“Think she’s for you, do you? She’d not give you the time of day. How do you even know her?” Holding up a hand, he snapped his fingers. “Your club. No, that can’t be. She’s in mourning, observing it quite strictly. Unless she went before Lushing died.”

“Don’t worry yourself over it. Just stay away from her or you’ll find yourself with more broken bones.”

“You’ve got nothing to offer her. Not respectability, not a place in Society. She’s the daughter of an earl, has been the wife of a duke, for God’s sake. Do you really believe she would allow herself to be seen with you?”

No, she’d fuck him but not walk beside him. And that grated, not that he’d give Elverton the satisfaction of seeing how his words had hit the mark. Aiden marched over to the desk, flattened his hands on it, and leaned toward the arrogant sod. “Stay. Away. From. Her.”

His sire tapped a finger against his glass. “For seventy-five percent of your profits.”

He’d given him sixty percent to save Finn, but he’d been younger then, all of twenty-three, not as confident, not as sure of himself. Then Finn had visited the earl a few months back and put an end to the arrangement. “Heed my warning or see yourself ruined.”

Turning on his heel, he strode with purpose for the door.

“You are nothing!” his sire yelled after him.

He fought not to let the words take root, but it was a challenge. He’d believed he had something special with Selena. He thought she’d cared for him. But she wanted to use him, just as the earl had used whoever Aiden’s mother had been. When it came to the heart, no one had power.

The Earl of Camberley liked playing cards at the Cerberus Club. Nothing about it was fancy. The dark smoke-filled rooms were a reflection of London’s underworld, and within these walls, commoners mixed with the lesser lords, second sons, third, and fourth. Those with pockets that held little save lint. Those no longer welcomed at White’s or allowed through the doors of other proper gentlemen’s clubs.

The language was rough, the laughter loud, the liquor cheap. Gin mostly. But he was not in a position to complain. He was able to get credit extended to him here, while he wasn’t at other places. And in a few more hands, he was going to have to ask for more credit. His luck was atrocious this evening.