Page 13 of His Forbidden Alliance

6

RAFE

Ishould send G away, not just for tonight, for good. This was a dangerous game and a terrible way to go about investigating his real motives. I needed to call Remington and tell him about G. I should’ve done that the first time we caught him cheating.

Why hadn’t I?

Because you’re interested in him. You don’t want him to be a plant from Ivanov.

I sure as hell didn’t. There were things I wanted from him though. Money was the least of those, but money was always nice.

The more profit the casino made, the happier I made the family. And since I rarely did anything else to make them happy, I’d worked hard to keep things going well here. I didn’t want to screw that up, but… Was G offering what I thought? And since when did I wonder about men wanting me. I was the one in charge. Whatever I wanted, I got.

But don’t you really want him to take your control away?

Fuck. I couldn’t think about that.

I could seduce him if I wanted to. I could wrap him around my finger. I could make him spill all his secrets. Except I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear them.

Normally, with any other man, I would have him half-undressed by now. But for some reason, G made me feel uncertain. I hated that I was questioning myself. At least I knew how to fake the confidence I wanted to be feeling.

“What exactly are you offering, Gilbert?”

“Not my name, and do you really have to ask?” He moved closer to me, and I hitched myself up onto the desk. He stepped closer and pushed my legs apart so he could fit between them. My heart was pounding, and my cock was half-hard already.

“What do you want?” he asked.

For you not to be working with Ivanov. For me not to be a fool. “What could you possibly have that I need?”

“Besides money to gamble with and skill?”

“I have plenty of patrons, and I was running tonight’s game successfully before I ever saw you.”

“But you can be even more successful with me. You have to admit I did a good job tonight.”

His hands lingered on my thighs, squeezing gently. I tried to ignore the warm pressure as I held his gaze. “You’re acceptable.”

He raised a brow. “Really?”

“I caught you.”

“I wanted to be caught.”

“What game are you playing?”

He shrugged. “I’m making money and having fun.”

There was no way it was that simple.

“I told you I don’t work for anyone but myself,” he said, anticipating my question.

“You’re lying.”

“You just want to be right.”

“Is that what you think I want?” I ask, shifting closer to the edge of the desk, bringing myself so close I could feel the heat of his body.

“I think you want a lot of things. I think you’re a very greedy man.”