Page 107 of The Lyon Returns
“No doubt,” Gideon agreed. As the two had already discussed both the investigation and insurance claim, he could only assume Brice had something else he wished to say.
“Say, you wouldn’t mind joining me in speeding the process along? Monday, late morning, headingen masseto Lloyd’s to make our case?”
“Why not?” He glanced toward the coach. The letter in his pocket had him anxious to leave.
“Excellent. Congratulations, Gideon, once again you’re fortune’s darling in all regards.”
“In all regards? I don’t take your meaning.”
“Why, evading the hangman, feathering your nest financially, and Cupid’s triumph over rank.”
Gideon arched a brow. “Evading the hangman? That presupposes I’m guilty.”
“You hardly have to be guilty to wind up on the wrong side of something, Gideon,” Brice said.
“Hmm. And the bit about overcoming my rank?”
“Touchy, touchy,” Brice said with affront, though color splashed over his cheek bones. “It’s not as if we aren’t two sides of the samecoin, and I don’t deny my marriage was advantageous.”
“Fair enough.” Gideon glanced toward his travel coach, inside of which his wife waited. He ought not take offense when Brice spoke nothing less than the truth. “If that’s all?”
Brice scrubbed a hand over his jaw and lowered his voice. “Ah, actually, I have something I wish to ask you.”
“Oh?” He was growing impatient with Brice’s hedging. “If it’s another investment you wish to discuss, you’ll have to make an appointment.”
“No, no, nothing like that. It’s just…I understand from Mrs. Trent you’ve ended your alliance.”
“What of it?”
He pursed his lips and avarice gleamed in his dark eyes. “As it happens, I am in the market for a new mistress. She indicated she would not look amiss at an exclusive arrangement, but I wanted to make absolutely certain I wasn’t poaching in your territory.”
When Gideon had called on her recently to formally end things, she’d indicated someone of stature had recently approached her with a proposition. Gideon had not asked who. He had not particularly cared, and he did not care now, other than feeling a degree of sympathy for Brice’s wife who clearly adored him.
But such was the way of the so-called polite world. “You have my blessing, not that you need it. I’ll caution you, however. The woman is not…how can I say this?” He eyed his boot tips, not wishing to offend. “She has expensive tastes.”
Brice sniffed. “I think I can afford to keep her in the style to which she has become accustomed.”
Gideon flashed his friend a grin. “Especially now that the insurance claim is liable to pay, eh?”
Brice huffed out a laugh. “Quite.”
Hearing the twomen’s laughter, Gwen peeked out the carriage window. Gideon’s teeth gleamed white against his sun burnished skin and she felt her own mouth curve in an answering smile. He was so breathtaking. So vital.
Brice, she supposed, had the more classically handsome face and build. He boasted a thick head of chestnut hair. He was wiry and muscular, not overly thin, and stood neither tall nor short. He certainly dressed well and moved with a practiced elegance.
No matter. She did not find him at all attractive, especially not standing next to Gideon.
And still, there was something about the man that struck her as off. He treated her with deference and solicitude, always. Why did she not like him? She supposed she did notnotlike him. But she did not trust him, and something niggled the back of her mind, now she thought of it, from earlier today.
Thanks to all the excitement, she’d nearly forgotten.
Outside the coach, Gideon spoke to the groom in his rumbling baritone. A moment later, his large frame filled the opening as he climbed inside, briefly blocking most of the waning light. Then he settled on the bench across from her, in a negligent sprawl, extending his arms over the back cushion and spreading out his long legs so they rested on either side of her skirts.
The coach shifted as the groom climbed atop the box. A moment later, it lurched into motion.
Gideon’s green-gold gaze drifted over her in an intimate perusal that caused gooseflesh to sprout over her limbs and warmth to pool in her belly in a now-familiar sensation.
Gwen glanced out the small windowpane, mostly to distractherself from Gideon’s unreasonable appeal. Now that she knew the wonder of being made love to by him, it seemed she could not look at him without craving more of the heady sensations he called forth from her body with such effortless skill.
