“Or not,” came a voice to our right. I rolled my eyes as I turned to see both Wes and Tucker standing there. Wes’s eyes were on me while Tucker was assessing the man at my side.

The man, whose name I still didn’t even know, took a step away from the table and tipped his head toward someone who scooped up his chips for him. “What seems to be the problem here, gentlemen?”

Tucker tipped his head toward me, “It’s time for my fiancé to head back up to the suite.”

“Fiancé, huh?” I felt the man’s eyes roaming all over me and then he lifted my left hand. “Doesn’t seem like she is. I know if I had proposed to this gorgeous creature, she’d be wearing a ring that couldn’t be missed by any other man.”

While I wanted to bask in the sentiment of being called a ‘gorgeous creature’, I also didn’t want to draw any further attention to us, or to myself. “He’s not wrong,” I informed the man. “I am going to marry him tomorrow.”

“You don’t exactly seem happy about that prospect, honey.” He pulled me further away from my supposed fiancé and his friend and leaned down. “Do you need help? No strings attached, if you need a getaway, I’ll make one for you. Hell, every penny I earned tonight was thanks to you. It’s yours if you need money to get lost too.”

Oh, bless this man’s heart. It finally hit me that he’d called me a spinner earlier, which now that I had time to put it in a different context, should have creeped me out a little, but there he was redeeming my faith in humanity anyway. “Thank you, but no, it’s not like that. There’s no love between us, but I’m not being forced to do it, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I know what my plans were for you tonight, but this needs to be said anyway, you deserve better than a marriage where there’s no love. Hookups are one thing, marriage is another.”

I nodded my head and smiled up at the man. “Thanks for that,” I told him as I reached up and gently patted his chest with my hand. Truth be told, he was even more solid under those clothes than I had imagined. Damn it. He offered the same half-smile back to me before tucking something in the palm of my hand. When I glanced down it was to see one of the $10,000 chips he had earned at the table.

“I can’t take this.”

“Darlin’ I just raked in almost a half million at that table with you by my side. I think you can take that one chip.” He leaned down, kissed my head, and then walked away without saying another word. I just stared at the chip in my hand and wondered what the hell this life was that I was living. If I hadn’t found out about Carlos before, I probably would have cashed the chip and given it to him for his tuition. The thought brought me back to the reality where I wasn’t really seen by people, except in whatever capacity I was temporarily convenient to them.