Page 42 of How to Fall for a Scoundrel

His eyes dropped to her lips, and she waited for him to say something likeThen you’ll kiss me.

Instead, he said, “If you lose, and select a jack, I’ll take you straight back to King and Company.”

She blinked, convinced he was joking, but he appeared completely serious.

Her spirits sank. He was so skilled at this game thatthe chances of him winning, and her losing, were extremely high. Had he changed his mind about wanting to bed her? Was he looking for a way out?

She didn’t want to leave. Now there was the possibility ofnotkissing him, she wanted it more than anything in the world.

“So, you’re leaving it up to luck,” she said, pleased that her voice didn’t betray her disappointment.

“I prefer to call it fate.” His dimples appeared, dispelling his stern look, and the wicked glint in his eyes allayed her fears a little. He definitely still wanted her, but he was enough of a gambler to enjoy these heightened stakes.

“Very well. Go ahead.”

He’d been shuffling the cards as they talked, but he showed her the red queen in his hand before he started to move them around on the table. Ellie wrinkled her brow, watching his hands with fierce concentration. When he stopped moving, she was certain the queen was the center card, but knowing his skill, she deliberately pointed to the left-hand card in the row. If the central card was unlikely to be the queen—simply because that was where she’d been led to believe it was—then she had at least a fifty percent chance of it being on the left.

His brows rose. “That one? Are you sure?”

He would be an excellent poker player. His expression didn’t betray a thing. She couldn’t tell if he was pleased, or disappointed.

She bit her lip and nodded.

Instead of turning the left card over, he inverted the one on the right, and she breathed a silent sigh of relief when it revealed a black jack. His hand hovered over the central card, deliberately teasing her, and she scowled at him.

Impatient, she reached for the central card herself, and flipped it over. The jack of clubs stared back at her, and her heart skipped a beat as he turned the queen of hearts over on the left.

His odd eyes met hers, one blue, one brown.

“You win.”

Chapter Twenty

Ellie pushed back her chair and stood, her heart beating wildly in her throat.

“If you want me to leave, you just have to say. Really. It’s fine if you don’t want to kiss me.”

He stepped out from behind the table, and she took a nervous step back. “I mean, you can’t have possibly known I’d choose that card,” she continued breathlessly.

His lips quirked as he shook his head. “You think not? I’m disappointed you have such a low opinion of my skill.”

He took another step, and she retreated until her bottom hit the bookcase behind her. “We could have played that game ten times over, and you’d have chosen the red queen nine times out of ten.”

She didn’t know whether to be relieved, or suspicious. He must have manipulated the cards so that she’d win. But how had he induced her to choose the queen? It seemed far-fetched, ridiculous, but she was beginning to think there was nothing he couldn’t do, no end to his cleverness.

“If I’d chosen the jack, would you really have taken me home?”

His hot gaze held hers. “We’ll never know, will we?”

Ellie pressed her shoulders back against the bookcase. “So, youdowant to kiss me?”

“I do.” His dimples appeared as he came closer still, stalking her. “So much that I’m willing to break rule number four.”

That was the rule Ambrose had mentioned at Willingham’s. “Which is…?”

He leaned in. “Never mix theft with seduction.”

“That sounds like a very sensible rule,” she murmured.