Page 8 of His Last Gamble

‘Most men fall for Jinx like a ton of bricks,’ she felt obliged to point out.

‘And isn’t she just used to it,’ he drawled. ‘No. I’m much more interested in you.’

Charmaine stumbled against him.

‘You are?’ she whispered. Her heart seemed to lift, then plunge, like a bird about to take wing, then realising, just before it was too late, that it couldn’t actually fly.

‘Mmm-hmm,’ he confirmed lazily. ‘Just what makes you tick, Charmaine? One moment you’re the hard-bitten woman with her eye on the main chance. The next, you’re all a-tremble.’

Charmaine pulled her head back to look at him. ‘What do you mean? What main chance?’

‘Oh come on,’ Payne said. ‘Don’t tell me you’re not sleeping with the boss?’

Charmaine gasped. She stepped back, her eyes firing up like an acetylene torch. Payne felt a huge surge of desire hit him. Yes. Now. Now she would erupt.

‘You certainly live up to your name, don’t you?’ Charmaine hissed. ‘Payne by name, and pain by nature.’

‘Whereas you don’t,’ he shot back. ‘You may be Charmaine by name, but charming by nature — I don’t think so.’

He laughed then winced as she kicked him on the shin.

His jaw tightened, but his dancing step never faltered. In fact, Charmaine realised, they were still dancing, and had never stopped.

‘For your information,’ she hissed, ‘Jo-Jo is gay. He’s been living with his partner, Peter, a top investment banker, for nearly ten years now.’

Payne smiled. ‘Is that a fact,’ he said smugly.

And Charmaine realised how neatly he’d tricked her into divulging information. Information she could have used to her advantage, if only she’d kept her big mouth shut. She could have used Jo-Jo to make him jealous. Or even to act as a much-needed shield and buffer.

Too late now.

Her eyes narrowed. She drew her foot back in preparation.

‘Ah, ah, ah,’ he said warningly, turning sharply, pivoting her around and bending her supple back over his arm, laughingly neutralising her. ‘No more kicking.’

Charmaine clung on to his shoulders, despair burning deep inside her.

It was all going wrong again!

First the disastrous start, now this. If she was going to go through with her plan, she had to pull her socks up! How was she ever going to win him over when she kicked his shins like a frustrated schoolgirl?

But she knew only too well what had come over her. Temper. And fear. For the first time in her sheltered, ordered, calm life, she was out of control.

And she didn’t like it.

Didn’t she? A small voice whispered like a genie from the depths of a bottle. Wasn’t it heady? Wasn’t it wonderful? To have a man like this one interested in her? Wasn’t it just blissful? The voice seemed to come at her from all directions at once — her mind, her heart, the place where her dreams lived.

As he pulled her closer to him, as she felt his hand slip down to rest suggestively against her buttocks and she felt her insides become fluid with molten heat, she began to wonder.

Her head rested almost wearily against his shoulder. It was no good fighting it. It felt gloriously right to be here. To be held like this, by this man, dancing as closely in his arms as the laws of physics would allow, giddy with excitement and recklessness.

‘That’s more like it,’ Payne said softly. And smiled tenderly over her head. What a contradiction she was. She seemed so unsure of herself, and yet she was easily the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

And she was free and unencumbered. And she’d be on the island for the next week or so, which was the perfect length of time for a blissful, guilt-free affair.

The song came to a poignant end, and in a daze, Charmaine pulled away.

Was she mad? This was the man who’d broken her sister’s heart. A man so callous he could, and did, regard women as nothing more than disposable items for his pleasure. And she’d nearly fallen into the same trap herself. But she was all right now. She was ready for him. The plan was back on track.

She looked up into eyes that were now as soft and as grey as a wood pigeon’s wing.

‘Dance with me again?’ he said softly, confident of her answer.

Charmaine smiled coolly. ‘No. I don’t think so,’ she said calmly, then turned and walked away from him.

He watched her in silence for a few seconds, standing utterly still, then forced a wolfish grin to his face, ignoring the tiny kernel of hurt that had for some reason wormed its way to his heart.

So she wanted to play rough.

Well, if that’s the way she wanted it, he was always willing to oblige a lady.

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