Page 43 of One Night for Seduction
He held out a hand to help her to her feet. “This way.”
The private drawing room he led her to appeared to be designed with chess in mind. There were books along the walls, a buffet with wine and glasses, and even a small spinet in one corner, but the star of the room were exquisitely carved ebony and boxwood pieces on a mahogany board centered right below the crystal chandelier.
Diana’s heart skipped. She hurried forward for a better look.
“I’m almost afraid to touch something so beautiful,” she said in awe.
Colehaven’s gaze heated. “A familiar sensation.”
She blushed and ran a finger against the edge of the fluted table. “Black or white?”
He held out his palm. “Ladies first.”
She sat before her sixteen boxwood pieces, hesitant to move one and displace the board’s artistic perfection.
“What are you lords up to in Parliament this year?” she asked.
Colehaven’s wicked grin curled her toes. “Hoping to distract me with politics? I could discuss the Sikes’ Hydrometer Act in my sleep.”
“Discuss away,” she said as she opened with king’s pawn. “I find nothing more enjoyable than strong spirits.”
“Except weights and measures?” he asked dryly.
“I shiver at your every word,” she told him. “It’s like you’re speaking poetry.”
He met her pawn with his. “Most of us are on several committees at once. I’m hoping to make more progress with the National Debt.”
She grinned as she moved a boxwood pawn. “Stop allowing spendthrifts to make the budget?”
“If only it were that simple.” His fingers touched his pawn. “It’s not that the government should spend less money. It’s that we need to spend it more efficiently.”
“I have suggestions,” she said at once. “Whole journals full of them.”
He captured her pawn with his. “I imagine you love to debate as much as you love chess.”
“I’ve had less practice with debate,” she admitted as she slid her bishop across the board. “Thad suffers through games with me, but he isn’t a lord. My knowledge of current issues comes from the papers. Half the time, we don’t hear about laws until they’re already enacted.”
“We could change that,” Colehaven offered as his queen flew. “To my surprise, I quite enjoy arguing with you.”
“I wish I could attend the galleries,” she said wistfully. Her king side-stepped. “Women used to be admitted. Why did men take the privilege away?”
“It’s shortsighted,” he agreed with a sigh. “I wish I made the rules.”
She burst out laughing. “You literally create the laws that govern the entire country. If that’s not ‘making the rules…’”
He flashed an impish grin and moved a pawn. “Fair enough. I’ll see what I can do.”
Diana was not looking at the board, but at Colehaven. Opening the galleries back up to women was an impossible request. She knew it. He knew it. And yet she had no doubt that, for her, he would try.
It made her want to kiss him again.
Not that she had ever stopped wanting to. She’d thought of little else since their breathless moment alone in the garden. Even this morning, when he’d looked so forlorn at the idea of being outfitted with new waistcoats, it had been all she could do not to place her hands to his jaw and raise her lips to his.
When she captured his pawn with her bishop, her fingers trembled. Unlike this morning on Bond Street, tonight they were all alone. She’d failed to bring her cousin or a maid. His staff was conveniently elsewhere. Even Lady Felicity had disappeared on the thinnest of pretexts, leaving them to carry on as they pleased.
If Dianawereto indulge in a moment of reckless passion with a handsome duke, she could scarcely ask for more favorable circumstances.
She glanced up through lowered lashes. Was he thinking the same thing she was?
