Chapter 23

After I put Tarick away Hammid and I hid out in a tack room and I showed him how to tie the knot. It took several tries, just like it had when I learned it, but he caught on and I knew all he had to do now was practice.

I had stayed a little longer than I'd intended, but then again I'd been abandoned to my own devices. When I made it back to my suite the girls were there and they looked at me funny when I came in.

"Where in the hell have you been, Tommy?" Christine asked, as I walked in.

"I went riding," I said.

"Riding what?" Selene asked.

"They have some horses here. Hammid even showed me one they had which was big enough for me."

"Well you're late for lunch," Jackie said.

"And just who was it who told me you'd be back for lunch?" I asked.

"Well, I guess we did leave it out," Jerrilyn said.

"Yes, you did. You all took off leaving me here to fend for myself, and I did thanks to the hint Kahlila gave me about the horses," I said.

"I'm glad you found something to do, and I know it's my fault for not thinking and asking ahead of time," Kahlila said.

"Nonsense. I'm not a baby who has to be taken care of. Tarick and I had a nice ride, even if the others did come out looking for me thinking I'd fallen off," I said.

"It is strange they put you on Tarick. No one trains him any longer. He is so big," Kahlila said.

"In case it slipped your notice, Tommy is pretty damned big himself, in more ways than one," Selene said, and then the four of them laughed and Kahlila finally caught the joke and laughed too, even if she did blush furiously.

"Well, where's this lunch you said I'm late for?"

"I'll call for it now. The kitchen is holding it for us," Kahlila said, and picked up the phone.

It arrived a lot faster than I could have hoped for and soon enough I was at the table with four big cheeseburgers and a mountain of French fries in front of me.

The girls started telling me about the city and everything they'd seen and I tried to make approving sounds between bites. It made me even happier I'd found my way to the stables this morning and I hoped there was more of it to see.

Not long after lunch was over I got a call from the Emir. He wanted to know if I was up for a poker game this evening and I told him I was. He said we'd start around nine pm and he let me know there would be seven others there to play with us.

The girls had something else on their agenda for the afternoon so I told them I'd take a nap and Kahlila said she'd have someone come in and wake me at seven if they weren't back by then.

It turned out the girls showed up just after the other gal had come in to wake me. All of them, except Kahlila, stripped off and took me into the bathroom to shower and dress me. They put ironed blue jeans on me and a rodeo shirt with one of my straw hats, and then Kahlila had the one who'd come to wake me lead me to a big den where the Emir and the other players were waiting.

We took half an hour to get acquainted before the Emir settled us down at the table to start the game. I could see what he meant about them being afraid to take his money right away, but thankfully they didn't feel any qualms about taking mine.

They did start out on the tight side though, but I got them out of it by playing lesser cards and folding good ones for the first little bit. I was a little surprised to see my handy dandy newly acquired skill of being able to see through their cards was still in effect. It had even picked up another feature.

After the hands were dealt an image of the flop, the turn, and the river would show up for me. I still didn't understand how it could be happening and it actually irked me a little. I didn't need it to win money off these clowns. I used it when it showed me a big fuckup I was about to make, sometimes anyway, but I still didn't feel like I needed it.

Still, it helped me in another way. I usually boosted up the pots I knew I wouldn't win and I was able to make some spectacular losses which looked good. I kept them fairly low though and I was able to pounce on some of the bigger pots while losing lightly on most of the others. It gave the impression I was losing while my chip stack was actually growing slightly.

When we called it quits I was up about thirty thousand and most of the others were only down five to ten thousand. I felt my winnings looked modest since the Emir had taken in nearly a hundred grand.

"So Tommy, I heard you gave my horsemen some pause today," he said, after the others were gone.

"I guess I did, but didn't you tell them I was from Texas? Hell, I was practically born on a horse. It was just luck for me you had one big enough for me to ride."

"Ah yes, Tarick. He is magnificent isn't he? It is a shame his size is so outlandish compared to what others think of as perfect," he said.

"Well, he's perfect for me to ride anyway, and he does have a beautiful head."

"How have you been treated otherwise?" he asked.

"Better than I had any hope to be. The service is wonderful and so is the food. I'm especially happy with the treatment of my wives. You must know they aren't used to being sequestered so, but Kahlila has provided entertainment for them."

"I am glad, and I know your wives have provided good company for her. I have to ask you how you ended up with four wives in America?"

"It just sort of happened, and you must know we never really had a proper ceremony. My government is so picky about such details. The girls are happy enough without it though and of course I am."

"I can understand. I've often wondered why the men in America are so set against multiple wives. I can understand how the women would be against it, but I don't understand the men."

"The ones who can afford more than one woman try to get away with keeping one secret from another one. It always gets them in trouble in the long run though. It is just a mess and I doubt it will ever be right. I plan to just keep my head down and let it all blow over me. I was lucky to find Jackie and Jerrilyn who were agreeable from the start and they found Christine and Selene. I was just lucky."

"You do realize you could solve the legal difficulties, or I could solve them for you," he said.

"Oh. I'll admit I don't know how," I said.

"With a dual citizenship. I can easily cut through what you would call the red tape. After it was done you could get married here and there is nothing your government would dare do about it."

"You would do it for me?"

"It would be nothing as far as I was concerned, and who better to do it for than you? It would take five minutes for me to have the papers drawn up. It would take longer to have them arranged of course, but my part of it would only be setting it in motion. There are employees in the diplomatic corps who would take care of the actual paperwork, but I must find things for them to do anyway," he said, and laughed.

He let it die to let me think about it I suppose, and then he called a servant over and we ordered drinks. Of course alcohol was nominally forbidden in his country, but I had serious doubts about anyone saying a cross word.