Excerpt: Gambling with Love – Kaye Spencer

Gambling with Love by Kaye Spencer is an erotic western romance available at:

Breathless Press: http://www.breathlesspress.com/erotic/branded/gambling-with-love.html

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Gambling-With-Love-ebook/dp/B004AYCSPM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301957339&sr=8-1

TEASER

Gambler Lainie Conrad wants revenge. Marshal Nick Foster is duty bound to arrest her. Her choice is clear. She loves him, so she shoots him…twice.

BLURB

Disowned by her wealthy Charleston family when she married a gambler, Lainie Conrad lived a charmed life of European travel, good times, and gambling until Rutherford Tolliver decided to claim Lainie for his own. Now, widowed and certain that Tolliver killed her husband, Lainie plots revenge, but she doesn’t want Ford’s life. She plans to ruin him in a high-stakes poker game. The problem is, she’s fallen for U.S. Marshal Nick Foster, who is duty bound to arrest her for a murder she didn’t commit. Derringers, poker, and her feminine wiles become weapons in her quest for retribution.

EXCERPT

 Chapter One -  Pine Bluffs, Wyoming Territory 1883

“I’m sorry, sir, there are no vacancies.”

Nick Foster ignored the desk clerk. He was staring at the poker game in the adjoining room. Seeing Lainie again was like taking a right hook to the gut. It took the wind right out of him. He’d been on her trail for three months, and given how elusive she’d been, catching up with her tonight surprised him. She didn’t often play penny ante places. The snowstorm must have stranded her.

Two months ago, she’d been running a faro table in Tombstone, then moved on to San Francisco. He’d missed her in both towns by mere days. Following a lead to Dodge City, the deputy had told him he’d noticed her talking to an older woman with a small child who had already been in town for a couple of days when Lainie had passed through. The woman and child had boarded an eastbound train alone. The general thought had been that from Dodge, Lainie was headed for Denver by way of Cheyenne.

Nick spoke indirectly to the clerk. “The woman playing cards. She come in alone?”

“Yes, sir, this morning on the train. The storm’s shut down the stage and train until the weather clears.”

Just as he’d thought. “What’s her room number?”

“I can’t give—”

“It’s business.” Nick opened his coat and pulled his vest aside to reveal his badge. “And it’s confidential.”

The clerk’s eyes went wide. Apparently antsy, he shuffled his feet as he stole a glance around the lobby. Nick recognized the man’s hesitation as consideration of the ramifications of not cooperating, but he didn’t debate long. Not obstructing justice won out over hotel protocol.

The clerk reached under the counter for a key, then slid it across the wooden surface. “Room two-ten.”

Nick pocketed the key. “Bath facilities here?”

The clerk jerked his head toward the back. “Down the hallway. First door on your right.”

“Any chance of getting some grub and coffee?”

“Slim chance. The kitchen closed a while ago.”

Nick tossed him a Gold Eagle. “Will that cover it?”

“With some to spare.”

“Keep it.”

The clerk’s manner changed immediately. “I’ll have food and coffee brought to you right away, sir.”

“I’d appreciate it.”

Stranded travelers and tobacco smoke filled the lobby, but no one noticed Nick as he walked to the bar and ordered whiskey. With his hat pulled low over his face, Winchester cradled casually in the crook of one elbow, and oversized saddlebags slung over one shoulder, he looked like any other saddle tramp passing through. He wanted to keep it that way. No sense inviting undue attention. It would come on its own soon enough.

He downed his drink, refilled, then took the glass and moved to where he could watch the card game unnoticed. Warming with the whiskey, he relaxed and made a quick sweep of the four players. Three men and Lainie. Although he didn’t know the men, he pegged two of them as cowboys waiting out the storm and passing the time with a friendly game of poker. They weren’t serious players. He chuckled. They were the type Lainie usually took pity on and made sure they left the table with a few dollars more than when they started. Onlookers blocked Nick’s view of the third man, but he wasn’t curious enough right then to care who he was.

He glanced at the clock—ten forty-five. She never played much past midnight. In another hour or so, she’d ask the bartender for a pot of coffee to take to her room. He had plenty of time. Tossing off the whiskey, he made his way to the bath room. An hour later, with a full belly, bathed, shaved, and feeling like a new man in a clean set of clothes, Nick returned to the bar and paid for another whiskey. Nursing it along with his elbow resting on the bar, he watched the game out of Lainie’s direct line of sight. When midnight arrived, he started for the stairs.

“Gentlemen, do any of you know the time?”

He stopped and stared straight ahead. The languid cadence of her cotton-soft southern drawl wafted in the air, embracing him with bittersweet memories of their last night together and the ring he hadn’t put on her finger. The siren call in her voice tugged at him. Damn he’d missed her, and now that he’d found her, his willpower to separate love from duty was quickly becoming a one-sided, losing battle.

One of the men gave her the time, and Nick heard chairs move on the hardwood floor.

“Gentlemen, I am afraid I must take my leave of you. I cannot go without my beauty rest. It has been a pleasure.”

Nick glanced over his shoulder then turned and took a better position to see into the game room for a better view of Lainie. He couldn’t see the cowboys directly, but he could tell they were standing with hats in hand as they uttered thanks for the game. The third man remained seated. Nick got a good look at him. His face wasn’t familiar but his type was. Cardsharp. Likely a good one too. He looked like the sort who came to the table with genteel larceny in mind, ready to fleece unsuspecting lambs foolish enough to play the master in his own game. The jeweled stickpin in his lapel and ostentatious diamond ring on his finger smacked of extravagance and excess.

His manner was as controlled and cool as his black suit was expensive and tailored. His long slender hands and nimble fingers bore the trademark of a professional gambler, and the cards fairly sang as he shuffled them. Although the man made no outward indication that he knew Nick was watching, Nick sensed nothing got by him. On sheer principle, Nick didn’t like him. His kind of gamblers were users and takers. Shady characters, the lot of them.

“It’s still early, Lainie. Let me buy you a drink…or at least coffee.” There was power and confidence in the man’s deep resonate voice.

“Mrs. Conrad to you. You know full well that after a game I take coffee in my room alone, and I rarely drink except on very special occasions. Stranded in this rowdy cow town does not qualify as a celebratory event.”

“You’re right; I do know that about you, Mrs. Conrad.” The corners of his lips turned up in a slight smile, and he continued deftly manipulating the cards as he spoke. “I’m assuming you’ll be in Denver this weekend. We should make plans to celebrate after I win the game.”

Nick was close enough to see a fiery spark ignite in Lainie’s eyes for just a second before she resumed her impassive composure. “Yes, I will be a player in that game, and it will be my pleasure to finally take all of your money. Perhaps I’ll feel generous enough after I win to leave you with a little traveling change so you can leave town. Again…good night, gentlemen.”

The man smiled again, obviously enjoying their banter. Without looking directly at her, the gambler snatched her hand in a swift, snakelike strike, stopping her departure. She didn’t struggle; she didn’t pull away. To anyone who didn’t know her, she might have seemed indifferent, but Nick recognized the unreserved loathing in the steady, steely gaze she fixed upon the gambler’s face. There was history between them that piqued Nick’s curiosity.

“Stay awhile, Lainie. We’ve known each other long enough to put aside formal pretenses. Let’s dispense with this ongoing façade. It’s boring as well as tiring. There’s no reason for either of us to spend the rest of this night or any night in the future alone.” The gambler’s lips curled in a leer, and he raked his gaze hungrily over Lainie’s body. Nick’s temper rose. Jealousy surged through his veins, but if he knew nothing else about Lainie Conrad, he knew she was capable of handling herself with any man in any situation. Still, he pushed back the side of his duster for quick access to the tied-down Smith & Wesson .44 at his hip, alert and ready to move in.

Both cowboys took offense and would have called the man out, but Lainie waved the well-meaning young men into silence. Her attention never veered from the gambler’s face as she extracted her hand from his grip as if it were something distasteful she was discarding. “Goodnight, Mr. Tolliver.” Her tone was as icy as her demeanor.

Nick grinned at the gracious yet pointed finality in her voice, and he dropped his coat back over his holster. He made a mental note to ask around about Tolliver tomorrow, but for the next few hours, Lainie was all he was interested in.