“Oh, you don’t gotta worry about that,” Rory said. “Ace reminded me today that he doesn’t ever get jealous.”
Arthur opened his mouth, then closed it.
“Really.” Lord Fine glanced at Arthur, eyebrow raised. “You don’t mind me bending your precious angel over a billiards table and teaching him how to handle my stick?”
Arthur smiled with narrowed eyes. “I’ll teach him myself.”
“You’ll do no such thing, you’re wretched at pool,” Lord Fine said. “What’s your objection to me doing it? Apparently you’ve even told your sweetheart that you don’t suffer jealousy like other mortals.”
Arthur frowned. “I didn’t mean it like that—”
“It’s fine, Ace, I know I’m the one who’s gotta get it together.” Rory turned to Lord Fine. “Sure, I’m all yours. Get as handsy as you want with me, Ace won’t care.”
Lord Fine smiled winningly at Arthur. “As handsy as I want.”
Arthur’s gaze darted between Rory and Lord Fine. “What if we play cards instead?”
“And keep a nice, respectable distance between us all.” Lord Fine’s smile turned amused. “Sure. Poker?”
Rory hesitated, shooting an uncertain glance at Arthur. “We played a few rounds on the ship, but I was on the verge of puking the whole time. And if you two high hats are wanting to make bets, I’m not gonna pretend I can keep up.”
Lord Fine waved a careless hand. “I’ll fund your bets. No, no, I insist,” he said, right over Rory’s protest. “I’m going to get back every penny when you lose it all anyway.”
Rory folded his arms. “Who said I was gonna lose?”
“Oh please, that’s a given.” Lord Fine added, gratingly condescending, “Don’t worry, duck. You don’t have to be good at things. You just sit there and be pretty, and I’m sure that’s all Arthur needs.”
Rory narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, all right. Let’s play.”
“What the hell,” Lord Fine said, as Rory raked in all of the chips from their final round.
Arthur was also staring at Rory in shock. “You cleaned us out.”
“It’s that, what’d Ace call it, that luck of the Irish,” Rory said, trying not to smile. Lord Fine gave him a filthy look, and Rory had to bite his lip not to grin. “Look, I’m not gonna keep your money.”
“You should, you won it,” said Arthur.
Rory shrugged. “But you two were just going easy on me because I just learned,” he said innocently. “Letting me win, right?”
Arthur and Lord Fine exchanged a glance.
“So it wouldn’t be right to keep it,” Rory said. “It was never mine anyway.”
Lord Fine groaned. “This is actually worse than the losing. He robbed me, and now he’s magnanimously returning it out of pity.”
A few minutes later, Rory was crossing the threshold to the guest room. Arthur followed him right in and shut the door behind them.
Before Rory could kiss him, Arthur grabbed him by the suspenders and tugged him close. “All right, confess,” he said, bending down to bump Rory’s nose with his nose. “You already knew how to play poker. You were toying with me back on the ship and tonight you swindled us.”
“I never played before you taught me, honest.” Rory grinned. “But yeah. I took you for a ride.”
Arthur furrowed his brow.
Rory wrapped his arms around Arthur’s neck and stood up on his toes so Arthur didn’t have to stoop. “Turns out it helps at poker when you can see the history of the cards in your hand—including the cards they were next to in the deck.”
“Oh, you absolute brat.” Arthur sounded delighted. “How do I keep forgetting you’re full of magic to your eyeballs and that you do, on occasion, use it for more than saving the world?”
“I was just messing with you two,” Rory said with a grin, moving his hands to Arthur’s broad chest and pushing gently but pointedly toward the bed. “I know it’s cheating to use magic; I was never gonna keep the money.”
