A/N: This came to me while I was watching the poker game episode of VM - I always wondered what would happen if it were just Logan and Veronica. I may still use part of this in my AU LoVe story (you'll notice Lily is still alive in this version while in the show she was long dead), but for now it's just brainstorming (it's a quick and dirty - no pun intended - scene so don't expect resolution). The title came from an old joke: What three games do men like? Checker, Chess, and Poker (say it out loud and really fast)

Outtakes

"We started a game we never got to finish. "Play to Strip," remember?"

"I was kidding."

"I wasn't."

Veronica looked up at Logan through her light eyelashes. "You wouldn't take advantage of a poor defenseless girl, would you?"

"Of course not! Fortunately I'm playing you."

##

Logan glared at the openly triumphant Veronica, the air conditioning cold against his bare chest. He was down to one sock and his boxers while the card shark had everything on but her sweatshirt.

"Two more hands and then I get to see what the fuss is all about," she smirked.

Lounging back in his chair with hands behind his head, he preened. "I knew you were doing this just to see me naked. You could've just asked. I woulda dropped trou for you, Babycakes."

"Babycakes? Really?"

"Sugarbritches? Dollface? I know! Pixie."

"Call me Pixie and I promise you it won't be cold air shriveling your balls."

"You think you're so tough, but really you're a marshmallow inside."

"Now that's something you'll never know, will you?"

Unaccountably nervous – strange really since he lost his V-card at fourteen – he leaned towards the green felt table and proposed a new deal. "Ok make this the last hand, all in. Whoever wins takes off everything."

Her cat-soul measured him in a level flat stare as she considered his offer. Sparks of excitement skittered across his skin, leaving behind goose bumps he could excuse as reaction to cold air, even if deep inside he knew it was because he was the focus of Veronica's complete attention.

"Okay." Her nod looked a bit hesitant, but Logan didn't hold back the gleeful smirk. He'd been just stringing her along, letting her get comfortable so he could win it all in one fell swoop.

"Excellent, let me deal," said the 09er spider to the 02er fly.

##

Logan laid down the three Jacks and two tens with a flourish.

"Full House!"

Veronica's face fell. "Oh God, I only have two pair. I honestly thought I had figured out all your tells."

"Actor's kid, remember? How many times do I have to remind you? Show 'em." Then show me everything you've got underneath, Sweetcheeks.

She turned over two nines and slowly flipped over the other two cards: two nines. Fucking four of a kind.

"Bitch."

"Actor's kid, perhaps, but actor you are not. Me, on the other hand, much better at bluffing." She rotated her index finger. "Give me your Lucky Charms boxers and the other sock."

Logan shrugged nonchalantly, as comfortable naked as clothed. With any other girl he would take his time and tease her with slow glimpses, but he just wanted to get this over like ripping off a band aid. He stood up and dropped his underwear to his ankles stepping out of the cloth as he peeled the sock off too.

"Satisfied?"

"Not yet." The throaty pulse of her voice stroked him and his cock stirred in interest.

"God, Veronica I didn't think you could actually pull it off. I owe you hundred bucks."

His ex-girlfriend's voice was a splash of cold water across Logan's senses and he spun around to see Lily, Dick, Duncan, Meg, and Casey standing in the open door of the pool house.

"Actually if I remember the terms of the bet, all of you owe me a hundred bucks," Veronica gloated, stretching before pushing away from the table. She sauntered over to where the other 09ers were standing, hand out.

"Dude, I totally thought you had her with the last hand."

"Duncan, please tell me when he's dressed so I can look at him again."

"Geesh, Meg, it's not like you've never seen a boy naked before." A quick glance at the blushing girl coupled with Duncan's distinctly uncomfortable look told its own story. "Ohmigod, you haven't seen a naked boy before!"

"Lily, leave Meg alone. Logan put your clothes on. I got what I came for."

Logan hadn't moved from where he stood exposed before his friends and Veronica, the girl who had yet to look at his body despite apparently wagering she could get him to strip. Anger and a sense of impish vengeance moved his feet until he was behind her, then she was spinning around into his arms and he plunged his tongue into her surprised mouth.

He refused to be this crazy over a girl and be ignored like this; who the fuck did she think she was, to make him think of her until all he could see was her in every girl he talked to, touched, or tried to kiss? Veronica was so tiny he was able to easily pick her up and carry her over to the couch, their lips never parting for an instant. Her legs were clamped so tightly around his naked waist he couldn't untangle himself from her, so he made sure when they fell backwards, she was on top.

##

"Uh, do you think they realize we're still here?"

"Does it fucking look like it?" Lily was staring at the embracing couple with an unreadable look on her pretty face.

Dick danced nervously in place, unsure if he needed to hold the 09er Princess back or not; it was common knowledge at Neptune High that Logan Echolls belonged to Lily Kane, regardless of whether or not they were actually dating. It seemed the 02er hadn't gotten the memo.

"My parents are going to kill me if I'm late for curfew and Duncan's my ride." Meg's face was white with splotches of red and she tugged frantically on her boyfriend's arm, studiously ignoring the moaning couple on the couch.

"Whose phone is ringing? Oh wait, that's mine…er gotta go, it's the 'rents. Bye Dick!"

"Bye Casey." Dick was caught between a voyeuristic thrill of seeing the bitchy terror getting knocked down a peg by his best friend or leaving with Lily so no blood would be shed. "Lily, we should leave them…to…uh…their…um…conversation."

Lily suddenly turned and clamped a hand onto his arm. He flinched but manfully took the pain as she practically dragged him from the pool house. "Yes, let's leave them to their "conversation," I wouldn't want to get in the way."

"Dude, you can't be mad! You broke up with him and broke his heart. He's just getting a little sumthin sumthin to get over you. He'll dump her the minute you crook your finger, you know that. He never stays with the others whenever you call."

Her laughter was quiet but with a distinct ragged edge. "If you think that's what their kiss was about then you didn't see what I saw. What I've seen since she first got here."

"What did you see?"

"Puzzle pieces fitting together."

"Huh?"

"Don't strain that pretty head of yours, Dick."

"I am pretty, aren't I?"

Lily looked up at him with a half-smirk. "Well, at least I know you're still the same. Never change Richard, never change."

Dick wasn't sure how his fineness was tied up with Logan banging the new chick, but if no body parts went flying, he was okay with it. He couldn't wait to get home and tell Beaver what he missed. One thing was for sure: life with Mars around wasn't boring in the fucking slightest!