A brief smile touched her lips as she set down her cards. “Three sixes. You?”

Giving her a seductive grin, I laid down my cards one at a time. “Abso…lutely…nothing.”

Kiera laughed, and her eyes sparkled with amusement. Good. I wanted her to enjoy this, and because I wanted her to enjoy this, I took off my shirt first, instead of something small, like one of my socks. Her eyes widened when my abs came into view. Then she giggled. “Okay, maybe this game isn’t so bad.”

As the afternoon shifted into evening, Kiera relaxed even more. Of course, it helped that she had been wearing a ridiculous amount of clothes to begin with and was still mostly dressed—layering was the bane of my existence in this game. I was down to just my boxers, but she still had on her bra, underwear, and a short-sleeved T-shirt. Getting rid of that T-shirt was my newfound mission in life.

Kiera fidgeted with her necklace while she frowned at her cards. She either had nothing, or she wasn’t sure what to do with what she had. Once again, I had crap. But at least this time it was a pair of crap, and I might be able to do something with that. If I was reading her nerves correctly, then she had an even worse hand than I did. But even if I lost, I’d win—with no clothes left, we could quit the game and move this distraction-party upstairs. God, I loved win-win situations.

Like she could feel me watching her, Kiera glanced up at me. The uncertainty on her face was adorable, and I couldn’t resist teasing her. “Nervous?” I asked, pointedly looking at the necklace she was sliding back and forth across the chain.

She instantly dropped it. Then, with a smooth smile that stole my breath, she told me, “No. You?”

The way her eyes ran over my body, subtlety highlighting the fact that this was an all-or-nothing moment for me, made me want to reach over and pull her into my arms. Did we really need to play this game all the way to its conclusion? Or had I distracted her enough? But God…I was so close to that T-shirt. If I could get her to play whatever she had right now…it was mine, I was sure of it.

Biting my lip, I shook my head. “Nope. In fact, I don’t even need any more cards. How about you?” Come on, Kiera…let’s see what bra you’re wearing today…