One Night Is Never Enough by Anne Mallory Read Free Book Online Page A

is emanating from your genitals. My God, you normally don’t look at the same woman twice, and now this?”
    “I couldn’t let it happen.”
    “Let what happen? One night in bed with the man who won her? And what are you going to do? Play chess with her?”
    “Do you think she’s any good?”
    “Roman.” Andreas’s mouth thinned into a dangerous line.
    Roman rolled the dice more roughly in his palm, gaze drawn to a navy handkerchief on the table, carelessly discarded during the game. “Did you see her eyes this afternoon? The girl deserves a better fate.”
    “Than marrying a wealthy man of the ton ?” Andreas gave a dark laugh, old bitterness rising. “That is quite the worst fate I can think of for a girl fishing the mart.”
    Roman didn’t immediately respond. Instead, he turned over the facts he knew about Charlotte Chatsworth against his own perception and awareness after meeting her. “She reminded me of Little Penny.”
    “Don’t try to blame this on your damn savior complex.”
    “No.” He rolled the dice again between his fingers, giving them an extra twist before looking. Sixes again. “She intrigues me. She has since the Delaneys first mentioned her six months past.”
    “Enough to risk everything?” Andreas asked harshly.
    The easy, charmed answer was, “Of course not.” But Roman said nothing. It would cheapen the entire incident. And worse yet, there was something that tickled the edges of his emotion when he thought of the girl. The tickling of fate. He’d had it when he met Andreas that day long ago.
    He looked up at his brother.
    As furious as the tick in his jaw stated, Andreas had given him the card tonight. Had relinquished a piece of his honor and given it to Roman, even to use in perceived folly. Because Roman had asked.
    He would support Roman even in this, because Roman had asked.
    Furious, Andreas might be. But on Roman’s side and at his back? Always.
    The deep tie was part of what made them unstoppable, something even beyond what a flesh-and-blood sibling, if Roman had ever possessed one, could claim.
    “I will make it up to you,” Roman said in a low tone. A promise. “Even if everything goes rocks up and hampers your revenge. I will fix it.”
    There was a knock at the door, and, for a tense moment, Andreas did nothing. Finally, he turned and barked for the person to enter. Stanley peeked around the corner and met Roman’s eyes, then pattered across the floor. “A note for you, sir.” He extended his hand.
    “From whom?”
    “Don’t know, sir. Didn’t say. Liveried chap.”
    Roman took the envelope and flipped it. An ornate seal fastened the flap. Andreas said something to Stanley, then the boy’s footsteps faded. Roman broke the seal and emptied the contents into his hand. A well-known object fell into his palm.
    Roman stared at the single black shovel printed on the paper in his palm. The twin to the card slipped down his back earlier that eve. Obviously retrieved from the deck by the sender. He could hear Andreas swear as he caught sight of it. Roman flicked the card onto the table in front of him.
    He wondered what the sender would one day ask of him. Or of them. But Roman would go to his death and take the whole of London with him before allowing Andreas to pay the price as well.
    Of course, Roman didn’t have to initiate this particular game. He could leave events as they were, the cheat, the threat, fading to obscurity. Find the girl later and spark a different game. Not use the opportunity within his grasp.
    He threw the dice on the table. Sixes. Andreas’s swearing echoed in his mind.
    What the hell was it about Charlotte Chatsworth that called to him? He narrowed his eyes, thinking about what he was going to do to her to determine the answer.

Chapter 4
    C harlotte perched stiffly on the carriage seat as it rocked them to their destination—somewhere east of Mayfair. She could almost feel the polish slip from the buildings and roads as they ventured