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“You are married to the gambling den.”
Edmond had decided long ago that marriage and domesticity did not suit him. His brothers knew this very well about him. “And what of it?”
“I know you’ve worked to care for me, Vi and Luc since you were twelve. I feel like you have dedicated your life to ensuring we are well. I am telling you that we are.”
“Are you?” Edmond asked with a bit of indifference, pulling a cheroot from his pocket.
Ollie looked up into the overcast sky for a brief moment. “Luc is married and so damn happy it is nauseating to see. Vi has a dowry that rivals a duke’s daughter, and I…well, I have enough money to last me a lifetime. Everything you do is for us. I would just love to see you do something for yourself.”
“And you think that something is pursuing Ester Fairbanks,” Edmond said drily, dismissing his brother’s concern. He lacked nothing in life and yearned for nothing. His reaction to Ester Fairbanks was mere desire and nothing more.
“Why not?” Ollie said with a grin before he walked away and started whistling.
Edmond stood on the steps of the townhouse entrance for a few minutes, watching his brother amble along the street. No doubt he returned to their gambling den, a place where Edmond would return to also and work well into the early morning before retiring to sleep. His place of business was where he slept, in his lush apartment lodging on the upper floor. Each morning Edmond woke, he had his morning coffee with a simple breakfast, read the newssheet and various investment reports, and then engaged in a vigorous boxing round before delving into business for the day. Edmond would work well into the night before he tumbled into bed and repeated those steps the next day.
Shoving his hands into the pocket of his trousers, he started to walk, the nip of the night air bracing and welcoming.
All you do is work, Edmond. Are you never lonely?
The chiding words of his sister as she delivered her famous spiced rum cake to him this morning rang in his ear.
Have you ever taken a walk with a lady under the moonlight?
Edmond could not explain the bizarre sensation creeping over his skin and burrowing deep. He had not thought his life lacking. They had grown up poor, their parents had left them early on in life, and he had assumed the role of father and mother for his younger siblings. Everything he had ever done was for family. Yet he had never wondered at anything more beyond his siblings.
Life was simply life…
He felt no wants or cravings beyond success so that his family might never go hungry or cold again. When Edmond was hungry, he ate; when tired, he slept; and when his cock ached, he found a willing lover. Simple and uncomplicated. When his body craved more than one night of tupping, he accepted one of the many offers from the ladies who visited his establishment. He kept his affairs simple and uncomplicated and never had any sort of dissatisfaction with the way he existed.
His thoughts turned to Ester Fairbanks, and nothing felt simple anymore. Sensations unknown to him clawed up inside his belly and twisted. Edmond scowled and silently cursed.
Damn it all to hell!
Edmond allowed nothing to interfere with his life, business, and its growing success. He permitted nothing to derail him from providing the life his sister deserved. Vi was only three and twenty and had many ambitions and dreams that were Edmond’s duty to take care of. It was his duty, and he also loved his sister and brothers. Their business was not at the pinnacle of its success. They had much more to do, and that should be his only goal for the present.
He had shielded himself his whole life from the intimacy of wanting more for himself so as not to be distracted from his purpose. Not even a tempting morsel who interested him more than any other woman in his nine and twenty years of existence should interfere beyond what Edmond allowed.
And I will damn well keep it that way.
CHAPTER6
Ester toed off her dancing slippers upon entering her bedchamber. Another ball completed, and another night where she blatantly ignored the cool and watchful gaze of Edmond Glendevon while feeling that complex, secret thrill inside. Tonight, his perusal had been more discreet, and though she had scanned the crowded ballroom of Lady Delacorte several times, Ester had not spied Edmond. However, she had felt it each time his eyes touched her shoulders, her face, or when it lingered on her mouth. She leaned against the door, lifting a hand to her mouth. What would it be like should he kiss her? Would it be terrible, or would it be as dazzling as Ellie swore kisses were?
Oh, why am I thinking so much about that knave?
Moving from the door and toward her bed, Ester faltered as a prickling sensation raced over her skin. There was someone inside her bedchamber. Surely it must be her imagination. The feeling of being watched cascaded over Ester’s senses, and she whirled around. “Is someone here?”
Good heavens. She sounded like one of those delicate gothic romance heroines. There was no sound, but the feeling intensified. She was about to rush from the room when a figure stepped from the shadows by her window. Gasping, Ester pressed against the wall, her hand fluttering to her throat.
“Edmond?”
The rare sight of him almost sent her into a swoon, and she had to grab hold of her shock and stiffen her spine.
“You have been avoiding me, Miss Fairbanks,” he drawled, stepping from the shadows.
The feelings that swirled inside Ester’s chest shook her. “Have you considered the consequences if my brother was to discover you stole into his townhouse and into my bedchamber?Howdid you get into my room?”
“You are intimately acquainted with the skill of breaking and entering a domain that is not yours, are you not?”
