Chapter Sixteen
Six Years Ago
“Do you know what you’re doing, Chris?” Sam poked him in the chest. The four Betting Buddies were playing a game of piquet at White’s, and this was the third time Sam had asked Chris the question. It had nothing to do with the permanent grin that Chris was sporting.
White’s was exceptionally busy on this particular evening.
Men were playing whist, piquet, and a few new card games Chris wasn’t interested in.
Others were placing bets in The Betting Book on any and every inconsequential item of gossip floating around the ton, from who would marry first, who would marry last, who would capture the attention of the next diamond of the first water, and so on.
Chris and his friends never placed bets there, only with each other.
There were a couple of men at the bar who were particularly boisterous.
They seemed like good friends, though perhaps a ribbon of tension swirled through the air around them.
Chris paid it no mind. There was always someone hankering for a fight, sometimes it was one of the four he was with, though usually not him.
Tonight should be no different despite Sam’s prodding.
As for Sam’s question, Chris answered, “What I’m doing is, I’m playing a game.” He threw down his cards to end the round. “Better than you I might add.”
“Pfft, I doubt it.” Sam puffed out his chest and slammed back the finger of whiskey left in his glass. “And you know I’m not talking about this game. I’m talking about a different game you’re playing.”
Not normally one to get riled up, the idea that he was playing a game with Zenobia caused his temperature to increase by several degrees. “It’s not a game.”
“What would you call it?”
CRASH!
All four men looked up as a brawl broke out near the bar.
It was unclear what the two men were up in arms about, but before they could actually get up in arms about it, the four Betting Buddies were already on their feet making their way over to the two gentlemen.
It was the two men Chris had noticed earlier and it seemed as though the tension had snapped in half and exploded.
Now each man was rearing for a fight that was one punch away.
James whispered to Chris, “I bet it’s about a woman.”
“I’m not taking that bet. What else could it be about?”
James just laughed, but his laughter was overridden by a bellowing idiot. “I’ll have your head for this.”
“She already has,” the man spit back with a sneer.
“Y-you!” The first man spluttered. “Name your—”
“Now hold on a second,” Sam interjected, stepping between the two while Wes put a hand on the first man and Chris and James stood shoulder to shoulder with the second man.
“What’s the commotion? You both understand the purpose of the club, don’t you?”
Everyone thought it was a rhetorical question, except apparently the asker. “Well, don’t you?”
“What’s the point?” The first man, likely the more rational of the two, asked.
“We’re all here to have a good time. Wouldn’t you agree?”
The second man wiped his mouth in his sleeve. “Wouldn’t you agree?” Sam asked a little more menacingly this time.
“Right.”
“Aye.”
They both mumbled at the same time. They were both still geared for a fight, but since it wasn’t clear what the issue was, someone needed to dig a bit deeper into it.
The right man for the job was standing at the center of it all.
Sam could be both diplomatic and heavy-handed, depending on what the situation required.
“Right, then. What’s the dispute?”
“He took my woman—”
“You mean the harlot we both see?” The second man jeered.
“She’s no harlot. I love her.”
Well, that was staggering. No one spoke for a minute.
It was one thing for two men to frequent the same woman, it was another thing for one of them to fall in love with her.
This was more serious than anyone had first expected.
And it could surely come to that duel the first man wanted to instigate if something wasn’t done, and quickly.
Then out of the blue came James. “You owe me fifty pounds,” James whispered loudly in front of the second man’s chest.
A little startled, Chris answered back. “I never took that bet, you idiot. And I’d never bet fifty pounds on that.”
James scoffed. And then, when he said it louder, Chris realized his intentions. “You can’t renege on a bet.”
“I can if I didn’t make the bet,” Chris said with fake ire.
“You made the bet and you’ll pay it off.”
“We’ll see about that.”
And by now, the fake fight had escalated enough to diffuse the first fight.
“We’ll drink for it,” James baited him.
“Aye, we shall.”
So all six men stood at the bar while James and Chris faked a round of shot-taking. The first to finish won, the other paid up.
Not even thinking about the purpose of the shots, all six men had soon joined in. Sam and Wes finished first, everyone else finished in the middle, and somehow, James and Chris each struggled to take last place.
“Another?” James asked with a big grin.
“Sometimes you have to cut your losses,” Chris said, declining the shot.
With a dribble running down their chins, the two men who had initially been arguing were now patting each other on the backs, congratulating themselves on not having to pay the fifty pounds. Not that they would have had to in any case. In fact, not that anyone would have had to.
As the two former almost-fighters walked away with one arm slung over the other’s shoulder, Chris overheard the concession. “You should have her. Ask her to marry you.”
“I will.”
And that settled that.
And it was a beautiful thing, seeing love shine through and win. Just beautiful. Albeit a bit of an awkward event that the four witnessed together. Chris had a feeling none of them would feel so kindly if one of them had slept with the love of their life, but he didn’t dare say anything.
Then all was forgotten except the bogus competition. Of course.
“I’ll take that money now,” Wes and Sam both extended their hands to Chris, while he slapped them away muttering that he owed them. Quietly hoping they wouldn’t make him pay up, he accepted that this was Wes and Sam…so likely he would be out fifty pounds. At least no duels had been called.
The four grabbed another drink and headed back to their seats.
“Don’t think a little fight like that will deter me. I asked you a question before those buffoons nearly took off each other’s heads. What would you call it? What’s between you and Zenobia?” Sam asked.
“I’ve already told you, we’re friends.”
“Right. Friends,” Wes chimed in using a mocking tone on the last word.
James chuckled. “I have to agree with these two bacon brains. Not sure you can be friends with a woman.”
“We are.”
“For now,” Sam goaded.
Chris had to correct him. It wasn’t just for now.
And there was one perfect one he could use in his retort.
That one word was on the tip of his tongue.
And by the time he realized how it was going to sound to three very masculine dukes (some of whom didn’t believe in marriage or love), it was too late, the word had slipped free and into the universe. “Forever.”
Instead of the boisterous ridicule he expected, the three men sat stunned, staring at him. After a long beat of their awkward gazes trying to pry something out of him, he gave up.
“What?”
“You’re going to be friends forever?” Well, when James put it that way, in that condescending tone of his, as though Chris were a schoolboy handing in an unfinished assignment…
well, yes…it didn’t sound that great. The idea of forever friends had certainly lost some of its flare; rather, some of its heat.
But when Chris had made that promise to Nobi in the garden a few nights earlier, there had been nothing but heat, sparks, a veritable inferno between them.
Especially when she crawled up and straddled his lap.
“Chris?”
The call shook him free of the vision that had been forming in his mind.
“What?”
“You really want us to believe that you’re going to be”—Wes cleared his throat, as if there was some kind of barrier in there that was prohibiting him from voicing the next two-word phrase—“forever friends with Zenobia?”
Before Chris could nod his affirmation, Sam interrupted. “The better question is, do you really believe that you’re going to be friends forever with Zenobia?”
Yes, Sam was insightful, deceivingly so. He played the alpha, but he might be the most intuitive of them all. After Chris, that was. That was the better question. Did he believe it himself?
“Laugh if you must, but we made a promise. Nobi is…special to me. We will always be friends.”
“You better not hurt her,” James warned, which surprised Chris.
“James, you don’t even believe in love. What’s the warning for?”
“Who said anything about love?” Wes piped up.
Sam shushed Wes, it would take too long to catch him up.
Instead, Sam focused his attention between Chris and James.
“You really think she’ll be the first one to get hurt?
Look at our boy already? He’s off in some dreamland.
Surely, he’ll be the first to trip and fall, landing smack on his face.
The man’s dignity will be smashed to pieces. ”
Chris was not going to credit Sam by telling him that he had already fallen and that it was too late for his dignity.
“We’re both adults. We’ll be fine.”
The game of piquet had paused at some point in their discussion. Now Chris was merely shuffling the cards to keep his hands preoccupied.
“You know she’s a lady—”
“What are you implying, Sam?” Chris’s voice came out evenly despite the spike in his blood pressure, and Sam’s hands flew up into the air.
“I’m not implying anything. Just stating a fact.”
Wes shook his head and slapped his palm down on Chris’s shoulder. “Let’s finish this game, so I can win and take my loot home.”
“Ha!” Sam bellowed. And then in his over the top competitive nature, he clamped a palm on Chris’s other shoulder. “You think you’re going to win. That’s endearing.”
James and Chris exchanged a look of resignation, and in that same look, they both settled who they were placing bets on.
The series of movements eased any tension and the four settled back into the rhythm of their game.
After the third game was over, because ties were not allowed, and after Sam won one and Wes won one, they insisted on a tie breaker, which of course James won. So now they were onto their fourth game, Chris stood to leave.
James rose with him, stating the night had gotten away from him.
As Chris and James left the club, a dark-haired, crimson-lipped woman approached the two of them. Apparently she had eyes only for Chris, but he hardly noticed until James elbowed him when the woman was directly in front of him.
She was dressed for an evening of pleasure. Wickedness. The fragrance wafting off of her was pungent. And some man would be lucky to have her. Of that, he was sure. He was also sure that that man wasn’t him.
In a sultry voice, she asked, “Ready for a night out with me?”
He wasn’t one to just take women home. He didn’t even know this woman, had never met her before, and her proposition was startling.
It wasn’t startling because of who she was, nor was it because of who he was…
it was more shocking than anything because of where he was at in his heart.
How his soul felt tangled up already. He was so far gone, he wasn’t expecting someone to wiggle their way in.
Catching sight of her eyes, he saw the desire she felt. It was twofold. The first was for him, a man, to experience pleasure. The second was for more. He couldn’t read the depths of it though.
And he didn’t care to. He wasn’t interested in any pleasure with her. In fact, he wasn’t interested in any pleasure with any woman except Zenobia.
“No, thank you.” He almost walked by without adding, “But I do hope you find what you’re looking for.”
As the woman walked off in nonchalance, James spoke up, “That was a…nice thing to say.”
“Sometimes you have to say what you’re feeling,” Chris mused.
But James only joked back, “Not always.”
“No. That’s true.” And that truth sent a painful sting through his chest. There were some things he just couldn’t say right now. “But sometimes…sometimes you get to say what you’re feeling.”
On those vague words, James took off and Chris alighted his carriage to head home for the night.
He knew he had found what he was looking for already. He only wanted pleasure with Zenobia.
Yes, it might be a night or two before another ball.
And yes, they may or may not always be able to sneak away and enjoy a tryst together.
No, he didn’t want to call it a tryst. It was so much more than that.
It was sharing intimately together. That was the more.
That was what he wanted. That was all he wanted.
And he would wait for her to have it. He would wait for as long as it took to have it with Zenobia. Only her.