Frankie stopped in front of what appeared to be a cupboard door before she turned to Chloe. “Let’s see the ring.”
Chloe held up her hand, the bright light glittering off the facets of the gems.
“Nice,” Frankie said, throwing an approving glance at Nathan. “Substantial but not ostentatious.”
Nathan laughed. “I had to balance my desire to let everyone know she belonged to me against Chloe’s accusations that I don’t live in the real world.”
“Ha!” Frankie barked as she typed in a combination that opened the door. Behind it was a massive utilitarian safe with a dial and a slot. Frankie put her body between the dial and her two guests as she twirled it. Then she pulled a strangely shaped key from her pocket and fed it into the slot.
“No biometrics?” Nathan asked. Chloe loved that his inventor’s mind was always working.
“I’m not having someone cut off my thumb to open a damned safe,” Frankie said, swinging the foot-thick door open.
“Wise,” Nathan said.
The older woman pulled out a leather portfolio, shuffled through the papers in it, and removed a thick cream-colored envelope. “I understand you’ve decided I should mark the still-sealed envelope with ‘wager satisfied’ and my initials. You wish me to retain it until the end of the one-year time frame of the bet.”
“That’s correct,” Nathan confirmed.
Frankie carried the envelope to her desk, where she picked up a black fountain pen, scrawled the two words and her initials on the vellum, and blotted it.
“Why not just shred it since you’ve won?” Chloe asked, a little miffed that the bet would linger on.
“We want to destroy them—or reveal them—all at the same time.” He took Chloe’s hands in his and faced her. “We were gambling with the most important of our possessions: our hearts. A wager like that deserves the respect of ritual.”
“And gamblers are superstitious,” Frankie said, putting the envelope back in the portfolio and closing the safe. “Nathan here doesn’t want to jinx his chances of marrying you.”
“Seriously?” Chloe said, giving him a skeptical look.
“Better safe than sorry,” he said, lifting her hands to kiss first one and then the other, his lips firm on her skin. “It’s not easy to find a woman brave enough to love me for myself.”
Chloe could feel his touch along all the nerve endings in her body.
“We have rooms upstairs,” Frankie said, her tone dry. “But first your friends are waiting for you in the bar where this sentimental bet began.” The club owner held out her hand to Chloe again. “I expect a wedding invitation.”
“You’re at the top of the guest list,” Nathan said.
As they left Frankie’s office, Chloe said, “Let’s make a deal.”
Nathan groaned. “You always come out on top in these negotiations.”
“I thought you liked me in that position,” Chloe said, enjoying the quick intake of Nathan’s breath. “Anyway, this one’s easy. You tell me what you wrote on that piece of paper in Frankie’s safe, and I’ll have a drink with Luke and Gavin.”
All the teasing went out of Nathan’s expression. “Let’s go somewhere more private.”
He led her down the hall to a small hexagonal room furnished with a round, leather-topped table surrounded by four dark wooden chairs upholstered in matching leather. A circular gold-and-wine-patterned Oriental rug covered the floor. Closing the door, he pulled out a chair to seat Chloe before turning another one toward her and sitting down himself.
“We agreed to wager something that was not only valuable in and of itself, but which would cause us pain to lose.” He crossed his arms on his chest. “I considered the pair of paintings in my bedroom. They would bring a lot of money at auction, but I could replace them with different ones. Another possibility was the first battery I invented. That had significance to me, but it wasn’t intrinsically valuable, except maybe to a computer geek.”
He uncrossed his arms and leaned forward in his chair. “So I wagered the family sword.”
Chloe gasped. “You must have been really drunk.”
“It was desperation that drove me. I knew there was something wrong with my life and I needed to make a change.” His gaze burned with intensity. “You didn’t just save the family sword. You saved me.”
“Love saved you,” Chloe said. “I was just lucky enough to be the one you gambled on.”
He stood and drew her up against him before he lowered his head and kissed her. She understood he wanted to do more than just say he loved her. He wanted her to feel it deep down in her bones.
“I love you too,” she breathed against his lips.
For a long moment, they stood pressed together, absorbing the emotion swirling around and through them. Then he slid his hand down to the curve of her behind.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you all night,” he said.
She looked up to find a devil in his eye. “What’s that?”
“Are you wearing anything under that dress?”