Author's Note

In response to feedback from my story Betting On You, I thought maybe a sequel was in order. It's not about Rick and Evy's courtship, but rather the end of it. I just had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did typing it up. Jonathan/Rick interaction will be included. Please give me feedback; it takes so little time to make me very happy. This will be one of two parts. After this, I want to start my POV series of the first movie.

Placing Our Bets-Part 1

He'd made a lady a promise, a promise including flowers and going out to dinner. Nobody would ever mistake Rick O'Connell for a choir boy, but he wasn't a liar. Unless a gun had been held to the back of his head when he gave his word on something, he kept it. And Evy had this way of making it fun to do things with her. It didn't take much to make her happy, probably because she hadn't got out too much before he came along. He got a kick out of being with her, something new for him. Some dames, talking to them was an endurance test, some kind of toll for crawling into bed later. With Evy, it just came natural.

He'd known he'd loved her, but he wasn't expecting to actually like her. She was prim and proper, there was no getting around that one, but she was a sweet girl with a lot of spunk and brains. Who knew he'd be having the time of his life going out to dinner, seeing plays, and going out to dance? They were seeing each other every night, and having a ball.

All this begged the question...what next? It wasn't like he had to do anything, the situation suited them both just dandy. No, he didn't have to do anything different, but he wanted more, wanted a life with her. He'd known that pre-dawn morning, riding out of Hamunaptra, it'd be like this. Some of his buddies through the years got hitched because it was only way the girl would give up the goods. Other buddies got married because they'd gotten the girl knocked up. In Rick's case, it was neither of the above.

Shit, he wanted to marry the girl. No shacking up, no week long get-away, he wanted the whole nine yards. He wanted it, not because she was nagging him, not because there was a kid on the way. He always thought he'd have to be dragged down the aisle kicking and cursin', (not that he planned on getting caught in some broad's trap) not coming up with the idea himself. And he wasn't even angry or panicking. He just felt great.

Well, this whole thing had been a gamble from the get-go, he was just doubling the stakes, that's all. From his prospective, the odds looked decent. Evy was crazy about him, she wasn't exactly playing it coy. She was the marrying kind, right? Now, a house full of seven screaming kids, not so much, but marriage and a kid or two seemed like her kind of life. Not that she'd be playing the little woman in the kitchen, and that was fine. If Evy wanted to work, wanted to spend her time with dead guys, that was fine, as long as none of them tried to end the world. So, he'd ask, hopefully she'd say yes, they'd kiss, and she could throw together something resembling a nice wedding, and he'd take her somewhere for a honeymoon. Pretty simple...hey, wasn't a ring involved in this whole thing?

Well, there was a little glitch in the whole simple part of it. Sure, he could afford a ring. Hell, if she wanted an even dozen it wouldn't put him in the poor house. Thanks to the treasure, him and Evy would never have to worry about money again. (Knowing Jonathan, on the other hand, Rick would give it five years before he started begging for cash again.) But what did this ring he could easily afford look like? He'd never seen her wear much jewelry except for her locket, and he wasn't sure what he should get her. Not to mention, he'd never bothered buying a dame jewelry before, what would he know about it? He didn't want to mess up his proposal by getting her a crummy and expensive ring.

Wait just a minute. If there was someone who knew both Evy and jewelry in general it would be...yep, Jonathan. Rick glanced at the clock. It was only 11:00, so chances were Jonathan would still be sleeping off the night before. Oh, well, it didn't hurt him to be uncomfortable once in a while.

On his way down the hotel corridor, he passed Evy by, who was just coming out of her room. Her house had been demolished when fire rained out of the sky thanks to a certain ancient creep, so she was trying out hotel living for the time being. He wondered why she wasn't at the museum, but figured he'd find out soon enough. Hell, Jonathan could sleep a couple more minutes.

"Hey, beautiful." He noticed she'd been crying and was brought up short, his temper not too far behind. "What's wrong? Somebody do something, scare ya? 'Cause I can-"

"No, no. It's nothing like that." She sniffled into a handkerchief, looking as low as he'd ever seen her. "I was fired. The new curator sent me packing this morning."

"Well, what the hell does that bastard know?" Rick gathered her up close, kissing her forehead. "You'll get a new job, Evy, better than the last one."

"Oh, and do you think he'll give me a reference after he saw the library?" She buried her face in his chest, more than happy to let him hold her. "I've ruined my career. I'm inept."

"Oh, bullshit," he countered bluntly. "So, you knocked over some bookshelves, that's life. Could happen to anybody."

"That's very kind, even with the unnecessary language, but-"

"Yeah, and you're so 'inept' you helped save the world, and came out of it filthy rich," he reminded her, and she stopped sniffling.

"Finding the treasure was just luck," she argued, her usual sensible self, but he wasn't discouraged.

"Details." He pulled her away a little bit, squeezing her shoulders. "You're not taking this lying down, Evelyn."

"I'm...I'm not?" She looked completely puzzled. "And what am I supposed to do? Aim burning arrows at the museum?"

"Give me some credit. I was more thinking along the lines of building up a career outside the library. You don't need those stuffed shirts to make a name for yourself. In fact, being stuck in the library probably won't do that for you anyway." Besides, in Rick's experience, once you had a taste of danger like Evy just had, you either wanted to play it very, very safe, or you wanted another taste.

From the look on her face, you'd think he just suggested cliff diving. "You...you mean archeology?"

"Well, that's where you use all the fancy tools to dust stuff off, go in tombs, and send and artifacts to museums, right?"

She was shaking her head at him. "But...but that's mad! I'm just a silly girl, who would take me-"

He gave her a firm shake. "Never, ever talk bad about yourself to me, got it? You got more smarts than anybody I've ever run across. Okay, so you're a little young, and going off in the middle of nowhere alone might get you into trouble, but..." He cut himself off, knowing where this was headed. He wasn't able to lay it on the line, not until tonight anyway. "Besides, weren't you the one rearin' to go to Hamunaptra? That sure don't sound like going on a picnic."

She wrinkled her nose at him. "Well, I wasn't going it alone-"

"Jonathan was gonna be your protection?" Okay, now that was stupid.

"I was going to hire someone," she added defensively. "But then you agreed to take us, so it worked out very nicely, didn't it?"

"And if I'd been a rapist or a murderer?" he prodded. "You know, I was in jail."

"I did...check as to your offense." Oh, so she knew about his little fling with that married lady, huh?

"I didn't know the lady had a husband." Now it was his turn to sound defensive.

"Humph." He saw a flare of jealousy in her eyes, but figured he'd have to deal with one thing at a time. "In any event, I wasn't going to make a habit of venturing out for this sort of thing."

"Well, just think about it. What would you say to dinner tonight?"

"Sounds brilliant." She gave him an actual smile, a little one, but it wasn't faked, her jealousy forgotten. "How does 7:00 sounds?"

"Whenever you want," he promised, pulling her in again. She turned her face up for a kiss, and he was happy to give her one. He never got tired of how kissing her made him feel, of soft her lips felt. It was a rush of sensation to the gut, like swallowing a bottle of wine in one gulp. Like always, he was a good boy, careful not press for more than she was willing to give.

He felt himself start to go hard when she tentatively opened her mouth, the corner of her tongue flicking out to lick his lower lip. Oh, the girl was playing with fire and didn't even know it. Against his better judgment, he deepened the kiss, trying to keep it light, trying to keep it gentle. Kissing her like this, in the way he'd taught her how, it was heaven, but the dangerous kind.

Her whimper of protest when he pulled away about brought him to his knees. "I wasn't done," she pouted.

"Oh, yes, you were, Evelyn," he shot back. As it was, she'd got him all worked up, and kissing her some more wasn't gonna help any. "I'm not a saint, so don't push your luck."

"It was just a kiss, completely harmless." Oh, yeah, by all means say that to a guy while looking up at him through your eyelashes, he thought irritably.

"If you believe that, honey, then you've got a lot to learn about men." He put some distance between them, taking deep breaths.

"I just want to learn about you," she answered shyly, blushing a little.

"Okay, you little tease, I got to go talk to your brother Jonathan." It had occurred to him he could just ask Evy what kind of jewelry she liked, but with the girl's mind, he didn't want to risk giving anything away.

"I am not a..." she trailed off, frowning. "Oh, dear what has he done?"

"Nothing to me." Rick shrugged. "I just want to have a chat with him."

"At this hour? He won't be awake for-"

"Yep, just a friendly little chat," he said innocently.

She looked a little miffed, but he couldn't figure out why. He found out soon enough. "You'd rather talk to my brother than kiss me? Honestly, if it's that much of a chore-"

"Evy, do you want to stay a virgin today?" he asked bluntly. She stammered and sputtered and he had to fight not to laugh at her. "'Cause if you don't, I can help you out, but if not, I better go talk to Jonathan."

"Off with you, then," she whispered after what seemed like a long time.

"That's what I thought. 7:00?" He waited until she nodded, then headed towards Jonathan's room.

"Oh, Rick?" she called when he was almost there.

"Yeah?" He turned around, and she had the weirdest look on her face.

"One of these days, I just might give you a different answer, and invite you into my room one night. When that happens, we'll just see what happens, won't we?" She smiled smugly, then turned on her heel to make a dramatic entrance through the lobby door.

"It's always the quiet ones," he muttered. He picked the lock on Jonathan's door, Evy's words playing in his head. The sitting room looked pretty much like Rick thought it would. Empty bottles and glasses were all over the place, abandoned cards and chips tossed all around. A little more interesting of a find was the evening gown laying over by the couch, and the lady's lacy underwear by the ajar bedroom door. "Well, somebody's been a busy boy," he said to himself, not hesitating to go into the bedroom, picking up the blue satin number off the floor as he walked past it.

The owner of the dress and underwear was still there, passed out cold next to Jonathan, naked except for the jewelry the sucker next to her had probably bought for her. Well, she wasn't Egyptian, that was for sure. While her blonde hair was obviously a dye-job, she was white as snow. At a glance, she looked she'd been around a time or two, not that Rick was judging. A couple of months ago, she'd have been just his type.

Rick strode over to the drapes, flinging them open. "Wakey, wakey, kids! Time to face the day!"

She jerked into a sitting position, but Jonathan just snuggled further into the pillows. "Not now dad," he slurred. "Don't want to go to bloody lessons."

The broad didn't even bother to cover up, not that Rick was looking. 1, he wasn't interested, 2, nothing there he hadn't seen before, and 3, Evy would probably get the wrong idea if it got back to her that he was staring at naked women.

"Sorry, Junior, I'm not your dad," he snapped, going over to clap his hands together next to sleeping beauty's head. He came awake with a start, staring at Rick with blurry eyes.

"Hello," whatever-the-hell her name was purred at him. Ah, going by the voice she was American, okay. "Have we met?" She didn't even ask for the dress in his hand.

Okay, she had to be kidding. "Don't think so. Jonathan, I gotta talk to you."

Suddenly, Jonathan was very alert and looking nervous. "If it's about the car, old boy, I can explain everything."

"It's not about..." he narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "What's wrong with my car?"

"Nothing!" Jonathan cried, holding his hands up defensively. "I just borrowed it, I swear. It's parked out front, I can show you."

The dame didn't know when to take a hint. "You're right, I'm sure I'd remember a handsome man like you." He wasn't looking at her face, but her tone was meant to be sexy. Man, this broad moved fast, flirting with somebody while in bed with another guy. "My name's Susan, and I'm-"

"On your way out the door," Rick finished, throwing her evening gown at her. "Come on, sweetheart, get moving."

Obviously, she wasn't used to being given the brush-off. "Excuse me?"

"Beat...it," Rick said, hoping that would do the job. "Jonathan get up and get dressed. It's important."

Jonathan looked hopeful while his little friend huffed and puffed indignantly. "Then you're not brassed off about the-"

"Forget about the damned car, Jonathan!" he growled.

"No one tells me to beat it!" She sounded furious now, and Rick wasn't sure if it was possible to care less.

Rick's voice was bored when he answered her. "I just did."

"All right, Rick, I'll be up and dressed in just a minute," Jonathan promised.

Rick headed out, hearing the broad hiss at him: "Are you going to let him talk to me like that?"

"Well, he was a good sport about me taking the car for a ride last night," he heard Jonathan say. "It'd be rude to get testy with him after that."

"You just don't want to fight him!" she screeched.

"Well, he is a chum," Jonathan answered weakly. "Oh, my poor head."

She stormed out, flinging the dress over her head as she went. "Uh, don't forget your underwear, lady," Rick said mischievously.

"Go to hell," she snarled.

"Trust me, I've already been there," Rick retorted, thinking of Hamunaptra.

"Bastard," she hissed, grabbing her underwear and storming out.

"I don't think she likes you very much." Jonathan looked like hell as he stumbled out of his bedroom. "So, what's so urgent?"

"I'm going to ask Evy to marry me."

Jonathan grimaced, rubbing his forehead. "I'm in no mood for early morning jokes, Rick."

Obviously, he was going to have to use a little bit of the patience that didn't come easy. "I want to marry your sister, Jonathan. I want to buy her a ring, ask the question, and hope she says yes."

"You can't be serious." Jonathan mostly looked confused now.

Rick decided ignoring him would work best. "Does she have a favorite kind of stone or something? I want her to really like it, do this right."

"You want to marry my sister?" Jonathan choked.

Easy, O'Connell, he's had a long night, Rick told himself, resisting the urge to shake the Brit into understanding. "That's about the size of it."

"You're going to ask Evy to be your wife?" Apparently, they were taking the long way around.

"Like I said."

"Well..." Jonathan sank into a chair, looking like Rick had punched him. "I say, this is a bit unexpected."

"So, the ring? Any ideas?" Rick reminded him, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, what? Oh, the ring? Yes, the ring. Right. The engagement ring or the actual ring..." Well, at least he'd gotten the message through his thick skull.

"The engagement ring for starters. I have no idea what to get for her." He ran a restless hand through his hair, wondering this had been a mistake after all.

"Not to worry, Rick." Jonathan rubbed his hands together like a little kid. "I know just the ticket."