Page 7 of One Night with a Prince
“Excellent,” Draker said.
“But I have an additional condition. I want a private audience with Prinny when it’s done.”
“Why?” Draker asked.
“I have my reasons.”
Draker eyed him intently, then sighed. “I’ll see if he’ll agree to that.”
“He’d better if he wants me to help Christabel.”
“Christabel?” Iversley said.
Might as well tell them the plan. They’d hear of it soon enough. “Stokely will only invite the good widow if she’s my mistress. So she will be.”
Draker drew himself up. “I hope you did not coerce that poor woman—”
“Did I mention that she’ll be mypretend mistress? We’re perpetrating a deception like the one you and Regina perpetrated with your pretend courtship.”
“It may have started out as a pretend courtship,” Draker retorted, “but it didn’t stay one for long.”
A smile curved Gavin’s lips. “Exactly.”
“I thought you didn’t like Lady Haversham,” Draker snapped. Gavin thought of Christabel’s soft, curvy body pressed to his, of the quickening of her breath when he’d touched her—of the stubborn will that he would greatly enjoy bending to his own. “She grows on a man.”
The overly moral Draker frowned, but Iversley burst into laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Gavin asked.
“Draker’s pretense with Regina eventually led to marriage,” Iversley said slyly. “Or had you forgotten?”
When Draker began to chuckle, too, Gavin retorted, “Don’t worry. I have no interest in marriage.” Only once had he even considered it, as a green lad of twenty-two. But Anna Bingham had cured him of that nonsense.
“Women have a way of changing a man’s mind,” Iversley said.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
“Not bloody likely.” His idiot brothers’ sly winks and knowing glances annoyed him. “Besides, Lady Haversham appears quite happy with her current situation.”
Draker lifted one eyebrow. “That could change, too.”
“For God’s sake, you’re as bad as your wife, with her talk of connubial bliss and falling in love. Contrary to what Regina seems to think, some bachelors actually have no interest in love.”
The disaster with Anna had taught him that there were lines even “love” didn’t cross, that his preference for sophisticated women could only be assuaged in illicit physical liaisons. No respectable woman would marry him unless she was after his money, and he had no desire to endure such a hypocrisy of a marriage.
Besides, the more adulterous affairs he engaged in, the more cynical he became about marriage, his brothers’ happy unions notwithstanding. Any woman worth her salt married for financial or social advantage. Would Katherine or Regina have married his brothers if they hadn’t had titles? He didn’t explore that question further, for it made him uncomfortably aware of the main difference between him and his half brothers. Their mothers’ husbands had claimed each of them as legitimate sons. Gavin’s mother hadn’t had that choice, which was why he would be Byblow Byrne until he died. Unless he became the Baron Byrne. He certainly likedthat idea. Especially if forcing Prinny to set matters straight and acquiring the intriguing Christabel as his real mistress were part of the bargain.
“So it’s settled,” he said, ready to change the subject. “I’ll get Christabel onto Stokely’s guest list, and our sire will hand me a barony.”
“Yes, it’s settled,” Draker said.
“We’re glad you agreed to this,” Iversley added. “It’s time you got something more from our alliance than entertainment.”
“Don’t worry. When this is done, I intend to get a great deal more than entertainment from it.” When Iversley looked speculative, Gavin added quickly, “This calls for a toast.” He poured brandy all round, then lifted his glass. “To the Royal Brotherhood of Bastards.”
They all echoed the usual toast, then drank. When he went to refill Draker’s glass for the second toast, his half brother shook his head. Gavin glanced to Iversley, who was clearly toying with his glass to avoid having it refilled.
“You two really have gone soft,” Gavin muttered, then refilled his own glass and raised it defiantly. “To our noble sire,” he said loudly. “May he rot in hell.”
Chapter Two
