“It’s not doing whatGagesays,” Cassie snapped. “It’s whoever takes the pot.”
“I’lldo whatever you say, Gage,” Mel said eagerly. Then, when Cassie huffed, she quickly added, “If you win, I mean.”
“And if you’re the one who loses,” Arnie pointed out to her. “There’s only one collar, so I mean, it’s not like we’reallgoing to be Gage’s slaves for the night.”
He didn’t sound too confident about that last bit, which kinda fit. Pretty sure he wasn’t any clearer on the rules of poker than Noah was, based on how he’d been losing all night. Not my problem, though. Looking out for Noah was one thing, but—
Correction: looking out for Noah was theonlything. Arnie and the rest of them could just take their chances.
A three of diamonds slipped out of Noah’s hands. My boy definitely had butterfingers when he was drunk.
“Let me deal out a fresh hand,” I said to the table at large, since I was pretty sure most of them knew every card Noah was holding by now.
“And then everyone can decide if they’re in or not,” someone said.
“And how far they want to go if they lose,” Cassie added quickly.
“No, that part’s not optional,” Mel said, earning a glare from her friend. Mel crossed her arms, showing off a stubborn side of her own. “What, Cassie?” she said. “It’s ‘anything goes,’ we already decided. Total servitude. The loser is the winner’s slave for the night. That’s what we’re betting. If you don’t want to do it, then don’t play.”
I grinned. Oh, I did like this girl.
“Well,Iwant to… to play,” Noah mumbled, swaying in his seat again, like maybe the room had started spinning for him or something.
I tugged him against my side again, holding him steady.
“But Mel, it’s not actuallyanythinggoes,” said that guy who’d been a prude earlier about the sex-slave idea. Before I could object, he added, “No one gets to hurt anyone.”
Oh. Okay. Guess he was right.
“Orhumiliate them,” I added, sending a hard look around the table to make my point. There was a high probability that the dog collar would end up around Noah’s neck at this rate if he was serious about jumping in, so we all needed to be very clear on what was and wasn’t acceptable in this “anything goes” scenario in case he ended up being the one it applied to… especially if I didn’t win.
I would, of course, but it never hurt to have a backup plan in play, yeah?
“That sounds good to me,” one of the girls said. “I mean, nobody wants to be hurt or humiliated, right?”
“Oh, sweet summer child,” the guy who’d thrown the dog collar in said, shaking his head at her with a pitying look.
“Can we just start?” someone else asked, flapping a hand in my direction. “Deal already, Gage.”
“On it,” I said, making quick work of it, even with Noah practically melted against me.
“I think I’m going to need some more alcohol for this,” Cassie muttered, her cheeks completely pink as she fixed her eyes on the dog collar.
“Me, too,” said Noah, looking up at me hopefully.
I laughed. “Yeah, no. Not going to happen, you little goof. Any more beer and you’ll end up flashing your cards again and wearing that slave collar for the rest of the night.”
“Okay,” he said with a happy smile that had his eyes almost crossing and both his dimples coming out in full force. “But… But Gage, I really don’t think I’ll need more alc… alclolhal… alcolol… alco…beer. I don’t think I need morebeerto manage that.”
Jesus. He was fucking adorable.
“You’re probably right, Noe,” I agreed, winking at him.
And, just like I’d predicted, it turned out he was.
2
Noah
