Page 14 of His Last Gamble

‘All right. Look, don’t go on so. I’m sorting it out.’

‘I should hope so. Your wife deserves that, at least,’ Payne all but snapped.

‘Let’s leave Maria out of this, shall we? You know things between us are a bit . . . fraught at the moment.’

Charmaine frowned. What was this? Was she actually hearing Payne Lacey, Payne Lacey of all men, defending a woman? And a wronged wife, no less, by the sound of things. Surely that couldn’t be? The perpetual playboy, the love-them-and-leave-them Lothario of the Bahamas?

Charmaine shook her head. It made no sense. And yet, he’d sounded genuinely angry and genuinely concerned for the unknown ‘Maria’.

Yet again she felt uneasy, as the man she knew she must hate once more showed her the unexpectedly honourable and considerate side of his nature.

‘And whose fault is that?’ Payne said sharply. ‘If your marriage is on the rocks, you have no one to blame but yourself.’

Ah, now that was more the kind of thing she’d expect from him, Charmaine thought, with a sour smile. The man was pitiless.

‘OK, OK. Anyway, I’m flying to England tomorrow. This situation has gone on long enough,’ his friend replied tersely.

They must have walked slowly away after that, for Charmaine could barely make out Payne’s response. Then the sound of their voices faded completely.

For a few moments, she continued to sit in the shade, miserably aware that her heart was beating like a drum, her palms were sweating, and she was gulping in air like a beached fish. And all because of his voice. Just because she knew he’d been there, just a few inches away.

Good grief, she had to get herself under control. He was the one who was supposed to be feeling all uneasy and giddy with desire. Not her! She was supposed to remain cool and calm and calculating.

She had to stop this melting feeling of desire every time he came near her. It would be disastrous if she fell into the same trap as Lucy.

Worse than disastrous, because she’d have absolutely no excuse — she’d be doing it with her eyes wide open!

* * *

That night, Charmaine dressed with extra care. They were all once more going to the Palace, but this time Phil and his helpers were eager to get some preliminary shots of the venue, so he could get an artistic take on the background. Usually casinos didn’t allow photographs to be taken inside the building, since the security men were always alert to potential robbers trying to ‘case’ the building, and management was always on the lookout for potential gamblers trying to work out how to beat the system, but Jo-Jo had reassured Payne that he could have all the negatives taken that night, so there was no risk.

But Charmaine wasn’t so much interested in work, but in how to repair the damage done that morning. And she knew she would have to look particularly stunning to win back Payne’s favour.

She chose a tube of electric-blue silk shot through with silver as the opening salvo in the battle. One of her more daring creations, it was literally a tube of material, hanging from silver straps and falling to mid-calf. All the shape came from the body underneath. When designing it, Charmaine had stipulated it must be made from raw silk, which would cling in all the places it touched, giving it form. The swirling threads of silver made it sparkle in the light. With her pale blue eyes and her silvery hair hanging down past her shoulders, it was perfect.

With it she wore strappy silver sandals and gorgeous, pagan-looking beaten silver and aquamarine jewellery.

If this didn’t make him want to give her a second chance, she didn’t know what would.

* * *

Payne was watching a Japanese businessman lose his last hundred thousand dollars when they walked through the door.

The photographer immediately began snapping film, and he was amused to note that, even though they weren’t for publication, Jinx managed to get in some of the shots. The redhead was wearing deep royal purple, a mere scrap of satin that barely covered her. Once he was sure that Charmaine had noticed him watching Jinx woo and charm (and yes, even manage to distract) some of the dedicated gamblers, he turned at last and let his eyes run boldly over her from top to bottom.

He hoped, from where she stood across the room of baccarat players, that she couldn’t see the way his breath caught in his lungs, or the sweat that popped out on his forehead.

Not that any red-blooded male would have reacted differently. She looked simply magnificent. Under the light of the chandeliers, the silver in her dress caught and flashed at him, as if signalling him in some code known only to lovers. It was certainly pulling him across the room as if she were a magnet, and he a mere iron filing. The rest of his body was feeling iron hard too, and he cursed this instant effect she had on him.

He was going to have to be very careful around this woman. She was the human equivalent of dynamite!

‘Hello, Payne,’ Jo-Jo said as he bore down on them, admiring the cut of the other man’s dinner jacket. He wished he looked as good in tropical white. ‘Thanks for this,’ he said, indicating the happily snapping photographer. ‘I promise you he won’t disturb the gamblers.’

‘No trouble,’ Payne said briefly, then snapped his fingers at a hovering waiter. ‘And speaking of gambling,’ he said, smiling, ‘I thought the ladies might like a flutter.’

And with that the waiter lowered the tray, revealing not fluted glasses of champagne, but piles of chips — red, black, green and white.

Jinx, of course, was immediately there. ‘Payne, for us!’ she breathed, widening her eyes and rubbing her arm against his. ‘How deliciously wicked.’

---