17

"Are you sure? I'm not usually lucky," she warned.

"To me, you seem like a very lucky woman," he mused, sliding his eyes over her rosy lips.

"Red," Elena made her bet.

And when the dealer collected the bets around the table, the man bet on the red color. He still looked at Elena as he spoke, indicating that he was placing the bet for her. The dealer released the small ball onto the spinning roulette wheel and waited until it stopped in a position.

To the dismay of some bettors, the ball landed in a black rectangle.

"Now we know that I really don't have luck. Excuse me, sir," Elena commented, with total indifference, and began to walk away from the table.

"Wait," the man murmured, then grabbed the woman's wrist before she could move away.

"Is there a problem?" she turned to him.

"You made me lose a lot of money here," the bettor complained, and his smile had lost half of its interest.

"You insisted that I choose," Elena retorted, trying to pull her wrist away without attracting attent