Kissmas Wishes (Love In All Seasons 3)

“Not friends,” I clarify. “I’m here to win.”

“Win what?” she asks, practically daring me to pick her up and push her against the wall, to run my hands all over her skin and make her mine. Here and now. She’s all I want. The self-control this moment takes is excruciating.

Rizz laughs, his smile broadening. “Hey, let’s finish this hand, Smith.” He looks at his cards, a smug ass expression on his face. He pushes his last pile of chips to the center of the table.

I nod, sitting back down at the table. After taking another look at my cards, I push all my chips to the center of the table, calling his bluff. Rizz lifts his eyebrows and the other guys whistle low. “What’s it gonna be, Rizz?” I ask, daring him.

He sucks air through his front teeth as he makes a decision. He has no more chips on the table. Looks like he is out of options. But then he gives us all a wicked grin.

“Sugar’s gonna cover my bet.”

I feel her stiffen beside me. My cock gets fucking stiff too.

Rizz nods. “Yeah, you like thick virgins?”

“What are you doing?” Sugar asks, her voice rattled.

“I’m gonna win this hand but might as well make you sweat for it. Tomorrow you’re going to Marco at the Badlands as a little Christmas gift. Let’s make sure you know how to do the deed before you’re his property.”

I want to punch the fucker in the goddamn face, treating this woman like a piece of property to buy and sell, to trade. I can practically feel Sugar’s rage because I feel it too. Rising up in me.

“Fine. What do you got?”

Sugar gasps behind me, and I understand why. I’ve just agreed to a deal where she is the gamble. The way I see it, she spends the night with these fuck-ups, or she spends the night in my cabin – a cozy little place where she can actually get some much-needed rest. With me she is safe but staying with these losers there is no guarantee for her protection.

Rizz gives a cocky grunt as he shows us his hand. A flush.

“Well shit, guess you got lucky, Sugar,” Pussy Juice laughs, slapping his knee. “Still gonna be a virgin come Christmas morning.”

“You call this lucky?” Sugar asks, her voice barely above a whisper. “I can’t watch this,” she says, leaving the table and heading for the bar.

“What do you got, Smith?” Rimmed asks.

I place down three aces. The tension in the room is thick, and I know Rizz thinks he got me. But then I set down my last two cards. Two queens.

Full house, aces full of queens.

“Fuck you,” Rizz growls, his anger at losing to me, a stranger, is palpable. “This is bullshit.”

“Keep the money,” I say, not wanting their dirty cash anyway. “I’m taking the girl.”

“You’re stupider than I thought,” Rizz laughs and I push away from the table, grabbing the fool by the collar.

“Don’t follow me,” I grunt.

Rizz pushes at my chest. I let him go. “I need her by morning. You can have her until then, understood?”SugarMy brother is a piece of work. Always has been. Some things never change, do they? He’s the only family I’ve got and what good does it do me? I should have left a long time ago but that’s easier to say when you have something to fall back on.

I’m a high school dropout, former foster kid, a girl who at nineteen has exactly one person in her corner and that’s barely saying anything. Rizz wants the MC boss, Max, to give him more power. Any power, actually. My brother and his friends are out of money and low on fuel. He’s hoping to get me to Wyoming to give Marco a Christmas gift. An offering. Me.

And what does it say about me that I am still here, playing along? What kind of person am I that I haven’t run?

I’ll tell you what kind.

The scared kind.

Because there’s actually something scarier than being a gift to a powerful man… and that is being on the streets and being taken advantage of without anyone to call on to help me.

But this threat… the threat of giving me to that beast of a man at the table? Smith, was that his name? With dark brown eyes, a thick beard, forearms that make me think he could actually pick me up and carry me to bed.

It’s too much. Too much to even consider.

Tears burn my eyes as I leave the back room. I head to the bar, ordering a round of beers and wiping my eyes. Focus, Sugar. Focus. Don’t let those guys get under your skin.

Still, embarrassment rushes through me. The way Smith looked at me when Rizz made the offer of a thick virgin — all I saw was disgust in his eyes. He wasn’t interested in me. At all.