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Nobbie shouldn’t find that assertion so incredibly hot. A Lord doing whatever he wanted was a simple fact of life, but for Lawndry to apply it to an apprenticeship in watchmaking should have been absurd. If Lawndry was acting, he was utterly brilliant, and Nobbie needed to understand his game.

“And what you want is to look at my watch?” He knew better than to ask why Lawndry had targeted him for this scam. His ability to turn a small fortune into a big one was well-known through the peerage. He’d advised many of them in various investments, although that was mostly a front for his real business with Adam. But he knew all their clients and all the people they’d spurned too, and Lawndry wasn’t among them. This wasn’t revenge either, unless he’d missed something. Unlikely. Nobbie couldn’t work out Lawndry’s motivations. It may just be the most basic of them all. Desire flickered in his veins, like flames licking at a log of wood. Not the best analogy if he wanted to keep control over his desire. Tempting him, almost grabbing hold of him, threatening to overwhelm him.

“Yes please.”

It was the please that did him in. He wanted to see Lawndry kneeling before him, saying please before Lawndry sucked his cock. He wanted to shock Lawndry and see those brown eyes open wide, and maybe even sink his fingers through his silky hair.

“On one condition.” It was a risk, yet Nobbie was good at reading people, and he didn’t think Lawndry would be horrified by his condition. He might even enjoy it.

“A condition?”

“Yes. I’d like you on your knees again, and I want you to remove the watch with your teeth.” If Lawndry had the same inclinations as Nobbie, he’d understand what Nobbie was asking.

“Your request is not very practical.”

“It is not intended to be.” He wanted to test how keen Lawndry was and he wanted to know if he was correct about Lawndry’s understanding of what else had occurred yesterday.

“You have asked me to do this twice now.”

He had? Damnation. He was usually more careful. “I enjoyed it the first time.”

“But that was so innocent?” Lawndry’s cheeks bloomed into a lovely shade, a warm rich brown.

“Was it? You moved with the grace of someone who has knelt before.”

Lawndry’s blush darkened. “You are very bold. It would be safer to go to one of the many clubs that cater for such things, rather than make such suggestions to a stranger.”

Confirmation that Lawndry understood the potential between them made Nobbie’s head spin, light and a little bit giddy. Lawndry was completely correct in saying that a club would be safer, but only someone who’d been to such clubs would know what Nobbie meant.

“Audentes fortuna Iuvat.” Orphans weren’t taught Latin, but Nobbie had picked up a few useful phrases in his time, although most were cruder than this one about being bold.

“Yes. I accept, but I must have as much time with the watch as I need.”

“The watch? You are obsessed.” Nobbie stopped wondering what this man’s game was and became intrigued by his obsessiveness. No one could pretend such a thing without it coming across as desperate. It would give away the final goal of the game, but Lawndry didn’t show any of those markers that Nobbie usually picked up on.

“Yes.” Lawndry made it sound so simple. “I have been obsessed with watches since I was a boy, and yours represents a puzzle in the world of horology.”

Suddenly Nobbie understood. A puzzle made sense to him; just like when he was putting together a financial scheme to help a woman escape a bad situation. Finding the perfect solution to a problem was incredibly fulfilling.

“Then you may touch the watch.”

“With my mouth, or...”

Nobbie held up one finger, and when Lawndry stopped talking, he marched into his bedroom and grabbed the watch out of the little lockbox he kept it in when he wasn’t dressed, safely hidden in a false drawer in his bedside table. It was the one possession that he wasn’t going to lose or have stolen. He arrived back in the room to see that Lawndry had spread a cloth over his table and had some tools neatly arranged to the side.

“Here it is.” He held it out, reluctantly.

“Please place it on the cloth. You may sit opposite me and observe.” How did Lawndry know that he couldn’t let the watch out of his sight? The only time he did was when he locked it up as he slept.

“Thank you.”

Lawndry didn’t speak again. He simply picked up a cloth and began to clean the outer surface of the watch. There was something erotic about his dedication to his task, and the way he occasionally smiled to himself, as though he’d discovered something satisfying. Nobbie couldn’t look away. His friend Sebastian was like this about horses; as children, he’d always been distracted as soon as he saw a horse and then Sebastian would tell Nobbie all about the horse with more detail than Nobbie cared to know. Nobbie had spent his childhood years wondering if Sebastian was just lucky to know what he wanted to do, but then he’d discovered money when he was about ten. An orphanage had been the perfect training ground for him and Adam to perfect their little financial schemes, and now he was able to afford this London townhouse and his own servants. He could even attend social gatherings with high society, although with grudging acceptance.

“It’s definitely a Hobart.” Lawndry rubbed his thumb over part of the watch and damn it, Nobbie wanted Lawndry to touch him with such reverence. “You see the maker’s mark here.”

Nobbie leaned in closer and looked at a little dent in the silver.

“Hobart was a famous recluse. No one knows where he learned his craft, and then one day in 1759, he brought three watches to Sotheby’s and offered them for auction. Every year, he sold between three and five watches of absolutely exquisite quality with stunning workmanship. Each one numbered.”

“How strange.”

Lawndry glanced up. “My mother is a Leichti. Sometimes watchmakers can be a little peculiar.”

“Are you telling me that a random guy turned up at auction every year with three watches and no one asked any questions?"

"People asked many questions.” Lawndry returned to his task dismantling the watch, as if that was all there was to it. But Nobbie owned one of these rare watches.

“Did they sell for much money?”

“At first, not really, perhaps 10 guineas but by the end, upwards of 60 guineas. Some were resold at auction for even bigger sums, but most disappeared into collections.” Lawndry shrugged as if he didn’t care for the money, but Nobbie was blinking hard. Sixty guineas, or more, for the watch that he had assumed was sentimental junk. He paid his butler less than that for an entire year’s work.

“If he only sold three watches a year, then there can’t be too many of them?”