Clothes

Poker with three girls who are going to be talking makeup tips or some such nonsense. Yeah, I was soooooo looking forward to that.

I held up a package of cheap poker chips in one hand and the coin jar in the other.
"Chips or penny ante, girls?"

Before Rachel or Suzy could say anything, Michelle piped in with "How about strip poker?"

There was dead silence in the room, then me and Michelle's sisters chimed in almost simultaneously.

"Oh, grow up, Michelle!"
"You can't be serious!"
"Your mother would have all our hides if she found out you even SAID that!"

I will admit though that my eyes went immediately to Michelle's top when she said strip poker. It was obvious that she wasn't wearing a bra and that her nipples were hard, possibly from just talking about strip poker. I looked away quickly, but not before Michelle caught me. She just gave me a little smirk before moving to persuade her sisters to play.

I knew that I should try to talk her out of it. But my brain wasn't thinking right. Not enough blood. It had all moved south.

Rachel, being our local litigant, cut to the chase.

“Listen, Michelle, that pervert that our mother married..”--with a jerk of her chin toward me--”might want to get us all naked, but I’m not buying it.”

“Oh, c’mon, Rachel, think how sexy it would be. I mean, have you ever played strip poker?”

“That’s not the point. The point is---”

“So, if you ever wanted to do it just one time, this would be the best time to do it. I mean, it’s your sisters and Dad; and Dad won’t do anything we don’t want him to do---we’ll just rat him out to Mom if he does.”

I noticed that Michelle didn’t say “Dad won’t do anything.” She said “Dad won’t do anything we don’t want him to do.” Lots of wiggle room there. Rachel was so flustered that she didn’t catch that little caveat.

Suzy, who had been quietly watching and listening, chimed in with, “I’ll play.”

That caught Rachel off guard. She looked around at all of us, and gave me an especially accusing glare. Finally, she gave a terse nod. “OK, but we only play as long as everyone wants to continue playing.”

“And,” I added, “Your mother never learns about it.” All the girls nodded in agreement as my mind reeled. I was about to play strip poker with ALL of my lovely stepdaughters. And it hadn’t really taken much effort to get it set up. And none from me!

As I shuffled the cards, I looked around at the girls. “OK, the rules are simple. Low hand of each round takes off one item of clothing. Belts, jewelry, purses…none of that counts. Agreed?”

All the girls nodded as I finished shuffling. I let Michelle cut the cards and then dealt out the hands. The game was five card draw. My heart was racing with excitement.