“Firstborn sons who will inherit are not admitted.”
“Ah, now I recall something about that rule. Why is it the case?”
“The owner, a second son, believes spares aren’t appreciated and receive less attention at affairs such as this. Like your mother, ladies want the titled gent.”
She was relieved that he’d referred to her mother and not herself. “And the Twin Dragons?”
“Not so biased. I do have a membership to that club. I can be found there most evenings, to be honest. If not at the tables, then in the library, usually discussing business ventures. Do you gamble, Miss Garrison?”
“Shifting our manufacturing focus is a gamble, one with very high stakes.”
“But you think it will succeed?”
“With every fiber of my being.”
He stopped and waved his hand forward. “The path is just past that hedge.”
Unfurling her fingers, she faced him. “Consider investing, my lord,” she said quickly before darting to the path—because that was the reason they were here, after all, to find the means to expand their business.Not to learn about the intricacies of sexual gratification that occurred between adults.
Watching her go, Rook knotted his hands into fists to stop himself from reaching for her. The parting should have been easy. Instead, he’d wanted to secrete her away.
He wondered why he’d blathered on about the various types of kisses. Naturally, she’d have inquired about the farewell one. If he’d ever given one. He’d almost told her, had fairly longed to tell her the truth.
But speaking of it would have left a bitter taste in his mouth when he was still savoring the flavor of her.
Then she’d asked if he had bestowed upon her a farewell kiss. He should have claimed he had, so they’d both know that they were done. Yet he’d been unable to bring himself to do it. As it was, he felt as though the business between them was decidedly unfinished. She made him yearn to be wicked, to do what he’d never done before.
He’d thought about asking her to come to his residence. He lived alone, save for the servants. While it was a luxurious spacious townhome, too many neighbors were about, most upper crust, and she might be spied arriving or leaving. Although late at night, with the hood of a pelisse covering her head—
But he suspected his residence would eventually become the dower house and his mother would live there, and so he’d refrained from enjoying any debauchery within it. And he had the odd suspicion that Miss Garrison would leave her mark as indelibly as if her face had been painted on the walls. That herjasmine fragrance would remain and that somehow his mother would know that the American heiress had visited there and engaged in an intimate encounter with him. Or several, because he couldn’t help but believe that like the kiss, any sort of brazen familiarity would serve only to have him yearning for more.
Whatever was wrong with him? He never took this much interest in women, took them as they came, left when their encounter was done. He rarely sought them out. They joined him, of their own accord. Just as she had tonight in the garden, and before that in the nook. But he’d gone to her first, and somehow that made her different.
He wondered if she might ask Camberley for a kiss, if she might in fact decide to do some comparing. He could well envision her doing so, going after anything she wanted with all the means at her disposal. She’d daringly met each of his requests for a tryst, bravely overcoming any hesitancy she might have experienced.
He’d never played the clandestine game of being involved with someone who flitted about in his social circle. It was a dangerous way to go. One slip, and a man might find himself at the altar with a woman he liked but with whom he was not entirely compatible. It was not a risk he’d ever taken... until her.
However, he wasn’t going to take the risk again. He knew that for a fact.
No matter how enticing she was. Regardless of how much he’d liked having her in his arms.
She called to a savage part of him that wanted to possess and conquer. She made him yearn to toss his well-regarded reputation aside as if it mattered not atall, as though he hadn’t spent years cultivating it. She made him want to embrace wickedness.
But he was determined to carry on with his steadfast vow to always be above reproach. Strange how the thought brought with it a measure of sorrow, along with the realization that the kiss they’d just shared had in factbeena farewell.
Chapter 11
It had been two nights since that kiss in the garden, two days since that stroll in the park. Strangely, it was their time together in the park that haunted him. Her hesitancy to share her drawings as though she’d scandalously etched out nude men. The doubt reflected in her eyes when she’d finally revealed rods, levers, and knobs. She was going to eventually arrange them in order to make them all work together—
When he couldn’t even seem to sort his cards properly, so they made any sense. Lady Fortune was not smiling on him tonight. Thus far he’d lost every hand of brag dealt.
Feeling restless, he’d come to the Twin Dragons to be entertained. Tonight no balls, dinners, recitals, or soirees were happening—at least none to which he’d been invited, which meant probably none. He was a bachelor, a wealthy bachelor with a sterling reputation, a bachelor few mamas left off their guest list. Especially if they had unmarried daughters.
While he’d made a point of dashing hopes by admitting he had no plans to wed, he supposed there would be mothers hoping to marry off their daughters to him, long after his hair had gone silver, hisshoulders stooped, and he required a cane to remain erect.
His fellow Chessmen were spending the evening with their wives, doing one thing or another, leaving him the odd man out. He didn’t envy them their marital bliss, but he firmly believed it wasn’t for him. Aiden might not mind passing his blood on to the next generation, but then he’d been spared being raised under the influence of the Earl of Elverton. While Rook wasn’t naive enough to believe Aiden’s had been an easy existence, he’d at least escaped the daily encounters with the horrendous man and the shame of being known and acknowledged as his son.
“So, Rook, what do you think of Sam Garrison’s investment opportunity?”
