Page 30 of One Night Gamble
She was pretty damned sure he wasn’t paying any attention to the game, either. His voice was raw, and suddenly, she knew she didn’t want to play games.
She put the cue on the table and straightened, glancing at the door and seeing it was closed. Just to be sure, she walked over and locked it. Then she turned back to him.
He was leaning back against the pool table, his arms crossed over his chest. His posture suggested he was at ease, but the ridge of his cock pressing against the front of his pants told her he wasn’t. Lucky her.
…
“I’m upping the stakes,” she said, and his heart dropped.
“You are?” he asked, his voice raspy, even to his own ears. He didn’t care. He knew he wasn’t the only one who had something other than pool on his mind.
She nodded. “Or maybe I’m finishing what you started.”
He shifted his legs to make room for his erection but otherwise stayed exactly where he was as she stalked back toward him. The dress she wore tonight was a slim fitting sexy red sheath and all night long he’d had the hardest time keeping his hands off her. Even Darien, who was knee deep in an obsession with a woman from his past, had mentioned that red was definitely Talia’s color.
But Casey knew it wasn’t the dress or the fabric that made his heart beat faster. It was the woman in it. He was a goner where she was concerned. He’d been waiting and wanting her since the moment he’d woken up alone in his bed. He craved her back at his side. Naked and writhing underneath him or riding him or anyway he could have her.
“What did I start?” he asked. He liked this playful side of Talia and he wanted this moment to last.
Right now, he didn’t want to be anywhere else or with anyone else. There was a freedom to admitting he wanted her, he realized. There was no need for him to keep on hiding.
“Oh, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Who teaches another person to play a game by wrapping their body around them?” she asked.
“Were you turned on by that?” he asked.
“You were,” she said, raising both eyebrows at him. “It was kind of hard to ignore.”
“Good.”
She stopped walking and stood a few feet away from him. She had those killer stiletto heels that made her seem like she was all legs. He was barely holding on to his mind and he knew that playing any sort of game with her wasn’t going to end well for him.
He wasn’t on his A-game—hell, if he was honest, he wasn’t playing. He couldn’t hide his reaction to her and the worst part was, given his track record, he didn’t want to hide it. He didn’t mind that she knew how much he wanted her.
Because he wanted her to want him the same way.
He had no idea how to make her fall for him, but he couldn’t hide what he felt. For the first time in his life he couldn’t bluff his way through this.
That should have made him run, so he tucked it away to analyze later, knowing full well he wasn’t going anywhere while Talia was looking at him like he was the main feast and she was starving.
“I thought so, too, but I want to make sure you weren’t… Did you mean what you said earlier?” she asked.
The vulnerability in her voice made his heart ache. She had made him feel stronger and he wanted to do the same thing for her.
“I did. I’m not playing you, Talia. And tonight has shown me that the investment our company made in hiring you was a good one. But what happens between us, that’s for you and me. It has nothing to do with your role there.”
She nodded.
“Sorry I had to ask. I’m just…you make me feel wild and alive in a way I never have before and honestly, it would be easier if you were just playing me. Then I could turn and walk away and never have to admit that you…well, how much you mean to me.”
He opened his arms, beckoning her to him with his hand and she hesitated for only a second before she walked to him. He met her halfway, wrapping his arms around her and holding her as close as he could.
“The truth is you do the same to me. I’ve never trusted anyone to not be out for themselves. I always keep my guard up,” he said.
“Why?” she asked.
“Life has taught me that when I let it down, things don’t go well,” he said. “What about you?”
“I trust too easily,” she admitted. “I have been known to fall for a good line.”
