Bluffing the Devil

chapter 9



Sleep and I had a new agreement. If it didn't avoid me, I wouldn't chase it down and beat it within an inch of its life. Our agreement was working out beautifully so far. When I said I was tired and wanted to sleep lately, I could close my eyes and drift off without much, if any, effort. It was a nice change from the previous twenty or more years of my life.

As I drifted off into dream land, my body felt weightless and peaceful. It was one of those feelings that you would love to have all of the time, but would be nervous to have also. If I felt like this all the time, I might not ever accomplish anything again.

My dream this time wasn't Devin or some decadently sexy scene that made my skin tingle with delight; this was a dark place and I was scared. I wasn't running, but my heart was racing. It felt sort of like when you're going up the basement stairs, and you can see through them and know nothing is there, but are waiting for something to reach between the stairs and drag you back down with it. That same feeling you have as a child when you are scared to dangle your feet off of the side of your bed. You feel safe and believe that you are, but the slight chance that you might not be safe, is enough to make you stop and think about what you are doing.

I couldn't tell if I was in a room or outside. I just felt it was dark, cool, and something was dangerous. I tried to take a deep breath and calm myself, but the air choked me. It was really disconcerting to not be able to see anything to catch my bearings.

I closed my eyes and started to wish for Devin. I was in a dream and he was the only one that could show up and fix things, if anyone could help me figure out things, it was him.

I opened my eyes after a minute. He didn't show up. Great, now I was all alone, scared, and had no idea where I was. I just sat down on the smooth ground and tried to let my eyes adjust to the dark.

After a while, I was able to make out some shapes in the distance. Nothing moving, just solid shapes, but it was something different, so I decided to stand up and head there. I took one step and was face-to-face with the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, it was as if light came from her. I couldn't see anything past a few feet around her, but she was a beacon if I had ever seen one.

"Hello, Miss Riley. I trust your journey was a safe one?" the gorgeous lady spoke my name so sweet one would think I was her favorite person in the world, but I didn't know her.

"My journey? I don't even know what kind of dream this is, but yeah, I guess you could say the trip was pretty smooth. I did keep my hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times, so I kinda feel I should have earned some sort of newsletter on where I am, but dreams are weird like that I guess."

She chuckled, "You are so feisty. I love it. You are at my house. I summoned you so we could have a little girl chat."

"You "summoned" me? What the hell does that even mean? How do you know my name?" Suspicion had been warming the back of my mind, but I was trying to remember that this was my dream and I had created this. Nothing could hurt me in my own dream; could it?

"Oh, you silly girl, you don't know what is going on yet, do you? Very well, let's just pretend for a while that this is all in your head, shall we? We can get to know each other, have a nice chat, and you can wake up wondering why you dreamed about me instead of Devin, hm? Sound good to you?" she quirked an eyebrow as she sat in a chair I didn't notice was there before. She crossed her incredibly long, perfect legs and placed her hands in her lap softly. She was dressed like a model in a striking outfit and her hair cascaded down in a mass of perfect S curls in front of her and brushed the tops of her fingers on her lap. Rich, chocolate colored eyes with flecks of gold burrowed into me. "Come on, have a seat. Care for some tea?"

"Where? Oh," I said as I realized there was a chair right beside me. Geez, it’s dark. Where the hell are we anyway? "No thanks. I just had some hot chocolate. I'm good for now."

Her soft laugh sent chills across my flesh. "Very well, so tell me a little about your life plans, Miss Riley. I know you are a driven and smart. You've made your way up the ladder in the poker world and are proving yourself. What's next?" This woman was the kind of woman that would make most men go completely insane, and make other women so jealous they committed random acts of violence to either be like her or keep their man away from her. Something about her was so calm and charming. In my experience, when people are that appealing, they are doing it as a cover up and have ulterior motives. I kept having to remind myself that this was only a dream and just rolled with it.

"Well, Miss…? I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name," I said honestly.

"I didn't throw it, Miss Riley," she said with a diabetes-inducing grin.

"Cute." I'm sure the sarcasm could be felt in at least three countries from my simple word, but, of course, it didn't faze her, one bit.

"Your plan?" she prodded.

"World domination, of course," I chuckled mostly to myself. Who me, a world leader? Ha! That was laughable no matter how you looked at it. "I have no plan passed the current one I am doing. I set my mind to something and I complete that task. When I accomplish my goal, I immediately set a new one and move on from there."

"You have nothing in your life that you want other than winning your game? That seems odd for such a beautiful and vibrant woman. Isn't there a love interest, hobbies, friends? You do have a life besides your game, don’t you, dear?"

"Of course I have friends and other things I like to do. Winning the tournament is not a life or death situation for me, truly. I just saw it as a great challenge and decided that I would like to see what I could do with that. It just so turned out that I am really great at the game, so now I have my sights on winning the bracelet," I answered honestly.

"No love interest? I see you skipped totally over that one," she didn't change her seated position even slightly the entire time. Perfect posture, gorgeous legs, incredible everything else. Bitch.

"I have no "love" interest, no," I answered. I was honest. The person I desired was not love, it was lust, pure and simple. I did feel like I cared for him and wanted him to be real all the time, but of course I cared for him. I created him in my mind. I should love all things that come from my mind, no matter how impossible and crazy they were.

"So, winning your game is your priority, then your friends, then this lust interest? Is that the order you would place things?"

"Why would I need to put things in order? I love my friends and family, the game is an important part of my life right now as I am right at the finish line with that, and my "lust interest" is none of your concern."

"I see. Let's just say hypothetically that it was my concern. Would you change your answer?"

"What do you mean by that?"

She leaned slightly closer to me and her voice came out like a soft ballad whisper. "What if I could make the one thing you want most in the world, yours?"

"Are you my fairy Godmother?" I asked jokingly as I took a play out of Victoria's book and rolled my eyes.

"Maybe something like that," she answered with a sweet smile. "I just want you to choose your words and thoughts wisely. You never know when someone might just swoop in and make your wishes come true. You know, that whole "careful what you wish for" sort of thing, that’s all," she said. Her demure smile was not fooling my senses, but something made me want to believe what she said also. It was a strange meeting and I was ready for it to be over.

"Well, this has been super fun and I appreciate your hospitality, but I really must go," I said as I slowly rose from my chair.

"Aww. So soon? We were just getting to the good stuff," she faux-pouted.

“Perhaps we do it another time then?" I offered.

"Sooner than later," she answered with a wink an instant before I woke up.