Seduction on the Cards (12 page)

 Alex gazed down at his cards. He tossed three and took three, then laid his final five on the blue velour-covered squab and looked at her expectantly. 

Kerri heaved out a huge breath and kept him waiting a little longer.

“Yes?” he asked.

“No,” she groaned, seeing his trio of sevens. She pulled an earring off.

“
Cherie
, you’re a disappointment. You give me no thrills at all yet.” He smiled, and reached across to run a finger down the side of her face... down her neck...down her arm until he captured her hand. His long fingers enclosed hers. “Feel,” he said. “Feel what you do to me.” He drew her hand across to his chest and held it flat against his heart so she felt the rhythmic thudding, strong and insistent.

“You’re definitely alive,” she joked, overwhelmed by so much man, so much chest, so much tanned skin and curling dark hair. Helpless to resist his invitation, she knelt up beside him and laid her other hand on his broad shoulder. She slid her fingers down over his chest, stroking with appreciation. 

Alex grabbed a fast breath. Kerri felt his ribs rise, his muscles flex. He was so ferociously masculine she craved to lick and nip and taste him. Instead, she contented herself with his clean warm scent. It spiraled off him with every breath he took. There was no cologne today. But might there be brown sugar if she got closer?

Somehow she tore her hands away, rocked back to sit on her heels, gathered up the cards, shuffled and dealt them each another hand. “Very alive and very nice,” she added.

“I’ll hold,” he said after a brief inspection.

She threw him a quick glance. His cards were that good?

She swapped two. She still had nothing. It was time to be a big brave girl. She took a deep breath, stood as slowly as she could, and felt her cheeks getting hotter by the second under Alex’s interested scrutiny. Finally, she couldn’t put it off any longer, so she stepped far enough away to wriggle her white shorts down to her ankles, and off.

“Come back here. Why do you think I’ve beaten you?”

“Because you kept all your cards, of course.”

“And?” he asked, his eyes wide and wicked. 

“You’re only
bluffing?
”

He motioned her closer and slipped an arm around her waist to pull her in the last little distance. The warm smoothness of his arm against her skin felt electric. She peered down at the five unrelated cards he held.

“Cheat! Take something off as well!”

“What would you like me to take off?”

Your jeans, of course.  

“Your... shoes,” she suggested. 

Looking as though he was trying not to grin, he obediently toed off a shoe, kicked it aside, and spread his legs so he could pull her in between his long denim-clad thighs. He slouched forward on the seat so her knees pressed against his groin. Her tiny lace and satin panties were now clearly visible below her red top. Would he think she was pretty? Did he really want her?

Alex slid his hands over the soft cheeks of her bottom to the narrow elastic sides of her thong. Spots of hectic color flamed high on his cheekbones and his eyes were riveted to her groin.

“How I’d like to rip this right off,” he murmured, tweaking the elastic and letting it snap softly back against her skin. “But I need to show you I am not the animal I must have appeared in the office.”

Sudden courage flooded over her, and Kerri flexed her knee against the seam of his well-packed jeans. She had the answers to her questions in his husky growl.

“I quite liked that animal,” she admitted, nudging him again when he didn’t object.   

Alex smiled at her admission, and smoothed her red top up so he could lean forward and run a string of soft kisses from her navel to the lower edge of her bra. He let it drop into place again.  

“My turn to deal?” he asked.

“Are you
serious
?” she yelped. She burned for him, and he intended continuing the game?

His sizzling grin confirmed that indeed he did.

Alex lost his watch in the next round, then Kerri forfeited her other earring.  

The slop and slap of the sea receded to nothing. A huge airliner roared over unheard. Seabirds had no voices, and a jet-ski tore by a hundred yards away with its screaming engine the merest whisper.  

There was only him—peeling off his jeans when she fluked a nice run of spades; smiling ruefully at the up-thrust tent in his boxers; helping her slide off her top when his aces beat her nines; cupping her lace-covered breasts in his hands and placing a reverent kiss between them before unclipping the centre catch of her bra and pushing it slowly aside.  

“So—final hand, Kerri. I lose my boxers or you lose your panties.”

Thicker air now filled the small distance between them. Movements were slow and unhurried. She had never been so turned on in her life.

He reached across to brush his thumbs in a lazy circle around each tight nipple.

Touch them, touch them. Please Alex, touch them.

He drew back, eating her up with his hungry brown eyes. “Were you thinking—this—when you accepted my invitation?”

She shook her head. “No idea,” she said shakily. “You grabbed me fast enough on Friday and then didn’t contact me that night, so no—not really.”

His eyes swept down to her panties…up to her burning face. “Yet you challenged me to cards?”

“A silly bet. I make a few of those.”

He sighed and shook his head. “I was very determined this wouldn’t happen,” he murmured. “I have to go back to France. I’m not looking for a lover, and all the complications she would bring.”

Kerri’s heart bounced and fell back into place with a thud of disappointment. She’d known that, but still…

“Why would there be complications?” She hoped she sounded casual and unconcerned. “We both know where we stand.”

He closed his eyes for a few seconds, and Kerri wished she knew what he was really thinking. 

“I had no great example of domestic harmony the way I grew up,” he said, opening his eyes and seeking hers. “My mother’s men-friends came and went. There were disagreements...heated arguments and passionate reconciliations. None of them brought her happiness. None of them lasted very long. It didn’t give me faith.”

“You’re not her. You’re a different person,” Kerri objected. “You seem to have your life totally sorted.”

“My business life, yes. My personal life?” He shrugged. “The one has taken over the other.”

“You’re alone, like me. But not lonely?”

He shook his head. “Surrounded by people.”

Yes, but are any of them special? Does anyone in France thrill you the way you thrill me?

“So no complications,” she replied, although it almost killed her to say the words. “That’s the deal with us?”

“Only today. It’s all I can offer. But if you ask me to stop now...if you expect me to take the boat back to the marina and say goodbye...I doubt I could do that with good grace.”

“I won’t be asking.”

He drew a long slow breath and nodded. Kerri watched his belly tighten, his chest rise, his eyes close with pleasure.  A tiny smile tugged at his lips.

“My turn to deal?” he asked.

“I bet I win.”

Alex shook his head in mock despair. “What am I to do with you, Kerri?” 

“Just deal,” she implored. “We’re going for naked. I can’t wait much longer for you.”

He arranged his five neat rectangles in a deliberate fan, and glanced up from the cards to Kerri’s creamy breasts, only an arm’s length away. His cock gave a huge lurching flex.

She picked up her cards and fanned them out in turn. He knew the game had no further significance. It was now something to prolong their slow seduction and ramp the tension up even higher.

 
Merde!
This might have started as a joke, but he was in deeply now. More deeply than he expected or cared to be. It wasn’t just the thrill of the chase—the fun of the card-game—it was Kerri herself. So vulnerable, so strangely unloved. So careless about her personal safety, her finances, her future. When he left tomorrow, as he had to, he would worry about her a great deal more than she would apparently worry about herself. He didn’t need that.

He glanced down at his final hand. Ace of hearts, queen of hearts, four of hearts, seven of hearts, nine of spades. What a crock. He threw out the spade and took another. King of hearts. Yeah, right...just so appropriate for a man who was about to make love and then run. His mouth twisted at the thought.

 Kerri put two cards aside. He dealt her two more. Her eyebrows shot up, and she sent him a cheeky grin.

“I’ve got you, Alex.” Her face lit with pleasure—the same brilliant illumination his mother’s used to take on when the cards had fallen well for her, or a chosen horse had won. The past and the present collided horribly.  

“I bet you can’t beat this,” she crowed, laying down her hand—all diamonds.

He tossed his on top—all hearts.

She stared at him in disbelief, eyes wide, mouth open.

Alex reached across and ran a finger along her soft bottom lip. “Winner chooses, Kerri. I choose. I choose this.”

He cupped her astounded face in his hands, then stroked her cheeks, her neck, the curl of her ear. He sifted her dark red-streaked hair through his fingers and let it fall in a tumbled cloud. He’d needed to touch her from the moment they’d met, despite her frustrating irresponsibility. She was as blithe as a butterfly, flitting from flower to flower, crisis to crisis.

“Such a pretty face,” he said. “Such a beautiful girl. Come here to me.”

He pulled her to straddle him, her knees cushioned outside his thighs, snugly cradling him. Two thin layers of fabric slipped and slid between them.

“Such temptation,” he whispered as his hands cupped her breasts, caressing the silky skin that had invaded his mind all week.  

He took her lower lip between his own in a soft kiss that was slow and rich, loaded with the sensual slide of damp flesh over damp flesh. He pulled away, repeated the possessive caress with her upper lip, and then plummeted into mindless bliss as she responded.  

Her tongue danced with his; her fingers stroked and kneaded his shoulders; his weighed and pleasured her breasts; and all the time she moved her hips against him in slow chafing provocation. 

And we’ve still a layer to go.       

He came up for air and held her away from him. She let loose a most gratifying moan of frustration.

“Wait, Kerri, wait. Let’s get naked. Get condoms. And get these squabs onto the floor—the back ones as well. I wouldn’t feel quite right using Felice and Gaston’s bed, but we can make a nice big nest here.” 

He kissed her again, hard and possessively this time, imagining sinking into her wet heat, over and over until she sobbed with pleasure. Until the blood pounded in his ears. Until there was only white-hot sensation between them.

CHAPTER TEN

I want him. I want him like I’ve never wanted any man before. I want to be back in his arms.

The hunger grew. It clawed at her gut and flooded her womb with flames. Frantic with need, she reached out as he rose from the seating. Her fingers snagged his boxers and tugged. They slid down to mid-thigh.

 Her eyes flicked all over him. Down the stripe of hair that bisected his lean torso until it thickened into a dense thatch low on his belly. At his dark jutting shaft which reared up hot and impatient. At his big heavy testicles, swinging in their soft pouch.

God—he looked so potent, so powerful!

He pulled her up, and she quaked as he dropped to his haunches beside her and hooked his thumbs into her G-string.  

He drew it down slowly, following with soft kisses along her thigh.  

Why didn’t I do something nice like that for him?

“Lift your foot,
cherie
.”

She obeyed.

“And the other one.”

She quailed as he sat back on his heels and surveyed her. It was so light in the boat the sun lit up every detail. She was sure he’d think she was too short, or her belly-button was an ugly shape, or her breasts were too heavy. How could she measure up to Parisian showgirls? 

“Perfection,” he murmured, eyes everywhere. “Total perfection.”

Relief washed over her, banishing her misgivings. 

He likes my body
. 

She revolved in a slow circle, taunting him with her nudity, reveling in his admiration.

“Well, that’s the ‘naked’ bit done,” she said, courage returning. “If you get the condoms, I’ll do the cushions.” 

Suddenly all of her senses came alert again. The strange trancelike anticipation was over, and everything shone sharp, and strong and clear. 

Sylvie rocked at anchor, and ripples slapped against the hull in the breeze. Seabirds wheeled through the sky as they followed a school of fish far below. They screamed their excitement, and Kerri’s spirits soared every bit as high and elated as the gulls.

While Alex sheathed himself, she pulled all the big squabs down and made an impromptu bed on the floor. But she couldn’t resist looking as he stood—tall, dark and gorgeous—making himself safe for her.

As she’d imagined, he had dynamite legs. She watched as he balanced against the slight chop of the ocean, his muscles and sinews flexing under skin that was sprinkled with dark hair and lit by bars of sunlight. 

His butt was far too cute for a full-grown man. Those two tight creamy cheeks needed a good smacking. Or a nice stroking. Or a little nip. 

He glanced over and caught her looking.

“Do I measure up?”

“More than,” she said. “Come here.”

He took the few steps toward her. 

Just for today she’d be the total centre of this man’s attention. This handsome and successful man. A man who excited her more than any other she’d ever met or imagined. 

And sadly, a man who was leaving the next day and not planning to return. She clamped her teeth down on her bottom lip to squeeze that thought away.

Bet it won’t take more than a few weeks to get him out of my mind.