Hatshepsut's Collar (The Artifact Hunters #2) (4 page)

If anyone’s going to be distracted it’s going to be you, Loki.

She perched herself on the table and crossed her legs, letting her stocking clad calf brush his thigh, as she swung her limb back and forth. The cards were dealt and his eyes drifted from his hand to her leg. He made no secret of his interest in her. Cara hoped tonight wouldn’t be his night to collect.

Nate called for two cards and the dealer slid them along the felt to his outstretched fingers. Cara dared not watch. His face would reveal nothing anyway as he was an expert at hiding any tells.

Loki bid for three and tossed his discards onto the pile by the dealer’s arm. He studied his new hand. He dropped his arm to play with the edge of his pocket before lifting his fingers back to stroke the cards he held.

Cara spent three years in America, split between California and Texas, where she learned to shoot from some of the best gunslingers her grandmother’s connections could find. She also spent a large amount of time hanging out in saloons, and knew the look of a man with extra cards to play. Cards he hadn’t been dealt. Loki intended to cheat unless she did something about it.

A tiny spike of fear stabbed through the back of her brain at what she was about to do.

It’s Loki
, she reassured herself.
He would never hurt me
.

She took a calming breath, not wanting her anxiety at touching another man to spill to Nate and reveal her plan. Uncrossing her legs, Cara slid her foot over Loki’s lap and settled, straddling his thighs. She leaned forward and whispered in his ear. “That table’s not very comfortable. I think my arse is going to sleep.” She squirmed in his lap and watched his eyes widen in renewed interest.

“Much better, although, perhaps, just as hard?” She gave him her best wicked grin.

He dropped his hand to her waist, and then lower, to stroke his fingers over the top of her stocking. His tongue snaked out to moisten his lips. “Perhaps I should have let you distract Nate instead. You might put me off my game, lass.”

“I think you’d play a very good game in any circumstances,” she whispered. Leaning forward, she pressed against his chest. While his gaze was buried in her cleavage and the rounded arc of her breasts, she brushed her hands down his side. Her finger tips slid into his vest pocket and extracted the cards on their way past. She tucked them behind her thigh, into the top of her stocking while she ran her other hand back up his chest in a playful manner, completing her sleight of hand.

“Oh, I could show you all sorts of games.” He placed a hand on her hip and pulled her tighter against him, leaving her in no doubt of his solid arousal. “Just let me conclude this game before we start another.”

She feigned a pout and moved off his lap. Leaning on the table, she pressed on the cards hidden by the folds of her bustle. Nate’s eyes burned into her back and heat scorched through their bond. She dared not turn to explain her actions, not until they played the last round.

“One card,” Loki called to the dealer, a smirk on his full lips. He dropped one card and slid it across the table top. He picked up the new card and regarded his options thoughtfully, one hand falling to his side and into his pocket. His fingers made a jerking action and he shot his eyes to Cara. His gaze narrowed and his digits worked within the fabric of his vest.

“Time to show your hands, gentlemen,” the dealer called.

Loki’s fingers fumbled for a moment longer with the lining of his pocket before he swore.

Cara blew him a kiss. “You’ll have to play the hand you were dealt,” she said under her breath, so only the two of them could hear.

He shook his head, and then laughed. “Well played, little one.” He fanned out the cards, two aces, two eights and a seven.

Cara turned to see Nate lay out his hand of two queens and three tens. His full house beating Loki’s two of a kind. Reaching out a hand to the centre of the table, she picked up the enormous diamond, rainbow sparks flying, as the overhead light caught and danced over the cut surface.

“Nice doing business with you, Loki. Enjoy your evenings with the Ice Queen, and watch you don’t lose something important to frost bite.”

ou’re breaking my heart.” He clutched his chest and gave her a puppy dog look. “Sure you won’t join us? The Ice Queen and the Fire Princess, you’d be quite a combination. It would be like rushing from the sauna to roll in the snow before seeking lush heat again.”

She patted his metal cheek affectionately. She did have a soft spot for the incorrigible rogue. “Nice try. But no, I’ve played this game to its end.”

Nate gave a curt nod to his opponent before placing a hand in the small of Cara’s back. He ushered her through the mass of bodies seeking escape and out a smaller side door. His face was a cold mask and his few words to her perfunctory and clipped. Another little boat conveyed them back through the darkened tunnels and up to the streets of London.

She chewed her lip all the way back to the mansion, wondering what ate at him.

He can’t be this upset about winning a hand of cards, but surely it’s not about me sitting on Loki’s lap?

Twice on the ride home Cara tried to tell Nate about Loki’s tactics to win the game, but one icy glare from him froze the words on her lips. Anger bounced around the carriage and wrapped itself around Nate.

He waited to hand her down from the carriage before striding up the front steps alone. Inside, he took the stairs two at a time. His mood was a palpable black cloud that enveloped him and had to move fast to hold its position around him.

Cara trailed behind and ascended the stairs at a snail’s pace, trying to figure what had gone so catastrophically wrong during the evening. Her mind couldn’t comprehend the possibility of him being jealous for there was nothing to be jealous about. By the time she made it to the bedroom, Nate had already discarded his shoes and jacket, and was pulling at his cravat with clawed fingers.

She watched his short, sharp movements. “You’re going to have to throw me a clue,” she said, removing the emerald drops from her ears and placing them on the bedside table.

His eyes flashed to her and a black eyebrow rose. “About what?” He tossed the cravat over the back of a chair, and pulled the diamond cufflinks securing the ends of his sleeves.

“What exactly I did that resulted in you acting like I cancelled Christmas.” She unlaced her boots and drew them from her feet.

He exhaled a rough breath and spoke through gritted teeth. “I thought I was at fault. You must be terribly disappointed to be coming home with me.”

Her fingers worked at the tiny buttons holding her skirt closed and the taffeta pooled around her feet when she let it drop. She looked up with narrowed eyes. “Excuse me?”

Nate drew his shirt over his head, balled up the fabric, and tossed it with the other discarded clothing. “You were rubbing yourself against Loki like a cat in heat. You must have been disappointed when I won the hand.”

Words rose in Cara’s throat and she swallowed them back down as she struggled to think while her gaze fixated on his muscular torso. His suggestion was so ludicrous, her brain ignored it. Instead her mind took a detour, thinking about running her tongue down the indent separating his abdominal muscles, knowing it would make him shudder and lose his train of thought. She shook her head and took another breath before responding. Her hands stopped pulling at her corset laces, letting the ribbon dangle, barely holding the garment to her body.

“Do you think so little of me?” she asked in a quiet voice.

His square jaw was tight as he regarded her, his blue eyes darkening with his rage to stormy seas. “What other explanation do you have for riding him like a carousel horse in front of me?”

Cara sucked in a tight breath at his accusation. She didn’t have to ask what he thought she used as the pole. She reached behind her leg and pulled the cards from their hiding place in the top of her stocking. She threw them at his feet. They landed face side up, the Ace of Hearts, Ace of Spades, and the laughing Joker.

“Tell me, if Loki played those cards that were hidden in his pocket, how would the game have changed?” It was a rhetoric question. Loki would have held five aces, an unbeatable hand.

His gaze flashed from the fallen cards to Cara and back again, his jaw grinding back and forth. “He intended to cheat.” Realisation dawned. “You distracted him to steal the cards.” He held himself coiled, unable to relax yet. An unanswered question burned a path of doubt through his confidence exterior. “You don’t desire him?”

She gave a huff of laughter and raised a finger to tap her chest. “Despite you being an arrogant, dangerous, pig-headed man, I love you. Our hearts are bound. I can’t conceal anything from you. You only have to look inside for the answer.”

He closed his eyes and Cara felt his touch along the bond, an internal caress as he sought the truth. Slivers brushed around her as she opened herself and gave him the most intimate glimpse of her mind and heart. His eyes flung open and he crossed the gap between them in three easy strides. He pulled Cara into his arms and claimed her mouth with a desperate hunger. His lips were strong and possessive, his tongue sliding into her as though he tried to touch her soul over her teeth. She moaned against him. His hunger rippled through her body as his desire fuelled her already intense need for him.

He pushed her back against the wall and used his hips to hold her in place. With one of his large thighs between her legs, he pinned her. His fingers finished the job she had started, and pulled the ribbon free of her corset. Tugging the garment off her shoulders, he dropped it to the floor leaving her with only stockings and knickers.

She gave a soft cry at the flash of electricity as skin met skin, and need flared higher. Her nails ran over his back as she urged him closer.

His hands slipped down to the back of her knees and he lifted her legs over his hips, fitting himself into the vee of her thighs. Cara laced her ankles behind his back and Nate rocked his hips against her, pressing her to the wall and as he took her mouth again. His tongue thrust and slid as his hips rolled against her.

She bit his bottom lip, her need escalating with the molten longing coursing along her limbs. Through their bond pulsed his desperate need to claim her, to mark her, so no other man could take her from him. A shiver ran over her skin and the ache at her centre grew, even as Nate rubbed his shaft against her sensitised flesh.

He gave a growl against her lips and carried her to the bed, laying her back on the coverlet. His warmth disappeared as he stood to pull his pants over his hips. She admired his naked form from behind half closed eyes. A faint line of dark hair ran from his lower stomach to his erection. She reached out a hand to grasp him. He was velvet heat under her palm as she slid her hand up and down his hard shaft. He groaned and leaned his hips into her caress. Her fingers encircled him as far as possible, stroking up and down. She marvelled at the silk wrapped iron under her touch.

He pulled away to kneel in front of her, dipping his head to kiss her inner thigh. A moan escaped her lips as his sure tongue stroked laps from stocking to the crease of her thigh. The argument long forgotten, her mind filled only with her need for him and the swirling desire pulling her under. She fisted the sheets, her hands clenched in the cotton when he probed her through the silk of her knickers. Hot fingers unclipped the stockings from the garter belt and drew it from around her hips. His hands slid into her knickers and caressed her buttocks. Taking his time, he pushed the fabric down her body and free of her feet, leaving her exposed to his gaze and hunger.