Winning Ace: A Winning Ace Novel (Book 1)

by Tracie Delaney

  “I don’t have bags of experience, Cash. I’m not sure if what I’m doing is right.”

  He groaned as her hand moved up and down. Fast then slow. Firm then soft.

  “Trust me,” he said through gritted teeth, his breath coming in gasps. “You’re doing just fine.”

  At his encouragement, a fleeting smile crossed her face, and his chest swelled because he’d been the one to put it there. She began to move her hand faster, holding him even more firmly than before. His balls tightened, and he knew if he let her carry on, this was going to be over far too quickly.

  He removed her hand from his cock and placed it around his waist as he bent forward to kiss her. He briefly lapped inside her mouth, his tongue gently brushing hers. Dragging himself away from her soft lips, he moulded one breast in his hand and flicked the tip of his tongue over her nipple. She moaned so quietly he barely heard her. The sound alone almost made him come.

  Taking both her breasts in his hands, he took turns sucking on each nipple, and the groans and moans spilling from her lips told him he was hitting all the right buttons. But he wanted more. He wanted to taste the very essence of her. Cash sank onto his knees. His hands moved to her waist, and he gripped lightly as he kissed from hip to hip. He dipped his tongue into her navel as his mouth travelled across her stomach then slipped his thumbs inside the waistband of her knickers and tugged them down. Her body stiffened.

  “Relax,” he said. “I’m going to take good care of you.” He gently pushed her onto the bed and urged her legs apart. As he moved between her spread thighs, she tried to jam her legs back together.

  “Cash…”

  “Shhh, it’s okay. Trust me.”

  As his mouth closed in on her clit, she thrust her hands into his hair, but instead of pulling him closer, she held him back. Their eyes met, and he smiled reassuringly.

  “Trust me,” he reiterated.

  Her hands loosened in his hair. He pressed firmly on her thighs to keep her legs apart and swirled his tongue around her clit. She cried out, her back arching off the bed. Her hands fisted in the sheets as he switched between pushing his tongue inside her and rolling it around the hard bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs. He’d hit on the exact thing to drive her crazy, because she came fast. Her hips rose off the bed as her orgasm broke.

  “Cash… oh… God.”

  He continued licking her, drawing every last bit out of her climax. She was responsive, refreshingly so. That he’d curbed his need to be inside her long enough to put her pleasure before his own amazed him. That was definitely a new experience. He’d enjoyed every fucking minute, but he couldn’t wait any longer. He quickly donned a condom and crawled up her body. He buried his face in her neck as he pushed inside her—only an inch, but even that was enough to almost send him over the edge.

  “Jesus… Christ,” he gritted out.

  She was so fucking tight, and he clenched his jaw as he pushed farther inside her. It was like she’d been custom-made just for him without a millimetre wasted. Once he was fully buried, he leaned up onto his elbows, withdrawing slowly before driving hard into her again. She cried out as he repeated the movement, tilting his hips each time to make sure he reached the perfect spot deep inside. Her eyes were screwed shut, her head twisted to the side.

  “Look at me,” he said.

  Her eyes fluttered open, glossy with desire, and he smiled.

  “That’s better,” he said. “I want to look into your eyes when I come. When you come.”

  She wrapped her legs around his waist and tilted her hips, the change of position giving him an even better angle. He thrust into her over and over, and as he pressed his thumb onto her clit, she cried out as a second orgasm tore through her. As her muscles contracted around him, a powerful orgasm shot from the head of his cock. Despite what he’d said about wanting to maintain eye contact, he dropped his head and buried his face in her neck as his body throbbed with the most intense pleasure he’d ever experienced.

  EIGHTEEN

  Tally snuggled beneath the soft quilt as Cash wrapped an arm around her waist. He nestled her back to his front and rested his chin on her shoulder.

  “I told you those earrings would be the only thing you’d be wearing.”

  She giggled. “What about my toe ring?”

  “You’re wearing a toe ring?”

  “Yep.”

  Cash released her and disappeared under the covers. She yelped as he grabbed her ankle. “That tickles.”

  He threw off the covers and held her foot in the air. The silver ring that Em had given her for her birthday when she turned thirteen glinted in the soft light from the bedside lamps.

  He grinned. “Hmm, now, what shall I do with this?”

  He twisted her ankle to the left, then the right, taking great pains to examine her foot. Without warning, he dipped his head and sucked her toe into his mouth. She squealed when he bit down, even though he barely touched her. He rocked back on his heels, a broad grin on his face and her toe ring clenched between his teeth.

  “Now all you’re wearing is the earrings,” he said, dropping the toe ring onto the bedside cabinet. He snuggled back into her side and brushed his hand over her backside and down her leg before settling across her belly. On a reflex, she sucked her stomach in.

  “Stop.”

  She froze. “Stop what?”

  Cash eased her around until his face was inches from hers. His lips were pressed together, no inkling of a smile.

  “Thinking that you’re somehow lacking. That you’re not good enough. You. Are. Stunning. I could spend hours staring at your body. Touching you. Kissing you. These curves”—he swept his hand over her breasts before drifting to her hip—“are so fucking sexy.”

  She wanted to believe him. She really did. But a nagging voice in the back of her mind wouldn’t shut up. It kept on and on, reminding her that Cash Gallagher didn’t go for women like her. It was as though she was some sort of an experiment and any minute he’d thank her for her contribution to science and move on to the next size-zero model. She was way out of her league, suddenly finding herself in the middle of a long-held impossible dream that was teed up nicely to be ripped from her.

  And cut her deep in the process.

  She blinked slowly, unable to stop the slight shake of her head. “I want to believe you.”

  Cash expelled a curt breath. “Well, if you won’t believe what I’m saying, then you leave me no choice.”

  He climbed out of bed and tugged on his boxers.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s obvious I need more time to convince you. I’m calling your editor. You’re taking the next two weeks off work.”

  “What? No. I can’t. I’ve got deadlines to meet.”

  “Someone else can fill in.”

  She dragged a hand through her hair. “Somebody else can’t fill in. We’re not exactly flush with staff.”

  Cash cupped her face in his hands. “Don’t you want us to spend more time together?”

  “Well, yes, of course I do. But I also have a career to tend to.”

  He shrugged. “Then it’s settled. It’s two weeks, not two years. Your career will be fine.” He disappeared into the living room.

  “For God’s sake,” Tally muttered as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and knotted a sheet around her chest. She’d only taken two steps when the sound of Cash’s voice filtered through the bedroom door. He appeared in the doorway, his phone clutched to his ear.

  “Yes, I realise it’s very late,” he said. “But I have an issue that I need your help with.”

  He made eye contact with her before his gaze slipped south. She pulled the sheets closer, and he frowned and shook his head.

  “Yes, she’s right here. And she’s fine. I’ll let you talk to her in a moment.”

  She held out her hand. “Cash, give me the phone.”

  Cash ignored her. “Things have changed since I spoke to you yesterday. Natalia is going to ne
ed the next couple of weeks off work.”

  She made a grab for the phone. Cash spun away, easily dodging out of her reach.

  “I understand. And I’ll happily fund an agency temp if that helps. But either way, she won’t be back in work until the sixteenth.”

  “What are you doing?” She made another futile attempt to take the phone from him. “For goodness’ sake,” she hissed.

  “Now you’re just being difficult,” Cash continued. “If she was so crucial to the running of the paper, then she’d have a more senior position. Either that, or your business skills are so piss-poor you’ve ended up with a junior reporter as a key man dependency.”

  She stared at Cash, horrified. Her legs trembled, and she sank onto the bed before they gave out.

  “Oh, God,” she mumbled at the realisation Cash had just made the situation ten times worse. Pete already held the firm opinion that Cash was a total bastard, and comments like that wouldn’t exactly encourage a change of mind. Pete must have been giving Cash an earful, because he was silent for a few minutes. Finally, he turned to her and winked.

  “Crystal. Here she is.” He handed over the phone and walked back into the living room, leaving her alone.

  “Hey, Pete,” she said in a low voice.

  “Are you all right?” he barked down the phone.

  She held the handset away from her ear to keep him from puncturing an eardrum. “Yes, I’m fine. Sorry about that.” It wasn’t her apology to make, but instinct told her Cash wouldn’t be making his own anytime soon.

  “Pah! I can handle him. Where are you?”

  “Paris.”

  “Paris!”

  She moved the phone even farther away.

  “What the hell are you doing in Paris?”

  “I’m on a date,” she said, a slow grin building as she spoke the words out loud, and then a sudden realisation hit. “Oh, no. I haven’t told Em that I won’t be home tonight. I’d better drop her a text.”

  “Not so fast,” Pete said. “I’ve told him I’ll give you the time off, but I’m attaching a condition to it.”

  Seeing as Cash hadn’t fully explained why he wanted her to have time away from work or what on earth they were going to do for two weeks—apart from the obvious—she didn’t think agreeing to any conditions would be a problem. “Shoot.”

  “If at any time you want to come home, you call me immediately. Deal?”

  That seemed unlikely. She was hooked after one night—although to all intents and purposes, she and Cash were still strangers—so agreeing to Pete’s terms could do absolutely no harm, especially if it reassured him.

  “Tally?”

  “Yes, deal.”

  NINETEEN

  Tally startled awake when Cash’s phone rang. He cursed and, rubbing his eyes, sat up in bed and squinted at the screen. The only light in the room came from his phone, but it was enough to allow her to make out the colour draining from his face.

  He picked up the phone. “What’s the matter? Is everything okay?” Cash held the phone so tightly against his ear Tally could barely hear the person speaking on the other end, but she did manage to make out a broad Irish brogue, very different from Cash’s soft lilt. He threw the covers back and climbed out of bed. He glanced over his shoulder at her before wandering to the far corner of the bedroom. Tally could make out every one of his taut muscles as he stood upright, his spine rigid. His hand crept around the back of his neck, and he pinched the skin as though he’d cricked it.

  “Yes, got it. Of course. Do what you need to do. You know this. You don’t need to call me every time. I trust you.”

  Tally winced and hugged her knees as intense jealousy speared her chest simply because she could tell Cash was talking to another woman. She was falling too hard, too fast. But having feelings that deep for a man like Cash were dangerous because when this was over––and she had no doubt it would be soon––the extraction was going to hurt like hell, and she didn’t have a clue how to protect herself.

  “No, not until after Rotterdam,” Cash continued. “Maybe. Depends how well I do.” He gave a soft laugh. “Thanks for your confidence in me, Gracie.”

  Tally didn’t know who Gracie was, but it was obvious she and Cash knew each other well, and another flash of jealousy shot into her bloodstream. She lay down and buried her head in the soft pillows, turning her back on him as she closed her eyes.

  “Point taken. I’ll call you in a day or so. Night.”

  He dropped the phone on the bedside table, and the mattress dipped as he climbed back into bed. He shifted over to her side and draped an arm over her waist.

  Without meaning to, she stiffened. “Who’s Gracie?”

  Cash let out a soft sigh. “No one for you to be concerned with.”

  She shuffled as close to the edge of the bed as she could get without falling out. “Sounds like you’re pretty close.”

  Cash sighed again, but this time, it came out more like a huff. “Don’t turn in to a jealous bitch, Natalia. Women like that bore me.”

  Her throat tightened, and she swallowed hard. She shoved Cash’s arm off her and swung her legs out of bed. He seemed to know just the things to say that would hurt the most. She leaned down and picked her blouse off the floor. Cash wrapped his arms around her body and plucked the blouse out of her clenched hands, tossing it behind him.

  “I told you I was a bastard,” he said kissing her hair, her earlobe, her neck.

  Despite the hitch of pain in her chest, she moaned. Her mind was screaming for her to leave, but her heart and body wouldn’t listen. She struggled to escape from Cash’s arms, but all that did was make him tighten his hold.

  “I’m sorry, sweetness. I’m not used to having to explain myself, that’s all.”

  “You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” she said, unable to prevent a tinge of bitterness leaking into her tone. “We barely know each other.”

  Cash eased her around and cupped her face, his calloused thumbs brushing her cheeks. “Gracie is absolutely no one for you to be jealous of.”

  “Then what harm would it do to tell me who she is?”

  Cash’s hands fell to his side, and his mouth twisted into a wry grimace. He walked away, putting several feet between them. With his back to her, he scuffed a hand through his hair, making it stick up. After a few painful seconds had scraped by, he twisted to look over his shoulder, his face tired and drawn.

  “Give me time, Natalia. I’ve got some fucking shit in my past, and I don’t want us tainted with that yet. Just trust me, please.”

  With curiosity gnawing at her insides, she hesitated and then, realising she had little choice, nodded. “Okay,” she said softly, mollified when he let out a huge breath and stretched out his arm for her. Tally went willingly to him, and as he covered her mouth with his, she pushed all thoughts of the stranger named Gracie to the back of her mind.

  * * *

  When Tally woke the next morning, it was still dark outside. She stretched, her limbs feeling stiff yet wonderfully sore. Sex versus a workout at the gym? She knew which one she’d choose. She wiped some drool from the corner of her mouth, quickly glancing at Cash. Still asleep, thank goodness. Saliva dripping from her mouth would be a real buzzkill.

  He was lying on his stomach, his face towards her. Long, dark lashes grazed his skin, which was deeply tanned after all those weeks playing in the Australian sunshine. The bed sheet was gathered around his waist, and Tally allowed her gaze to wander. He was in amazing shape, and she itched to touch him, but her lack of confidence stopped her fingers from exploring.

  She climbed out of bed and shrugged into Cash’s shirt. She’d need to buy some clothes today and couldn’t help cringing at how expensive they’d be in Paris. A pair of knickers would probably cost twenty Euros, and she couldn’t begin to imagine what a decent bra would run to.

  Despite her probing the previous night, Cash still hadn’t explained in detail why he wanted her to take two weeks off work. Distraction w
as something he was rather adept at, and as she recalled the things they’d done together, her face burned. She might have started the evening a little inexperienced sexually, but she certainly hadn’t finished it that way.

  She wandered into the living room, rubbing her stomach when it growled. Ravenous, she glanced at the room service menu, her mouth watering at both the amount of choice and the prices. Who could justify that much money for a croissant? She tried to ignore the hunger, but when her belly grumbled again, she caved. She ordered the continental breakfast—the cheapest thing on the menu—and a very efficient member of staff assured her it would be no more than fifteen minutes.

  As she hung up, a horrible feeling stole over her. She hadn’t texted Em. Shit. Em would be going out of her mind with worry. Tally dug her phone out of her handbag and grimaced. Twelve missed calls and one text sent at two in the morning:

  Where the fuck are you?

  She glanced at the clock. Seven in Paris, so that would make it six back home. She dialled and waited.

  Em picked up on the first ring. “This had better be good, or you’re dead.”

  “Why didn’t you call Pete when I didn’t come home? He knew where I was.”

  “I did call him but got no answer.”

  “I’m sorry, Em. I got completely sidetracked. I’m in a hotel room in Paris. With Cash.”

  Em let out a low whistle. “Jesus, Tal. When you go missing, you do it in style.”

  “I’m sorry. I totally meant to call last night but––”

  “You were too busy swallowing Cash’s cock, right?”

  Heat rushed to her face. “Emmalee! Jesus, you’re crude. And totally wrong.”

  “Liar. So what was he like? Worth the ten-year wait?”

  “Oh, Em,” she said, lowering her voice. The last thing she needed was for Cash to wake up and listen in on their conversation. His ego was big enough without her stroking it. “He was… amazing.”

  “No one likes a bragger,” Em said, breaking into giggles. “Seriously, babes, I’m so happy for you. Is he treating you good?”