“Strip Poker 3”

When the game finally started, it started with a bang.

After conferring with Laidey about Jinx’s rather sheltered lifestyle before she’d moved to Henderson, Jax had begun to worry about his young girlfriend playing strip poker in a crowd of sixteen.

Sixteen! That was way too many people.

When Thor and Missy arrived right before the cards were dealt, the game was immediately divided into two groups. Couples were separated and now Jax found himself sitting on the other side of the room, far from Jinx and Cal Johnson who, he noticed, were seated directly across from each other. He tried to pay attention to the cards in his own hand, he really did. But the shouts and whoops that erupted had everyone’s head turning in time to see Jinx standing and—what the fuck?—shimmying out of her underwear.

The cards had not been in play for five minutes and already his girl was standing in front of Cal Johnson and others tugging her underwear off from underneath her dress.

“What the hell?” he shouted.

Jinx glanced in his direction, giving him a wink and a quick giggle. She stooped down and slid those pink panties from her heels and lassoed them around her finger as she stood.

His favorite pink panties.

The ones he’d given her on Valentine’s Day.

The ones for his eyes only.

And now that Major League asshat had seen them. Everyone had seen them. Was seeing them as she made no attempt to put the damn things away.

Without a moment of thought, Jax was on his feet and with two giant strides he was able to lean over and snatch the scrap of lace out of her hand and stuff it into his pants pocket. He leaned in so not everybody could hear. “Jinx, you’re a certifiable genius. Play poker like one.”

“Cal got lucky,” she claimed, clearly not inhibited in anyway.

Jax’s head made a slow twist towards Cal. “Any particular reason you are gunning for my girl?”

“Jinx wants the full strip-poker-with-Cal experience. Far be it for me not to give it to her.”

“Grrrr.”

“I’m still completely covered,” she whispered as she kissed his cheek and pushed at his shoulder to get him moving back over to his own game. “As you said, I’m a genius. Trust me. I’ve got this.”

“Got this my ass,” he mumbled heading back to his own game and apologizing to the group.

“Get your head in the game, Jaxon,” Brooks ordered. “This is serious business.”

“True that,” Jax breathed, noticing he had a stellar hand, so he threw in a few chips. Turns out he won and motioned for everyone at his table to strip off a layer.

“What the hell? Don’t be tightfisted with those five spots,” the mayor ordered.

“Fine,” Jax said as he dug into his pocket and brought out a ten. “All y’all strip off a layer, but our fine mayor takes off two.” He gave Brooks a how-about-that look.

“Is that part of the rules?” Brooks asked as he took off his sports coat and dropped his tie.

“Sounds like a great addition,” Poppy said on a grin while shuffling the cards.

The next outburst came quickly as all the women on the other side of the room clapped and shrieked when Cal Johnson stood up and slowly began unbuttoning his shirt—which was still underneath the guy’s sports jacket and tie. He took his time, gyrating to the music playing over the Sonos system and somehow managed to take off his shirt and look sexy doing it. “Taking a page out of Jinx’s playbook here,” he said, ending up with his tie still around his neck, dangling over his bare chest while his arms were covered in the sports coat. The look really worked for him.

Grrrr.

Good thing his girl was made of money. Obviously the game over there had already devolved into some sort of a grudge match between his girl and the all star. Damn.

Where was his phone when he needed it? He should have heeded Harry’s advice from the get-go. He should have called his brother Xavier to come in and stop these shenanigans. Of course Laidey was sitting over there in Jinx’s game, not having had to take off one damn thing yet. If things kept going in this direction Cal and Jinx would be nude within a half hour.

Double grrrr.

Pinks won the hand, and in the equitable game going on that Jax was involved in, everybody had to take off something. Everybody other than Pinks.

Deciding to also take a page from Jinx’s playbook, Jax stood up, unbuckled his belt, unzipped his fly, turned toward the kitchen, whipped off his pants, whipped off his boxer briefs, and then stepped back into his pants, tucking himself inside, and began zipping up before most noticed what he’d just done.

“Whoa. Nice ass Jaxon,” Missy said.

“What the hell was that?” Pinks yelled.

Harry chuckled, while Poppy and Sarah Jane stared at him with glee.

“This is going to be fun,” Poppy said, handing the cards to Pinks for the shuffle.

“This is already getting out of hand,” Pinks said before yelling across the room. “Red, how you making out over there?”

“Besides the fact I just got a flash of Jaxon Wright’s junk?”

“Sorry,” Jax muttered to Pinks.

Pinks just cackled. “You weren’t as smooth as you thought.”

“I was damn smooth. I can’t help that Scarlett has supersonic peripheral vision.”

Cal cleared his throat. “Ah, apparently we are in a game delay over here as all the girls are whispering about said junk. Jax, next time, share with the entire class, will you?” he said with a grin.

“Just leave my panty-less girl alone.”

“You mind your own game over there. I’ll handle this one.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Jax mumbled, barely feeling any joy from another win as he laid down his cards. Until he got a brilliant idea.

He stood, pulling out his wallet. “One hundred dollars to Henderson Helping Henderson if all the girls in the room take off their underpants.”