I shook my head. “What are the rules if I fold?”
“You answer a question. Any question.”
“Hit me.”
“Age when you lost your virginity?”
I paused, hating my answer. I looked down at the slab of warm stone between us.
“Pet?” He caught my chin. “Don't tell me you're...” his eyes searched my face, “untouched?”
I nodded. “I haven't gotten out much in my twenty-two years.”
“Oh Pet,” his voice was thick and riddled with unnamed emotion. “You don't know what you do to me.” He watched me intently a moment, finally smiling and then tossing his cards between us. “I didn’t have shit either, just so you know and I have a hard time believing no one has come along and stolen you for himself.”
“I don’t take well to getting stolen.” I averted my eyes, wishing this entire conversation would end.
“I’m sure you don’t.” His thumb stroked my cheek. “I'm too damn old for you.”
“How old?” I'd been wondering.
“Thirty-four.” God, why was he always touching me, always making me feel things wildly out of control. For the first time ever, I felt desirable.
“That's sort of why my mother wanted me to leave, because my father wanted to arrange my marriage to his business partner.”
“Jesus, Pet—” his thumbs brushed the underside of my wrist and sent butterflies scurrying with his tenderness.
“It explains so much.” His words were at my neck, his breath washing across my skin in currents of pleasure. I could never hide the emotions on my face. It seemed like he read my thoughts better than I did my own.
“You drive me crazy, I don't know if I'm coming or going.” I breathed.
“I’ve got a secret—I like you a little crazy.”
My stomach shifted as I thought about what other personal questions he might ask. Maybe it was true and I wasn't an open book, but who said I had to be? I kept my heart closed because I didn’t like to be vulnerable. Looking for a distraction, I shuffled my cards and averted my eyes.
“How’s it lookin’ over there, Pet?”
“You'll never get it out of me.” I laughed and moved my cards around to find another poor hand. He picked up his own new hand and I asked, “How's yours?”
He arched an eyebrow, taking this game much more seriously than I ever would have thought. He was so intriguing when he shed the badass Viking veneer that had scared the shit out of me the first day. “I've got some good things happening over here. Ready?”
I sucked in a breath, narrowing my eyes at him. “Sure.”
I set my cards in front of me. His eyes ate up my cards before his smile deepened and he laid out his hand: a pair of jacks and queens. Damn. “So I’ve got a question for you.”
I groaned inwardly.
“Last time you went on a date?”
My stomach twisted, and I squirmed before swallowing.
“Wait—have you never...?”
I shook my head. He didn’t need to know my non-existent dating history.
“Tell me about your family,” I blurted.
“My family is ridiculous and annoying and I love them even when they drive me crazy. Granny stops by once a week to deliver frozen meals because she still thinks I don't eat enough even though I bench twice my weight when I lift. Keir, my little brother joined the military and came back with a wound on his thigh and a deeper cut in his heart. He hasn't been the same, well—hadn't—until Anna thawed his cold, stubborn ass. She's done more good for him than she realizes. He's the perfect little brother, free-spirited and funny and adventure-loving. He lives to keep my mother ruffled, she worries about him because before he was born she suffered a miscarriage and thought she'd never have another baby. Some days I think she should have just stopped – he gets under my skin like no one else can, but I love him and would fight to the death protecting him, just like he was willing to do for our country.
“My oldest brother, Rome, broke royal tradition and married an American. He's the responsible one, he's so respectful and charming and successful it makes me want to slap him. He's just like my mother, while I on the other hand am a chip off the old block. My dad was born to bend the rules, he'd never hurt a fly, but he loves to make a deal. It’s just that attitude that landed him in the hot water he's in.” His eyes lingered on mine a moment before he said under his breath, “And it's what landed me at Kylemore.”
“What do you mean?”
“His enemy planted a mole to listen in on my father's business dealings. For five years the man that drove him everyday was reporting back to my father's business nemesis—a man in Warsaw who has no scruples and enjoys breaking every rule set forth by the international commission that oversees funds passed between our countries.”