GAMBLING ON LOVE (Travis Series) (14 page)

“Oh God,” he groaned
when Anne’s soft hands
made a
slow, seductive
sweep across
the muscles of his back.
“
The mind is willing, sweetheart, but
I
just
don’t have the strength.”
But even as he spoke the words, Sam’s sexual appetite stirred to life
.

Beth smiled, feeling very much like the contented cat
that
swallowed the canary
.
Her whole body still tingled
in
the after
-
burn of
a
spectacular
climax
, but she felt exceptionally greedy at the moment and wanted more
.
When Sam rolled onto his back, she didn’t hesitate to take an advantage of his aroused state, maneuvering over his magnificent body to straddle his thighs.
With deliberate slowness, she settled down over him, taking
his impressive
length inside her
with an audible sigh
.

A low, guttural moan rumbled deep in Sam’s throat
.
It made her feel sexy, wanted, needed
;
she never wanted this new sensation to end
.
As she tortured him with the excruciatingly slow grinding of her hips, his body jerked
,
and more of those delicious sounds rolled from his throat
.
His
big
callused
hands moved over her thighs
, his talented fingers leaving ripples of pleasure as they glided
up her
stomach to cup her breasts with agonizing gentleness.
The pads of his thumbs raked over the sensitive
peaks, moving faster and faster, coaxing Beth’s gyrating hips into matching the rhythm.

With a groan,
Beth’s head fell back as the muscles in
her
abdomen
contracted;
a
heavy coiling that wound tighter and tighter
until
the ache became so unbearable she cried out for Sam to make it stop.

“I’ve got you, baby,” he husked.

Sam’s
hands move
d
to her hips, anchoring her in place
so that each powerful thrust drove him in deeper and deeper
.
Beth let out a helpless whimper. She felt like a bow string that had been pulled too tight, the pressure building inside of her
until it finally
snapped
, releasing a wave of pleasure
that
so
intense
she wasn’t sure she would survive it
.

Abruptly, Sam rolled, reversing their positions, his climax chasing hers
in a burst of liquid heat
.
Beth heard the deep, animalistic sound and was shocked to realize it had come from her own throat
.
Sam heard it too, and she would have been
horribly embarrassed if hadn’t been for the smile of male satisfaction that spread across his handsome face. Murmuring her name, he lowered his head and kissed her; an achingly tender
kiss
that
enveloped
Beth
in
a
flood of emotions
and
brought the sting of hot, salty tears to her eyes.

Sam
eased himself out of her to
lie
on his back and
gather
ed
her in his arms
.
For awhile, he simply held her
while she cried, then asked,
“Wh
y the tears
?”

“I don’t know,” she sniffed.

“I’m sorry for the way things went tonight
…
”

“It’s not that, Sam
.
At least not entirely.
”
Beth tipped her head back to look at him,
but the moonlight afforded only a faint image of his face.
“I know how you feel about clingy women but I just don’t think I can make it through another whole day without hearing your voice
.
You need to figure out how involved you want to be with me, Sam, because I need at least one call during the day or I’ll drive myself crazy watching the phone and jumping every time it rings
.
If you can’t do that, then we need to stop seeing each other altogether before I turn into an emotional wreck.”

Sam kissed her, his fingers lacing through her hair at the back of her neck
.
His mouth was warm, his kiss tender, and the fluttering in her stomach made her want to cry again
.
His
lips left hers and his long, lean fingers caressed the side of her face.
 

“I can’t tell you how many times I reached for the phone to call you today
.
If I’d actually managed to get
further
than thinking about it, I might have realized I didn’t have your number on me
.
I can’t stand the thought of being without you
,
so you can put that notion out of your head right now.”

“Are you sure, Sam?”

“Honey, I’ve never been
more sure
of anything in my life.”

“You don’t think I’m being too needy?”

“I
want
you to need me, Anne,” he said quietly
.
“I want you to think of me all day long and how good it feels when we’re together.”

“You’re not getting that feeling you talked about where you want to bolt and run?”

“It’s not that way with you, Anne
.
When we’re not together
,
it
feel
like something’s missing
, like I’ve left something vital behind
.”

Beth knew exactly how he felt
.
“Well, we’re either going to be the most dynamic duo ever or we’ll both end up doing finger painting in an institution.
”
Sam’s deep laughter brought a happy smile to her face.
 

“Elizabeth Anne Sweeney, you are no doubt going to be the death of me.”

Beth settled her head back on his shoulder, running her hand absently over the corded muscles of his chest
.
“You never did share your secrets with me, you know.”

“I was afraid you’d remember that,” he groaned.

“I told you mine.”

Sam hugged her to him
.
“I know you did, sweetheart
.
I guess it’s only fair
.
Have you heard of SST Shipping?”

Beth lifted her head
.
“Are the corporate offices in Beverly Hills?”

“Yeah, so you’ve heard of it?”

“Not just heard of it, Sam
.
SST Shipping was one of my first clients
.
The company was suffering huge losses on shipments coming out of Europe because the cargo kept arriving damaged even though it
was
marked as being in good condition when it left port
.
I worked with the CEO, Mr. Henderson, I think his name was
.
I flew out to Liverpool and came on board posing as an
exchange student
.
I told the
captain
and men on board I’d been swindled out of my money by the people I
had
been staying with
.
The
captain
was kind enough to let me sail for free.”

“Mr. Henderson is still the CEO,” Sam told her.

“Is that where you work
?
Were you working there when I was investigating the shipping problem?”

“No, but I came on shortly afterwards
.
It never even occurred to me until you started telling the story
.
Mr. Henderson still talks about it but he always refers to you as
young
Elizabeth.”

Beth put her head back on his shoulder
.
“To think I could have met you years ago.”

“Charlie, Mr. Henderson that is, said he had some serious doubts about hiring you because you were a woman, but the owner knew someone you’d done a job for and thought you could handle it
.
Charlie said you stowed away every night in one of the lifeboats to keep watch
. Is
that true?”

Beth laughed
.
“Yes, and it was the most miserable time of my life
.
It was cold and damp and I had to listen to the men taking bets
as to
who would get me to sleep with them first
.
Anyway, about halfway home a smaller ship came alongside in the middle of the night
.
The good shipment was taken onboard the smaller ship and the damaged cargo
was loaded onto
SST’s ship.
”
Beth rose on one elbow, talking excitedly.

“You should have seen them, Sam
.
It was actually extremely well
-
orchestrated
.
I don’t think the whole
process
took more than forty-five minutes and it was all done in absolute silence
.
I have no doubt the rest of the crew was oblivious
of
what was going on, including the
captain
.
If I’d been in my room, I would
n’t
have heard a thing.

"Anyway, I spent a great deal of time getting to know the crew so I
would
recognize them on sight
.
I was scared to death because I had a penlight I used
to
jot down their names on a notepad and was afraid even that little bit of light could be seen at night
.
Obviously, it wasn’t or they would have tossed me overboard.”

“The company was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars on those shipments,”
Sam
told her
.
“You saved them a bundle
.
The company was losing money other places
,
too
,
until I came in
.
I had to fire a lot of people and replace them with ones who not only knew their jobs but actually wanted to do them.”

“So you must be pretty high on the corporate ladder there.”

Sam smiled to himself
.
“You might say that.
”
He pulled her back into his arms
.
“The owner of SST was pretty ill during that time
,
which is probably why you never met him
.
His son stepped in
,
took over
,
and
then inherited the whole thing when he died a few years later.”

“Did you know him?”

“Yeah, I knew him,” he said wistfully.

“You sound like you really miss him
.
What’s his son like
?
Do you get along with him?”

“His son is an arrogant ass,” Sam said with a hint of amusement
.
“He had the worst reputation as a playboy and was meaner than a junkyard dog
when things didn’t go his way
.”

“
Was
?
Did
taking over the company change him
?”

“No, it was years later
before
that happened
.
He met the most amazing woman and everything changed for him
.
He found himself smiling for no apparent reason and couldn’t work up a bad mood if he tried.”

“So beauty saved the beast,” Beth laughed.

“Yes, she did,” he said softly.

“So what happened
?
Did they fall in love?”

“He fell in love with her
.
I’m not sure
whether
the feelings are mutual.”

“That’s so sad, Sam.”

“If he’s lucky, maybe there’s still a chance she could love him.”

“I hope she does
.
If she made that big a difference in his life
,
it would just be awful for him if she didn’t.”