Page 76 of How to Tempt an Earl

For fun. She’d never considered it fun. She’d avoided the gaming rooms at balls and Almack’s. It was too difficult to see the looks on the faces of the gamers and not think of her father betting more in one night than she could earn in months.

“Go on.”

She placed the coin on black eight.

The croupier called for all bets, then dropped a little white ball in the wheel. With a flick of his wrist, the wheel was sent into motion. She watched fascinated as the ball spun and spun. Tantalizing. Mesmerizing. Where would it stop? The ball bounced and taunted and just when she thought there was a chance it might land on her number, it skipped and landed on another.

Her heart sank.

“Better luck next time,” a burly man with yellow teeth said beside her.

The statement was a stab at her heart. For a brief moment, she had been caught up in the game. Her mind had been a crazy mixture of hope that the ball could land on her number. Was her father’s madness something that ran within the family?

It was a disturbing thought and not one she wanted to explore.

Ian must have sensed her rioting emotions. He took her hand and tugged her away. “Come,” he said. “You have seen enough.”

She walked beside him to the back of the large room until she thought he meant to leave from a rear entrance.

“Where are we going?”

“Upstairs.”

Her heart beat fast as she followed him up the stairs and into his private realm. The first time she’d visited the club, he’d brought her upstairs. Grace’s stomach had clenched tight as she’d followed his lead. She’d gathered her courage and approached the fierce-looking gambling hall owner with the intent of using her mother’s remaining jewels to pay off her father’s debt. Ian had appeared intimidating and frightening to her then.

Did he look different now?

He still appeared fierce in his surroundings, but she was no longer frightened of him. Rather, she was drawn to him.

As they took the stairs she stole a look at his face. His profile was strong and rigid, and a determined look flashed in his eyes. Her gaze swept from his broad shoulders to his narrow hips to his muscled legs. Her heart fluttered wildly in her breast. She was already attracted to him, but here, in this place, he radiated a virility that was compelling.

They reached the top of the stairs, and he hurried down a long corridor, then halted by a door. He opened the door to his office, and she stepped inside. It was as she remembered. A large desk was beside a fireplace and marble mantel, two wooden chairs sat before the desk, and a sideboard holding decanters of colorful liquor stood by a blue-striped settee in the corner. A lush Oriental carpet covered the floor. But it was the window overlooking the gambling floor that commanded her attention. She was drawn to the glass and found herself looking down at the casino floor.

The sight was both alluring and thrilling. The floor seemed to beat with an exciting pulse of its own, and she finally understood the pull that others felt when they stepped inside.

Once again, she was torn by conflicting emotions. Establishments like this had led to her father’s ruin. But Ian had also been right. Her father drank too much. It was a deadly combination—whisky and gambling. Still, she couldn’t fathom how she had gotten to this point in her life. Married to the owner of one of the most notorious gambling clubs in London.

A man she had fallen deeply in love with.

It was maddening. Could she convince him to part with his club? Were his feelings for her greater than those he had for this place? Or could she live with the hand she’d been dealt?

“I know what you are thinking,” he said.

She whirled to face him. “You do?”

Ian leaned on his desk, his arms folded across his chest. “You think I should have added more than one roulette table?”

She arched an eyebrow. “You’re shameless.”

A flash of humor crossed his face. “I like to think I’m hopeful.”

She walked away from the window, suddenly serious. “Why, Ian?”

“Why am I hopeful?”

“No. Why did you open the Raven Club? You are the son of an earl. How did you come to own the place?”

He sighed. “It’s a long story.”