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He started to turn, then hesitated, and from the corner of her eye, she watched him catch sight of the deck of cards she’d left sitting on the table. “You play?”
A mix of nerves and excitement filled her, the same feeling she got before stepping into the training yard to fight. This was a different kind of battle, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t win.
“Of course I play.”
He hesitated, then asked, “Do you care for a game?”
Shrugging, she picked up the deck and expertly shuffled, the cards making sharp snapping sounds in her hands. “Do you really wish to gamble with me, Your Majesty? I must warn you, I’m quite good.”
“One of your many talents?”
Lara’s heart skipped, and she wondered if he remembered more from their intimate encounter than she realized. Yet he only eyed her for a moment, then took the seat across from her, resting one booted foot on his knee. “Do you have any coin to bet, or am I risking my money on both sides of every wager?”
She gave him a cool smile. “Pick a different stake.”
“How about truths?”
Lara cocked one eyebrow. “That’s a children’s game. What are we to do next? Dare each other to run around the house naked?”
Because nudity had been more in line with what she’d thought he’d suggest. The cards were a trick of seduction that Mezat, their Mistress of the Bedroom, had taught the sisters. All men, she had told them, were happy to risk their own clothing for a chance to see naked breasts. Except, it turned out, for the King of Ithicana.
“We can save the naked sprints for storm season. It’s far more exciting if there’s lightning biting at your ass.”
Shaking her head, Lara shuffled the cards again. “Poker?” Best to choose a game in which she would not lose.
“How about Trumps?”
“More luck than skill in that game.”
“I know.” The way he said it was like a dare. And for better or worse, she never turned down a challenge, so she shrugged. “As you like. To nine?”
“Boring. How about a truth for each trump.”
Her mind raced with questions she might ask. With questions thathemight ask, and the answers she’d give.
Reaching over to the corner table, Aren picked up a bottle of amber liquor, took a mouthful, then set it between them. “To make things more fun.”
One of her eyebrows rose. “Thereareglasses on the sideboard, you know.”
“Less work for Eli this way.”
Rolling her eyes, she took a mouthful. The brandy, as it turned out to be, burned like fire down her throat. Then she dealt the cards, silently cursing when he had the trump. “Well?”
Taking the bottle, Aren eyed her thoughtfully and Lara’s heart began to hammer. There were a thousand things he could ask, for which she had no answer. For which she’d have to lie, and then keep that lie alive for the length of her time here. And the more lies she had to balance, the greater chance of getting caught.
“What is”—he took a mouthful“—your favorite color?”
Lara blinked, her heart stuttering and then settling even as she looked away from his hazel eyes, feeling heat rise to her cheeks. “Green.”
“Excellent. Plenty of that about, so I need not ply your favor with emeralds.”
Giving a soft snort of amusement, Lara handed over the cards, which he swiftly shuffled and then dealt.
She won the next round.
“I’ll not ask you nonsense questions,” she warned, taking the bottle from him. Her questions needed to be strategic—not intended to uncover the secrets of the bridge, but to understand the man who held those secrets so close to his heart. “Did you take pleasure in killing those raiders? In watching them die?”
Aren winced. “Still angry about that, then?”
