. “Got it. See you tomorrow night.”

I kissed her one more time and then made my way through the crowd to put out the fire upstairs. My appetite for Viv would have to wait one more night. That was probably best, because guilt was stabbing me in the gut right now. When she’d turned those blue eyes on me and moaned as I kissed her, I’d had a realization. She was entrusting part of herself to me. I’d already hurt her by storming out once, and she was giving me another chance.

What would I do with that chance? Would I live out the many sexual fantasies I had about her, even though she wouldn’t know who she was letting into her bed? The thought tamped the fire that raged inside me for her. I wanted her to know the truth about me, but not yet. I needed more time to grow whatever this was between us. Even then, I knew she might run when she found out what kind of man I was. I needed more time with her before I let that happen.

Viv

I STEPPED OUT OF A cab, paid the driver and approached my brother’s posh Upper East Side apartment building. After an elevator ride to the fifth floor, I banged on the door, not bothering with the formality of a few light knocks.

Screw him. He hadn’t returned any of my texts yesterday. It was the least he owed me after Friday night. Now I was both pissed and worried.

“Grayson,” I called. “It’s Viv. Let me in.”

Silence. God, what if he was dead in an alley somewhere? Shot by the people he owed money to or killed by an overdose? I pounded on the door harder, by heart racing with worry.

“Open this door or I’ll call Mom and tell her everything,” I said, pressing my palms and forehead to the door. “She’ll be on the next flight here. Bet she’ll stay at their apartment here for a while. Or maybe I’ll tell her she should stay with y—”

The door opened and I stumbled inside, barely finding my footing without falling.

“Christ, Viv, it’s like eight in the morning,” Grayson grumbled. “What do you want?”

I could hardly make him out in the darkness. The blackout shades in the apartment were all drawn. I fumbled for a switch on the wall and found several. I flipped all of them and two lamps switched on.

What the hell? I looked around the apartment in disbelief. Grayson’s entertainment center had blank spaces where his flat screen TV and other electronics were supposed to be. His furniture was gone, other than the couch and a coffee table. Wrappers, half-eaten food and wadded up pieces of foil littered the table and floor.

“Grayson.” I stepped closer to him and wrinkled my face with disgust. He stank. Still in the jeans and rumpled t-shirt he’d been wearing Friday night, his hair was messy and he had several days of dark, unshaven hair on his face. “What is this?”

He shrugged. “I’m single. I don’t have to answer to anyone. Especially not my little sister.”

“Hey, asshole,” I said, poking him in the chest. “It’s not eight in the morning, it’s almost eleven. You smell like dirty ass and B.O. And where’s your stuff?”

He sighed and shook his head. “Not your concern, Viv.”

“Then I’ll leave and make it Mom’s concern before I’m even out of this building.”

“Jesus,” he muttered. “You’re gonna tell Mom on me? How old are we?”

“You don’t have any idea what you’re playing at.”

“What, Kane? Believe me, I do. That asshole gave me a bloody nose and a concussion. He almost broke one of my ribs. What the hell was he doing at your place? I can’t even contemplate you’d date him.”

“I can’t even contemplate you thinking that’s what I mean, you dumbass. Drugs, Grayson. You’re using drugs.”