GAMBLING ON LOVE (Travis Series) (13 page)

“Really?”

“Really, honey
.
I swear to you, Anne, I searched everywhere I could think of for that card
.
I must have left it in my jeans and Virginia, the lady who does my laundry,
washed the jeans
while I was at work
.
She usually puts things from my pockets on my desk, but it wasn’t there
.
It was Maggie who thought of looking
for your number
in my dialed calls log on the cell phone
.
If you check your phone, you’ll see I tried to call
.
You
have
to believe me, honey
.
I would
never
do anything to hurt you.”

Beth didn’t know wh
at
to believe
.
Maybe he’d had second thoughts about being with her
and
then changed his mind and came anyway
.
Sam shifted and she was suddenly very aware of the feel of his warm skin against hers
.
What did it matter really
?
she
asked herself
.
He was here now
.
Sam was here, in her bed, and all she had to do was accept his apology and he’d make love to her
.
Her
brows drew together as the things he’d said ran through her mind
, spawning more questions
.

“You have a cook
and
someone who does your laundry?”
 

“
O
f all the things I expected to come out of your mouth next, that was certainly not one of them
.
Yes, sweetheart, I do.”

“Your boss must pay you well.”

I
nstincts from years of pushing money
-
hungry women away kicked in
, making Sam
instantly tense
.
“Why
?
Is my having money that important to you
?”
His voice came out much harsher than he intended and he could feel Anne bristle.

“I have money of my own,” she said stiffly
.
“I realize the women you usually take to bed are probably attracted to your wealth and fancy car, but believe it or not, I was actually attracted to you just for who you are.”

“I’m sorry, Anne
.
I’m just used to
…
”

“I know what type of women you’re used to,” she snapped
.
“
That
was made painfully obvious to me by Drake, but I’m not like that.”

“I didn’t think you were,” he protested.

“Of course you did,” Beth said heatedly, “otherwise you wouldn’t have said what you did.”

“What about you, Anne
?
How much money do you make
?
This house has to have cost a million dollars and that doesn’t take into account how much land you own around it
.
Are you an heiress
?
Just how much are
you
worth on paper?”

Beth felt that old need to protect her financial status take hold
.
“I’m not an heiress,” she said slowly, choosing her words carefully
.
“I got a good deal on the house and the land.”

“How much land
?”
he
pushed.

“What difference does it make?”
 

“How much land
?”
he
repeated.

Beth didn’t want to tell him, but couldn’t bring herself to lie either
.
“Why is it so important that you know?”

“It’s not,” h
is voice softened
.
“I just wanted to prove a point
.
You’re being very evasive, sweetheart
.
Are you afraid to let me know how much you make, how much you own?”

“Of course not
!
It’s just
…
”
her voice trailed off.

“Just what?”

Beth started laughing
.
“I’m so afraid people are only attracted to my money I try not to talk about it
.
Now would you please let go of my arms
? They’re
starting to fall asleep.”

Sam
freed her wrists, propping
himself up on his elbows to shift some of his weight off her
.
“I want a relationship with you, Anne
.
This is all new to me so you’ll have to be patient and forgive me when I say stupid things like I just did.”

“It scares you, doesn’t it
?”
Beth
asked
solemnly.

Sam chuckled
.
“No
.
It terrifies me
.
I’ve never felt like this about anyone in my life
.
When I couldn’t find your number tonight I thought I’d go crazy thinking you might not speak to me again.”

Beth was quiet for a moment
.
“One mile,” she finally said.

“One mile?”

“About a half mile on each side of the house
—
that’s how much land I own.”

Sam let out a low whistle
.
“I
did
hit the jackpot, didn’t I?”
 

“Sam!”

“I’m just kidding, sweetheart
.
I’ll divulge my secrets
,
too
,
if you’ll answer a few questions.”

“Like what
?” 
she
asked guardedly
.

“Ah, the self
-
defense mechanism kicks into place once more,” he teased.

“Old habits die hard
.
So what do you want to know?”

“How big is your business?”

“Why
…
sorry
.
I have about thirty employees, most of them investigators
.
I worked my tail off for the first few years
and
was so
successful,
the assignments just kept rolling in
.
I work
ed
out a fee schedule and realized I could afford to hire a couple of good investigators and really increase my capital
.
The business grew so fast, I could
barely
keep up with the hiring
.
I have six administrative people to assist my investigators plus Vic, my personal
account executive
.”

“Vic
?”
Sam’s brows furrowed
.
“
A
s in Vicki or Victor?”

“Victor
.
He’s wonderful
.
I could
n’t
run the place without him
.
He knows the business almost as well as I do.”

“So you work closely with this Vic?”

Beth couldn’t
help
baiting Sam
.
After all, she’d gotten her fill of jealousy this evening when Maggie answered the phone.
 

"Vic and I are extremely close
.
He’s the only one I can talk to about my personal life
.
He’s kind and understanding, with a wonderful sense of humor
…
”

A rush of jealous
y
welled up inside
Sam
.
“Exactly how close are you
?
Have you slept with him?”

Beth wound her arms around Sam’s neck
.
“Why
?
Are you jealous?”

“Just tell me if you’ve slept with him,” he growled.

“Would it bother you if I had?”

“Hell yes, it would bother me
!
How am I supposed to feel knowing you’re going to work every day with someone you obviously care very much about and have slept with
in the past
?”

“Well, I haven’t, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

“But you care about him?”

“Confess, Sam
.
You’re jealous as hell because you’re crazy about me.”

“I
am
crazy about you, honey, and I don’t want to lose you
.
Just tell me
whether
I need to arrange for his mysterious disappearance.”

Beth laughed
.
“Is that how you
would
handle it?”

“No, but I wouldn’t be above breaking his arms so he couldn’t touch you.”

“Such violence
!”
she
exclaimed
,
drawing
him down for a kiss
.
“I promise you, there’s nothing to worry about as far as Vic is concerned.”

“How do I know that for sure
?
The way you talk about him, there’s obviously
a strong
connection there.”

“There is,” she admitted, “but you still don’t have anything to worry about
.
How do I put this
?
Vic is
…
well, he’s like a sister to me.”

“A sister?”
 

“Vic cries at chick flicks,” she giggled, “and he only thinks spandex looks good on men
.
Are you getting the picture?”

“You’ve been playing me,” he said in disbelief
.
“You deliberately tried to make me jealous!”

She pulled his head down and brushed his lips with a soft kiss
.
“Did it work?”

Sam growled and pinned her arms above her head again
.
“Yes, it did
.
But now, you’ll have to pay for working me up.”

Beth’s breath caught in her throat as he positioned himself between her thighs
.
“Sam
…
”
He thrust into her, knocking the air from her lungs as well as any thoughts that were rattling around in her head.
 

“Are you sorry for
torturing
me
?”
Sam drew
his
hips back, surging into her harder, deeper.

“Not if this is the punishment,” Beth rasped.

He
buried himself deep
in
side
her,
the desire to
punish her for making him jealous
forgotten
the
moment Anne’s inner heat enveloped him
. What Sam wanted…what h
e
needed
, was to possess her
so completely that
all other men
were driven
from her mind
.
Anne belonged to him
,
as surely as he belonged to her,
and
Sam
wanted to make sure she understood that
.

He crushed her soft lips with a brutal kiss, the sexy moans rolling from her throat driving him wild
.
He’d never made love like this before; never had his heart pounded so madly or his blood felt as if it was on fire. All the tension of the past few hours was unleashed on Anne’s tender body, but she didn’t shy away from it. Instead, she took his furious thrusts with a desperate, wanton need of her own by locking those long, shapely legs around his thighs and thrusting back.

The
y
climax
ed
simultaneously,
their bodies
straining against each other as the climax peaked, sending them into
a violent tailspin of explosive shuddering and mindless pleasure that left them both weak as kittens
.
Sam
was vaguely conscious
his weight
was
crushing her slender body but he was powerless to move
.
He’d fallen over her
and buried
his face in her neck
,
the intoxicating scent of her skin as potent as any wine he’d ever consumed
.
He
w
ould ever get enough of her
, of that he was certain
.