All Bets Are On

by Cynthia Cooke

  Surprised, he stared at the woman and then almost asked for Jaclyn. When her green eyes narrowed in annoyance, he realized this beauty standing before him was his schoolmarm mouse. Without her glasses, her ponytail, and baggy clothes, she was a sight to see.

  “You look breathtaking,” he said. And he wasn’t lying. She was a vision in red chiffon that hugged her breasts, pushing them upwards and displaying them beautifully. He was tempted to lean down and take a small nip, but all in good time. The gown tapered at the waist, flowing like an endless waterfall to the floor. He swallowed, his gaze zeroing in on her very tempting cleavage.

  “Really?” she asked, her voice dry, her tongue sharp.

  He stopped himself from licking his lips, and smiled. “Sorry, but you look delectable. Edible even. A creamy, irresistible dessert.”

  She huffed with annoyance and pushed past him. “One you won’t be eating.”

  He grinned and watched her walk toward the car, her unruly brown hair flowing in long curly cascades over her shoulders. She’d pinned it back behind one ear with a diamond comb, leaving small delicate wisps to tickle her neck. Tonight, he would follow their path with his tongue. His cock stiffened at the thought, and it annoyed him that he couldn’t take a small taste of her right then. For some reason, unlike most women he set his sights on, this one seemed easily able to resist him.

  Obviously, he would have to work for the prize. He’d talk sweetly to her first, win her over with his charm, and let her see exactly how devastating he could be. Once he broke through her defenses, his little schoolmarm-turned-vixen would be in for quite the night. A night she would not soon forget.

  “Wait,” he called. Ever the perfect gentleman, he hurried forward and offered his arm. She ignored it, one perfect eyebrow lifting. His cock jumped. Phlegyas rushed around the front of the car, buttoning the top buttons on his jacket, a big smile on his face. He was practically drooling over Jaclyn, his eyes wide and leering. His minions really needed to get a life. They were enjoying this game way too much. But then, he had to admit, so was he.

  As they got settled into the back seat, Derek pulled a bottle of fine French wine out of the bucket in the sideboard and handed her a glass. “Wine?”

  “Why not?” She looked around and fidgeted with her small beaded purse. She opened it, pulled out a brochure, and held it out for him while he filled her glass.

  “What is this?” He took the brochure that read Safe Haven across the top.

  “A brochure about my organization. I thought you should know where your ten grand was going.”

  “We’ll see,” he said, a wide smile crossing his face. “That’s only if I lose the bet.”

  She took a long sip of her wine and looked him square in the eye. “Plan on losing, because I can tell you right now I’m not having sex with you tonight.”

  He liked a woman who was direct. As direct as he could be. “Are you sure about that?”

  She grinned and, for a moment, looked absolutely feline. “Positive.”

  Two glasses of wine later and the limousine pulled up in front of the Trump Resort. Derek scowled. Hopefully the ride wasn’t indicative of the evening to come. Jaclyn, though stunning, hadn’t said a word. Derek kept refilling her glass hoping to get her to loosen up but, he had to admit, he was beginning to miss his feisty schoolmarm.

  Once parked, Phlegyas opened their door. Derek climbed out first, then held his hand for Jaclyn. She took it, extending a long shapely leg out the car. Flashes lit the night as paparazzi snapped their picture. He couldn’t blame them; his mouse was quite a sight to see.

  They’d barely stepped onto the carpeted entranceway when his mother stepped forward to greet them. “Hello, Derek. I didn’t know you were bringing a date.” She looked momentarily annoyed as she extended her hand to Jaclyn. “Marlena Wescott.”

  “My mother,” he said under his breath.

  “Jaclyn Reynolds. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She took his mother’s offered hand with a firm grasp. He cringed, knowing that with just the slightest touch, his mother was gleaning as much information as she could from the poor girl’s mind.

  Information she would use against him in the future.

  “I didn’t think you were attending tonight, Mother,” he said, trying to distract her. Didn’t matter. It never took her long to get what she needed.

  She dropped Jaclyn’s hand. “I told you how important the Fredricks deal was. I want to make sure it goes off without a hitch.”

  “You don’t trust me to handle it?” he challenged.

  She smiled, that sly grin that always set his teeth on edge. “Don’t be ridiculous, darling. I have the utmost faith in you. Now let’s go inside. They are getting ready to serve dinner.” Marlena tucked Jaclyn’s arm into hers and led her into the hotel. There was no getting out of this now.

  He turned to Phlegyas. “Isn’t there some catastrophe we can cause in the Underworld to get rid of my mother? Sink Charon’s ferryboat or something. I need time alone with Jaclyn tonight without her interfering.”

  Phlegyas grinned. “I’m sure we can come up with something, Boss.”

  …

  “I hope they don’t serve us the proverbial rubber chicken,” Jaclyn said under her breath as she slipped into her chair at a round table big enough to serve eight.

  “Oh, you can count on it.” Derek’s gaze followed his mother as she sat at a different table on the other side of the room.

  She seemed like a nice enough woman to Jaclyn, but it didn’t appear as though she and Derek got on too well. “Is that Bill Gates?” she asked as she spotted the man across the room

  “Yep. And standing next to him is Mr. Fredricks, President of Tellon Corp.”

  “Your big deal?”

  “Yep.”

  “What is it you do again?” She took in the man he was referring to with the well-cut suit. The woman hanging on his arm, sheathed in diamonds and silk, looked like she was dripping in money. Jaclyn suddenly felt self-conscious in the chiffon bridesmaid dress she’d worn to a girlfriend’s wedding. Derek refilled her wine glass from the bottle sitting at the table. Though her head was already swimming from the wine she’d drunk in the limo.

  “I do all kinds of things, but as far as Fredricks goes, I’m closing a deal that will take over his company.”

  “Take it over? As in hostile takeover?”

  His grin looked absolutely feral. “Yep.”

  “Won’t that be kind of awkward?” She really hoped Fredricks wouldn’t be sitting at their table.

  “Not at all. His company hires children in India to work for rock bottom wages. For what he spends on managers and American workers to fly in and oversee his operations, hiring and training, and the constant turnover of workers, we could bring the company back to the US.”

  “Impressive,” she said. And she was being completely honest. She was impressed. If more companies would come back to the States, there would be more jobs here and less kids in her shelter.

  “I’m not saying life would be any easier for those kids without the jobs, but using them as slave labor, not to mention the horrific punishments they incur if they don’t deliver, turns my stomach. All so he can reap millions off their backs. No, it’s not awkward. Not awkward at all.”

  Suddenly this man sitting beside her with his perfectly cut suit and shiny Italian leather shoes was a lot more attractive than she’d originally thought.

  Jaclyn relaxed and picked up her glass and clinked it against his. “Here’s to a very successful takeover.”

  He smiled, and something lurched inside her. She quickly looked away and met the eye of the two gentlemen sitting across the table from them. They were looking at her with open curiosity and admiration. She wished she hadn’t drunk so much. Right now she was out of her element and way out of her comfort zone.

  “Derek, are you going to introduce us to your lady friend?” One of the gentlemen across from her asked.

  “Of course. Reginald, this is Miss
Jaclyn Reynolds. Jaclyn this is Reginald and Zacharius. Two very important members on the board of our company.”

  “It’s very nice to meet you.” They made small talk about the weather and the coming holidays, and continued harmless gossip about the partygoers around them. “What about that woman there?” she asked, pointing to a svelte blonde who had to be a supermodel.

  “Elena Weathersby. Heir to the Weathersby fortune. She does her standard tax-deductible charities. Nothing more, nothing less. She might be interested in your organization, but if I were you, I’d hit up the men.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Men can never resist a beautiful woman, especially if she’s wearing red.” He smiled again, and her stomach fluttered.

  She watched him talk to Reginald and Zacharius, watched him drink his wine, his mannerisms impeccable. He’d said she was beautiful. It just slipped easily off his lips as if it meant nothing, when in fact it meant everything to her. No one had called her beautiful, at least not for a very long time. But the truth was, she wasn’t beautiful. Obviously, he was working his magic, buttering her up, trying to charm her right out of her pants. She picked up her water glass and took a long drink, trying to dilute the alcohol in her system.

  He looked at her, winked and smiled.

  And almost stopped her heart. This had to stop. She was not some flighty girl who went gah-gah over a little male attention. But then she caught a side glance from his very blue eyes and wondered if maybe she was.

  Another man joined them at the table, Noah Wells, some bigwig in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Derek introduced her, and even pulled out the brochure she’d given him and handed it around the table. He then went on to talk about the good she and her organization were doing in the community. By the time everyone was seated she had sizable donations. Trish had been right, after all.

  “That was amazing,” she said, under her breath, feeling slightly giddy.

  “No, you are amazing. I’m just letting everyone else in on the secret.”

  She grinned, and almost jumped out of her skin when he dropped his hand to her thigh.

  “Buttering me up won’t get me in your bed,” she whispered, then quickly removed his hand. “I plan to collect that $10,000.”

  “Really?” He turned his full mega-watt male attention on her, running his finger slowly up her hand, lingering on her wrist, trailing it up her arm and sending shivers cascading through her body. He was making her insides feel all melty.

  His effect on her was lethal. Was she really that lonely? That desperate? The thought made her sad, but she steeled her resolve and stared down his hard-to-resist peepers. “Really.”

  She stilled for a moment as his deep blue eyes captured hers. Men weren’t supposed to be that gorgeous. Good looking men learn from early on all they have to do is smile to get what they want. They sweep in, take you for a hell of a ride, then leave you with your life in tatters. She watched it happen to her mother first-hand when her father up and disappeared without a trace. Then she had remarried, and just when Jaclyn felt safe, her mother turned around and did it, too, leaving her husband and her daughter to run off with some looker. Jaclyn’s life was left in shambles. She never understood how her mother could be so weak. How she could throw it all away for a handsome face? Jaclyn would never be that dumb.

  Derek leaned in close to her. “I think you’re doing everything you can to resist the idea, but you just can’t help thinking: what would it be like to feel my lips on your neck, kissing you here?” He touched her sensitive skin right below her ear, just soft enough to send a tingle shooting through her.

  “You are a devil,” she whispered, as she fought the sensations moving through her.

  “So I’ve been told.” He grinned. Wicked and confident. And, for a second, she thought she was doomed. She had to remember her mother. Remember the chaos in her life a moment of weakness could bring. She’d made the mistake herself a time or two. She knew better. Focus on that, Jaclyn.

  And not on how much she wished he would kiss her right then.

  The servers placed a salad in front of her. Thankful for the diversion, she tried desperately to get Derek out of her head by turning away from him to make small talk with Mr. Wells, who was seated next to her. And yet, even though she wasn’t touching Derek, she could still feel his heat moving over her. Calling to her. All that wine in the limo had to be the reason she was so intensely aware of him.

  He reached across the table for the breadbasket, his shirt tightening around the hard muscle of his bicep. She imagined touching it, fantasized about what it would be like to feel his arms wrapped around her. Pulling her against him and holding her tight. Wondered how it would feel to run her fingers across the hardness of his skin and grasp hold.

  Heat spiked within her. She picked up her glass of water once again and downed half of it.

  “Is everything all right?” His silky voice reached deep inside her to caress her core. “You seem flushed.”

  She swallowed. “Absolutely.” No matter how handsome the man was, no matter how much she might actually want to, she was not sleeping with him.

  Chapter Seven

  Derek couldn’t keep his eyes off the woman next to him. Her transformation from mouse into a drop-dead beauty who had all the men at this table mesmerized, was truly something.

  “Now that’s what I’m talking about,” she said.

  “What?” He hoped she’d been reading his mind and was thinking the same thing as him: race you to the hotel elevator!

  She held up a piece of chicken speared across her fork. “Not rubbery at all.” She looked up at him. What he could have sworn were dull moss-green eyes just the other day were now sparkling green jewels. She smiled a knock-em dead smile that had him wishing they were alone in a room upstairs, away from the crowd, his business, and the rubber chicken.

  When the chocolate mousse arrived, he watched her dip her spoon into the creamy mixture and bring it to her mouth. The way her lips moved over it and the look of absolute rapture filling her face had his cock stiffening all over again. He wanted to see that look while she was lying beneath him. There was a touch of whipped cream on her lips from the mousse and he longed to lean forward and lick it off, slowly and thoroughly.

  But so far she seemed immune to his attempts at seduction. This was quickly moving beyond his wanting to win a bet; now he just wanted her. Bad. He moved his hand over her knee and slowly drew it up her thigh. Her eyes snapped to his, widening with surprise. He smiled and leaned in close. Close enough to smell her sweet scent. “Soon the music will start. I hope you will give me a dance.”

  Much to his growing frustration, she dropped her hand over his, stopping his ascent to heaven. “I’m not sure.”

  “Don’t worry. We don’t have to have sex. That is unless you want to,” he whispered, knowing damn well she wasn’t going to escape him tonight. Come hell or high water, they were going to have sex, incredible sex. All night long. He never lost a bet, and he never failed at getting a woman he had his sights on into his bed. And he had this one front, lined, and centered.

  Her cheeks blushed a sweet red as his hand dropped to the inside of her thigh. She shifted, blocking his access to her heat when the waiter arrived to refill the wine glasses. Even though she’d been slowing down, she picked up her glass and almost downed it in one gulp. He grinned. Oh yeah, he was getting to her.

  His phone rang. He stared down at his display then answered. “Minos, how’s the buyout going?” He glanced over at Fredricks, who was looking a little green around the gills.

  “We’ve bought a lot of the stock, but it’s going to be close. Don’t know if we can secure a majority.”

  “Keep on it.”

  “We might need to create a little disaster, something to cause a dip in shareholder confidence to get them to sell. I was thinking perhaps a fire in an empty warehouse.”

  Derek thought back to his mother’s comments about him being too soft. Too lenient.

&nbs
p; “Do it,” he said, and then hung up the phone.

  “Is everything all right?” Jaclyn asked.

  “Better than all right. The band has just started up. Would you care to dance?” Before she could deny him, he stood, swept her into his arms and onto the dance floor, where he whirled her around in time to the music. His hands moved up the bare skin of her back as he pulled her against him; her hips swayed softly against his erection, giving him sweet friction. They fit together nicely. He liked the feel of her in his arms. The feel of her breasts pressed against him and, for a moment, he could almost forget where he was and why he was there.

  Why she was there.

  If things continued the way he’d planned, even if she wanted to run for the hills, she wouldn’t. Skittish or not, she was attracted to him. She might like to deny it, but her hands kept moving up his arms, lingering on his chest. Her pulse was racing, her breathing shallow. Her defenses were definitely weakening. His fingertips grazed her skin, raising goose bumps. He shifted, moving her leg between his, letting her feel exactly how much he wanted her. The pressure of her thigh against his cock had him longing to whisk her out of the ballroom and into his limo right then and there. But he couldn’t, not yet. The timing had to be perfect.

  He held her close and imagined dancing her toward the stage, slipping behind the curtain, lifting his hand up her skirt, and making her moan—

  His mother was suddenly standing next to them in the middle of the dance floor—the proverbial cold shower after a hot, wet dream. “I have to run,” she said. “But I wanted to stop by and tell you how wonderful it was to meet you tonight, Jaclyn.”

  Jaclyn jerked back from him, obviously lost in her own salacious thoughts, and turned to his mother, her face flushed. He was pleased to see he wasn’t the only one affected by their closeness.

  “Thank you,” Jaclyn said, her voice sounding slightly raw. “You, too.”

  “I hope we’ll get to see you again.”

  “You will, I’m certain,” Derek responded for her and felt her tense slightly at his words. What exactly was his mother up to? Fishing?