Page 6

But that was what Lilah, the Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick drew from me, she always had. I was usually a direct person, but with her I was bold. Brash. Blunt.

Far too open for my own good.

Though my mind kept trying to remind me of the potent words I had spoken to her only moments before, I tried to push them aside. This wasn’t the time for a seduction, even if I wanted it to be.

I could not allow myself to get distracted. I was not seducing Lilah, the Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick.

“I bet I could make you quiver as you came. I’d wager, before the year is out, I’ll do just that.”

Well, fine. If it turned out that she wanted nothing more than to lie on that sofa and let me worship her with my tongue and fingers, I was hardly going to complain. The wager was a bad idea. I knew how much Lilah loved a wager.

Lilah and I, we were a bad match. We simply didn’t work together—not in that way.

Fine, we worked great in that way. I’d never made love to someone who was so eager to please and so accepting of my need to please her.

But the actual…relationship?

I wouldn’t call it a disaster. Not to her face.

“You have an idea how to save the reputation of the Gambling Dukes?” Lilah said curiously, all enmity gone.

I blinked. What on earth was she?—

Oh yes, right. The reason I was here. The real reason. The reason I could talk my way into one of the most resplendent townhouses in the whole of London.

Because I had an idea.

“It was just an idea that came to me yesterday,” I said, nonchalantly, waving a hand.

It was not just an idea that came to me yesterday.

Ever since Lilah had stepped out of my study, I’d spent every waking moment that wasn’t paying calls and dining with friends trying to think of ways to save the Gambling Dukes.

Fine. Even some of the time I was meant to be dining with friends.

I couldn’t help myself. After all this time, Lilah had come to me for help. Perhaps not at first, perhaps not willingly. But she had come. She could have just disagreed with her friend and approached someone else.

And despite everything that had happened between us, despite the hurt, despite the pain of losing her, despite the fact she had forever changed the type of woman I found attractive…

I wanted to impress her.

Was that pathetic? I could hardly tell, I’d spent so much time thinking about her and wishing I could turn up at her home and demand to see her.

Turns out, I could.

But now I had to come up with the goods.

“So what is this great idea?” Lilah was saying, arms still crossed. “I'm yet to hear it.”

I hesitated.

Yes, I could just tell her. I could spill the beans to Lilah, give her all that she needed to implement it herself, and that would be it.

And I’d never see her again .

Lilah wouldn’t spend more than two minutes longer in my company if she didn’t need to. I knew that. Could see it in her face, read it in her body. Even speaking quietly of how much I wanted her hadn’t seemed to have made much of an impression.

It was a hit my ego hadn’t wanted to take.

But if I could drag this out, only give Lilah a little taste of my plans, then she would have to do the one thing I knew she didn’t want to do.

Spend time with me.

“It’s a highly complex plan, obviously,” I said, forcing myself to step away from Lilah. The longer I was close to her, the less control I had. Instead I threw myself lazily onto the leather sofa between the two desks. “It’s not something I can just lay out here, I’d need?—”

“Money, I'm guessing,” Lilah said dryly. “You always were out for what you could get.”

The barb stung me far more than I think Lilah could have realized.

Because it was true, in a way. I was never going to turn down good money. Who would?

But this was about so much more. More than the idea, more than the Gambling Dukes. More than me.

It was about Lilah.

If I could just show her, not try to convince her through words but with actions, that I was a changed man…well. I’d have to be a fool not to try it, wouldn’t I?

That would take time. And it was time that was the most precious resources available to me now. I wanted to luxuriate in time with Lilah, the Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick, and that was something bought at a very dear price.

“That idea of yours?” Lilah’s arms were still crossed, and there was still a frown across her face, but there was also curiosity in her voice, and that gave me hope.

Hope for the idea. I wasn’t stupid enough to think something else might happen here.

“Well,” I said, taking a deep breath. This had to be right.

I would only have one shot at this. I mean, I always only had one shot at these sorts of things, but this was different. This was an attempt for Lilah.

For her club, I amended silently as I gathered my thoughts. I wasn’t actually trying to sell myself to Lilah. That would be ridiculous.

“Your problem is a lack of trust, right?” I said.

Lilah nodded. “Markham.”

“Markham,” I agreed. No more needed to be said on that score. “And he’s no longer with the club in the same way, but letting him back in—well, it certainly doesn’t help. It’s a stain on your record, a misstep from all of you. Not just in your club, but in your judgment.”

I hadn’t intended to be harsh, but Lilah winced.

“That’s what the Count of Guadalencia said,” she admitted grudgingly, stepping to her desk and sitting in her chair. “It was a disaster, to put it mildly. He didn’t even ask for more details on the wager we’d put together.”

It was my turn to wince. Yes, that was not a good sign.

“But you’ve got great judgment—I mean, the Gambling Dukes does,” I amended hastily. Damn, I couldn’t stay focused for some reason.

Lilah slowly crossed her legs, those long skirts rustling pasts her knees as her heels drew my attention to the length of her legs.

Goodness, I wonder why.

“So you’ve got to build trust, and a reputation for good sense, and you’ve got to do it quickly,” I said, trying to look at Lilah’s eyes not her bust.

When my gaze reached her face, it was not impressed. “Why don’t you try telling me something I don’t already know, Mr. Parry?”

I swallowed. “You need to partner with a charity—a big one, perhaps a few small ones. Give your support—attend dinners, donate money without telling a soul. Then accidently leak that to the press.”

Lilah’s face was impassive. “Leak that.”

“You don’t want to look like you’re courting praise,” I pointed out with a dry laugh.

“Leaking the news makes it more impactful. Shows you’re not looking for medals, just trying to do good.

Making good decisions—didn’t your friend Lady Cartice marry a newspaper journalist?

Use his connections, make the world see that the Gambling Club is not merely out for what it can get. Do you see?”

I waited for a reaction. A reaction that never came.

Well, that was unusual. I wasn’t one to toot my own horn, but I never had to. I knew I was good. All the friends I managed to gain since I’d entered polite Society over the years proved it.

But Lilah was just staring as though I’d suggested we put an announcement in the newspapers that they were jolly good sorts, and leave it at that.

I swallowed. The sound of my heart thundering was the only thing I could hear, my own stupid pulse making it impossible to concentrate.

Had I just ruined this? Had I brought the most uninspired, stupid idea to the table?

Perhaps I had undersold it. Perhaps in my desperation to make sure I could work with Lilah going forward, I hadn’t actually included enough detail to make the idea make sense.

That, or it was just bad.

I swallowed, my stomach churning. No, surely not.

I took a hesitant step forward. “That’s the beginning of the idea, anyway,” I said, hating how I was starting to babble but seemingly unable to stop myself. “There’s still a lot of things to work through, and I'm sure I’d like your input to ensure it aligns with?—”

And then Lilah groaned. “Well, damn.”

“What?” I said, trying not to sound too defensive, but utterly failing. “You don’t like it?”

“Like it?”

Lilah had always been a hard woman to read. Charming to the point of deliciousness with strangers, bold and confident at all times around her friends, I had been astonished when I’d been bedding her for over a month and I’d discovered just how vulnerable she was.

How shy. How much she craved the attention and approval of others.

How much she thought, and overthought, everything she did.

Surely the Lilah standing before me couldn’t be that different?

“I don’t have to like it, it just has to work,” said Lilah, drawing me back to earth with a painful bump. “And it’s a good idea. A clever one. One I wouldn’t have thought of. But that’s not the worst part.”

I blinked. “Worst part? You wanted a way to save your club, gain those willing to risk your next wager, and I?—”

“Walked in with a rather good idea of how to do it, yes, I know,” Lilah said archly. “But as an idea it’s not fully formed, is it? That’s the disaster. ”

She had totally lost me. “Disaster?”

Lilah fixed me with a stern glare, and the ire in her made my manhood harden in my breeches. God, only Lilah could look like that. I would rather have her yell at me than any other woman smile at me. Every time.

“Yes, disaster,” Lilah said with a sigh, shaking her head as she unfolded her arms to lean over and ring the bell by the fireplace. “We’ll be working together, won’t we? To iron out the details—working together, for a good, long time. Oh, hell.”