“I-I can’t do this,” she panted at last.
He nodded slowly. “Even if you want to.”
She jerked her gaze to his and her cheeks heated. He knew she wanted to. A fact, not a question. He wasn’t wrong. “Especially if I want to,” she whispered. Then she straightened up and let out a long sigh. “I-I want you to know I’m not sorry it happened. It’s just that I…can’t.”
“Very well,” he said. “Than I have just one important question for you.”
“Wh-what is that?” she stammered. Her entire body tensed, waiting for whatever awful thing he would say now. What accusation he would lodge or threat he would make now that he had the upper hand over her.
Except he didn’t go hard and cruel. He smiled at her.
“How do you feel about piquet?” he asked.
She blinked. “The…the card game?”
“Yes. It’s a two-hand game, so we can play just us. And it will help pass the time we were both looking to fill since you no longer wish to do…” He waved a hand between them. “That.”
Her lips parted. “You aren’t going to argue with me aboutthat?”
“Why should I?” he asked. “I vastly enjoyed kissing you. You aren’t sorry we did it. You asked me to stop, so we did. There’s nothing more to say. Neither of us did something wrong, did we?”
She hesitated. Kissing him should have felt wrong. But it didn’t. Pulling away had always felt wrong in the past, like she was wrong to refuse. But now it didn’t either. She was confused, but not guilty. “I-I suppose not.”
“Then what stops us from playing a round of cards as friends?” he asked. “Unless you don’t wish to be friends with me.”
She hadn’t considered that as a possibility, even though he’d mentioned it before. Morgan Banfield had been a confusion, a distraction, a frustration…but she’d never considered truly making him a friend. She rather liked the idea, really. Everyone else around her was part of a couple, in love and unable to imagine that anyone else had a different path. Why not be friends with this man? If his employment with her brother worked out, they would see each other a great deal. Why should it be awkward or uncomfortable?
“Very well. I would like to be…friends.”
“Excellent.” His grin was bright and genuine. “I will fetch a deck of cards. You see if you can find some buttons.”
“Buttons?” she repeated in confusion.
“To wager with,” he called out as he exited the room. “I do not trust you, my lady, and I do not wish to lose what little blunt I have left.”
She stared at the door he’d just departed from, stunned into silence for a moment. But then she couldn’t help but laugh. And laugh she continued to do as she went to seek out the buttons for their game.
Morgan leaned back in his chair with a chuckle as Elizabeth threw up her hands in defeat. “I’m terrible at this game,” she giggled.
He grinned as he took in the cards and began to shuffle. “It’s because your face is too honest.”
“My face is too honest?” she repeated. “What does that mean?”
“It’s a game of trickery and deception,” he said. “And you always look so guilty when you lie. Meanwhile I am very charming and you believe everything I say.”
Elizabeth tilted her head back and she laughed harder. Morgan stared while she was distracted. It had been a few hours since their kiss in this very room. He would be lying if he said he hadn’t been thinking of it.
But he’d also enjoyed their time together. Elizabeth was kind and intelligent, she was witty and quick to laugh once she relaxed. She was, in short, everything lovely. And he liked her.
She pointed at the pile of buttons before him. “I’m glad we didn’t play for real stakes, or I would have been stripped of my pin money.”
He kept the smile on his face even though her words struck a bit closer to the bone than perhaps she knew. After all, he’d been stripped of more than pin money by gambling and carousing. And ended up here. Which suddenly didn’t seem so very bad.
“Another round to try to win it back?” he teased.
“My God, you are like a barker in the park.” She affected a deeper voice. “Step up and you’ll surely win this time, my lady!”
“But surely you will, Elizabeth,” he said. “Don’t I look trustworthy?”
