“Gorramit, Inara!” Mal cursed, throwing his cards to the table.

Inara struggled mightily to bite back her smirk. “How many is that now,” she asked innocently.

“Six, as you know full well,” he groused back at her. “How the hell do you keep doin’ that? I was more’n twenty gorram points up on you, an’ every damn time you fleece me at the end. You're cheatin’!” he accused.

“I’m not cheating!” she denied, unable to keep the laughter from her voice. While she was a strong card player, she'd had a crazy run of luck, not that she was going to let Mal know that.

“I ain't gonna sit here an’ keep gettin’ my pigu handed to me,” he said, pushing away from the table.

“Wait, don't go,” she persuaded, reaching for him. “We’ll play something else,” she suggested tugging on his hand.

He gave her a disgusted look but sat down again and she could see the smile trying to fight its way on to his face.

“Come on, what would you like to play?”

“None a’ your fancy Core games this time. Somethin’ straightforward, like poker.”

“Cribbage is hardly a ‘fancy Core game’, Mal,” she chided, laughing as she caught the grin on his face.

“Jus’ deal out five a’ them cards, darlin’,” he said, feeling more sure of himself. Poker was his game. He'd spent more that a little down time playing with the ranch hands back home when he was a kid and if there was one thing he knew, it was poker.

~~~~~~~~~~

“I… You c