Part 27
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He started up his word processing program and began typing. "Dear Captain Simms. I hereby tender my resignation for the good of the department and the safety of the officers here." Sensing rather than seeing someone approach his desk, he stopped typing and glanced up, immediately doing a double take and staring in disbelief.
A slender brunette dressed in snug-fitting Levis and blue cotton chambray shirt stood before him, holding a plain-wrapped brown paper package. Her hair was braided back from her face and the Stetson on her head was tipped jauntily to reveal challenging blue eyes.
His eyes widened and then he rubbed them with his knuckles before staring once more. "Are you real?" he whispered.
"Want me to slap you to prove it?" Kacie plunked the package down on the desk in front of him. "Here. This is for you." She stood back, hands on hips, and ordered, "Go ahead. Open it. You sure earned it."
Never taking his eyes from her face, he fumbled with the wrapping, tearing it to shreds. Unveiled before him was a miniature replica of an Oscar. He cocked his head to one side and stared at her in confusion.
"That was an Academy Award performance you put on a while back, Detective Caine." She nodded, confirming the statement to herself.
"I...I..." He fumbled for words, too much in shock to think coherently.
Placing both hands on his desk, she leaned forward aggressively. "I told you once not to get into a poker game with me, old son. You bluffed your way through that hand, but the game's not over yet."
"Kacie, I..."
She looked down at the watch on her wrist. "You get off work in what? A half hour?"
Eyes wide, he nodded dumbly.
"I'll be at your place at seven. Be ready to lose your shirt, because I aim to teach you a lesson in poker you'll never forget." She lifted her hat and settled it on her head again, the brim shadowing her face. "I gotta go see a man about a job. See ya." She wheeled around and walked away with a provocative, deliberately hippy swing.
Peter stared after her, mouth hanging open. He stared down at the statuette and back up again, closing his mouth with an audible click.
Simms and Kermit stood in her office doorway as Peter snatched up his gift and jumped to his feet with a whoop. He turned to them with a smile that could have lighted up the entire city in a blackout. "Captain, I..."
"Get out, Caine. You've done all the work around here you're going to get done today." Simms's attempt to look and sound stern failed miserably.
"Thank you, Captain. I know I haven't been..."
"Out. That's an order."
He laughed out loud and saluted before taking off at a dead run.
Kermit wandered over to Peter's computer and read the screen. He smiled as he hit the delete button. "I don't see any point in saving this."
He jumped when the doorbell rang precisely at seven. Taking a deep breath, he walked quickly to the door and opened it.
Kacie waited outside the door, now dressed in a periwinkle blue silk blouse and skirt, her hair down and curling about her face. "Well? Are you going to ask me in?"
Peter stepped aside and she brushed past him, deliberately contacting his arm with her breast. Peter inhaled sharply as he realized there was nothing but soft flesh under the silk. He gulped and squeezed his eyes tightly shut a moment, composing his unruly thoughts.
When he turned, he found Kacie seated at the dining room table, deftly shuffling and reshuffling a deck of cards. She glanced up at him while her hands were busy with the cards. "You feeling all right? You look a little flushed, Peter." Her lips twitched in a smug and knowing smile.
He swallowed to alleviate the sudden dryness in his mouth. "I, um, think I need something to drink." He gestured toward the kitchen. "Can-can I get you anything?"
She slowly ran her tongue over and around her lips, flicking her glance from his face to just below his belt. "Hmm...maybe just some water."
"OK." He turned and started up the stairs, stumbling over the first two steps.
"Don't hurt yourself," she called. "It'd be a shame if you couldn't play with me. Poker, that is."
Peter scrambled up the rest of the steps and prayed for strength. He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of beer and a container of natural spring water. As an afterthought, he opened the top freezer door and stood with his face in the cold. When he felt himself start to shiver, he stepped back and closed both doors, briefly leaning his head against the appliance.
He watched his footing as he descended the stairs. He handed Kacie her bottle of water before sitting down in the chair opposite hers. He twisted the cap off his bottle of beer and took a healthy swig before asking, "What are we playing?"
"What do you want to play?" She smiled at him, her hand curled around the sweating water bottle and gliding up and down through the beads of moisture.
"Deal-dealer's choice," he croaked, uncomfortably shifting his weight in his chair.
"Five card draw. Jacks or better, jokers wild."
"What are the stakes?"
"Clothes."
His eyes widened. " Strip poker? Are you serious?"
"What? You're not...up...for it?" She cocked her head to one side and arched an eyebrow at him. She smiled and handed him her bottle of water. "Would you open this for me, please? I seem to be too...slick." She squirmed in her seat and shuffled the cards again.
Peter opened the container and set it back before her, quickly picking up his beer and drinking deeply. He set down the bottle with a thump. "Deal the cards."
"Got any poker chips?"
"Chips? Um, yeah. I'll get 'em." He pushed back from the table and walked on rubbery legs over to his desk. Opening a drawer, he pulled out a chip carousel and placed it on the table.
"Well?"
He looked at her and frowned. "Well, what?"
"Well, aren't you going to dole out the chips? Or are we using that thing as a centerpiece?"
Peter counted out the red, white, and blue chips and pushed the carousel out of the way.
She slid the deck of cards over to him. "Want to cut?" Picking up her bottle of water, she tipped back her head and sipped from it, deliberately letting some water trickle down her chin and throat.
Peter watched the water run down her neck and throat, unable to tear his eyes away as it dripped over and around the necklace and charms that hung there and down past the first button of her blouse.
"Oh, clumsy me. I spilled." She opened the first button and spread the collar farther apart, revealing the swelling tops of her breasts nearly down to the darker skin of the aureole. "Can't get my blouse wet. It would ruin the silk."
He stared almost hypnotically at her chest. "Can't-can't have you ruin your blouse." He came to himself and shook his head rapidly several times. "Umm...umm...cards are fine. Deal."
She stroked her fingertips along the collar of her blouse, caressing her soft skin. "I think it's time the game started."
"I thought it started when you walked in the door." Peter blushed when he realized he'd spoken out loud.
"It did. You're learning fast."
"Not fast enough," he muttered to himself.
"Excuse me, did you say something?"
"Deal the cards."
Kacie won the first hand easily, Peter having trouble focusing on his cards and totally unable to think past the creamy skin and curves facing him across the table. She smiled at him and drawled, "I win. You lose. I told you you were going to lose your shirt. Let's start with that."
Their eyes met, and Peter eyed her in astonishment. "Are you serious?"
"Serious as a heart attack. Pay up."
After hesitating a moment, Peter thought to himself, {What the hell.} He unbuttoned the cuffs on his shirt, pulling it over his head and dropping it in the middle of the table. "My deal. Gimme the cards."
She slid them over and taunted, "As if that'll do you any good."
He fumbled clumsily with the cards, somehow able to shuffle them and deal.
Kacie again won the hand, and eyed him speculatively. "You decide what goes next."
Pushing his chair back, Peter stood up and jerked off his boots.
"Just gonna take off your boots?" She snorted. "God hates a coward."
He unbuckled his belt and undid the snap on his jeans, unzipping the zipper and sliding the denim down his legs before kicking his feet free. His briefs molded to his body like a second skin, his arousal evident before he sat down, dropping the still-belted jeans onto the growing pile. He stared at her defiantly, and she lowered her eyes. "Your deal." He pushed the cards at her. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
She drank deeply from her water bottle before dealing another hand.
Peter's three kings beat her two pair, and he stared unblinkingly at her. She started to remove her earrings, and Peter hissed, "God hates a coward."
Chin jutting out stubbornly, she jumped to her feet and yanked her skirt down around her ankles, stepping out of the soft fabric and standing before him in French cut bikini panties and her hip-length blouse. She picked up the garment and tossed it on top of his shirt and jeans before plopping down in her chair.
He smiled grimly at her and half-rose from his seat to sweep the cards into a pile before him. "My deal. Game's starting to get interesting now, isn't it?"
She stared at him, unblinking. "If you were as good at anything as you are at talking, you'd be something, you know that?"
Peter slammed his fist down on the table each time he dealt a card. "Last hand," he growled. "Winner take all."
Kacie picked up her cards without taking her eyes off his face. Peter swept his cards off the table, slowly fanning the thin cardboard to separate the cards. Queen, queen, ten, ten, deuce.
She tossed a blue chip into the kitty, and Peter matched her. "How many cards?" he asked stiffly.
"I stand pat."
"Dealer takes one." He discarded the deuce and picked up the new card, another queen. Glancing up at her, he reminded politely, "Your bet."
Kacie stared unseeingly at the cards in her hand.
"I said, it's your bet."
Taking a deep breath, she tossed her cards onto the chips. "I fold."
Peter sat riveted in his chair, unmoving. "That means you lose."
Her eyes never wavered from his. "Depends on how you look at it."
Peter leaned forward over the table. "You gonna pay up? Or are you gonna welch?"
Reaching her hands behind her neck, she undid the clasp of her necklace and removed it, holding it in her palm as her eyes welled up with tears. She stared at the gold in her palm and then at Peter. "Here," she said softly, and laid the necklace on the table before him. "I lost this to you a long time ago."
He stared mutely at the gold chain and the charms that lay before him, the miniature heart turned so the engraved TLW faced him.