Page 14 of A Wager With A Rake (Wicked Widows #32)

“Rosewood was one of my family’s estates.”

She gasped and stared at him with a pained, confused expression marring her visage.

“My father lost it in a card game to your father years ago,” Court continued. “Coming here as a boy without my father, with only my mother and Rebecca, were some of the few times I ever felt… free. Loved, even. Only here, and only during those summers. With you.”

Unexpectedly, her face contorted into a look of disgust. “Why would you agree to wager Rosewood after you righted your father’s wrong?”

“Because I have no intention of losing.” It was the truth.

If he thought he would not win, he wouldn’t have done so.

And if only she knew that what he desired most was her.

That he desired her enough to take the risk.

She was worth far more than Rosewood. And it terrified him.

The words hovered on his tongue to tell her exactly that, but he bit them back.

She started walking again, and he fell into step at her side.

“This is nothing but folly to you,” she said, the disdain evident in her tone.

“You speak of righting wrongs and becoming some new man when you are still behaving like a rake. And don’t you see that righting your wrong has enabled a wrong against me?

I need Rosewood. I have nowhere to live, Court.

And I have only the funds left to me to use to provide for myself for the rest of my days.

It’s the least I deserve after what I endured at the hands of the men in my life. ”

The gravel path crunched beneath their feet as they rounded the walkway, the large house coming into view.

Court slowed his steps, reluctant to return.

The guilt of her situation made his stomach churn.

He wasn’t the one truly at fault, but he hadn’t considered just how much losing Rosewood would risk the entire stability of her future.

“I’m sorry, Tess.” It didn’t feel like enough, but it was the only thing he could think to say. “I can’t imagine that a marriage to Dundas was easy to endure.”

“Not at all. Unless you find being beneath a man in his eighties something that one should be grateful for.”

His hands fisted at his sides, forcing down the bile rising in his throat from the thought of any man, let alone Dundas, touching Theodosia. “No.” It was all he could muster.

“What’s worse,” she continued, “was he arranged the marriage with my father before his wife, at the time, had passed away. She’d become ill after miscarrying his child, and he had already taken to secure his new young wife.

His first wife failed at giving him children, and he couldn’t attempt an heir until she had passed, then the second one failed, just as I did. ”

Court grabbed her hand, gripping it tightly. “You did not fail at anything.”

“According to Dundas, I did. At the start of our marriage, he was indifferent. But as it went on, he hated me. Decided to blame me for his lack of heir all the way until he died.”

Court’s blood ran cold at the implication in her words. “Did he hurt you?”

“Not physically. But there are other ways to inflict pain.” Her voice wavered slightly, and Court had to fight the urge to pull her into his arms. “He made sure I knew I wasn’t worth what he paid my father for me.”

Fury knotted in Court’s gut, and he clenched his jaw against the torrent of curses that longed to spill forth. How anyone could treat this formidable woman with such cruelty was beyond him.

“He was wrong,” he bit out.

“I tried to keep from marrying him at all. He made the arrangement with my father while his previous wife was ill for years,” she said, still gripping his hand.

“I tried schemes to trap a husband, hoping that my father would have no choice but to go back on the agreement with Dundas. A loveless marriage with a kind man of an appropriate age sounded far more appealing. There was a time I even thought…” Her voice trailed off.

He stopped and turned to face her. “Thought what?”

Her cheeks turned the prettiest shade of pink. “Thought I might try to do the same to you. To trap you into marrying me. I know that makes me cruel and selfish, but I longed for anything to save me. But it was I who ended up trapped. Besides, I didn’t want to do that to you.”

“Why?”

“Because I actually cared about you. You deserved to find happiness, not end up trapped in a marriage you didn’t want like I was.”

Her eyes met his, shimmering with unshed tears, and the rest of the world fell away. At that moment, there was only her. Only this wild, reckless mixture of protectiveness and longing that consumed him.

Slowly, giving her every chance to pull away, he lowered his head. Their lips met in a featherlight caress, and the blood roared in his ears. He wanted nothing more than to deepen the kiss, to trail his mouth along the slender column of her throat and lose himself in her.

She returned the kiss, pressing her body against his. And he knew he played with fire, and if he went any further, he wasn’t certain either of them would stop.

Abruptly, he broke the kiss and stepped back, his breathing ragged. “Forgive me, I… I should not have done that.”

Without waiting for a response, he turned on his heel and strode toward the house, his heart hammering hard.

The coward’s way out, he knew, but he must remove himself from her presence.

To get control over himself before he tempted them both to give in to what they’d wanted since the first day she appeared at Rosewood.

But everything had become far more complicated than that, and he wasn’t certain what to think of it all.

Court didn’t stop until he reached the sanctuary of his study, the door slamming shut behind him with a decisive click.

Groaning, he rubbed his hands down his face.

He had to get a grip on himself. To think and to sort out his own feelings.

Because that’s what they were. Feelings.

What he felt for her was more than lust and more than just the need to tup her and leave and continue as if there hadn’t been something between them. He wanted more, but how much more?

One thing was certain. Rosewood would be hers. He wasn’t strong enough to end the wager immediately, leaving him no reason to continue to stay there. He needed to be near her to sort out what it was he wanted and determine what she might want. But she had suffered enough.

The estate should be hers, as it was the least he could do for her.

She had been wronged her entire life, and he could right that for her.

He had long convinced himself that he wasn’t the marrying kind, nor was he willing to admit that what he felt was love, but he could give her Rosewood.

He could give her security, and he could live on in contentment, knowing that she could carry on with a comfortable life.

A sharp rap at the door jolted Court from his thoughts. He straightened, composing his features into a mask of calm indifference before calling out, “Enter.”

A footman stepped into the room, a silver tray balanced on his palm. “A letter for you, my lord. The messenger said it was urgent.”

Court frowned, crossing to take the missive from the tray. “Thank you, Thomas. That will be all.”

As the door clicked shut behind the footman, Court turned the letter over in his hands, his brow furrowing at the sight of the unfamiliar seal. He broke it open with a flick of his thumb, unfolding the single sheet of parchment within.

His eyes scanned the words, his heart rate speeding up with each passing second. He’d found her… the last name on the list. The last wrong of his father’s he must set right.

He read the missive again, hardly daring to believe that he finally had the information he sought. The woman and child he’d been searching for, the ones he’d almost given up hope of ever finding… They were alive and living in a small village not far from London.

Court’s hand trembled as he lowered the letter, his mind reeling with the implications. He had to go to them, had to see to it himself that they were provided for.

Perhaps it was a sign that he should continue to push aside whatever drew him to Theodosia.

He wasn’t the man who settled down into family life.

Never would he subject himself to be nothing but a disappointment to his wife and children, as it was inevitable.

His entire life he’d kept from forming attachments, knowing he’d never put his heart or theirs at risk.

And Theodosia tempted him far too much to do the very thing.