DISCLAIMER: The characters do not belong to me…they are all the creation of the wonderful Stephenie Meyer.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Emmett and Rosalie play against Edward and Bella in a game of strip poker, while Bella has a second scheme to get back at Emmett.
Poker & A Prank 2
"Time for bets. Picky, how many articles of clothing do you want to risk?" asked a smiling Emmett.
I smiled shyly, pretending I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing. Our big brother had no idea that Alice had given me a crash course in poker during our Bella Barbie session. "Just one. It's not a very good hand."
Edward's lips twitched slightly and I hoped Emmett and Rose wouldn't notice. I knew he was proud, but I didn't want them to guess right away what we were up to.
"Rose?" Emmett asked.
"Two," she replied.
"Edward?" Emmett questioned.
"Two," he replied.
Emmett's smile grew. "I bet three."
"Emmett," Rose warned.
"Relax, Rosie. I've got this!" Emmett stated confidently. "Any counter-bets?" he asked.
We all shook our heads 'no'.
"Time to show them. You first, Picky," Emmett said.
I put my cards down, fanning them out. I scrunched up my nose, pretending to be embarrassed by my hand. "Sorry, Edward. I only got three of the 'J' cards and two sevens. I don't think I did very well."
"You did excellent, Bella. Three of a kind and a pair is called a full house. That's an excellent hand," Edward told me, pretending to be the reassuring husband.
"Damn beginner's luck," Emmett muttered.
I smiled, wondering exactly what Emmett would do if he knew what was in store for him on this night.
"Rose, it's your turn," he announced.
Rose sighed and put her cards down, showing a single pair of twos. "Zip."
Edward smiled and put down a straight flush. "I had a rather good hand."
Emmett scowled and put down his cards. He had three of a kind, but it was with fours, so Edward's hand beat him, even if mine wouldn't have.
"Who won?" I asked, continuing with my pretenses.
"Edward and you," Emmett growled.
"Emmett, be nice or we'll quit and it won't count as a forfeit," I warned.
"Yeah, yeah," Emmett replied, waving a hand at me. He looked up at Alice and Jasper on the sofa. "Tell us what to take off."
"I believe the bet was for three articles of clothing," Alice giggled. "Jasper and I have consulted and we feel that those three items should be both of your socks and your shirt."
Emmett took off his socks and his shirt, revealing his bare feet and a muscle shirt. Rose took off her socks, but she had been smart enough to put another pair on under those. She took off her hoodie to reveal a long sleeve shirt; she had come prepared.
After a few hands, things started to get more serious. Edward and I lost, but had luckily only bet one article of clothing.
"Bella, lose your bra. Edward, lose your pants," Alice instructed.
"Alice, that's not right. Bella would have to take her shirt of to do that," Edward fussed.
Alice, Rose, and I laughed, knowing that, that wasn't true at all.
"Edward, honey, all girls know how to remove their bra without taking off their shirt," I informed him. "We learn how to do it soon after we start wearing bras."
"Oh, Edward's never seen this," Emmett chuckled. He leaned over and patted Edward's shoulder. "You're in for a treat."
"Try to control yourself," Jasper warned Edward, tapping his shoulder with one finger.
"Would you two leave me alone?" Edward fussed, as he pulled off the sweat pants he had been wearing over his jeans.
"Come on, Bella," Alice chirped. "Lose the bra."
I smiled and shook my head at her. I looked over at Edward and locked my eyes with his. I leaned forward and reached up under my shirt to undo the clasps. Once that was done, I sat up straight, smirking at the way Edward was watching my every move. I slid one arm into my shirt and pulled the strap off my shoulder and down my arm. I put my arm back through the sleeve and worked on my other arm and strap in the same fashion. Then, I put my hands underneath my shirt and pulled the entire bra out before tossing it at Edward's head.
"Calm yourself, Edward," Jasper chuckled. "We really don't need to see you attack your wife."
"I have more control than that," Edward snapped.
From the way his body had stiffened, I wasn't so sure he was being honest…And I wasn't talking about his posture.
"Emmett, deal the next round," I said, trying to distract us all.
The game went on in this way for hours. Edward and I would communicate and share our cards, only raising our bets when we knew we could get Emmett to go higher and lose. Alice and Jasper picked easy clothing in the beginning, not affecting Rose, Edward, or me with our multiple layers. Emmett had put on a few extra items, but not many.
By the time we got down to the final hand, Emmett was only left with his boxers, Rose was down to a pair of shorts and her bra—and I hoped underwear under the shorts since I didn't want to see our sister in that way—while Edward was down to his shirt and his boxers, and I was down to two pairs of shorts, two shirts, and my panties.
'Edward, I've got a full house. I'm so excited. It's queens and aces.' I hid my excitement behind a sigh.
'Excellent, love. I have two pairs, threes and tens. This should be the end for Emmett.'
"Go, Picky," Emmett instructed.
I put my hand down. "It's another one of those Full House things."
Emmett groaned, probably not having a hand that could beat mine.
Rose happily put her hand down, showing a full house, as well. She had kings and jacks. If Emmett could beat Edward's hand, they would tie and we would have to play another round.
Edward put down his hand and Emmett hissed, letting us know we had won. I couldn't wait to see just how bad his hand was.
Emmett slapped his cards down on the table. He had a single pair of jacks. "So do you really want me to strip or can we call this game over?"
"It's over," I said quickly. "Keep those boxers on!"
It was then that the basement door burst open. "Emmett Cullen, you get up here right now, young man!" Esme roared.
"What the hell?" Emmett asked, scratching his head and looking toward the stairs.
"What did you do?" Rose questioned, getting up.
"Nothing," Emmett replied. "I swear."
"Let's go up and find out," Alice said.
The six of us climbed the stairs to find an enraged Esme and an amused Carlisle. I kept my connection open with Edward, hoping to find out what Carlisle and Esme were thinking.
'Emmett, my boy, you've really done it this time,' Carlisle thought, as he shook his head slightly.
"Hi, mom. Did you have a nice date with dad?" Emmett asked.
"Don't you dare try to act innocent with us!" Esme screamed. "We found all of your…Your…Help, and we don't appreciate it. What on Earth possessed you? No, never mind. I don't want to know. I want you to march yourself straight down the hall to your room. You are grounded for the next week from everything. And that includes Rosalie!"
"Mom!" Rose and Emmett cried together.
"I didn't do anything," Rose whined. "Why am I being punished?"
"I'm sorry, Rosalie, but this is the only way to have any lasting impact with Emmett," Esme said.
"What did he do?" Rose questioned, glaring at Emmett.
Esme had been holding something in her hand and she took this opportunity to throw it at Emmett, hitting him in the forehead.
"Holy hell!" Emmett cried. "How did you get this, Esme?"
"Where did I get it would be a better question," Esme pointed out. "And my dresser drawer would be the answer."
"After Esme made that discovery, we searched the rest of the room," Carlisle explained. "We found quite a few of your items, Emmett. I know you like to try to help us all out, but we really don't need it. Please refrain from this sort of thing in the future. We've put everything back on your bed and we do not ever want to see it come out of that room again."
"I didn't do anything!" Emmett argued.
"Emmett, next time you're going to lie, don't leave a note behind," Carlisle said, showing Emmett a slip of paper. "This is your handwriting."
"Yeah, but I didn't write this. Someone set me up," Emmett fussed.
"No one can fake your chicken scratch," Rose said, smacking Emmett behind the head. "You write worse than Bella."
"Emmett, it's okay. I think your mother is more embarrassed than angry. As for me, thank you for offering me the use of your striptease jeans, but I think my own clothing would be more than adequate if I wished to engage in such activities," Carlisle said, trying not to laugh. "Now, I suggest you go to your room before your mother decides to add any more time to your punishment for lying."
"When I find out which one of you set me up," Emmett warned, letting his finger point at each of us in turn, "just remember that payback is my specialty."
Emmett stomped off with Rose following close behind him. Carlisle and Esme told us goodnight and retreated to their bedroom.
"Think Rose is going to help Emmett figure it out?" I whispered.
"Nope," Alice giggled. "She's still mad about him assuming that poor girl was pregnant at that frat party. She's going to enjoy his punishment and taunt him so that when he's released, he won't be able to stand another second without her. She's looking forward to it."
"So we're all going out that day, right?" I laughed. "'Cause I sure don't want to be home for that!"
"Yes!" Alice chirped. "You can finally have me over to the cabin to let me see what you've done with the place."
"Sounds like a plan," I replied, hugging our sister.
"If you'll excuse us," Edward said, pulling me away from Alice and tossing me over his shoulder. "I need to go finish stripping my wife. We'll see you two much later."
I giggled as Edward walked down the hall with me. "Bye, Alice. Bye, Jasper."
He entered our room and locked the door behind us. Very gently, he dropped me onto our bed.
"So I had a good idea, then, huh?" I asked, smirking at him.
"You had two excellent ideas, love."
"Want to hear a third?"
"Absolutely."
"My idea is that you and I share a nice, warm bubble bath."
"That is truly the best idea you've had all night," he chuckled, picking me up and carrying me into the bathroom. He started undressing, but then noticed that I hadn't moved. "I thought you wanted a bath?"
"And I thought you said you were going to finish stripping me," I said in my best seductive voice.
The voice obviously had the desired effect because all of my clothes were gone in mere seconds.
Edward stood back and admired me. "Absolute perfection. I still can't believe you are really mine for eternity."
"Every single second of it. Now get busy with that bubble bath," I said, pointing to the tub.
"As you wish," he chuckled.
Once the tub was filled with bubbles and deliciously hot water, Edward slipped in and helped me climb in after him. I rested against his chest as his arms held me securely.
He placed a kiss against my hair. "I love you, Bella."
"I love you, too, Edward."
We lapsed into a comfortable silence for awhile, but Edward eventually ended it with a soft whisper. "Bella, I don't want to pry or seem overprotective, but I was wondering if you would like to talk to me about how you've been feeling this week?"
"I would like that a lot, actually," I replied. "Do you mind if we use our thoughts? I don't want to be overheard."
"That's fine, love. Whatever makes you comfortable."
I twined my fingers with his and made the connection between us. 'I love you.'
'I love you, too. So how are you feeling?'
'I've been doing very well so far this week. Jasper was kind enough to use his gift to help me put names to all of my emotions when we went for our walk last weekend. I still find myself getting melancholic for no particular reason that I can pinpoint, but it's easier to pull myself out of it now. Jasper gave me a great piece of advice. He said to focus on how your love makes me feel and use that to help deal with the bad feelings.'
'I'm extremely pleased to hear that, Bella. Does that mean you want to resume your training?'
'No. I'm not ready for that yet. Cautious before curious applies to my training, too.'
'It certainly does. Thank you for being careful.'
'I have to be. You need me and I need you.'
'I certainly do.'
I moved so that I could see Edward's face. 'I got another letter from Jake.'
'Oh?' His eyes tightened the slightest bit, showing how much he had improved with his reactions regarding Jake.
'Yeah. He's getting married to Amber in a few months. He said he just wanted me to know that. He said he might have invited us to come, but Emily is pregnant so Sam and Jacob don't want to take the chance that we could cause the werewolf gene to pop up in the baby.'
'Would you have wanted to go if Emily wasn't pregnant?'
'No. It would have hurt him. I don't remember him very much anymore. The memories I have of him involve you, so Jacob is either angry, sad, or hurt in each of them.'
'I'm sorry about that, Bella.'
'It's to be expected.'
'I'm still sorry.'
'But I don't want you to be.'
'I know. We can change the topic if you'd like.'
'That would be good.'
'What shall we discuss then, Mrs. Cullen?'
I smiled wickedly at my gorgeous husband, as I broke our connection. "So you seemed to enjoy watching me maneuver out of my bra earlier."
"It was something I've definitely never seen before."
"You looked so cute with the way you got all flustered."
"I wasn't flustered, Isabella. I was fighting the man in me to stop him from taking you right then and there."
I laughed and shook my head at him.
"You think I'm kidding, but I'm not."
I looked at him, noticing just how serious he was. "You know, we're getting nearly as bad as Emmett and Rosalie."
"Just because we are enjoying each other in that way doesn't mean we are getting anywhere close to their deviant status. Besides, we are not the exhibitionists that Emmett and Rosalie are. I don't want anyone seeing you but me, and I would never risk anyone else seeing you in that way."
"So you wouldn't have completed Emmett's challenge if we had lost?"
"I would have…After hours when no one was there and I could easily steal the security tapes," Edward chuckled.
"Why does it sound like you've thought about this before?" I asked, lifting an eyebrow at him.
He kissed me, trying to dazzle me into forgetting my question. I attempted to pull away to ask him again, but then his tongue stroked mine and I was lost to the pleasurable feelings provided by my wonderful husband and his amazing tongue. I would ask later…If I remembered. For now, I had a bubble bath and a sexy husband to enjoy.
EBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEBEB
Thanks to Shookie for the poker storyline! I hope this is sort of what you had in mind!
Here is your prank, Kuroxdoragon. Hope it made you smile.
