Page 50 of His Last Gamble

‘So, about last night?’ Payne prompted. ‘I hope you’re not trying to back out of it, because I won’t let you,’ he warned, leaning against his desk and watching her like a hawk. ‘You had a fifty-fifty chance of escape, just as I had a fifty-fifty chance of losing my shirt.’

Charmaine shook her head. ‘Oh, Payne, you’re hopeless,’ she sighed helplessly. Why didn’t he just kiss her? Tell her he loved her. That’s all she wanted.

‘There’s no way in the world you can make me honour that bet,’ she said instead.

‘Don’t be so sure,’ he said softly, dangerously. ‘You made the wager of your own free will, and in front of witnesses. If I had to, I could drag you into court.’

Charmaine snorted. Perhaps once such a threat would have had her going all a-tremble, but the new, improved Charmaine Reece wasn’t about to let it go unchallenged.

‘Rot. No judge would ever try and impel a woman to marry against her will and you know it,’ she said scornfully.

Slowly, Payne left the desk and came towards her. He moved like a golden mountain lion, all easy grace and effortless power. She backed up a step instinctively, although her suddenly racing heart had little to do with fear and much more to do with desire.

‘Maybe not. But I could always sue you for breach of promise,’ he husked. But she could tell he was teasing.

Wasn’t he? The thing was, she was never sure when he was bluffing and when he wasn’t!

Charmaine gasped. ‘You wouldn’t?’

‘No, I wouldn’t,’ he said, but there was little comfort to be had from that, for he was already reaching out for her. And with a swift movement that had her squealing in surprise, he lifted her into the air and spun her around, taking a few steps and sitting her firmly on the big desk.

He pressed forward, nudging her legs apart and standing so close she could feel his body heat, his fingers curling sensuously around her upper arms.

‘Besides, I can think of far more pleasurable ways of persuading you to honour our bet,’ he murmured and swooped.

Papers scattered as he lay her across the desk, his fingers going instantly to the tantalising zip and pulling it down.

‘I’ve been itching to do that from the moment you walked through the door,’ he confessed huskily.

She wore no bra underneath, and she gasped as the warmth of his breath feathered over her naked skin, before gentle, knowing fingers eased the grey material from her shoulders, leaving her gloriously naked to his feasting eyes.

He groaned as he watched her rose-coloured nipples burgeon and tighten as he tweaked them with his fingers.

‘You’re so beautiful,’ he said, lowering his head to slip one throbbing bud deep into his mouth. Her back arched compulsively off the desk, but his superior weight and strength kept her firmly anchored to the wood.

Charmaine gasped. She’d never expected it to feel this good.

‘Payne,’ she breathed, but with a small moan he moved his lips to her other breast and she shuddered all over again. When she felt him pulling the jumpsuit down, she lifted her hips briefly off the desk in order to let him strip it from her completely, co-operating willingly in her own seduction.

She felt as if she had been waiting for this all her life. Probably because shehadbeen waiting for this all her life!

He let the grey material fall to the ground and began to trail hot kisses over her stomach, dipping enticingly into her navel and making her legs thrash in instant response. Then his mouth moved across her brief white panties, his breath hot against the very core of her femininity, and she felt herself began to burn, a hot flush that slowly turned her insides to quivering liquid. His hands were firm on her calves as he pulled her legs ruthlessly apart and she cried out as he began to nibble against her, his tongue, through the lace of her panties, finding the most sensitive part of her and laving ferociously.

Without becoming aware of it she began to undulate on the desk in time with his mouth, and a low groan of sheer wanton desire escaped her lips

A tightening, deepening, ever-hardening core of tension built inside her, demanding release and when it finally came she arched her neck and moaned out his name. Shaking, she watched him move back up her body, his hands pulling the lace panties down as he did so, leaving her totally naked. She’d never been more aware of the vast difference in their sexual experience, but she trusted him totally.

He shrugged off his shirt, and immediately her hands went to his shoulders, exploring the warmth of his skin, the softness of velvet over iron, her hands lovingly tracing the contours of his muscles. She saw his face tighten at the touch and realised, with something like awe, that she could do to him what he had just done to her.

This sense of power was giddy, heady stuff, and her hands slipped lower, to his belt buckle and beyond, wanting to watch the look in his eyes turn from a smouldering grey ember into a leaping flame.

He groaned out her name as she pressed her palm against the hard straining heat she found there, and her fingers caressed him unrelentingly.

Impatiently, he undid his belt and yanked off his jeans, and suddenly he was nudging her knees wider aside, rising his body up and over hers, his face level with hers now, their breaths meeting and mingling as they panted their mutual desire.

‘Payne!’ She wanted to warn him that she was new at this, and probably wouldn’t be very good, but he shushed her, pushing the hair from her damp forehead, his eyes as gentle as the softest mist.

‘I’ll be gentle,’ he promised her.

---