Light to Valhalla (21 page)

“Don’t speak that way
, Alex
.
You’re not a cripple.
”
Charley
clamped her arms around
her knees,
staring
wordlessly
into the flames
.
“What did you come here for?”

“You, my lady, owe me a rematch.
”
Charley looked up at him
,
surprise and bemusement evident in her eyes
.
He
grinned, holding
up a battered deck of playing cards
.
“Last count you were ahead twenty-two games to eight
.
I simply cannot have so staggering a loss on my conscience.
”
He cut the deck into two equal piles
, expertly shuffling
the cards
.
“Especially,” he leaned conspiratorially forward, “to a girl.”

Charley
bristled
in mock outrage
, a sau
cy smirk curving her lips
.
“Prepare to lose, sir
, for this
girl
is about to beat you so badly you’ll never show your face in polite society again.”

Alex
laughed
.
“You call that a threat?  I may lose on purpose.”

Charley too
chuckled
, leaning forward, cozying in
.
“Do you r
emember how angry we were when w
e found out Richard and Christopher
were
letting us win on purpose?”

“
H
ow could I forget?
”
He grinned
.
“You were so enraged you went to your mother.”

“And
both
of our mothers were horrified to learn your brothers were teaching us to play cards at the tender age of six and nine.”

“
Chris
pounded me for tattling.
”
Alex rubbed his jaw, recalling the brotherly menace in Christopher’s eleven year old eyes
.
He quirked a brow at Charley
.
“Not sure I deserved that particular beating.”

She flashed an impish smile
.
“
I apologized for your bloody nose years ago.”

“Indeed
you did
.
”
Their gazes locked, warm with memories of a better time
.
S
ilence
settled between them and
Alex was the first to avert his
eyes
.
Talking about his brothers was still hard
.

Alex cleared his throat
and wordlessly dealt the cards
.
While the interlude was going better than expected
,
he
was
at a total loss as to what to say
next
.
He’d mentioned talking a time or two, but in reality he wasn’
t much of a talker; h
ad never under
sto
od the compulsive need of the fairer sex
to verbalize and analyze every emotion
.
The fact
Charley
rarely, if ever, displayed such a comp
ulsion was extremely refreshing, but j
ust the same she proved a
s much a
puzzle
as any woman
.

The firelight cast a tantalizing play of
shadows across her face
,
leaving Alex to decipher the
montage of emotions dipping elusively in and out of her expression
.
He had the impression she intended to keep her
feelings
carefully sh
uttered
from
view, but the effervescent girl he’d once adored lay just beneath the surface
.
All he need do is
peel
back th
e layer like skin from an onion—
or perhaps an orange, h
e didn’t particularly like onions.

He could always mention the weather
.
There was a hell of a lot of snow outside for early October
.
But people always commented on the weather when there was
nothing
to discuss
.
What about—

“You’re wearing your wedding band
.”

Startled by the gentle
observation
,
and more than pleased to have the conversation started,
Alex
spread the fingers of his left hand and glanced down at the
simple gold band adorning his ring finger
.
“Yes
,” he said simply
.
“I
rarely
take
it off.”

“Really?
”
A
mixture
of awe and disbelief
—mostly disbelief
,
he noted wryly—
flickered
in
Charley
’s eyes
.
“Why?”

Alex
met the questioning line of her gaze
and
gave a wry snort
.
“Because I’m marrie
d, love
.
To you last I checked.
”

She smiled ever so slightly
.
“Touché, Alex
.
Though you must admit it was a fair question.”

“How was the question fair?
”
He finished dealing the cards, and scooped up his hand, studying the cards
.
The Queen of Hearts stared straight
up
at him
.
How convenient
.

Charley discarded three cards
.
“Well, we’re not really married.”

“What?
” Alex sp
luttered
.
“Not really married?  Where did you come by t
hat notion
?
”
He
set the
discard pile before the hearth, and made the first play
.
“How are we not really married?”

Charley flushed
, tossing an ace on top of his king
.
“
Oops
.
That didn’t come out right
.
What I mean is
—”

“I fail to see how we’re not really married.
”
Alex led another card
.
“
We stood in a church, the reverend said, ‘You may now kiss the bride’—”

“Alex.
”

“—which I did,” he continued without missing a beat
.
“And then the reverend said—”

“
—
p
resenting for the first time in society Lord and Lady
Coverstone
,” Charley finished, exasperated
.
“Yes, I know
.
I was there.”

Eyes narrowed he leaned forward
looking intently into her eyes
.
“Then do tell, love,
how are we not really married?”

Her gaze narrowed in return
.
“You can be quite annoying did you know that?”

“You still haven’t answered my question.
”
He tapped the fourth finger of her left hand
.
“D
o you not wear
a ring because you don’t consider us wed?
”
For the life of him he could not remember what the band he’d slipped on her finger looked like
.
It didn’t matter
.
Wed was wed and he was most definitely leg shackled.

“
I usually wear mine,
” she said defensively,
flipping another card out between them,
“
but those men s
tole it.
”
She tugged her earlobes
.
“And my
grandmere’s
emerald ear
b
obs
.
She brought them all the way from Russia you know.”

Actually he hadn’t known, and at the moment he didn’t particularly care because
he’d become rather fixated on the
way she continued fingering her ear
.
He supposed he should look to see which card she’
d played, but…

“
I don’t know how I’ll tell
Mama
,
she’ll kill me for losing them.
”

“Somehow I think she’ll understand,” he murmured, scooting closer
, gaze riveted on the
hollow between her earlobe and throat
.
Damn, but only Charley could make something as mundane as an ear look positively appetizing
… like strawberries and cream
.
She
was strawberries and cream
.
“I
’ll
buy you
new
emeralds
.
”
Alex reached across the hearth
,
smoothing a hand over her long braid,
and brushing
her
soft ea
rlobe
with the pad of his thumb
.
“And
a proper
wedding band.
”
His
hand
slipped around the back of her slender neck
.
Charley’s eyes
widened in alarm
her lips part
ing
like the halves of one of those delectable strawberries
.
T
he urge to kiss her, sip the heaven that lit her face, was
heady indeed
.

“C-cards,” she
stammered
.
“It’s your play
.”

My play…
how many different meanings he could derive from such a statement
.
His
gaze dropped to her mouth
, slowly assessi
ng each and every plump curve…
that one perfect dimple in the corner of her chin
.
It became much more pronounced when she smiled
,
or worried her lower lip between her teeth
.

Mentally Alex ticked off all the things
he’d rather do than play cards
.
Piquet did not rank in the top ten
.
Hell
,
cards didn’t even make the top twenty
.
Oh, no… the top
fifty
things he’d like to do
consisted
of the various ways he’d like to undress Charley, pin her beneath him, and make
mindless love to her
right here on the hearth
.
Why h
e hadn’t had a woman since… well… t
o be honest, he couldn’t remember when exactly, but it had been far too long
.
Painfully long
.
“Would you rather be playing cards?”

“No,” she whispered
,
a
husky lilt
in
her voice.

Alex groaned
, she wanted this too, he knew it
.
The heat of their bodies mingled in the few inches left between them, intensifying the heat leaping from the hearth
.
They weren’t even touching and yet he’d n
ever
been more
aware of
a woman, so
attuned to every breath or movement
.
This was madness
.
If he was anything more than a fool he’d
rise from the smooth stones and
, married or otherwise,
put as m
uch distance between
t
he
m
as possible
.
But then he’d never been one to
play it safe, and
u
nable to resist
—because really, how c
ould any man resist the sensuous
vixen
resting on the stones—
he
closed the
remaining
distance
catching her lips
in a tender kiss
.
The touch was soft, coaxing, and dear Jesus her lips were
so
velvety smooth
he could taste their perfection
.
Before he lost himself
completely
, Alex
drew back
and opened his eyes
,
allowing her the freedom to make the next move;
waiting, hoping she would
continue their foreplay
.