“So, what was all of that about?”

Jay cocks his head at me as we walk out of the gaming room and into one of the long corridors. “Petit, you mean?” he asks, almost spitting the name.

“You two have some kind of bad blood between you, don’t you?”

Jay laughs, shrugging off something that may have been more serious than he was letting on. “That asshole is always like that.”

“Are you sure? It seemed like he has something against you.”

As the words leave my lips, I’m wondering if I should even be saying them. Jay and I have known each other for about an hour—maybe not even as long as that. His personal affairs are none of my business. It doesn’t matter that I’m dying to know every single thing there is to know about him.

The hot guy walking next to me doesn’t seem put off by my probing, though.

“Maxime Petit doesn’t like a lot of things. He doesn’t like competition, and he doesn’t like anyone who’s not elite. But who the hell is really elite, anymore?”

“Competition? Sorry…I don’t understand. For what?”

For me?

My pulse quickens at the thought of Jay wanting to compete with another guy for my attentions.

“I told you I’m a gambler, right?”

“Yes.”

Jay gives me a blank look, as if he’s waiting for me to come to some sort of realization. We’re still walking down the corridor, with what looks like another huge gaming room looming up ahead.

“That’s what I do,” Jay simply says. “It’s my job.”

“Wait. You play card games for a living?”

He chuckles. “That’s right.”

My head spins as I try to make sense of this news. “But it’s all luck…isn’t it?”

“A lot of it, yeah. Not all of it.”

“How good are you?”

Jay stops and looks at me. “Pretty good.”

I stop walking as well, and start putting it all together. As I look around the casino that’s larger than anything I’ve ever seen in my life, and I think about what Jay told me about Maxime Petit, and about how sure he was while instructing me at poker, it all begins to make sense.

“Wow,” I breathe. “So you weren’t kidding when you said that you make a living as a gambler.”

“I thought you believed me.”

“I did, but honestly, I thought you meant that you scrape by. You know, kind of like, gambling and waiting tables or whatever….” I trail off, then quickly add, “Not that there’s anything wrong with waiting tables!”

“We need waiters,” he solemnly says, a smile sneaking across his lips.

I start walking again, but more slowly this time. There’s still so much more to think about.

“I don’t think you answered my question. Why does that Petit guy not like you? You said something about the ‘elite.’”

Jay falls into an easy step beside me, his hands in his pockets. “Right. Petit is from money—lots of old family money, to be specific. He thinks that the big games should only be played by people from his social class.”

“And you’re not from that…class.”

“Nope. Born and raised on the rough side of Detroit.”

“That’s a crazy idea. I mean, about only the elite gambling.”

“I couldn’t agree more. You really showed him, though.”

An appreciative smile spreads across his face and my chest grows warmer. I’m suddenly so self-conscious, I have to look away. While telling off Petit, I wasn’t trying to flirt with Jay. I just wanted the annoying, disrespectful man to leave.

But now, Jay is all I can think about.

“There’s a pretty big game tomorrow,” he hedges.

“How big?”

“Maybe the biggest of my career so far.” Jay’s jaw tenses and he stares off into space.

I gasp and stop walking once more. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

He nods. I don’t need another hint. My time at the casino has been amazing, but it’s obviously time to take my leave.

“I should go. I should let you prepare.”

Jay’s eyes go wild. “No! Don’t.” He steps forward, his hand touching my elbow. His touch is white-hot, melding me to him. I couldn’t move an inch if I tried. “I’m ready for it,” he softly says, the words making the skin on the back of my neck tingle. “Stay. Enjoy the night with me.”

I nod dumbly, nothing but putty in this guy’s hands.

I’m still feeling as if I’m floating on air as Jay leads me into another room, where we take a seat at a baccarat table. Several people seem to know who Jay is, putting their heads together and whispering while they throw glances his way.

In awe, I watch as Jaw wins one game, and then another…and a third.

I could watch him all night, just riding the high of the anticipation. There’s something so enthralling about watching him play the game and knowing he’s probably going to win, but always knowing that at any second, he could lose it all. The thrill of it sends a rush of adrenaline through my veins.

“You’re done?” I laugh when Jay suddenly stands up from the table.

His eyes soften. “I have a guest tonight.”

I grin at him as we go to get more drinks. My toes are aching in my heels, but I couldn’t care less. I’m in a dream, lost in an exotic world where no one knows my name or story—no one but the captivating man next to me.

“You are really good at this. I see why it’s your job, now,” I tell him.

“Thanks. Your sketches were really good. I can see why you want that to be your job,” Jay says as we come into an area where the mock Venetian canal reappears.

He watches me intently, as if he’s certain I’m not going to believe him, and he has to do everything in his power to make me see the truth.

“Thanks. I think they are, too. I want to illustrate children’s books…and I’m going to do it. I am. I just wish my parents believed in me more, you know?”

He solemnly nods. “It sounds like they’re just trying to protect you, because they love you.”

“Yeah,” I slowly agree, not happy that he’s taking their side.

We get to the bar, and Jay gets us another round. After paying, he turns back to me, a look of passion in his eyes.

“Look—here’s what I see. Standing in front of me is a beautiful, smart, and confident woman…”

I try not to melt into a puddle, and push at the ice in my cocktail with the small black straw.

Jay continues. “Obviously, your parents did something right. Not to mention, they brought you on this trip. They love you.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “They do.”

A gondola bobs past us, its benches packed with a family chattering away in what I think is Italian.

“What do your parents think of your lifestyle?” I ask. “Gambling and all. Are they supportive of it?”

“I wouldn’t know. I grew up in foster care. I never knew my parents.”

“I’m sorry,” I breathe. Sharing this news doesn’t seem to bother him at all, though. He just nods and continues.

“It made me what I am today.”

“How so?”

“That cheesy saying, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’, really is true.”

My stomach clenches. “So the homes you were in…they weren’t good ones?”

He folds his muscular arms, leans against a pillar, and gives my question some thought. “They weren’t that bad. Granted, they weren’t the best. But it’s really the choices that I made for myself after I left that weren’t good for me.”

I’m captivated, hanging on his every word. Jay catches my eye and gives me that slight half-smile of his that I’ve already fallen in love with.

“I got involved with a gang after high school. Neighborhood I lived in, it was kind of hard to avoid them. Gangs could give you protection the police couldn’t. They could make sure that the people you cared about were safe, that you always had a way to make money…albeit in not exactly…legal ways.”

“So, you were in a gang?”

“Kind of. It’s more like, I did some indirect work for this group. I bought and sold guns and…other things.”

My eyes flick down to the tattoos I can see on his wrists, under his shirtsleeves. This guy isn’t like the wannabe bad-boys I grew up with, the ones who crashed their sports cars and hired prostitutes with their trust fund money. Jay is the real deal.

“It all went pretty well for a few years,” he says. “Until some guys that I thought I could trust ratted me out, and I went to jail.”

“Why would they do that?”

“That’s the business. You can’t trust anyone.” He laughs. “It’s good. Going to jail was the best thing that ever happened to me. It showed me what a dumb kid I was being. Also, it introduced me to poker.” He grins, a wild gleam in his eye. “And poker is what I’m really good at.”

Shivers ripple through me. “I’ve noticed. So then what happened?”

“I served my three-year sentence. Got out and started gambling. That was about six years ago.”

“And now, here you are.”

He nods. “And now, here I am.”

I bite my lower lip and mull over everything he’s just told me. Jay’s experiences in Detroit were a world away from my upper-class ones in Manhattan. In high school, I was vacationing in the Hamptons and playing on the tennis team at a private school. Plus, I had two loving parents. Jay’s life couldn’t have been more different from mine.

He suddenly straightens up from the pillar. “Let’s go for a ride.”

“Huh?”

Before I know what’s happening, he has my hand in his. It feels like an electric current passes through our palms as he pulls me into an empty gondola. We settle onto a bench together, my thigh pressed up against his. It’s still hard to think straight with Jay so close, but suddenly, for the first time since meeting him, my attention slightly shifts away from being solely on the enchanting man. I remember why I’m here.

I pull my phone out from my purse. There’s a text from my dad, sent an hour ago.

Where are you?!?

Taking a deep breath, I think about how best to respond. I overreacted at dinner. I know that much, now. Jay’s right. My parents love me and are just trying to protect me. Their understanding of the world is completely different from mine. They both grew up without money and had to work their asses off to get to where they are today.

While I’m afraid of living a life where my sole focus is money and my true passions are pushed to the side, they’re afraid of a life of poverty for me. They just want to protect me from what they had to go through. Compared to what they went through and what Jay went through, I’m lucky.

Hell, I’m more than lucky. My life has been blessed.

I think it over a few more times and then type out a response.

I’m in Macau. Sorry I got so angry at dinner. I’m just taking some time to myself and doing some exploring. I’ll see you guys in a few days.

Satisfied, I send the text and then finally relax against the bench. The gondola glides through the water, the smooth movement gentle and peaceful.

“Everything okay?” Jay asks.

“Yep. Everything is perfect.”