My Once and Future Duke (The Wagers of Sin #1)(29)

Men had flirted with her before; some had tried to seduce her. Sophie knew very well when a man’s interest had been aroused. Once she had given in to a pursuit, years ago. It had been a heady experience, fraught with youthful passion and the thrill of being so wicked. When her head cleared, she’d realized what a risk it was. Her lover had been generous and kind, but when he broke with her, she’d breathed a sigh of relief that it was over without serious repercussion. Since then she had ignored, deflected, and parried every attempt men made to seduce her. It was safer, if less exciting.

Tonight she was keenly aware of how much less exciting it was. Normally she didn’t feel any reciprocal interest, and was a little shocked that she did this time. Even worse, she’d felt it last night, when he was still being condescending and accusing her of trying to ruin his brother. Today he was smiling at her and being charming, and Sophie was discovering that she could ignore her own attraction as long as she didn’t like him, but when he smiled and let down his guard . . . That flicker of humor and humanity turned him from a cold, haughty duke into an irresistibly attractive man. A man she was marooned with, in this beautiful house, in perfect privacy and seclusion . . .

She flinched as she realized how wildly her thoughts were wandering. Idiot, she told herself. The worst possible thing she could do now would be to let herself be seduced by the duke, a man she didn’t know, who thought her a cheat. She had to put a stop to this now, before either of them went too far.

“Enough ponderous philosophy.” She beamed up at him. “We must teach you how to gamble, Your Grace.”





Chapter 8




Jack had to send for a servant to locate cards. He dimly remembered card tables being set up in the library when his mother hosted parties here, but that had been years ago. He’d never had guests at Alwyn House since his father’s death.

He watched Mrs. Campbell make herself at home on the same sofa where she’d tormented him the previous evening with her bare toes. Today she wore a discarded housemaid’s dress, a garment devoid of any seductive traits, and yet he felt more fascinated than ever. Who was this woman and why was he apparently helpless to stop her from driving him mad? Michaels returned with a deck of cards, and she thanked him with a glowing smile that made Jack’s stomach tighten. He wanted her to smile at him that way.

“You’re very adept at this,” he remarked as she shuffled the deck with the ease of a croupier. Instead of focusing his mind on how she had learned such scandalous skills, it only made him wonder what her nimble fingers would feel like on his skin.

She smiled modestly, the cards flying as she dealt. “Every woman has a deep well of hidden talents, Your Grace.”

A riot of dangerous thoughts sprang up in Jack’s brain. What sort of talents did she have hidden, he wanted to ask. He shifted in his seat. “And secrets?”

“As many as men do, I suppose.” She set down the deck and motioned to the cards in front of him. “Have you played loo?”

“Yes.”

“Unlimited loo?” she asked with a sparkling smile.

Unlimited loo could ruin a man in a night’s time. “Already looking for a new victim to beggar?”

She batted her lashes at him as she swept up her cards. By now he recognized it as a warning instead of an invitation. “You know me too well, sir.”

He didn’t know her, not at all, he was realizing—-but his curiosity was growing by leaps and bounds. “We haven’t got enough players for loo.”

She sent him a stern look over her cards. She was holding them in front of her face on purpose, he thought. “We haven’t got money, either. It’s a lesson, Your Grace, to preserve you from any further significant losses.”

He smiled and finally picked up his cards. “Pass.”

“What?” She lowered her cards and blinked at him. Passing ended his role in the game. “No, you may not pass. That ruins the game.”

“That also preserves my fortune.” He grinned at her expression, so beautifully nonplussed. “See how easily it happened? I’ve lost nothing.”

“And also won nothing!”

Jack put the cards back on the table. “I don’t need to win anything. Why do you?”

“It’s quite a thrill,” she said after a barely perceptible hesitation. “I understand the concept might be very strange to you, but I recommend it.”

“Winning?” He leaned back in his chair. “I won last night.”

Pink colored her cheeks. “An occasion I’m sure you regret deeply.”

He studied her for a moment. “No,” he said slowly. “I don’t think so.”

She glanced up at him, wary and watchful. “I have failed dreadfully if your victory last night has given you the slightest satisfaction.”

It had been far more than slightly satisfying. “It achieved my immediate objective.”

Her eyes flashed, and she threw her cards down. “Philip! I vow, one might think he’s your son, from the desperate lengths you’ll go to for his sake.”

Jack thought of what his father might have done, in his place. The late duke had been decent through and through. If he were still alive, Philip would no doubt be sitting here now, penitent and chastened, willingly submitting to whatever the duke decreed his punishment would be. Jack imagined his brother mucking out stalls in the stable, or helping plow a field on one of Kirkwood’s tenant farms.