Max was quieter than usual, turning his glass on the table between hands.Wesley had noticed it over the past few weeks—something behind his eyes that hadn't been there before.
“Lady Fairfax has invited me to a house party next month,” Max said, not looking up from his cards.“She's been rather insistent.”
“Fairfax?”Louis raised an eyebrow.“The woman who fancies herself London's greatest matchmaker?Why would you go within a mile of that?”
“She’s a friend of the family, and I can’t very well insult her.”
“If Fairfax gets her hands on you, she'll have you paired off before the first dinner course.”
Louis tossed down his cards.“Well, count me out of matchmaking schemes.And don’t try anything when you play the part of hostess.”
“Who me?”Kit asked with mock insult.“I would never dream of such a thing.”
“My wife would certainly be quite capable if she put her mind to the endeavor.”Wesley grinned at Kit.
“Don't start.”Louis pointed at Wesley.“Just because you went and fell for the woman who'd been robbing you blind, doesn't mean the rest of us are destined to succumb to the leg shackle.”
“I didn't say a word.”Wesley held his hands up in defense.
“You were thinking it.I could hear you thinking it.”Louis poured himself more whiskey.“Some of us are perfectly content as bachelors.”
Kit caught Wesley's eye beneath the brim of the cap, and he saw her mouth twitch.
“Another round?”Kit asked, but beneath the table her hand was on his thigh, her fingers tracing a line along the inside seam of his breeches.He felt the heat straight through the fabric.
“Actually.”Wesley pushed back from the table and stood.“I have a private matter to discuss with our card sharp here.”
Louis looked between them.“Do we want to know?”
“We didn't need to know that,” Max said, but he was smiling.
“Don’t wait for us,” Thea said to them.
Wesley's hand found the small of her back as he steered her toward the corridor and saw they were alone.His mouth was at her ear.“I’m about to go mad from needing my wife.”
The back room was small and dim, and used for the kind of activities that Wesley and Thea were going to indulge in.Wesley locked the door behind them.
Thea leaned against the wall, arms crossed, cap still on her head.“You couldn't wait until we got home?”
“Not a chance.”He crossed the room and pulled the cap from her head, tossing it to the floor.Her hair tumbled down around her shoulders and she was Thea again—his Thea, sharp-eyed and grinning at him, daring him to do something about it.“You have no idea what you do to me.”
She laughed, and the sound went through him, the way it always did.He kissed her, one hand fisting in her hair, the other gripping her hip, and she kissed him back hard enough to make him groan.
She pushed him back and sank to her knees.
The sight of her on the floor of the back room, looking up at him with dark eyes made his breath leave his body.She worked the buttons of his breeches open and freed his cock, already hard and aching for her.
“Thea—”
“Yes, Your Grace?”She took him in her mouth, and his head fell back against the wall.Her tongue traced the underside of his length before she took him deeper, her hand wrapped around the base, working him with a rhythm that made his vision blur.His fingers tangled in her hair, and his hips jerked forward before he could stop himself.
“Christ—” His voice came out strangled.“If you keep—Thea, I'm going to finish if you don't stop.”
She pulled back and looked up at him, her lips swollen.“Was that not what you had in mind when you dragged me back here?”
He hauled her to her feet and spun her to face the wall.His chest pressed against her back, and his hands found the buttons of her breeches and tugged them down past her hips.
“Something more like this.”One hand gripped her hip while the other slid between her legs from behind.She was wet, and his fingers found the spot that made her gasp.He circled her, teasing, while his cock pressed against her backside.
