Free The Gambler by Lily Graison Page B

by the bar reached out, taking
her arm. “Let me buy you a drink, pretty lady.”
     
    Emmaline laughed. “Uh, no thanks.”
     
    “Oh, come on,” he said. “We’re
celebrating!”
     
    “Yeah. We just spent the last month on the
trail and haven’t had the pleasure of a sweet smelling woman in all
that time. Have a drink with us.”
     
    Looking around the room, Emmaline noticed the
number of women inside the building, all of them dressed in their
satin and ruffles. “The saloon is full of women. I’m sure one of
them would be more than happy to have a drink with you.”
     
    “Ah,” the man who bowed to her said, “They’re
not interested in saddle bums. They’re all after the high rollers
in the room.”
     
    Emmaline turned and looked around the room
again. He was right. Almost every girl there was perched near one
of the gaming tables, their attention on the men tossing down their
money as if it were never ending. Her gaze fell on Tristan. He
wasn’t smiling now but that woman was still on his lap, her fingers
running through his hair as if he belonged to her.
     
    He glanced up, his blue eyes finding her own
and she gave him a contemptuous looked before turning back to the
men at the bar. She smiled and crossed the distance, laying her
hands on top of the shiny mahogany. “All right. One drink.”
     
    Their cheers drowned out everything else as a
glass was sat in front of her and she picked it up, trying not to
snarl her nose at the horrible smell of the whiskey and turned to
look back at Tristan. She smiled, saluted him with the glass, and
brought the foul liquid to her lips and swallowed the contents in
one hefty gulp.
     
    It burned a trail to the pit of her stomach
and she coughed, bent at the waist and wheezed to catch a breath.
The men laughed, someone patted her on the back and when she could
breathe again, she stood and put the glass down and wiped tears
from her eyes.
     
    The bowing man poured her another drink and
Emmaline was about to refuse until she looked up, noticing the
large mirror behind the bar. The entire room was reflected in the
glass and one face in particular caught her attention, those ice
blue eyes shooting fire in her direction. Tristan was glaring at
her, the girl on his lap forgotten.
     
    She grinned, picked up the glass for a second
time and turned to the men. “Bottoms up, gentlemen!”
     

Chapter Five
     
     
     
    Tristan lost count of the number of drinks
Emmaline had tossed back and he’d lost a sizable amount of his cash
from being so distracted by what she was doing. The blonde on his
lap wasn’t helping matters either. She didn’t seem interested in
leaving anytime soon and the way she was moving around in his lap,
he knew she was trying her best to arouse him enough he’d leave the
table and follow her upstairs. It wasn’t going to happen. Not
tonight. Not with Emmaline surrounded by six men, all of which were
plying her with drinks he wasn’t even sure she could handle.
     
    She’d stumbled once already, caught in the
arms of one of the men and he’d yet to let go of her, his filthy
hands resting low on her back, his fingers grazing her bottom.
     
    Cheers erupted from his table and Tristan
realized he’d lost another hand. That was five in a row. He never
lost that many games unless he meant to do it and tonight he
hadn’t.
     
    He cursed under his breath, tossed his cards
to the middle of the table and refused to look at Emmaline again.
He’d made a promise to see her settled into a new life, one he had
no intentions of being a part of, so he had to let her do as she
pleased. He concentrated on the game when the cards were dealt
again and tossed his chips in when the others did.
     
    His hand was decent and the desire to look
up, just to see what Emmaline was doing now, was great, but he
resisted. He concentrated on the game and held back a smug grin
when things finally started going in his favor. Three games later
he’d won all the money he’d