Richard laughed. “Lord, no. That would have been diving a bit too deeply to start, don’t you think? I’ve had lovers here and there in the past year. But I admit it all felt rote. Disconnected. As if I were simply scratching an itch or filling my belly for the sake of function alone. Until I saw you two at the party.”
“Stealing?” Hux asked, incredulous.
“Yes. And fucking,” Richard said coolly.
Hux was glad he’d set his fork down, for he surely would have dropped it at that statement. “Fucking?” he repeated, and looked at Zara. She seemed just as shocked as he was, her eyes wide.
“In the parlor,” Richard continued.
“Bullshit,” Hux said, and shook his head. “I would have seen you.”
“Yes, you’d think you would, Hux.” Richard leaned closer. “You with your constant vigilance. But one of the most interesting things about you is that if you are near Zara, you occasionally forget everything else.”
Hux tensed. It felt like Richard had cut his chest open and revealed his heart. “Where were you?” he asked.
“In the corner of the room, a part hardly touched by firelight.” Richard reached out and traced his fingertips along Zara’s arm, and she shivered. “I might have gotten up, announced myself and slipped out. But everything happened so fast. I realized you two were thieves and watched you place the spoils of your night on Zara’s body and then took her…it was infinitely arousing.”
Zara was trembling now and Hux was certain not all of it was about excitement. “Knowing we stole things from your friends made you…aroused?”
“They aren’t my friends,” Richard corrected. “At least not most of them. And yes, the confidence you both showed, the bravado, the absolute reckless abandon in both your actions and the way you came together afterward was very arousing. There was something magical about it, the way you two connected. And for the first time in years I wanted something more than a mere body to bury myself in for a night with no thought of it again. I wantedyou.” He held his gaze on Hux for a beat, then let it shift to Zara. “Andyou.”
Zara shivered and Hux couldn’t help but do the same. It was like this man could pin him with a look, hold him steady without effort. No one but Zara had ever been able to do that, and it had taken them months to get to that point. A short time alone with Richard and he felt like part of himself was left to this man. Controlled by him.
Hux clenched his jaw. He didn’t want to be controlled. That was too dangerous. His next words were sharp. “So you want to, what…be a tourist to our criminal activity? Play a little game with what we have been forced to do thanks to the actions of men like you?”
Richard didn’t flinch. His expression remained gentle in the face of Hux’s harshness. “I know what you do is dangerous. But come now, Huxley, you must admit that you, yourself, are aroused by the game. It’s obvious by the way you move when you’re on the hunt, by the way you lose control when you see what you’ve taken resting against her perfect skin.”
Hux cleared his throat, which was suddenly thick. “I can’t deny it.”
“I wanted some taste of that,” Richard said with a shrug. “I was willing to be reckless to obtain what I desired. More time with you. A taste of the thrill of what you two do. Who you are.”
“That action takes quite a bit of trust,” Zara said. She was watching Hux rather than Richard, though. Reading him, he thought, as she could so easily do. “We could hurt you.”
“That is always true when you enter into any relationship,” Richard said with a shake of his head. “And in truth, I have nothing to lose. Whatever material things you could still steal don’t matter. There is nothing more that anyone could take from me that hasn’t already been taken. So I’m willing to bargain for what I want without certainty.” He locked gazes with her. “Am I wrong?”
Zara caught her breath and glanced at Hux. Richard followed her stare and arched a brow in Hux’s direction. “Am. I. Wrong?” he repeated succinctly.
There were a thousand things that Hux could have said in that moment that he knew would cut this arrangement off. Another thousand he could have said to continue it but put an end to this uncomfortable vulnerability. And yet he couldn’t say any of them. No matter how dangerous he knew the situation to be, he couldn’t let it go. Couldn’t let Richard go, or the way it felt to have Richard and Zara together in his life.
So he cleared his throat and ground out, “There is no reason for us to betray you. I know you and Zara agreed to a week together. I do the same.”
Richard didn’t respond, but held his gaze instead. The silence drew out between them, as did the way Hux was drawn in by the blue of the other man’s stare. One could get lost in this man. Never be found.
Finally, he looked away, and only then did Richard say, “Then we understand each other.”
They continued their luncheon and Richard changed the subject, returning to lighter topics like music, but Hux felt a lingering sense of unease. The conversation between them had not gone badly, and yet he felt like he’d…lost something.
At last the plates were cleared and Richard sat back in his chair with a smile for both Zara and Hux. “I have a suggestion for an afternoon entertainment.”
Hux snorted out a laugh. “I’m sure you do.”
Zara leaned forward and let her fingers trace Richard’s hand. Richard’s pupils dilated with the action and she whispered, “And what is that?”
“How about a spirited game of Vingt-un?”
At the suggestion, Hux nearly spit out the sip of wine he’d just taken. “The card game?” he asked.
Richard shrugged. “There will be plenty of time for other entertainments later. Sometimes the truest pleasure is just…waiting. Anticipating.”
