He warmed at the name. “I didn’t teach you about stacked decks.”
She feigned insult. “My lord, your lack of confidence in my intelligence wounds me. You think I could not work out the workings of deck stacking myself?”
He ignored the jest. Knight would kill them when he discovered this. “And roulette?”
She smiled. “Magnets have remarkable uses.”
She was too smart for her own good. He turned to Temple. “You allowed this?”
Temple shrugged one shoulder. “The lady can be very . . . determined.”
Lord knew that was true.
“She knew what she wanted,” the enormous man added, “and we all wanted it as well.”
“Temple was very gracious. As was Miss Tasser,” Pippa added.
Cross’s mind was spinning. Miss Tasser. Sally had helped.
Do not doubt for one moment that what’s done was done for her. Not you.
This is what Sally had meant. The run on Knight’s, not Cross’s, engagement.
Pippa’s insane plan.
But they hadn’t considered everything. They hadn’t considered what would happen when she was discovered. When Knight returned to the floor and understood what they’d done.
“You have to leave here. Before Knight discovers it and everything goes wild. Before he discovers you. You’ll be destroyed, and everything I worked for will be—” He was growing panicked by the idea that she might be hurt. That Knight might react with wicked intent.
“I am not leaving.” She shook her head. “I have to see this through to the end!”
“There is no end, Pippa.” He reached for her again, desperate to touch her, and Temple stopped him once more. Cross stopped. Collected himself. “Dammit. Knight is the best in the business.”
“Not better than you,” she said.
“Yes, better than me,” he corrected her. “There’s nothing he cares about more than this place. Than its success. And all I care about—” He trailed off, knowing he shouldn’t say it. Knowing he couldn’t stop himself. “All I care about is you, you madwoman.”
She smiled, her beautiful blue eyes softening behind her spectacles. “Don’t you see, Jasper? You’re all I care about as well.”
He shouldn’t like the words. Shouldn’t ache for them. But he did, of course.
She moved toward him, and he would have opened his arms and taken her to bed then and there if Temple hadn’t stepped in, looking anywhere but at them. “Can’t you two have your private moments in private? Without me near?”
The words served as a reminder of where they were. Of the danger she was in. He turned to face the room, searching for Knight, finding him, fury in his gaze as he watched the floor, sensing with the keen understanding of a man who had done this for his entire life that something was wrong. That there was too much glee on the floor. Too much winning.
His gaze settled on Cross’s over the crowd, and knowledge flared in the older man’s eyes. He turned and gave instructions to his pit boss, who took off at a run—likely for fresh dice and decks—before Knight started toward them, determination in every step. Cross faced Pippa. “You must go,” he said. “You cannot be caught. You’re to marry tomorrow. I shall take care of this.”
She shook her head. “Absolutely not. This is my plan—crafted for you. For Lavinia. To ensure that Knight can never do his damage again. I shall finish it.”
Ire rose. “Pippa, this is bigger than anything you can imagine. You did not plan for an exit. Knight is not worried. He knows that he will restore the tables to working order tonight, and all these people will stay and gamble back their winnings. Gamers do not stop at the top of their streak.”
She smiled. “You think I do not know that? Need I remind you that I learned about temptation from a very skilled teacher?”
Now was not the time to think of their lessons. He resisted the flash of skin and sighed at the words. “I think you could not have prepared for it. I think that, short of burning this place to the ground, there is no amount of coordinated planning that could convince five hundred gaming addicts to leave their winning tables.” He turned back to Knight, registering the old man’s movement. Closer. “And I think I’m through with this conversation. You will return home with Temple, and you will marry tomorrow, and you will live the life you deserve.”
“I don’t want it,” she said.
“You don’t have a choice,” he replied. “This is the last thing I will give you. And it is the only thing I will ever ask of you.”
She shook her head. “You don’t know what you’re asking!”
“I know exactly what I’m asking.”
I’m asking you to walk away before I find I can no longer bear to be without you.
He feared it might be too late, as it was.
“Leave, Pippa.” The words were a plea, coming on a wave of panic he did not care for. This woman had shattered his control, and he hated it. Lie. “I shall fix this.”
She shook her head. “You once promised that when we wagered at my tables, we would play by my rules.”