Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 145

We spent the next three hours in the casino. I had only been to one a handful of times, so while I had a cursory familiarity with the games, I needed a bit of a learning curve. Erin picked up some chips and I handed them to anyone willing; Chloe abstained, saying she wasn't here to gamble. Erin said she might, but that she would lose her own money, saying very loudly that she didn't want to feel obligated to her boss in any way with the existing power Imbalance. She stated it so clearly in front of Ashlee that it was clear she was being obnoxious, but Ashlee seemed rather pleased with Erin's decision. The next moment Ashlee's back was tumed, however, Erin winked at me and ran the tip of her tongue across her bottom lip, teasing me.

Ashlee and Shea didn't hesitate to take me up on my offer to share the wealth; Ashlee took seventy thousand dollars in chips, and Shea took a modest forty. Then we started at the craps table, which I never really got the grasp of and found relatively boring: Shea killed it there though, raking in an extra ten thousand before we moved on. We went through the rounds of all the basic table games. At the craps table, Ashlee clung to my side and insisted on blowing on the dice every time, but at the roulette table, she and Erin briefly forgot about their differences as both of them seemed to do relatively well there. I left them to it with Ashlee's blessing and Shea, Chloe, and I found the card games. I was most familiar with blackjack, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Shea knew a lot more than I did about the game, and she spent the half hour teaching me some of the finer points of the game. To any outsider, Chloe seemed like a beautiful, content hanger-on, touching my shoulder often, laughing at the jokes of some of the other onlookers, and delightfully engaging in conversation like any professional courtesan. I'd never seen this side of Chloe, and I was

enjoying it.

As a relatively young, decently handsome guy with a lot of money I garnered a lot of attention at the blackjack table. I'm sure having two gorgeous women hanging on my arm helped. Even the dealer, a pretty woman probably around twenty-three with striking red hair and hazel eyes, seemed to be watching me with a keen eye, smiling at me, batting her lashes, and biting her lip. It felt like she was flirting with me more than any of the other players, though I couldn't be completely sure.

Once, during a close high-stakes round, Chloe kissed me on the cheek for good luck, quickly smearing away the lipstick she left behind. Then Shea placed her fingers on my jaw, pulled me toward her, and gave me a much more intense lip lock that lasted a full three seconds. There was no tongue, but it was enough to heat my blood, especially considering her nude body had been on top of mine a few short hours ago. The kiss was met with cheers and applause before the round resolved and it was revealed that I'd lost. Everyone sympathized with me and one older gentleman said that if I was going home with those two, it didn't matter how much money I lost, I was still winning.

Soon after, Ashlee found us, and being the classy lady Shea was, she made room for the paralegal to sit beside me. Ashlee gave her a warm thank you and then gave me another kiss, which elicited impressed sounds from some of the people who had witnessed the kiss Shea and I shared.

We spent another fifteen minutes at the blackjack table before deciding to go somewhere else. By this point, the only one who was up was Shea, who had amassed an extra fourteen thousand dollars. Ashlee had lost about three-quarters of what I'd given her, and Erin had lost all her chips completely and graciously accepted a few of mine when Ashlee wasn't looking, promising to pay me back later.

We finally found ourselves at the poker table, which I had been excited to try. Shea, Ashlee, and I sat at the table with a handful of others while Erin took off to try to recover some of her winnings. John stood vigilant behind me, so I insisted that Chloe go with Erin and at least try to enjoy herself a little. She reluctantly agreed.

After the second hand, I received a text from Emily that she and Natashya would meet us at the club we agreed on, and that I would see them there. Since we had plans to meet there in thirty minutes anyway, I texted them back telling her we would see them soon.

By the time we left the casino floor, I had a strong buzz going on, I was three hundred twenty-three thousand dollars poorer, and feeling really good about my situation. There's something empowering about being able to blow six digits worth of money at a high-end casino while being escorted around by four beautiful women. To top it all off, John handed me a slip of paper after leaving the poker table that had 'Sara' and a phone number scrawled across it in loopy blue ink. My mind was working a little slower than normal, so it took a moment to realize that Kylle had been the name of the blackjack dealer. Proud of my little trophy, I slipped it into my pocket before Ashlee could notice.