Tentatively Eve relaxed, wondering if Reno would release her if she didn’t fight him.

Immediately the overwhelming pressure of his body lifted until it was little more than a warm, disturbingly sensual contact from her shoulders to her feet.

«Now kiss me back,» Reno whispered.

«Then you’ll let me go?»

«Then we’ll negotiate some more.»

«And if I don’t kiss you?»

«Then I’ll take what is already mine, and to hell with what you want.»

«You wouldn’t,» she whispered weakly.

«Care to bet?»

Eve looked into the cool green eyes so close to her own and realized that she never should have allowed Reno Moran to sit down at her poker table.

She was very good at reading most people, but not this man. Right now she couldn’t tell if he was bluffing or telling her the simple truth.

Don Lyon’s sage advice rang in Eve’s mind: When you can’t tell if a man is running a bluff, and you can’t afford the ante if you lose, then fold your cards and wait for a better deal.

3

With trembling lips, Eve lifted her head to give Reno the kiss he had demanded. After a quick pressure of her mouth against his, she retreated, her heart beating wildly.

«You call that a kiss?» Reno asked.

She nodded, because she was too nervous to speak.

«I should have guessed you’d cheat with your body the same way you cheat with cards,» he said, disgusted.

«I kissed you!»

«The way a frightened virgin kisses her first boy. Well, you’re no virgin, and I’m no wide-eyed country boy.»

«But I–I am,» she stammered.

Reno said something beneath his breath, then added in a cutting voice, «Save the wide-eyed act for a pup that’s still wet behind the ears. Men my age know everything worth knowing about women’s tricks, and everything we know, we learned the hard way.»