Page 44 of Sloth: The Fallen Earl
A stunned Latimer looked between both gentlemen before finally finding his voice. “What is he talking about, Dynevor?”
“Careful, Latimer,” Dynevor cautioned. “Have care before you take sides against me in support of your half-mad brother-in-law, who can’t get out a coherent sentence.” The earl sharpened his eyes into angry slits and leveled a warning stare on his partner. “It reads as disloyal, and given your history with noblemen and disloyalty, I won’t tolerate a fool who questions me.”
A muscle twitched at the corner of Latimer’s right eye, a subtle betrayal of his inner turmoil.
Latimer was cool-headed enough to understand he was also in the wrong in his seeming to take sides. “My apologies.”
No man, least of all one of his standing, relished the reminder of his own missteps and mistakes. Among Latimer’s was the trust he’d given his former partners, the Duke of Argyll, the Duke of Malden, and the Marquess of Rutherford from his previous club, Forbidden Pleasures. That trio of vaunted peers not only undermined Latimer, they’d supplanted him as head of security in favor of another nobleman.
That betrayal had led to Latimer’s partnership at The Devil’s Den with the Earl of Dynevor,whichin turn led to Wakefield’s invitation to become a third proprietor.
Wakefield’s jaw rippled. That situation had placed Wakefield in the very quagmire of misfortune he found himself drowning in.
“Can someonepleaseexplain it to me from the beginning?” Latimer asked quietly, this time with an impartiality in his voice.
Wakefield took it upon himself to explaineverything. From his business meeting with Dynevor at the auction. The enigmatic lady who’d been paraded across the stage as a pretend virgin, and how Wakefield awoke the following morning to discover his lover had in fact been a virgin in every sense of the word.
The parts he took to leave out pertained to all the ways in which he’d taken Cressida Smith and the greatest mistake he’d made, spilling his seed inside her—multiple times.
His gut clenched.
After he’d provided an accounting, Wakefield found himself in a more even place when he spoke a word of warning to the young proprietor. “You want me as a silent partner, Dynevor. You said as much yourself. What better way to ensure my silence than having me fuck a virgin? A lady from Polite Society?”
The Earl of Dynevor’s dark eyebrows lifted a fraction. Then, ever so slowly, Dynevor broke out into quiet applause that grew increasingly enthusiastic, leaving absolutely no doubt as to the young earl’s sincerity—or rather, the lack thereof.
Wakefield stayed absolutely still through that protracted clapping, knowing the other man sought to get a rise out of him.
“I have to hand it to you, Wakefield,” he said, dryly. “That? Why, it is a level of ruthlessness that impresses even me. That you think I would let you have some woman I knew was a virgin to ensure your silence?”
As Wakefield expected, only when Dynevor didn’t get any reaction from Wakefield did he quit his clapping.
A warning glint entered the young man’s eyes. “Let me be clear, I’m not in the habit or in the business of dealing withactual virgins, and that goes for your bed partner last night. Blame me all you want. She was given the same choices as every other woman who frequents the club: she had free will to leave whenever she wanted. I gave her the instructions. I offered her another opportunity to leave after the auction. She had many opportunities to go.” Dynevor shrugged. “Shechoseto stay.”
Wakefield scoffed. “Anactuallady—”
“Chose,” Dynevor snapped.
“To be here?”
The earl nodded. “Aye.”
Wakefield felt as if he’d been handed one million puzzle pieces and instructed to put them in their proper places. Miss Cressida Smith insisted she knew him. She’d certainly spoken to Wakefield with a familiarity that suggested they moved in similar circles.
Could she really have been a lady of the ton?“What respectable woman would choose to stay?” he mused aloud.
“Perhaps the lady is an actress?” Latimer put forward the possibility.
Even as he asked it, Dynevor’s expression reflected back Wakefield’s own skepticism.
In terms of what the lady was thinking or feeling, she read like the pages of a script,so much soas to prove she wasn’t an actress, at least not a talented one. From those revealing eyes to her transparent feelings, and the emotion-laden words that left her lips, Cressida Smith left a man with absolutely doubt as to her thoughts or emotions.
He frowned. Unless it was just the opposite, and the lady possessed a talent for the stage, and some nefarious intentions brought her into The Devil’s Den and, worse, into Wakefield’s life.
Or perhaps you’re just grasping at straws.
Wakefield put his focus back on Dynevor. “Did the lady give any indication she knew me?”
The younger earl hesitated. Wakefield saw that telltale pause, as did Latimer.
