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Blurb:

A Black woman, Asian man, contemporary romance novel. Freema, a formidable poker player famous in her city, faces an unexpected challenge when the unassuming Ken Ahn purchases the restaurant where she and her poker-playing friends gather. Despite Ken’s objections about the games’ legality in their state, Freema’s determination easily prevails.

As time passes, Freema’s tough exterior softens as she becomes intrigued by the gentler Ken. And as their growing connection leads them to a surprising night together, Freema’s soon realizes that Ken’s personality is totally different once they’re in bed… He is absolutely wild!

Now all her preconceptions about Ken have been thrown out the window as their relationship blossoms into something serious. Yet despite the attraction between them, Freema comes to believe that their relationship is bound to fail. So she decides to bail from Ken’s life and cut off all ties in order to protect her heart.

But once Ken finds out that Freema has gone missing, he’ll do whatever it takes to find her, even if it means putting himself in danger. Will Ken’s gentle nature hinder his efforts to reunite with Freema? Or will he discover the inner strength necessary to ensure her safe return? Get answers in this BWAM romance book by Kellie White.

Love's Gamble cover small

Chapter 1

“Name?” said the DMV clerk in a bored drawl that was unique to low level municipal employees.

“Freema Wilson,” said Freema, looking innocent and unassuming in the chair in front of him.

“And your identification,” said the DMV clerk, his bald, shining head that only seemed to get greasier as the minutes went by, “it got lost?”

“Yes,” said Freema.

“How, exactly?” asked the DMV clerk. Freema looked at his identification badge and saw that his name was Eugene. She almost chuckled. It was fitting that a man that looked so greasy and worked at the DMV would be named Eugene.

“My wallet was stolen during a mugging,” said Freema, her voice not cracking even once in the telling of the lie. “I was walking home from work and I got mugged by these guys with knives. They looked like dope fiends. I’m tellin’ ya, these people with their government benefits. All they do is get into a life of crime, they have no conscience at all I tell ya!”

“You were walking home from work,” said Eugene. “Your job is?”

“I’m a data entry specialist,” said Freema. It was a fancy way of saying that she typed in names and addresses of people that subscribed to the mailing list of the restaurant she worked at. It was tedious work but it gave her a steady pay check and did not require a college degree, something that worked in Freema’s favor since she did not have any of those. She had the capacity to go to any college in the country, she was an extremely capable and intelligent young woman after all. However, she had just never seen the point in continuing college. She had gotten into a college no less prestigious than Harvard, but when people started making fun of her admission, stating that she had only gained admission because she was black and because Harvard was being pretty heavy handed with the affirmative action in order to boost its image as an accepting college that did not discriminate based on race or ethnicity.

Freema had been very insulted by this. She had gotten into Harvard on the basis of her academic merit. She had gotten a 4.0 in high school and had a number of extra curriculars. However, everyone around her just assumed that because she was black she would never have the smarts it took to get into a college like Harvard. They thought that the only way it was possible was because Harvard had taken pity on her, which was laughable because a number of them had only been able to gain admission into the prestigious university due to the fact that their rich, white parents had made sizable donations to the college, thereby making their entry a lot easier than it would have been otherwise. Indeed, her entry into Harvard had been a lot more difficult than it had been for pretty much every one of the students that made fun of her and the fact that she was going there.

After a few months of people doubting her competence, she got tired of proving them wrong and decided to drop out. She decided that there was really no point in going to college. She was smarter than any student there, smarter even than a number of professors. She did not need the college degree, nor did she need the mountain of student debt that she would have accumulated if she had gone there for the full four years.

Instead, she quit the college and started working. She worked minimum wage jobs until she finally got a halfway decent job as a data entry specialist. It was a dead end job with no chance of promotion, but she really did not mind. She had the ability to earn money in other ways. She was no criminal, but she knew how to use her smarts the right way. And she was an excellent gambler, something that was pretty evident from the fact that she had chosen to drop out of one of the biggest and most prestigious universities in the country for no reason other than the fact that she didn’t want to go there anymore.

“Right,” said Eugene upon hearing Freema’s occupation. The sneer was evident on his face. He thought that she was not all that important because of her lack of a college degree, and the fact that she did not have a very important job. Freema was not offended. On the contrary, she laughed some more at this pathetic man who used what tiny amount of power he had to make people feel uncomfortable just so that he could get over his own insecurities. She laughed at him and pitied him but did not take any offense at all. She was too smart for that. And she was smart enough to realize that just because he thought little of her it didn’t mean that whatever he thought about her was true.

“You’re gonna have to wait for your new ID,” said Eugene, the sneer still evident upon his face, the scorn still evident in his voice.”

“Right,” said Freema. “How long?”

“Two weeks,” said Eugene.

“Two weeks?” said Freema. “I’m going to have to wait a whole fortnight for a new ID? Why? I have never heard of the DMV taking more than three days to provide people with a new ID.”

“Yours is a special case,” said Eugene. “You do not have any proof of the manner in which your ID was lost. Hence, I am not going to be able to help you right now. You’re just going to have to wait the fortnight.”

Freema knew that she had no choice right now. She knew that no matter how much she didn’t like it, Eugene had her. She had not lost her ID to muggers, she had lost it in a manner that would not be considered at all acceptable by someone that was responsible for giving IDs out. She knew that he was just doing the only thing he could do, he was using his power to make himself feel powerful because he did not feel powerful in any other area of his life.

Freema hated him, and pitied him, but there was nothing she could do right now. She should never have bet her ID during that poker game in the first place, but she had thought that she had a great hand. Her opponent had won out of pure luck, he had won because fate had dealt him a lucky hand. There was nothing she could do about it now. She was just going to have to su*k it up and take the bus, since until she got a new driver’s license, driving was just going to be too risky. She didn’t want to have to waste money on a fine.

She sighed, got up and exited the DMV. She felt hollow. Life was a struggle, and she knew that she was just going to have to keep struggling for a bit longer. She had her escape, and it was an escape that she was going to be taking advantage of tonight as well.