Page 44 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman
Because it was hot and humid, Rob and Drew stripped off their evening coats and rolled up their sleeves.
When Rob leaned forward to play the first card of a new hand, his dark-brown fringe cloaked his eyes, and when he leaned back, he slid a little further down in the chair, slouching slightly, as he looked at his cards. The pose gave him anendearing quality. His long fingers pulled out a card and moved it to another place in his hand.
‘Caro, it is your turn,’ Drew prompted.
She leaned forward and laid the Queen of Hearts. ‘I claim the trick.’ The King had already been laid. It was in the pile of cards she and Rob had won, beside her elbow.
‘Oh,’ Mary huffed, throwing away the Two of Spades to end the hand.
Rob looked up from his cards and laughed. Then, he looked at Caro and smiled, his dark-blue eyes glinting with amusement as Caro gathered up the cards in the middle of the table.
‘How do you two do it?’ Drew complained. ‘Have you a code? I have been watching you and I cannot see one.’
Heat flooded Caro’s skin with a blush. She hoped he had not noticed how often she watched Rob.
‘You are too good at this game,’ Mary protested.
Caro laid the Five of Spades. ‘Hearts are trumps again.’ She knew neither Drew nor Mary had a Heart.
Drew and Mary sat in mirrored poses, upright and leaning on the table, with their feet tucked beneath their chairs, eager to win.
Mary lay the Seven of Spades.
Caro slid down a little, slipped her foot from her shoe and touched Rob’s shin with her toes.
He glanced up and shook his head, but he smiled as he sat straighter in the chair, pulling his legs out of reach, then he lay the King of Spades.
‘Damn you, you have it again.’ Drew threw the Knave of Diamonds onto the hand.
Rob gathered up the cards and pushed them across the table for Caro to add to her pile. Her fingers brushed his and thecontact lanced through her, spiralling down through her stomach.
She longed to do more than kiss Rob.
When he left, the house would feel empty; she would feel like a parasite once more.
She would not urge him to stay, she had told herself that a dozen times. She would not trap him here with her. This was not his life. But if she had to let him go, she longed to lie with him just once; to have a memory to keep. She wanted to know the bliss of a marriage bed with him. She was not a virgin, and she could not bear a child, so, what harm would there be in indulging themselves?
‘Caro,’ Drew prompted again. ‘It is your turn.’
Her attention turned to the cards he and Rob had laid. She chose a card that Mary beat, and they lost their first trick of the night. Caro smiled apologetically at Rob.
Drew celebrated their victory by leaning across the table and pulling a laughing Mary over for a kiss.
23
Rob was seated at the breakfast table. He was leaving tomorrow, moving into John’s town mansion in London, Pembroke House.
His friends were already in London. His own, independent life was to begin now, not the one funded by his father or brother. His friends knew his desire to go into politics, they would help him progress his plan to achieve a seat in Parliament.
Yet now he was leaving Caro behind… But this was not his home, nor his life, he could not stay here.
She had not looked at him this morning.
His heart thumped as he watched her drink a sip of chocolate.
‘I used to live in rooms in The Albany,’ Drew said. ‘They were nothing fancy, but they were suitable. I can give you a letter of introduction if you wish?’
Rob laughed. ‘And a letter from you would obtain my entry…? Forgive me, but as I recall you were heavily in debt and behind on your payments. I do not think your reference would help.’
