Page 95 of Used

“All right, let’s find out.” He takes out his phone and sends a text. “I’ve been hiding some parts of my life because I didn’t want you to be shocked, but I guess you’d better know straight-up.”

My brows rise. “What exactly should I know?”

“We’ll get there.”

I wait, thinking he’s going to show me pictures of himself engaged in wild sex, but instead he sets his phone on the nightstand. I chew the corner of my mouth, feeling unsettled by having to wait for whatever revelations are coming, and by feeling that sometimes I think I know him and sometimes I don’t know him at all. A little part of me also wonders if deep down he’s angry that I’m such a good card player and wasn’t forthcoming about it when he asked me to play with them.

“So I’ve got a couple questions for you.”

“Yeah, ask.” He takes off his watch and sets it next to his phone.

“Card shark fiancée… hot or not?”

“Extremely hot.”

“Scale of one to ten, how angry will you be if you don’t win the game tomorrow?”

“At you? Zero. At myself? Ten.”

“Scale of one to ten, how standoffish and mean will C be to me if I win tomorrow?”

Trick’s smile drops. “Zero. C’s not petty.”

“Unlike me?”

“No, Laurelyn. You’re not petty. Don’t misquote me. And more important, don’t misunderstand me. Girls sometimes get taught the wrong thing growing up. So do men, for that matter. If I thought you were petty, I’d never have dated you even in high school, let alone try to turn you into a warlord’s bride.”

I shake my head, but give him a small smile. “How high is your sex drive?”

“Medium.”

“So our first few nights together were unusual?”

“In terms of how many times I had sex with you?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, things weren’t typical at first, considering everything.”

“So what would be normal?”

“The other nights.”

My brows rise. “I’m not even sure how many times we had sex the first couple of nights. Three or four, I think. But more important, we’ve never had a night without it. Every time we’ve been together, we’ve had sex at least twice.”

His brows draw together. “Sounds right. So?”

“That’s high. You wouldn’t call that a lot of sex?”

He looks thoughtful a moment and shrugs. “All right, call my sex drive high then.”

“I will. Why did you call it medium?”

“Let’s table this. I want to have sex, not talk about it.”

“You want to have sex right now?”

“Definitely.”