Wagered

2

"I didn't realize men would put their cock..." Penelope was saying this during dinner.

Minerva gasped and stopped her friend. "Pen! Knock it off!"

"Well, who else can I talk to about..."

"Not during dinner," Minerva hissed as she glanced at Alex and her brother, drunk and laughing. Alex was very handsome. She always fancied getting glimpses at him. Then she peeked at Thomas, who spoke with an unknown overweight gentleman with whiskers. Finally, once the coast was clear, she observed Elijah.

Minerva noticed he was sitting beside Felicity, the debutante Michael was considering for a wife. But from the young girl's countenance, she was taken by Lord Dandridge. She hung on every word he said and batted her lashes at him like a coquet.

Jealousy began to curl in Minerva's belly at the site. "Minnie?" Penelope hissed. "Have you listened to a word I've said?!"

"No," Minerva said and took a bite of her roast.

"I said that Dandridge is a rake. A handsome one, obviously."

"Hm," Minerva hummed and looked back over at him. "I don't doubt it. Most men like him are, yes? Like your dearest duke."

Penelope knew this firsthand since her husband was a retired rake-evidently an extremely perverted ex-rake.

"Just the way you look at him...I didn't want you getting hurt."

"Yes," Minerva muttered.

"You are acting odd. Is it that footman of Michael's...."

"Wha-? You just said I was ogling Lord What's-His-Name and now the footman..."

"Last time we were here..."

"Erm, yes, no love affairs, I'm afraid."

"Thomas?"

"Gawd! Thomas Whitby?!" Minerva exclaimed a little too loudly. "No, never, Thomas."

"Did you read the scandal sheet last week?"

Minerva sighed. After Penelope got married, the tabloids didn't have the same interest to her. Especially once Penelope became the central figure in a few editions. "No."

"The biggest thing was a Lord D getting caught at Mrs. Z's trying to..."

"Lord D?!" Minerva exclaimed in a whisper. "As in..."

"Perhaps. But he evidently is looking for a particular type of woman that Mrs. Z does not keep on staff."

"Truly? What could it be?!"

"Alex thinks it's a sex slave thingy," Penelope whispered.

"Sex slave? Wait, weren't you..."

"Shhhh," Penelope hushed her friend.

"Well, perhaps someone like you will auction..."

"I don't think he is looking for a short-term encounter."

"Oh! He wants to buy an actual woman from Mrs. Z! Perhaps win her in a wager - she is well known for her gaming hell," Minerva could barely contain her surprise. "And he had the nerve to say something about you!"

"Exactly what I was thinking. Anyway, another reason to steer clear of that one."

As if on cue, Minerva looked toward Elijah. His eyes were no longer on the debutant beside him but directly on her, pinning her in place.

Penelope leaned in and whispered. "Can you imagine mindlessly doing everything a man tells you to do?"

The question was rhetorical, but Minerva was trapped in the preditor's gaze and found herself responding. "I can."