Page 11 of The Wager of a Lady
“I swear to honor the terms.” She looked him directly in the eye. “Isn’t that what you wish me to say,Leo?”
The sound of his name on her lips made his entire body throb. “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
Georgina lifted one brow. “Isn’t this how you imagined the game to proceed? Had you not predicted the likelihood ofthisoutcome, you would have tossed my marker into the fire or even delivered it to me. But you didn’t. You knew I would challenge you for Beechwood Court and made sure I had something to wager. Myself.” She glared at him. “Am I correct so far?”
Damn, she was clever.
The night he’d first seen her, Leo had recognized her intelligence. She had stared at him so intently as he’d launched into an explanation of probability. Georgina had never once looked away from him, only listened as if Leo were the most important person in the world.
No one had ever looked at him in such a way.
Damn it.All the more reason to bed her and put her out of his mind. Georgina made Leo want things he couldn’t possibly have. “You are correct.” He cleared his throat.
“You want to bed me.”
Leo slid back in his seat. She was so bloody forthright about everything. At times it was unsettling. “I do.” There was no point in denying it.
Georgina downed the rest of her drink. “Much like everything else, you fail to state your intentions outright but instead resort to subterfuge. I’d no idea that keeping me company when I came to Elysium, asking about my life in New York, laughing over my poor jokes—”
“Not all of them were terrible.”
“Was only a means to an end. Very well. I suppose I’m yet another shiny bauble Leo Murphy, bastard club owner, wishes to collect.” She sounded so incredibly angry. “Do you accept my challenge?” She slid her empty glass toward him.
Georgina’s assumption of his character, though somewhat correct, annoyed him to no end.
Ignoring her empty glass, Leo pushed back from the desk and made his way over to her. She stiffened at his approach but didn’t move away.
Spring.Leo inhaled the air around her, filling his nostrils with the scent that was unique only to Georgina. Wild things bursting forth to bloom. Lush gardens and freshly mown grass. Savage greenery. He wanted to bury himself in her.
“I accept,” he said.
“Of course you do; this is the exact outcome you wanted.” She tilted her chin up at him. “Because, as you’ve taken great pains to remind me, you are not a gentleman. Just a duke’s bastard and definitely not my friend. Certainly not anything else.”
Leo’s mouth tightened.
“Let us set the terms for our wager. When I win—” She pushed back another curl springing free from the messy chignon at the base of her neck.
He followed the movement, tamping down the urge to devour her. “Ifyou win,” he growled out.
Georgina sucked in a deep breath, forcing her breasts against the tight bodice of her dress. “WhenI win,” she said more stubbornly than before, “I want everything my husband used as collateral returned.”
“Ifyou win,” Leo replied, “I will gladly return it all to you. I’ll even throw in a bloody gardener for Beechwood Court. I understand the gardens and lawn are in a terrible state of disarray.”
“And I want the remainder of my husband’s markers restored to me,” she said boldly, surprising Leo. “The stack you keep in your safe. A paltry sum for you, but for me, it represents nearly the whole of my dowry. Do you agree?”
Leo hadn’t thought it possible to want her more than he already did.
“I do,” he said. The amount wasn’t paltry in the least. Leo would have described the sum as obscene. And Masterson had gambled it all away over the last two years.
“I insist on an honest dealer and a fresh deck of cards. Not the marked deck you probably have hiding in the drawer of your desk.”
How the bloody hell did Georgina know he had marked cards in his desk? To his knowledge, she’d never been in here before. Leo would certainly have remembered. His brother must have told her.
“Agreed.”
Georgina kept her eyes on him, fingers curled into her skirts. “Is this really how you want me, Leo?” she said quietly.
Intolerable.Why must she look at him with such disappointment?
