My Once and Future Duke (The Wagers of Sin #1)(61)

“What? No.” She gave a quick shake of her head. “I’m merely tired. His Grace was very kind to let me take his hackney.”

Forbes didn’t look entirely convinced. “If you’re certain . . .”

“Yes.” She smiled in genuine relief as Frank reappeared with her cloak. “Quite certain. And now I shan’t have to wait while a carriage is summoned, which makes me feel even better.” She tied the ribbons on her cloak, and Forbes offered his hand to escort her down the steps to the waiting hackney.

A covert glance up and down the street revealed no sign of Jack. Sophie stepped into the hired carriage, thanking Mr. Forbes for his assistance with a silver crown. The carriage started off, and she tried to calm her still--leaping pulse. She would have to get used to seeing him, if Giles Carter were correct that he had become a member. When she had asked him to stop Philip harassing her, she hadn’t guessed he would do it personally. If she had known, she wasn’t sure she would have asked. It was a great relief not to see Philip watching her all the time, but it would be even more unsettling to catch fleeting glimpses of Jack. She leaned her head against the narrow window, thinking how farcical her life had become lately.

The hackney turned into the main road, and abruptly she jerked upright, then lunged forward. “Stop a moment!” she cried to the driver. He slowed the horse, and she groped for the handle. She pushed open the door just as the hack drew even with Jack on the pavement.

He stopped and faced her. Breathless, gripping the handle for dear life, she stared back at him. “This was meant to be your carriage, sir.”

“Yes,” he said.

“I would not have accepted your offer of it if I had suspected it would force you to walk.”

He took a step closer and laid his hand over hers on the door handle. “Perhaps we might . . . share the carriage.”

Her mouth was dry. She smothered the little whisper in her head, warning that this was a mistake. Jack’s voice had lost the cool, aristocratic drawl. Once more he sounded like the man who’d laughed with her at Alwyn House, and the way he looked at her made her heart leap. She nodded yes, sliding over on the seat to make room for him.





Chapter 18




She barely heard Jack tell the driver to drive on; her heart was pounding so hard she could feel it in her throat. The hackney started forward with a small lurch, and it unstuck her tongue. “I was told you’re now a member of the Vega Club.”

“Yes.” Under cover of her cloak, his hand slid over hers on the seat between them. His fingers rubbed across her knuckles before drifting to her wrist, where he slipped loose the buttons of her glove. “It was the only way I could keep my word to you.”

“That’s far beyond what I expected,” she said unsteadily. He was peeling the glove from her hand, sending tremors through her whole body.

“It shouldn’t be.”

“I know how you feel about gambling . . .” The glove came off, and his bare skin was against hers. When had he removed his own glove? Sophie’s voice choked off as his fingers speared between hers, his palm to hers.

“No one said I must gamble while I’m there,” he murmured.

“It must be a terrible inconvenience. I cannot ask—-”

He squeezed her hand. “Perhaps I wanted an excuse to be there.” He glanced at her, his eyes catching the light of a street lamp as they passed it. “Despite what people say about me, I am not made of stone, and it’s been a miserably long week.”

She made an odd gasping noise, hardly aware she’d been holding her breath. Even dukes are men of flesh and blood. Her own blood seemed to sizzle in her veins. “It has.”

His hand tightened over hers, his thumb stroking her knuckles.

She was a fool. Not only had she gone and lost her heart to the wrong man, she didn’t care. If this moment with him, with no more contact than his hand around hers, cost her every hope of a respectable marriage, she couldn’t regret it. Sophie had lost too many people she loved to take any second of joy for granted. She turned her face into his shoulder, breathing deeply to imprint the scent and feel and warmth of him indelibly on her memory.

All too soon the hack stopped in Alfred Street. Jack opened the door and stepped down, reaching back to help her. He gave her his arm and walked her the few steps to her door. He tipped back his head, studying her house and glancing left and right to take in the street. It was modest but clean, and relatively safe. “So this is where you live.”

“Yes.” She took out her latchkey, trying to prolong the moment. “I thought you might have found out.”

“No.” He gave her a searing look. “If I’d known where to find you, I never could have stayed away.”

God help her. All her resolve to move on, to keep their days together a secret hidden in her heart, drained away. “Come inside,” she whispered before she could stop herself. “Stay with me.”

His fierce smile sent her heart soaring. “One moment,” he said, turning on his heel. Sophie jammed the key in the lock as he spoke to the hackney driver, who snapped his whip and drove off just as she got the door open. She turned, but Jack was already behind her, his expression taut. He pressed his finger to her lips and slid one arm around her waist as he urged her over the threshold before closing the door and sliding home the bolt. He put his cheek next to hers. “What about your servants?” he breathed.