The Player - By Rhonda Nelson Page 0,40

it.”

“Are you ready for dessert?” she asked.

His sexy twinkling gaze told her he had other ideas in mind. “Maybe later,” Jamie said. He leaned back in his chair and absently scratched his chest. “I thought I’d let you go ahead and give me that massage.”

Audrey chuckled. “Let me, eh? How thoughtful of you,” she said wryly.

“I’m nothing if not thoughtful.”

“I thought you said you were nothing if not resourceful?”

Jamie nodded sanctimoniously. “That, too.”

Audrey laughed, then stood and cleared their plates. “You’re nothing if not full of shit, that’s what you are.”

“Let me help you,” Jamie offered, chuckling. He stood and quickly helped her clear the table. It was nice, Audrey decided, warmed from a combination of his presence and the Jameson.

When the last dish was washed and dried, she took a deep breath, and then turned to face him. “Thank you,” she said, feeling uncharacteristically sheepish.

Jamie nodded, pressing a shameless hand against his chest. “What can I say? I’m nothing if not helpful.”

Actually, he was nothing if not gorgeous and charming and wonderful and she wanted him more with each passing second. Her gaze tangled with his and the breath seemed to thin in her lungs. A hot cocktail of seduction and sex was imminent. She could feel it every time that somnolent gaze raked over her. Her skin prickled and her belly fluttered with unstable air. She was a wreck, Audrey decided. A sexually frustrated wreck.

“Where do you want me?” Jamie asked.

Audrey blinked. “What?”

He laughed, the sound intimate and darkly sexy. “For my massage,” he explained.

Well, they could save a lot of time by merely moving things to her bedroom, but she supposed she should at least give the impression of not being a complete pushover and administer the massage in the living room on her massage table.

“I, uh…” She jerked her finger toward the other room. “I’ll just go set it up.”

“Audrey?”

She turned on her heel, but before she could take a single step, Jamie stopped her with a mere touch of his hand.

“Yes?”

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” he said softly, the comment rife with double meaning. Though the smile was the same charming grin he always wore, there was a sweet sincerity in his gaze which made her silly heart melt like a pat of butter over a hot bun. He was giving her an out, a get-out-of-sex free card.

The trouble was…she didn’t want one.

The first time he’d kissed her, he’d asked permission, but she wasn’t gentleman enough to give him any such courtesy. Audrey leaned forward, wrapped her arms around his neck and laid a kiss on him she knew would dispel any doubts about what she wanted or her intentions. “Come on,” she finally told him. “It’s time for me to work some of those kinks out for you.”

A wicked chuckle rumbled up his throat. “Be gentle.”

“Oh, believe me,” she assured him. “I’m nothing if not gentle.”

FOR THE FIRST TIME in his life Jamie was stuck with a true moral dilemma. To seduce or not seduce? Technically, since she had no intention of marrying Derrick, he could dub this mission successful and go home. He’d be free, Jamie realized. He would have paid his debt to the Colonel, could officially cut ties with his past and move forward. That was the lie he’d been propagating, at any rate. There was nothing to gain for his so-called cause if he seduced her.

And yet for reasons he didn’t dare explore, he knew—knew—that he had everything to gain…and even more to lose if he didn’t.

Besides, the first touch of her cool fingers against his back set a path into motion he didn’t have a prayer of changing. It would have been like trying to route a detour in the middle of a bridge—pointless.

“Remind me to thank Tewanda,” Jamie told her, his voice low and rusty to his own ears.

Audrey chuckled softly, kneading the muscles in his shoulders with small, competent, surprisingly strong hands. “Me, too,” Audrey said. “Though I wanted to throttle her when she first suggested this.”

“Really?” Jamie asked. “You mean speaking through gritted teeth isn’t how you normally express excitement and joy?” he teased, remembering her murderous expression that first night in the lodge.

She laughed, skimmed her nails down his spine, eliciting a shiver of delight. “Noticed that, did you?”

He grunted wryly. “It was hard to miss.”

“And yet you wouldn’t let it go,” Audrey added. “I wonder why,” she mused aloud, her conversational tone rife with exaggerated humor.

Jamie felt another