I chose "BDSM" for this because it's the most prominent feature of the "main event" but BDSM doesn't really explain what's going on in the action. Check the tags if you want more details, but it sort of spoils the tension of the game, if you're interested in that.
Thank you to those who commented you wanted to see more of the story, and sorry for the delay. Next couple of chapters should be fairly speedy.
*****
Cyn was still checking herself over in the mirror, but she was doing more thinking. Her roommate Robin had just gone down on her and given her two amazing orgasms. She'd never thought about Robin as a lover. She'd never even been attracted to her except in a vague "she's hot for a woman" sense.
She started to see what Vincent had been telling her about it being more than sex. Sure, all the betting and the chip trading focused on sex, but it came with a sense of security. There was no pressure and clear rules. Cyn wanted to fuck Vincent. In any other situation, she'd have to spend the effort engaging him socially, and both of them would be doing mental calculations about how they would effect each other's reputation, what the changes to their own friend networks would be, and all of that shit.
Here, it was easy. If Cyn won ten sky chips from Vincent, she could pull him into a room, hand him the chips, and his cock would be pounding in and out of her pussy for ten minutes. Plus, there was the thing with Robin. She never would have considered doing anything with her because of the roommate issue alone, not even counting her limited experience with girls. But now, if they wanted, they could just file it away as a business deal.
Not that Cyn wanted to; she still felt a bit of a thrill that her roommate had made her cum.
Cyn exited the bathroom and found Robin waiting outside. Before her roommate went in, Cyn stretched and pecked her on the cheek.
"What was that for?" Robin asked with a smile.
"For giving me a better idea of what this place is about," Cyn said.
She walked back to the kitchen and grabbed some food before heading back to the basement. She saw that Robin was right; more than a couple of the attendees had swollen lips, rumpled clothing, and disheveled hair that suggested eating was not the only recreational activity they'd enjoyed during the break.
Carl stood near the dealer again and called out, "Limits for the next round are increased to fifty. Sit-out fine is reduced to twenty. Exchange is now closed. Deal in five"
Cyn caught Carl before sitting. "The fine for sitting out goes down when the limit rises?"
Carl smiled and said, "We want people playing, so we make it harder to get out of the small games, but when people start throwing out two hundred a hand more people get shy. If you *know* you aren't gonna spend that kind of scratch we don't want to force you to sit at the table. You want out?"
Cyn thought for a moment. If what Carl said was true, she was looking at possibly losing a full set of sky chips if she bet on a hand and didn't win. She didn't have a good buffer of other people's chips, either.
Then again, she'd just realized all the opportunities the chip situation presented. Being dragged into a dalliance with someone else at the table could be an adventure.
"I'm good," she said to Carl then took her seat again.
There were a few less people around the table this time, but a notable set of additions. Kathy had decided to sit down, along with a man and woman who sat very close together, to the point where Cyn wondered how they hid their cards from each other.
"Next ante, two lots," Carl began.
Cyn didn't do anything for the first couple hands; the chips were for people she didn't recognize, though the amounts were increasing. Twenty seemed to be the average total for the first couple of hands, then it increased to twenty-five. She also had an opportunity to watch Kathy bet. A mixed pot came up that didn't catch Cyn's interest but apparently it did Kathy's, and she bet like a bully. Three bets of two came down before hers, and then she dropped a ten. Only two people ended up calling and her opening bet after the flop was fifty, which scared everyone off. She kept a predatory, superior smirk on her face the entire time she bet, but Cyn wasn't sure if it was because she had good cards, knew no one else would match her bet, or if that was just the face she put on when she was betting.
Cyn had it turned on her a hand or two later.
"Next ante, single lot. Amy, five lipsticks," Carl called out.
It was the first lot that had come up that was an instant-win for something other than canaries. Cyn didn't know who Amy was, but she had a pair of aces in her hand and it was obviously a valuable pot, so Cyn was confused when the first four players passed on it. Cyn put four clouds on the table. That again caused a stir around the table, with most people looking right at Kathy.
"Honey you're new here," she said. "That's my lot. Just fold it."
Cyn didn't appreciate the assumption or the bullying. "It's yours if you have the cards," she replied.
Kathy's eyes lit up. To Cyn's surprise, when the bet came around to her she only called. The flop came down and didn't help Cyn, but it did give her four clubs. One more and she'd have a flush, currently the best option based on what Cyn could see.
She passed on her first bet and Kathy immediately put twenty down. Cyn felt herself tense. If Kathy opened with twenty and kept escalating, Cyn was going to owe the woman something big unless she won. But she had to see the next card. She called, using the ten she had from Robin and two of her own reds.
The next card down was an ace. That gave Cyn a three of a kind but Kathy had barely looked at the card, studying Cyn instead. Cyn was almost sure the woman made the club flush. The thing was, Cyn held the highest club in her hand. If the last card came down as a club, she had it. Cyn passed on betting again but Kathy dropped thirty. Cyn called with a red and one of her greens. It made her nervous betting with a chip that literally promised her ass to someone, but she calmed herself thinking that even if Kathy won, none of Cyn's chips added up to an actual favor.
The last card was a miracle in Cyn's mind. The king of clubs dropped. There was no way to get a straight flush, and Cyn had the highest two clubs. She tried to shrink down as if she was disappointed but she didn't know if she sold it.
"Thirty-five," came Kathy's bet. Two skies and a lipstick chip. The dealer, and most of the table, looked over at Cyn.
"Fifty," Cyn replied, dropping two green chips on the table.
"Honey, you need to learn how to count," Kathy said as she put another two chips down and flipped over her cards. Both were clubs, but both were a single number.
"Sorry," Cyn replied as she flipped her cards, "I only learned how to color."
"Flush, ace king high," the dealer called out, gesturing to Cyn. Cyn saw Kathy's eyes narrow. She knew she'd poked a bear.
As the chips came sliding across the table to her, Cyn knew she wouldn't be in the next hand; she needed to sort the chips. She made extra sure to pull her own chips back in and place them first, then she tried to sort through the names of the others.
When she flipped through them, she was baffled. All of them had Amy's name on them. The whole hundred Kathy had bet, along with the ante, were all made up of Amy's chips. Cyn looked up, ignoring the game and searching the bystanders. She assumed Amy would have bet on her own chips if she were at the table. Eventually Cyn saw a girl leaning against the bar, studying her. She was curvy and maybe a bit on the heavy side, but a lot of that weight was in her chest and her body still had the hourglass figure. She wore a loose blouse over a tank top that showed some cleavage rivalling Cyn's own and jeans that while tight weren't obscenely so. She had a pleasant face and wavy brown hair, but her eyes caught Cyn's attention. They were very light hazel, almost gold, and they were studying Cyn with a mixture of curiosity, fear, and possibly a bit of longing.
