She shook her head, despite her breathing growing uneven. “You’ve gotten yourself into enough trouble with wagering.”
“It’s not my fault that Henry and Sophie’s twins are devious little rascals,” he protested as she led him from the room. “How was I to know that three-year-old boys know how to cheat with toy soldiers?”
She grinned back at him, intertwining her fingers with his. “Do you know who taught them how to do that?”
“I suspect Will. He’s too mischievous.”
“It was Rosalind.”
That drew a loud laugh from him as they closed the door and started down the hall. “I thought she was doting on baby Emma.”
“She did for a moment, but then she was racing with the boys and teaching them all sorts of tricks.” She grinned up at her husband and nudged him. “She is a fine match for Will.”
“Lily Granger’s sister is a rapscallion,” he mused thoughtfully. “How perfectly bizarre.”
Gemma sobered at the mention of her friend. “I heard that Granger’s fortunes have changed. Perhaps he will be kinder to Lily now.”
“He’s never been unkind to her. Merely neglectful.”
“When a woman loved a man as Lily loved Granger,” Gemma muttered, “neglect is the most hurtful thing of all.”
Lucas squeezed her hand tightly. “If you would watch him instead of Lily for once, you would see the love there. He’s not so horrible, you know. He adores her. There is still hope for them.”
“Unless it is too late,” she said with a shrug. “Lily has hurt for too long.”
Lucas pulled her to a stop and cupped her cheek. “You and I both know,” he murmured softly, “that love is not that simple. And I would rather not debate the state of the Grangers’ marriage with you. We won’t see eye to eye there.”
She leaned more fully into his hand. “We certainly won’t.” She smiled a little and gripped his coat. “You know, the wager with the boys was not the wager I was talking about.”
He smiled in response. “Oh no? What wager was that?”
“Me.”
His thumb stroked her cheek gently. “You were the easiest wager I ever made. Undoubtedly the best one.”
“I certainly have proved a challenge, haven’t I?” she sighed dramatically.
“Absolutely,” he murmured, kissing her tenderly. “But what about your wager? You’ve become quite the gambler, madam.”
“Oh, I know,” she informed him with a nod. “It is amazing the lengths I go to in order to draw you out. And your methods of payment are most unorthodox.”
“Creative.”
“Glad you think so.”
He looked almost outraged. “You object to how I repay my debts?”
She grinned mischievously. “I should have a fortune by this time, my lord, and yet I do not. All I’ve received from this wager is a fine house, two beautiful children, and an adoring husband who never lets my heart rest or my breath settle, and I’ve become the most ridiculous sort of craving, lovesick woman with absolutely no self-control where he is concerned.” She shook her head sadly. “How the mighty are fallen. And I held such promise.”
Lucas stared at her for a long moment, his throat working. Then he slowly pushed her against the wall and bracketed her with his arms. “You mercenary wench,” he murmured, his lips dusting faintly over her skin. “To think I devote my life to paying your exorbitant debts, and this is how you thank me? By feeling short-changed and underpaid?”
“It seemed cruel to deceive you longer,” she managed, arching her neck and fisting her hands in his coat. “I may be mercenary, but I am no villain.”
He grinned against her cheek and pressed against her a bit more. “Ah, but you are married to the mysterious and dark Viscount Blackmoor, madam. And he is quite the villain.”
“He thinks he is,” she replied stubbornly. “All I find is a perfect gentleman with rather captivating eyes.”
He chuckled and captured her lips in a searing kiss that curled her toes in her beaded slippers. “Oh, the wicked things he could do to prove you wrong,” he whispered, sending shivers down her spine. Then suddenly he lifted away from her, cool as the morning air. “But, alas, his wife has insisted he attend a party for his family. So if you are quite finished with delaying…?”
Gemma laughed merrily at his composure and his outstretched hand, and she took it tightly in her own. “You are a devious man, my lord.”
“Who loves you. More than yesterday.”
“Yesterday was a good day… are you sure?”
“Positive.”
She drew his hand to her lips and kissed it softly. “I love you more.”
“Care to wager on that?”
Gemma grinned at her darling, handsome, warm, slightly mysterious viscount, with whom her future seemed brighter by the passing day.
“Later, my lord. Raise the stakes.”
About the Author
Rebecca Connolly has been creating stories since she was young, and there are home videos to prove it. She started writing them down in elementary school and has never looked back. She lives in Ohio, spends every spare moment away from her day job absorbed in her writing, and is a hot cocoa junkie.
Coming Soon
A
Gerrard
Family
Christmas
“Deck the halls with boughs of folly.”
by
Rebecca Connolly
A Wager Worth Making (Arrangements, Book 7) Page 28