“Seriously?” Chloe raised her eyebrows.
“Oh, come on,” Maxwell gave her his most convincing smile. “Don’t you want to be able to tell your friends you’ve played poker with a vampire? It’s like something from a movie. Or maybe you just don’t like to lose.”
Chloe let out a laugh. “It’s a challenge, then?” She sat down opposite him. “Five-card draw?”
“As there’s only two of us,” Maxwell raised his eyebrows as Chloe picked up her cards. Her expression didn’t change as she sifted through them. Chloe certainly knew how to put on a poker face.
He looked at his own cards; a pair of sixes, a three, a nine, and an ace. Not very inspiring. He’d go for glory, he decided. “Draw four,” he declared, setting down everything but the ace.
“Dud hand, I see,” Chloe said. “Draw one.” She placed a single card down beside his.
“Confident, are we?”
“I could be,” Chloe said, her face still not betraying anything. “Come on, you’re the dealer. Give me my card.”
“So impatient,” Maxwell chided. “What’s the bet, then?”
Chloe frowned. “I thought this was just for fun.”
“It’s more fun with something on the line,” Maxwell said. “How about if I win, you come to one of my poker games. Doesn’t have to be this Friday, but you have to come sometime before we get poisonous spines on our faces.”
“And if I win?” Chloe was looking right at him, the hint of a smile on her lips.
“Name your price,” Maxwell said gallantly.
“If I win, you go for a drink at the Three Bears’ Inn.”
“That dirty looking pub on the corner?”
“I worked there for three years!” Chloe feigned offence. “You’ll hate it, you snob.”
“Just because I have standards,” Maxwell sighed. “Fine.”
He picked up his cards, and his heart sank. He had managed to replace his pair of sixes with a pair of fours and had nothing to match his ace. He could only hope Chloe was bluffing.
“Show or fold?” Chloe asked him, and he detected a hint of excitement in her voice. Damn, she probably wasn’t bluffing.
“Show,” Maxwell said.
“My pleasure,” Chloe said, setting down her cards to display…
“Three of a kind?” Maxwell was incredulous.
“Yep,” Chloe looked pleased with herself. “Now come on, what have you got?”
“A drink at the Three Bears’ Inn, apparently,” Maxwell set down his cards and wasn’t surprised when Chloe laughed aloud.
“Serves you right for challenging me,” Chloe said, but Maxwell didn’t mind her teasing him. She looked oddly relaxed, he thought, for a workaholic real estate agent with a curse on her. Unless he was very much mistaken, Chloe was having a good time.
“Best of three?” Maxwell offered. He was sure she’d turn him down.
“Two more chances to beat you?” Chloe shrugged nonchalantly. “Don’t mind if I do.”
Maxwell let out a sound of surprise. “Your overconfidence will get you into trouble.”
“How do you know I’m overconfident?” Chloe pretended to pout. “Maybe I’m just that good.”
“You might be, knowing you. You’re good at everything you do,” Maxwell said, smiling as he shuffled the deck. He couldn’t resist showing off with a few riffle shuffles, the cards flying through his hands. Just so Chloe knew what she was dealing with.
“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Chloe told him sternly. “Now come on, deal the cards! I haven’t got all night.”
“You’re so impatient,” Maxwell chided. “Anyone ever tell you that?”
“Everyone who knows me, constantly.” She picked up her new hand of cards as Maxwell finished dealing, and her face once again became impenetrable.
Maxwell ensured his own face was as bland and innocent as a baby’s as he surveyed his hand. Three aces. Well, that would certainly do it, he thought.
“Draw two,” he declared, placing down the two junk cards.
“Draw three,” Chloe replied, and Maxwell dealt them quickly.
“Fold?” Maxwell asked as he picked up, to his delight, the final ace. Why couldn’t he have luck like that last time he was at the Golden Nugget?
“Absolutely not,” Chloe frowned.
“Well then…” Maxwell displayed his cards to her, with a broad grin creeping over his face.