Page 24 of Gamble On Passion

Her slender arms wrapped around his broad shoulders. She exulted in his passion and returned it whole­heartedly. This is what the last few weeks had been leading up to; what she had been aching for for the last few hours, and even if she had wanted to she could not have stopped Leo. Her mind might query the wisdom of her response, but her physical being was incapable of denying him anything.

She wasn't aware when or how they reached her bedroom. He lowered her slowly down the long length of him, making her achingly aware of every muscle and sinew in his tall frame, then deliberately stepped back, setting her free. Dazedly she recognised by the landing light slanting through the door her familiar room and narrow bed. Her eyes sought his in the semi-darkness, and she was captivated by the glittering intensity in his black gaze. She lowered her eyes against the fire in his, and watched as he slipped off his jacket and, flinging it and his tie to the floor, unfastened his shirt and dropped it to join the rest on the floor.

'What are you waiting for, Jacy?' he demanded harshly, his voice throbbing with some emotion. 'Or do you want me to do the honours?'

Her heart was pounding like a sledge-hammer, her palms damp, her whole body flushed with heat. She could not tear her eyes away from the thick mat of black hair across his broad chest. Surely he had not looked so good years ago? His presence now surpassed any memory she had ever had of him. She shrugged off her jacket and skirt and then stopped, suddenly shy. Nothing that had happened before could compare with the sheer in­tensity of her want, her desire for him. She swallowed convulsively, her eyes flicking to his finely chiselled mouth, and then she was in his arms again.

Her lips parted willingly at the intimate insistence of his tongue, and she gave herself up to the incredible sen­sation his kiss aroused. She never noticed as he pulled the tie at her throat and her blouse fell to the floor; she was lost in examining with tactile delight the breadth and strength of Leo's torso. Then Leo's dark head lowered, trailing down her throat until his mouth covered one aching nipple through the soft silk of her last garment, a brief white silk teddy.

A low groan escaped her; her head fell back over his arm as her body arched wantonly, offering him her breasts. The teddy fell away and she was naked, but she felt no shame. Her small hands slid and clung to his shoulders, then with a will of their own stroked down to claw at the fastening of his trousers.

Leo moaned deep in his throat as her fingers inad­vertently scraped over his hard muscled belly. In seconds he was naked and with strong arms he gripped her upper arms, holding her away from him. 'First I want to look at you,' he growled, his dark eyes narrowed to mere slits in the hard contours of his handsome face as he studied her: the high, full breasts, the deep rose nipples, swollen and taut, her narrow waist and the soft feminine flare of her hips. His eyes lingered on the golden crown of curls at the apex of her thighs; his throat worked jerkily. 'God, but you're even more exquisite than I remem­bered. How the hell do you do it? So innocent on the outside and so...'

Leo stopped on a rasping groan, as Jacy, no longer in control of her own desire, reached out as if in a dream and wound a short, silky chest curl around her index finger and tugged gently.

For Jacy the room turned and she was on the bed, Leo's hard body pinning her to the mattress. Naked, flesh against flesh, she whimpered little erotic sounds of want and almost pain, as Leo, in a frenzy of tumultuous action, fed on her lips, her throat, the curve of her breast. His mouth suckled feverishly on her nipples, first one and then the other, as his strong hands traced the outline of her slender body, his fingers stroking, nipping, teasing, searching out every pulse and pleasure point, and finally, splaying her legs apart, he sank his hard weight between her thighs, his hands biting into her buttocks, lifting her off the bed, as in one savage, demonic thrust he joined his body with hers.

Jacy gasped aloud at the raw, driving urgency of their coupling, and felt a second's pain, a tightness that made her cry out again. Leo, conscious of her action, stopped, and held her for a moment suspended in time, allowing her body to adjust to accept his vital, utterly male pos­session. Her arms wrapped round his broad back; her fingernails raked down the satin flesh, drawing blood as his mouth covered hers and the fire of his passion seared her innermost being. Her long legs wrapped tightly around his waist and it was the final action that shat­tered Leo's rigid self-control, as with a tormented cry he tore his mouth from hers, and, burying his head in her throat, he thrust hard and fast, building to a shat­tering crescendo he was incapable of controlling.

For Jacy the world spun away, her body one pulsating mass of indescribable ecstasy. She heard Leo's hoarse, triumphant cry as his life force exploded into her in a shuddering convulsion that went on and on in a tidal wave of pleasure.

How long they lay locked together, the aftermath of their tempestuous coupling still sending rippling shock-waves through their sweat-slicked bodies, Jacy had no idea. Slowly the real world began to infringe on her consciousness, and the dawning realisation that there was no going back from here. She was once again in Leo's arms, his lover...

This time would be different, she told herself with a soft sigh of satisfaction, and,

glorying in his weight above her, she tenderly pressed her open palms to his pounding chest, thrilled at the chaotic beating of his powerful heart. Proof, if proof were needed, that he was as shaken as she by the white heat of their passion.

Leo reared up and looked down at her hot, flushed face. He lifted a hand and stroked the tumbled mass of her hair from her brow. 'I'm sorry if I hurt you, but it's been a long time.'

'For me too,' Jacy admitted, while ruefully recog­nising that it had probably been a heck of a lot longer for her than Leo, but she was not about to tell him that and upset their new-found relationship. 'And you didn't hurt me,' she added breathlessly, raising a finger to lightly tap his nose. 'But you did get a bit carried away.' She grinned. I seem to remember you used to be a very gentle lover.' And he had been. But she realised tonight it had been the fierce, unbridled passion of two equally frus­trated adults.

'Gentle? I lost that long ago,' he said cynically, but in an oddly possessive gesture he swept her hair to one side and across the pillow. 'I used to dream of your golden hair splayed across my pillow,' he mused, almost as though he was talking to himself. 'How many blondes? How many nights? The face became...' He stopped ab­ruptly, and in a flurry of Greek he swung off the bed and to his feet.

Jacy stretched languorously on the bed, and rolled over on her side to watch him make for the bathroom, she presumed, but she was wrong. 'What are you doing?' she asked, sitting up on the bed and pulling the cover up over her breasts. It was a stupid question, she knew.

Leo had quickly found his clothes and was pulling them on. 'Leo.' He turned to look at her and a shiver of fear had her clutching the cover between her breasts with both hands.

Wearing only his pants and standing in the middle of the room, he looked every inch the powerful, magnetic tycoon, no trace of his previous lack of control, or any trace of emotion in his hard gaze. A sardonic glint of amusement lit his dark eyes as he answered, 'I'm dressing, Jacy, darling. Surely you've seen a man dress before now.'

'Yes... No...' she stuttered, his endearment grating oddly on a raw nerve. She suddenly realised she had no idea of how to act in the aftermath of their lovemaking. What had she expected? That he would hold her in his arms and declare his eternal love? Well, maybe not that, but at least she had thought he would show he cared. But this stony-faced man standing in her bedroom bore no relationship to the man she had only minutes earlier shared her bed and body with.

'What's wrong, Leo?' she asked quite steadily, fighting back her uncertainty.

'Nothing's wrong, Jacy; if anything you are even better than I remembered,' he drawled silkily, fastening his shirt.

His words should have reassured her; instead they sounded suspiciously like an insult. She eyed him warily, her gaze puzzled and slightly fearful. 'Thank you, I think,' she murmured.

'The pleasure was all mine, Jacy. But you were right about the bed—it is too small. Before you entertain any other man I suggest you invest in a bigger one,' he derided mockingly, and slipped on his jacket.

Before she entertained ... She could not believe her ears, and with a sinking heart she studied his shuttered face. I never bring men home.'

'In that case I am suitably grateful.'

Jacy recognised the sarcasm, but could find no reason for it. 'Grateful?' she parrotted.

'Yes.' And, slipping his hand in the inside pocket of his jacket, he withdrew a long jeweller's box. I did intend to give you this earlier, but in the heat of the moment I forgot.' Walking towards her, he dropped the box in front of her on the bed.

There was something dreadfully wrong; every nerve in her body screamed the warning, but she could not bring herself to believe it. She picked up the box, and glanced questioningly up at Leo, unaware of the pleading light in her golden eyes.

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