Putting her hand to his jaw, she bent in and kissed him lightly before repeating a much softer, “Hey.”

Like always.

Right in his dick.

“Hey, baby, how was girls’ night out?” he asked.

“Good. But… um, can I talk to you a sec?”

He tried to read her face, saw something he couldn’t put a finger on, didn’t like that, so he nodded and didn’t waste time putting his cards facedown on the table.

“Be back,” he told his brothers.

“Time for fresh ones,” Roscoe announced, pushing back in his seat.

Joker got up and Carissa took his hand.

She walked him down the hall, asking, “Are you winning?”

“I haven’t lost the house,” he said by way of answer.

She tossed him a grin as she moved them into their room. “Hound’s kicking your booty again.”

Joker didn’t return the grin, he was still trying to read her, but he did reply, “The man’s a poker savant.”

Her grin turned into a smile and she asked, “Can you close the door?”

Joker closed it then gave her his full attention, begging, “Please tell me that you and your bitches didn’t decide tonight was the night to light my father’s house on fire.”

She burst out laughing.

He watched, hoping that was a no.

She sobered and informed him, “No. And actually, this is a show not a tell.”

Carissa giving him a show.

He thought of Roscoe getting fresh ones.

Then he thought none of his brothers would be too concerned they had to slam them and get the fuck out because he might not tell them he was going to get a show, but they could guess, and they wouldn’t be brothers if they were the kind of men to stand in the way of that for a game of poker.

So he crossed his arms on his chest and ordered, “So… show.”

“To preface this, I’ll say I like my promise ring.”

Joker shook his head but did it grinning.

He knew that. In the week since she’d got it, he’d seen her staring at it. She’d even made a habit of rubbing the diamond against her lower lip more than occasionally.

If he caught that last and was in a position to do so, he put her in a position of using that lip in a different way, among other things.

“And also,” she went on, “this is the culmination of what Elvira calls a ‘wild hair,’ something I’m told happens when cosmo two turns into cosmo three.”

“Butterfly, get on with it.”

She slid her hands down the skirt of her cute dress, her eyes on his but his eyes dropped to her hands.

“Also, it should be said that Tyra’s in the know about practically everything,” she informed him.

Joker didn’t say anything. He was watching her pull up the skirt of her dress.