Giving her a devilish grin, I shook my head and said, “Oh, I intend to play with you.” Her eyes widened, and I couldn’t help but laugh. Grabbing her hand, I pulled her into the kitchen. “Just not in the way that you’re thinking.” I helped her sit down, then kissed her cheek. “At least, not yet anyway,” I whispered in her ear.

Curiosity was clear on her face as she shook her head at me. Leaving her there to wonder, I began searching my kitchen for what we needed: cards. Unfortunately, I had no idea where they were, so I started searching every drawer. A surprising amount of crap had accumulated over the years, but I didn’t let that deter me. This was happening. I hummed as I worked, and snuck glances at Kiera, intently watching me. Just when I could tell that she was about to ask me what I was looking for, I spotted the familiar white and blue box in the very back of a drawer. “Ah-ha!” I knew I’d had some.

Twisting to Kiera, I showed her what I had in my hand. “Playing cards?” she asked. Her surprised expression morphed into an amused smile. “Are we playing pinochle all afternoon?”

Her question amused me, but I had to tease her a little bit for her game choice. “Pinochle? Are we sixty?” Opening the cards, I started shuffling them as I sat down across from her. “No, we’re playing poker.”

Kiera’s face compressed into a frown. “I’m really not that good at poker.”

My grin grew as I watched her study the cards in my hands. “Well, that is actually perfect, because we’re playing strip poker.”

Her eyes flashed to mine, and the green in them seemed to radiate terror. She shot to her feet, clearly not on board with my little idea. I grabbed her hand before she could completely escape. “Come on, it will be fun.” I gave her a suggestive wriggle of my eyebrows. “I promise.”

Her cheeks were flushed with color—an appealing shade that reminded me of how she looked right after we had sex. It kind of made me want to skip this part and just get right to it, but this wasn’t just about sex. This was about her being comfortable, with me, with her sexuality, with her own skin. And also, it was about us having fun together outside of the bedroom. And then it was about sex, because I definitely wanted to make love to her tonight.

She sat down slowly, reluctantly. “Kellan…I don’t know…”