TheCharmer Read Free

potential for a most noteworthy springing free there, he suspected. A truly respectable eruption, in fact. No one was that industrious or that quarrelsome without something pushing them hard from behind.
    Not that he was interested in her or anything of the sort. She wasn't his preferred variety of woman at all. He liked them pretty and round and bubbly. Rose was far too long of leg and far too short of bosom. Her features were austere, despite those deep hazel eyes. No one would look twice at her face—until she smiled.
    Not that she often did. But by God, when she did… Collis had found himself breathless more than once, gone still and riveted by that radiant smile. Then it would be gone, and he would shake himself back to reality.
    Of course, Briar Rose cared nothing for his opinion of her beauty. She cared nothing for him at all. She seemed completely consumed by her own aspirations. There wasn't a score he'd earned that she hadn't topped or come bloody close to, not a move he tried that she couldn't counter. The hell of it was, the more she competed with him, the more he looked forward to coming into the Academy every morning. Sooner or later, one of them was going to collect their winnings.
    Winnings
. Winnings always reminded him of Ethan Damont. Never had a bloke taken more winnings than Ethan. And last night he'd been in the Liar's Club.
    The public side of the club of course, which truthfully was rather exclusive in its own right. The gentlemen's establishment known to the world as the Liar's Club was limited to members only. Of course, the only membership requirements were those of being rich, bored, and vaguely bad.
    Ethan was all that but rich. Unless he'd come into some fortune that Collis didn't know of, Ethan Damont worked hard for a living. Worked hard playing hard, that is. Ethan was a professional gambler, making his way through the world depriving rich and stupid young men of their—in his words—undeserved wealth.
    And last night, there Ethan had been, raking in his winnings with that same wry, disinterested manner in which he'd taken every tuppence from the other boys at school. Collis watched Ethan light his cheroot from the cigar candle he held to its end. His old friend let out a puff or two, then finally flicked his gaze to Collis without a moment's surprise.
    "Tremayne," Ethan greeted him laconically. He leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs. "Surprised to see you in this hole. Then again, you never did have any taste."
    Collis laughed easily. Ethan knew very well that the Liar's Club supplied its members with all the finest in food, wine, cigars and gentlemanly entertainment. There was even a raised stage on one end of the clubroom for those less-than-gentlemanly entertainments, although there was a standard policy against any actual prostitution taking place.
    Nodding to that velvet-draped stage, now standing empty, Collis took a chair. "You missed the show tonight. That python was the damnedest thing I've ever seen. Six feet if it was an inch."
    Ethan shrugged. "I heard about it. My latest victim brought me here as his guest, but not until the fun was over. Can't say as I'm sorry I missed it. Why would any girl want to dance with a snake?"
    "Same reason she'd want to dance with you, I suppose."
    That finally got a chuckle from his friend, to Collis's relief. Ethan did not look as though he were thriving. Collis had not seen him for a long time.
    Ethan and he had a long history. They had spent their years at school using their wits and their fists to get them in and out of trouble. Unlike Collis, Ethan was not highborn. He was the youngest son of a dour shipping merchant who had decided the irreverent young man was not fit to inherit any portion of the business, so after giving him an education had sent him out to make his own way. And so he had.
    Ethan was a master of the cards. A cheat, yes, but the finest, most affable, infinitely challenging cheat about. The wealthy men of Society