Consequently, he was now the most significant ace in the pack down and constantly backtracking in his mind to recount what had gone before. By his best guess—and thanks to the siren opposite him, it really was a guess—there weren’t that many trumps left.
Minerva’s brow kept furrowing, so it was fairly safe to assume she had only the five of hearts as all the lower trumps were now in the haphazard pile in the center of the table. With Diana’s clumsy playing, so were the nine, the ten, and the king, and he recalled Venus had laid the queen. Or Minerva had. Either way, that was gone, too—but at least Gal still held the jack. And that jack was now unbeatable.
Or so he hoped.
He choked down some of the tea Olivia was force-feeding him to cover his anxiety, then, when he found his mouth filled with tea leaves, almost choked for real. Lord but he hated the stuff—even without the accidental bilge of leaves left because the hostess had forgotten to use the strainer.
“Well, of course you are warm.” Also peeved at the erratic stop-start nature of the game, Minerva spoke in a snippy tone. “You are practically swaddled in a blanket, Vee, when the fire is roaring!”
“I suppose you make a valid point.” Venus gazed at her tantalizingwool-covered chest. “I had quite forgotten I was wearing this.” Her fingers went to the latest knot in the front of it and made short work of it. Then she inhaled deeply, fanning herself with her hand as she let the fabric slip from her shoulders to the back of the chair. “Thatisbetter.”
It most definitely was, because perhaps now she would stop fiddling with the damn thing.
And it wasn’t.
Because now he had to find a way to cope with all the slightly flushed, perfect skin back on full display when the perfume alone was killing him.
“More tea, Galahad?” Noticing his empty cup, Olivia brandished the teapot again. As a desperate distraction to all his inappropriate lust, Gal held his cup aloft. “There’s one cup left in this pot.”
Which would make it so stewed, the tannins would strip his teeth and make his lips stick to them. “That would be lovely.” About as lovely as sucking up the stagnant puddle water from Piccadilly Circus. Before she poured, he forced a smile that he suspected was more a grimace. “Don’t forget the strainer.” He just didn’t have it in him to choke down more sludge.
“Oh, of course! Silly me.” Olivia grabbed it and leaned over him to top up his beverage, forcing him to lean closer to the Jasmine Enchantress who was suddenly much too close for comfort.
“Can the four of you get on with it as I’m losing the will to live.” Jeremiah’s constant complaining from the audience wasn’t helping Gal’s shredded nerves, either. “I swear I’ve never known a hand of cards to last as long as this one.”
As Gal needed only one trick to win, and his body was rampant with lust and his molars were practically floating on tea, he was equally keen to get it over with. Frankly, the sooner he escaped Venus, the better. After Olivia’s pointed observations of earlier, and all the talk of matchmaking, it would be prudent to put as much distance between them as possible.
Thank the Lord for Shropshire!
The day after tomorrow, she would leave and he’d have at least a month to get his goddamn urges under control.Strictcontrol, because things couldn’t go on like this! His preoccupation with her was like a sickness. His desire for her unbearable. The control she held over him terrifying.
“You’ll be pleased to learn that I’ve changed my mind about The Fluffy Puppy, as I’ve come up with something much better.” Venus had given up fanning herself with her hand in favor of patting the skin behind her neck with a handkerchief as she leaned his way. “I’m going to call your den of iniquity The Powder Puff.” The folded square of linen made its way to the front of her neck, then caressed the silken skin of her collarbone before she flapped it in the vicinity of her chest like a fan.
“Over my dead body.” He shot her a playful but warning look as his mouth dried while he tried resolutely to keep his eyes from wandering north. “What was I thinking, agreeing to such a stupid bet?”
Surely she didn’t hate him that much?
If it came to it, he supposed he’d have to welch on the bet for the sake of the business, even though he had never welched on a bet in his life. His grandpa would be spinning in his grave if he did, of course, and the rest of the family would be up in arms. Then his relationship with all the good people around him would be as tarnished as his relationship with Venus was and she would be proved right about him by default. He could hear her victory speech already. Untrustworthy. Unreliable. Selfish. Dishonorable.
Despicable.
What a mess! And all mine!
What a jackass!
“It’s not too late to change the stakes.” Venus dabbed the handkerchief again on the skin just above her breasts. Breasts that were rising and falling above her straining bodice in time with her breathing in the most bewitching manner. “Care to up the ante?”
“What did you have in mind?” Frankly, anything would be betterthan being either the proprietor of The Powder Puff or the social pariah of the family.
“It really is very hot in here.” Now Diana was apparently about to expire from the heat, although to be fair to her, unlike Venus, she was at least perspiring. Thanks to the impressive alabaster breasts directly across the table, so was Gal. His shirt had even started to stick to his back. Probably because all the tea he’d had forced upon him was now oozing from his pores. “Can somebody open a window?”
Hallelujah!“Giles—” Gal gestured to the big sash window closest to the card table. “I think we all need some air.”
“Absolutely not!” Olivia stopped Giles in his tracks. “It’s bitter outside and snowing! You’ll let out all the heat! Why don’t I ask Dalton to fetch Diana a cold compress to cool her down?” She bellowed in the general direction of the door. “Dalton! Fetch a cold compress!”
“I don’t want a cold compress! I want some air.”
As Diana was getting redder in the face by the second, Giles sidestepped Olivia and marched to the window. He flung the sash upward defiantly. “If my wife wants air, she gets air.” He stomped toward Venus, yanked the shawl now dangling impotently over the back of her chair, and tossed it at the moaning matriarch. “You can ward off the arctic winter in this, Olivia.”
