chapter 1

Jeff looked over the cards on the table. Of the five cards showing, two of them were eights, accompanied by a queen, an ace and a three. Mark had bet ten dollars. Jeff had an eight in the hole, giving him three of a kind. But Mark had been betting like he had something hot in his down cards. Maybe a pair? Maybe even a pair of queens or aces? Jeff decided the odds were in his favor.

"See your ten, and raise you twenty."

That got a laugh from Sarah, Mark's wife. "Looks like Jeff's not backing down, Mark. If you were trying to bluff, it didn't work."

Mark smiled and said, "Who needs to bluff when you've got the cards? See your twenty, raise you forty."

Now Jeff knew that Mark was trying to buy the pot. No way he was going to let that happen. He pushed in forty dollars in chips and said, "Call."

They turned over their cards, and Mark had a pair of kings. "That's good," said Jeff, "but not good enough," pointing to his third eight and gathering in his winnings.

They were playing Texas Hold 'Em. Two cards down and five up, make your hand from the best five cards. Two couples that lived next door to each other. Mark and Sarah, and Jeff and Barbara. They were all in their twenties with no kids. Jeff was about five foot ten inches, Barbara was about five foot seven inches, and both had a medium build. Jeff did enough jogging to keep a flat belly. Barbara spent an hour every few days following an exercise video to keep her curvy body just that, curvy. Mark and Sarah weren't quite so alike. Mark worked out daily, with a slim, muscular body to show for it. Sarah was the plump one of the group. At least Jeff thought of her as plump. She liked to joke about her being "the fat one of the bunch," but plump described her better. Five foot four, as opposed to her husband's six feet, and she carried enough extra weight for a muffin top and a small belly, which was shadowed by an impressive bust.

They had been playing poker once a month for a little over a year. At first, they played for a ten dollar buy in that bought one hundred dollars in chips. After six or seven months, Sarah, who was always the playful one, proposed they add an element of strip poker to it. On any hand that someone lost more than twenty dollars in chips, they had to take off an article of clothing. If they lost twenty on a bluff, that would cost them two articles. Inevitably, that resulted in everyone losing most of their clothes. When it would come Sarah's turn to take off her top, she'd usually say, "now everyone can see how fat I am!" Jeff loved his wife, and loved her curves, but when Sarah would show her big boobs over that roll of softness around her middle, Jeff couldn't help but be turned on.

Jeff made sure that he never lost enough to lose his pants. It wasn't that he was shy. First off, he hated to lose, and anyone who lost often enough to have to take off their pants he considered a loser. Second, Sarah would always lose enough to take off her top and bra, and if Jeff didn't have his pants on, his erection would impossible to hide. Before Jeff met Barbara, he had dated a girl who had once worked as a dealer in Vegas. She had taught him the art of card handling, including how to deal himself the high cards. Jeff never told anyone about his skills, and he only dealt himself enough high cards to make sure he kept his pants on.

When Mark had to take his shirt off, Sarah would pat her husband's hard belly and laugh. "Look at how skinny this man is. One of these days I'm going to fatten you up like me!"

Mark would laugh and reply, "Sorry babe, not happening. I'm the workout king, remember?"

More than once away from the poker table Sarah and Barbara had talked among themselves and more than once Sarah had told Barbara that she really did wish Mark would put on some weight. "It would make us look more like a couple," she'd say, "besides, I've always liked men with some meat on their bones. Leave it to me to fall for a hard body."