Bluffing the Devil Page 7

  "Nothing is wrong at all, love. Just a little bit of business. I’m good and I’ll be back in a bit for some of that delicious hot chocolate, a snack, and a nap. You have a big day tomorrow, and I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Rhea hugged me tightly and then silently slipped out the door. Even the door didn't click when she shut it. Damned ninjas.

  I slipped back into my room, finished toweling off my hair, and then ran a brush through it quickly. Happily, my conditioner had decided to kick in, and I didn't have to wrangle the hair in place, just had to sweet talk it a bit.

  I padded into the common area, what we called "the chill spot" and curled up in the corner of the amazing sectional style sofa. It was a semi-circle with recliners and a divan, tons of cushy pillows, and even little throw blankets. This was my kind of relaxing. I grabbed one of the blankets and wrapped it around me to hold in my warmth and a few moments later Carly popped out of the kitchenette with a tray of mugs.

  "Here you go, your very own cup of, Carly's Chocolate Cocoon!"

  "You gave it a name? Chocolate Cocoon? Seems appropriate," I agreed as I took a mug from the tray, and held it in front of my face to breathe in the aroma.

  "Yep, 'cause it wraps you up in its awesomeness, of course! And it’s by me and it’s chocolate. You know, all the rest is just obvious," she joked.

  "Well, all of it is incredible. You should market this stuff. It's better than sleepy time tea and vodka mixed together," Victoria agreed. She was the queen of cookies and totally addicted to cookies of nearly any kind. For her to not reach for a pastry first and snuggle on the other end of the couch with her own mug of Carly's Chocolate Cocoon meant that it was as amazing as we all touted it to be.

  "Oh! The yummies, just a sec!" Carly said as she pranced off to the kitchenette and immediately returned with a bigger-than-necessary, nondescript box. "So, I was really trying to decide if we should go with the old standby and grab a few chocolate bars or if I should try to do something new and exciting and then I walked past this little hole in the wall place that wasn't even opened, I thought. It smelled incredible though and I peeked in the window to see what sort of place it was since the outside sign was worn down. I saw the cutest little tables and chairs, it just felt like someone lived there, you know? I was going to text myself the address so I could go there in the morning when a face suddenly appeared in front of mine and scared the dickens out of me!"

  As she told her story, her eyes grew wide with wonder and then soft while describing things. Sometimes it was as if she was seeing some things for the first time in her life. She was so cute how she described things. I snuggled in further into the couch, took a timid sip of my drink and listened to her explain more.

  "After my initial near-fatal heart attack," she continued as she sat in front of me, holding the box open, "the owner comes shooting out the door and hugs me and is saying how sorry she is for startling me. I guess her dog had barked when I got close to the window or something. She was in there making pastries for tomorrow and asked if I wanted to come inside. It was so weird. You know people just aren't nice like that anymore."

  "Wait, you went inside a closed business with a strange woman in the middle of the night in a place you don't know? Come on, Carly! You can't be serious!" Victoria complained.

  "As you can see, I made a wise choice. I am in one piece and brought back…this." She opened the box and we both sucked in a surprised breath. Inside was the most intricately decorated pastries I had ever seen in my life and they smelled like heaven.

  "The owner asked me in and gave me one of these. She said it's something new she is working on. We talked about ingredients, cooking technique, and so much more. I learned so much on this little side trip, girls! You should be proud!" her excitement was palpable. "Then! As I was about to excuse myself, she asked why I was out after midnight and I explained that we are here for your tournament, and how you are such a sweet freak. She smiled so huge and almost begged me to bring these to you. She gave me all of these! There's like what? Three dozen here? I told her that was too many but she said that some were for now, some for breakfast, and more for snacks. She was so precious!"

  "Well, what is it?" I asked. If Carly was this excited about something, it must taste incredible.

  "She didn't tell me the name. She said it was a recipe from her grandmother that she just found in some old things. She said some of the recipe was missing, so she’s figuring it out and plugging in things to make it her own and this was her newest batch. She was thinking that she finally got it right and, boy, do I have to agree!" Carly was sitting on the floor in front of me, still holding the giant box open in front of me.

  "Okay, let's do this then!" I said as I reached out and plucked one of the delicately beautiful pastries from the box. It had a dusting of powdered sugar on it that felt almost weightless. White cream was piped inside and protruded from the side a bit. Instead of inspecting it harder, I decided to just take a bite and let the flavor speak for itself.

  I instantly made a sound that I'm sure made me sound less than innocent, and devoured the rest of the treat in three bites and reached for another one. Victoria, seeing my interest and reaction, decided to stop being a snob and grabbed one as well. With a sigh and grunt, her approval of the morsel was also accepted.

  "Wow," I attempted to speak around a mouthful of awesomeness, "These are incredible! She needs to name and market these like yesterday! What a fantastic find, Carly! I knew I could count of you. Okay, just one more," I added as I slipped another from the box. "Go, shoo! Take that addictive mess away from me before I eat every one of them like a pig!"

  She chuckled and offered the open box to Victoria again, who scooped two more out as well. Carly carried the box back to the kitchen and returned quickly to curl up with us on the couch. We didn't turn on the television, or need to do anything else. We just enjoyed each other's company and our amazing hot chocolate.

  A bit later, as I finished my drink, I headed for the kitchenette to wash my mug and head to bed. I said goodnight to my girls and headed off to my room. I was feeling exhausted, peaceful, and was ready for a few moments with my Dream Man. After the night I had and the way it ended so lovely, I almost couldn't ask for a better night.

  Chapter 9

  Sleep and I had a new agreement. If it didn't avoid me, I wouldn't chase it down and beat it within an inch of its life. Our agreement was working out beautifully so far. When I said I was tired and wanted to sleep lately, I could close my eyes and drift off without much, if any, effort. It was a nice change from the previous twenty or more years of my life.

  As I drifted off into dream land, my body felt weightless and peaceful. It was one of those feelings that you would love to have all of the time, but would be nervous to have also. If I felt like this all the time, I might not ever accomplish anything again.

  My dream this time wasn't Devin or some decadently sexy scene that made my skin tingle with delight; this was a dark place and I was scared. I wasn't running, but my heart was racing. It felt sort of like when you're going up the basement stairs, and you can see through them and know nothing is there, but are waiting for something to reach between the stairs and drag you back down with it. That same feeling you have as a child when you are scared to dangle your feet off of the side of your bed. You feel safe and believe that you are, but the slight chance that you might not be safe, is enough to make you stop and think about what you are doing.

  I couldn't tell if I was in a room or outside. I just felt it was dark, cool, and something was dangerous. I tried to take a deep breath and calm myself, but the air choked me. It was really disconcerting to not be able to see anything to catch my bearings.

  I closed my eyes and started to wish for Devin. I was in a dream and he was the only one that could show up and fix things, if anyone could help me figure out things, it was him.

  I opened my eyes after a minute. He didn't show up. Great, now I was all alone, scared, and had no idea where I was. I just sat down on the
smooth ground and tried to let my eyes adjust to the dark.

  After a while, I was able to make out some shapes in the distance. Nothing moving, just solid shapes, but it was something different, so I decided to stand up and head there. I took one step and was face-to-face with the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, it was as if light came from her. I couldn't see anything past a few feet around her, but she was a beacon if I had ever seen one.

  "Hello, Miss Riley. I trust your journey was a safe one?" the gorgeous lady spoke my name so sweet one would think I was her favorite person in the world, but I didn't know her.

  "My journey? I don't even know what kind of dream this is, but yeah, I guess you could say the trip was pretty smooth. I did keep my hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times, so I kinda feel I should have earned some sort of newsletter on where I am, but dreams are weird like that I guess."

  She chuckled, "You are so feisty. I love it. You are at my house. I summoned you so we could have a little girl chat."

  "You "summoned" me? What the hell does that even mean? How do you know my name?" Suspicion had been warming the back of my mind, but I was trying to remember that this was my dream and I had created this. Nothing could hurt me in my own dream; could it?

  "Oh, you silly girl, you don't know what is going on yet, do you? Very well, let's just pretend for a while that this is all in your head, shall we? We can get to know each other, have a nice chat, and you can wake up wondering why you dreamed about me instead of Devin, hm? Sound good to you?" she quirked an eyebrow as she sat in a chair I didn't notice was there before. She crossed her incredibly long, perfect legs and placed her hands in her lap softly. She was dressed like a model in a striking outfit and her hair cascaded down in a mass of perfect S curls in front of her and brushed the tops of her fingers on her lap. Rich, chocolate colored eyes with flecks of gold burrowed into me. "Come on, have a seat. Care for some tea?"

  "Where? Oh," I said as I realized there was a chair right beside me. Geez, it’s dark. Where the hell are we anyway? "No thanks. I just had some hot chocolate. I'm good for now."

  Her soft laugh sent chills across my flesh. "Very well, so tell me a little about your life plans, Miss Riley. I know you are a driven and smart. You've made your way up the ladder in the poker world and are proving yourself. What's next?" This woman was the kind of woman that would make most men go completely insane, and make other women so jealous they committed random acts of violence to either be like her or keep their man away from her. Something about her was so calm and charming. In my experience, when people are that appealing, they are doing it as a cover up and have ulterior motives. I kept having to remind myself that this was only a dream and just rolled with it.

  "Well, Miss…? I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name," I said honestly.

  "I didn't throw it, Miss Riley," she said with a diabetes-inducing grin.

  "Cute." I'm sure the sarcasm could be felt in at least three countries from my simple word, but, of course, it didn't faze her, one bit.

  "Your plan?" she prodded.

  "World domination, of course," I chuckled mostly to myself. Who me, a world leader? Ha! That was laughable no matter how you looked at it. "I have no plan passed the current one I am doing. I set my mind to something and I complete that task. When I accomplish my goal, I immediately set a new one and move on from there."

  "You have nothing in your life that you want other than winning your game? That seems odd for such a beautiful and vibrant woman. Isn't there a love interest, hobbies, friends? You do have a life besides your game, don’t you, dear?"

  "Of course I have friends and other things I like to do. Winning the tournament is not a life or death situation for me, truly. I just saw it as a great challenge and decided that I would like to see what I could do with that. It just so turned out that I am really great at the game, so now I have my sights on winning the bracelet," I answered honestly.

  "No love interest? I see you skipped totally over that one," she didn't change her seated position even slightly the entire time. Perfect posture, gorgeous legs, incredible everything else. Bitch.

  "I have no "love" interest, no," I answered. I was honest. The person I desired was not love, it was lust, pure and simple. I did feel like I cared for him and wanted him to be real all the time, but of course I cared for him. I created him in my mind. I should love all things that come from my mind, no matter how impossible and crazy they were.

  "So, winning your game is your priority, then your friends, then this lust interest? Is that the order you would place things?"

  "Why would I need to put things in order? I love my friends and family, the game is an important part of my life right now as I am right at the finish line with that, and my "lust interest" is none of your concern."

  "I see. Let's just say hypothetically that it was my concern. Would you change your answer?"

  "What do you mean by that?"

  She leaned slightly closer to me and her voice came out like a soft ballad whisper. "What if I could make the one thing you want most in the world, yours?"

  "Are you my fairy Godmother?" I asked jokingly as I took a play out of Victoria's book and rolled my eyes.

  "Maybe something like that," she answered with a sweet smile. "I just want you to choose your words and thoughts wisely. You never know when someone might just swoop in and make your wishes come true. You know, that whole "careful what you wish for" sort of thing, that’s all," she said. Her demure smile was not fooling my senses, but something made me want to believe what she said also. It was a strange meeting and I was ready for it to be over.

  "Well, this has been super fun and I appreciate your hospitality, but I really must go," I said as I slowly rose from my chair.

  "Aww. So soon? We were just getting to the good stuff," she faux-pouted.

  “Perhaps we do it another time then?" I offered.

  "Sooner than later," she answered with a wink an instant before I woke up.

  Chapter 10

  What the hell was that?

  I have to admit, things have been weird inside my head for a while, but that dream was just about to take some sort of trophy. Now I am dreaming of drop-dead gorgeous women who speak in circles. At least my dreams had some sizzle to them, I guess.

  I lay in my bed, grouchy because I knew I hadn't been asleep for more than fifteen minutes. I got up and decided to have another pastry, and maybe sit on the balcony for a little fresh beach air. That always perked me right up.

  I wrapped my giant fuzzy hotel robe around me and padded toward the kitchen. Everyone else was in bed, no lights were on anywhere. I was about to enter the kitchenette when I heard a gentle tap on the suite door. My first thought that it must be Rhea. Perhaps she forgot her key or she was trying to get in without waking anyone, so I went to the door and opened it, without checking the peephole.

  Not Rhea.

  Rey stared down at me. I tried to close the door in his face, but he stuck one very expensive Italian leather shoe in the jam before I could complete that task.

  "I know this is very strange to you for me to be here. I apologize for the hour as well, but we need to talk."

  Typically, that sentence would make people worried or frustrated, it just made me mad. "And what, pray tell, would you and I have to talk about?"

  "Please Alexia, your life is in danger." The concern and sincerity on his face took me by surprise. I knew a liar when I saw one, but he was telling the truth.

  "Oh, okay," I said still sounding slightly hesitant, but too worried to care about how it would look if anyone woke up to see him in our suite. "Come in. We can talk over there." I nodded my head toward the couch.

  "No. Not here," he started and then quickly put his hands up and added, "I am not up to anything, I swear it. Things are not as they seem and I am not even sure who is who, and what is going on, but I need privacy to be completely honest with you and I cannot do that with your brood stalking your every syllable."

  He had a good point.
No matter how low we talked, at least one of them was going to be awake, hearing the entire thing, or something. Rhea might even have the place bugged and recording everything just so she can brush up on her security. The woman was a machine and never rested, seriously.

  "Fine, where then?" I asked feeling suspicious, nervous, and anxious all at the same time. The feeling was actually quite nauseating but I kept a strong stance.

  "Somewhere neutral works for me. Just meet me at that diner off of California Avenue?"

  "Why can't we just go there now together?" I asked before I realized.

  "You would chance being seen with me?" his eyes never left my face.

  "Well yes, I'm a big girl and can come and go as I please, and leave with whoever the hell I want to."

  The gush of breath as I said my words showed that he had been holding his breath waiting for my answer. A tiny grin teased the corner of his mouth. Gone was his cocky exterior and even the creepy glimmer from his eyes was less predatory and more tender. It was weird for me to notice those things at that specific moment, but maybe my mind was clinging on to hope that he wasn't going to take me down some abandoned alley and gut me for fun.

  "Give me two minutes and we can go," I told him as I hurried across the suite to change my clothes.

  I grabbed a ponytail holder, baggy sweatpants, a t-shirt, and some old sneakers. I didn't have anyone to impress, and I was going out near the beach in the middle of the night. I feared there might be a chill, so no need to be cute with shorts or something like that. I snagged my rainbow hoodie and stepped out of the room to find Rey pacing in the living room area.

  "Let's do this," I partially whispered at Rey.

  His eyes snapped up, "Oh. It's been two minutes already? You are quite fast. I don't know any other women like you."

  "I am not sure if I should feel sorry for you or be happy that you don't have to suffer such things!" I joked, trying to lighten the mood.