Page 133 of Enchanted Heir
I shook my head. He was ridiculous. “It could take hours.”
Krew brushed a kiss to my temple. “I don’t mind, love.”
Sasha laughed from the left of us. “I’m sure you don’t, Your Grace.”
Krew smirked but kept looking at me.
“You aren’t playing, Your Grace?” another asked from down the table.
“No,” Krew responded. “She’s capable to play in my place. I am content to watch tonight.”
The first hand done, the deck moved to Sasha to shuffle. “So Nico,” he said to a man across the table who I didn’t know, the one that had just asked Krew if he was playing or not. “Tell us, how is your new estate treating you?”
“Almost as well as your sister,” Nico snapped back in response.
I sucked in a breath. Why did men talk about women in this way? It was beyond repulsive.
I caught some olive-colored magic swirling in Sasha’s hand as he picked up his cards. He was obviously not happy about it either.
The king snorted. “Must you two always bicker? Come now. Let us play.”
So we did. For the next hour, I sat on Krew’s lap, playing cards with the men. Once the first man was out, I started adjusting my strategy. I needed to start looking like I knew what I was doing, but still also riding in somewhat under the radar.
I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bring me great joy when the first hand that I won was a showdown with Tyrian Koss. I kind of wondered where his gossiping wife was. Did the wives wait somewhere within the castle?
Thomas picked up his goblet, swirling the contents in it. “So she can play.”
I gave him a quick smile as the cards began being shuffled again. He lifted his goblet in cheers to me.
On and on we went. Hand after hand. Coin after coin. Shuffle after shuffle. The banter was minimal, the focus on the game. I wondered if they were normally more talkative during these games or not. Was it my presence? Or their king’s?
At one point Krew adjusted me so I was on his other knee. We were now down two players, only five of us remaining.
I was dealt my best hand of the night and tried my best to look tired. Krew knew but did nothing, other than continue running his thumb in patterns where it rested on my leg.
Of course it had to be Keir I was in a bid war with at the end. Keir, who was doing quite well on the night, having already won numerous hands.
“I rather think,” Keir offered as he threw in some more coin to up the bid, “that you downplayed your skills in the beginning, Jorah.”
“I rather think it is not my concern what a bunch of men’s opinions are about me.” I tossed in my coin to match his. “I know what I am, and what I am not.”
Both content with our bids, Keir squinted at me playfully. “Well, Jorah Demir?”
I flipped over my cards before me.
Keir didn’t have to but flipped over his also.
“Well, well,” Keir grinned. “She wins it.”
“First he takes your woman,” Nico said, words slightly slurred from next to Keir. “Now he takes your coin.”
Nico hadn’t said much all night, but I already knew I didn’t like him. Also he was already out of the game, as he was poor at bidding, risking far more than he should.
I felt Krew’s magic buzz as if wanting to be used, but it went unnoticed since I was currently touching him.
“You’re one to talk,” Sasha said from across the table. “Forcing my sister to marry you because you couldn’t find a woman who’d actually want to.”
“We were found in a compromising position,” Nico defended. “It was the right thing to do.”
