AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Missy had said she’d forgiven him, when he’d returned to Savannah and confessed the sin he’d committed with Gina. But the knowledge had been there festering between them, the wounded expression she wore every time they had a disagreement reminding him without words that he was the one in the wrong—he was the one who couldn’t be trusted. And the fact that he’d never been able to forget Gina—and how much he’d enjoyed sinning with her—only increased his guilt.
During the increasingly bitter, barren years of his marriage, he’d got a little fixated on the exquisite pleasure of that one night. The surge of excitement, of exhilaration when Gina kissed him and caressed him with such fervour in places Missy had barely been willing to touch—and made love to him with a fierce, untamed determination that told him she wanted him, that she accepted him despite his faults.
Missy’s deflating words, the wounded look she’d wielded so effectively, faded as two searingly erotic visions of Gina took their place and merged into one. Not quite two weeks ago riding him to climax—and a decade before that as she impaled herself on his thrusting erection for the first time: her unguarded expression full of the same wild hunger he’d glimpsed from behind the pool house curtain that morning.
His heart kicked so hard he could hear it above the ticks of his mother’s antique carriage clock on the mantel. The heavy weight of his erection strained for release against the confinement of his suit pants.
Maybe it was time he stopped kidding himself that his desire to have Gina again had nothing whatsoever to do with that night a decade ago. Was that why he’d screwed up this seduction so royally? Because a part of him was still desperate to prove his desires weren’t unnatural and they never had been? Because he needed to recapture that addictive feeling of euphoria, that heady feeling of connection they’d shared under a maple tree in the campus grounds and on her narrow bed in Reese’s house—and just under two week ago in the cool lines of a New York hotel room.
Gina Carrington still had some weird hold over him. Or rather, she had some weird hold over his body. Probably because she’d been his first. A hold he intended to break over the next ten days. So he could sever for ever his ties to that green, needy boy.
But to do that he had to get Gina to play ball.
So instead of standing here, drinking his old man’s bootleg liquor and beating himself up about her decision to leave, what he needed to do was get her to stay.
Yeah, Gina was a woman but she wasn’t like any other woman he’d ever met.
You couldn’t reason with Gina, or cajole her, or control her.... The only way to get what you wanted was to take it, and give her what she wanted in return.
He walked to the door of the dining room, headed down the corridor to the back of the house, purpose in every stride.
To hell with sense and caution and business scruples.
Raindrops splattered his face as he strode through the darkened gardens towards the pool house. The ominous grumble of distant thunder had a grim smile lifting his lips—and seemed mighty fortuitous in the circumstances.
Given that he was about to fight fire with fire... A monsoon might come in handy to ensure they didn’t both get burned.
Then he walked silently through the gate that led to the pool patio and his erection hit critical mass. A dark figure stood at the far end of the pool beneath the overhanging branches of the willow tree. Her arms stretched skyward, beckoning the rain forth to drench the thin silk of her blouse and reveal the lacy bra beneath.
Seemed he wasn’t the only one who needed relief from the heat.
She twirled under the deluge, the sinuous movement effortlessly sensuous, artlessly sexy—and demonstrating the extent of the need she’d tried so hard to hide.
She was magnificent—and for the next ten days, he was going to make sure she was all his.
He stepped forward as the heavens opened and the rain soaked through his shirt and trousers in seconds. The ripple of lightning glimmered off the water and lit her face as her gaze darted to his.
She dropped her arms. Shock and desire made a devastating combination on her face as she stood completely still, observing him, then swept the damp hair over her shoulders—the bold, provocative move part instinct, part invitation but mostly challenge. The dark outline of her nipples jutted through her transparent clothing as the rain continued to pound down.
‘I told you we’re not going to do this,’ she shouted above the clap of thunder. ‘I’m leaving tomorrow.’
He could see her staggered breathing, but she didn’t retreat when he reached her, or shrink away when he gathered a fistful of her wet hair, and drew her head back. Water slicked down her face and made her eyelashes glitter above the defiant glare.
‘You’re not going anywhere,’ he yelled back. ‘We need to finish this once and for all.’
She shuddered and braced her palms against his chest, but instead of pushing him away her fingers gripped, her gaze full of the sexual knowledge that had always infl
amed his senses. ‘And how exactly do you propose we do that?’
He wrapped his arm round her waist, yanked her towards him, grinding the painful erection against the soft, yielding flesh of her belly. ‘The only way we know how.’
Then he slanted his mouth across hers—and plundered.
ELEVEN
We need to finish this once and for all.
Carter’s ultimatum echoed through Gina’s mind as she plunged her fingers into his hair, and their tongues tangled.
