Ian's Ultimate Gamble ; Seduction, Westmoreland Style Read online

  Tonight she would be the one to give them the perfect end.

  * * *

  It felt good being back, Ian thought, as he walked into the penthouse a little later than he’d wanted. His connecting flight had been hell, with enough turbulence to make even a grown man weep.

  The first thing he’d wanted to do when he had arrived at the casino was to find Brooke, but Vance had mentioned he had seen her leave the resort earlier. She had been headed for the shops in town. It looked as if she intended to do some serious shopping. Ian ended up going to his penthouse a disenchanted man. He unpacked with the thought that he was preparing for a night he intended Brooke would remember for a long time.

  Ian checked his watch a few hours later. It was ten to seven. Where was she? He distinctly remembered Brooke always showed up at any destination a few minutes earlier than scheduled. Of all the nights for her to change her routine and—

  His breath caught when he heard the ringing of his elevator alerting him he was about to have a visitor. Deciding this would be a special night, he had changed into a pair of black trousers and a white button-up shirt. But to give his outfit a casual spin he had left his shoes off. He wanted to look totally at home, totally relaxed and completely in control.

  He walked over to the elevator and was standing there when it opened. As soon as it did, his throat suddenly felt tight and he could only stare, almost tongue-tied as he feasted his eyes on Brooke. She was wearing a short, lacy black concoction that seemed to scream, strip me. His fingertips began to itch, wanting to do that very thing.

  “I know I’m early, but aren’t you going to invite me in?”

  Hell, he planned to do better than that, he thought, edging backward so she could take a step forward. When she did, the elevator door swooshed close. “Welcome back, Ian.”

  God, he’d missed her. In just a couple of days she had gotten back under his skin. Deep. He opened his mouth to reply but no sound came out. His mind couldn’t get beyond the fact that she was standing there wearing black lace. She of all people knew how he felt about black lace; especially on her. She could wear it like no other woman. He was aroused to the nth degree from just seeing her in it.

  The itching in his fingers intensified and a need he tried to ignore gripped him, made his blood sizzle and his heart pound in his chest. He took a step forward. It was then that he studied her face; a face that had invaded his dreams so many times over the past four years; a face he couldn’t forget no matter how he tried.

  Ian quickly accepted the fact that it wasn’t about the dress Brooke was wearing or how sexy she looked in it that made him so attracted to her. Brooke, the unique individual she’d always been, had captured his interest from the first and still held it tight.

  But still…he had to give kudos to the dress. It made a provocative statement, and seeing her in it did the things to him she’d known it would.

  “Ian?”

  His gaze returned to her face. He watched her mouth quiver and decided to kiss that quiver right off her lips. He intended to give her a proper hello, Ian Westmoreland style. Leaning over, he ran his fingertips along her jaw and then, leaning closer still, he began gently nibbling on her lips, savoring the moment and relishing the sweet taste of her and the feel of her full lips beneath his.

  He had wanted to linger, but the need hammering inside of him wouldn’t let him. It drove an urgency he couldn’t control, and when her moan filled his mouth he indulged her by taking the kiss deeper. All the long-denied needs he’d pretended weren’t there were hitting him full force, begging for the kind of release only she could give.

  He tightened his hold on her as his mouth mated with hers, slowly yet torridly, taking his breath away with every return stroke of her tongue while it moved sensuously in his mouth, hitting those spots she knew from the past could drive him mad with desire.

  One thing he and Brooke had enjoyed doing as a couple was exploring new things in the bedroom, and on one occasion they’d had a kiss-a-thon. By the time it was over, they had explored every kind of kiss known to man and had gone further by inventing some of their own.

  And she remembered, he thought, as his hands on her hips tightened and he pulled her closer to him. Not only had she remembered but she was putting some of those techniques into action, making blood pulse through his veins and sending heat spreading all through him; especially his loins. With a mastery and skill that almost made him weak in the knees, she was taking over the kiss, making him groan into her mouth and reminding him why he had fallen so hard for her years ago. Brooke had a way of taking him by surprise.

  And she was doing it now.

  He definitely hadn’t expected this, a kiss that went far and beyond any fantasy he’d ever had. He had figured she would be reluctant, would fight the intensity of the chemistry they were feeling. But she wasn’t. In her own way she was letting him know that she needed to move on with her life just as he needed to move on with his. She accepted that there could never be a reconciliation. They needed closure, and this was the only way they would get it. She was kissing him with a passion that sent shivers vibrating through his body and he was greedily lapping it up.

  “Brooke,” he whispered when she finally released his mouth. But before she could take a step back, he swept her into his arms and once again covered her lips with his.

  * * *

  She could go on kissing him forever, Brooke thought, as Ian kissed her and she greedily kissed him back with equal fervor. And moments later when he released her mouth and began walking with her in his arms, her breath caught in her chest as he moved up the stairs to his bedroom.

  She glanced up, saw the smoldering look of desire in his eyes, and the pressure mounting inside her escalated.

  When he came to a stop, she glanced around and he slowly placed her on her feet, sliding her body against his in the process, letting her feel the bulge in his pants, evidence of his intense desire for her.

  He tipped her chin up and met her gaze. “I want you.”

  His words made her draw in a shaky breath. It had been four years since she had been with a man, and her body was attuned to Ian in a profound way. He was the one and only man she’d ever been intimate with. Something deep within her began to prepare her for the pleasure she knew only he could give with those wonderful hands, that skillful tongue and that big strong body. Just thinking about what was to come had sensations erupting all the way inside her womb.

  “And I want you, too, Ian,” she said breathlessly as she felt her center begin to quake with a longing she hadn’t felt in a long time. “Tonight, I need you,” she added.

  “Not as much as I need you,” he replied, reaching out to remove her dress.

  A hiss escaped between Ian’s teeth when he pulled the dress over her head and tossed it aside only to reveal more black lace—a sexy bra and silky high-cut panties. Unable to help himself, he dropped to his knees right there in the middle of the room and buried his face in her belly, needing the scent of her in his nostrils and the taste of her on his tongue.

  He leaned forward and began licking the hollow of her navel while easing her panties down her legs. He paused only long enough for her to step out of them before nipping at her belly and moving lower.

  He pulled back for a moment and looked up at her. He continued to hold her gaze as he reached out and slipped one hand between her legs, letting his fingers go to work in her damp flesh. And when she grabbed hold of his shoulders and began moaning and grinding against his hand he knew she was on the brink of an orgasm so explosive she would have it right there if he didn’t do something.

  And so he did.

  He broke eye contact with her and dipped his head and glided his tongue over her, into her, exploring, probing and loving her in a way he hadn’t wanted to do with any other woman. His hands held tight to her thighs as his tongue continued its assault with hard, steady strokes, needing the taste of her in each and every part of his mouth.

  He tasted her shivers, felt a
shudder shake her body and heard her moan his name as she automatically bucked against his mouth, but he refused to pull back. Instead his tongue seemed to go into a frenzy, and it took her with a greediness that sent tremors through him.

  A strangled growl escaped his lips when her spasms ended. He stood and quieted her aftershocks with his mouth on hers, needing to kiss her again. And then he was sweeping her into his arms and taking her to his bed and placing her on his satin bedspread.

  He slid a hand to her chest and undid the front clasp of her bra and eased her out of it, tossing it aside. He’d always thought that her breasts were the most beautiful in the world and automatically he leaned forward and rubbed his face against them, licking the area between her breasts before latching his lips onto a hardened nipple and drawing it into his mouth.

  Ignoring her moans, he suckled hard, deep, relentlessly, one then the other, once again mesmerized by her taste, and when he couldn’t hold back any longer, he stood and hurriedly stripped off his clothes, needing to be joined with her with such an intense need that his entire body was throbbing. And when he came back to the bed, she reached out and her hands captured his engorged flesh as if she needed to touch it, become reacquainted with the feel of it. When she began stroking him, he almost lost it.

  “Easy, baby,” he murmured as his knee pressed into the mattress. “Too much of that and I’m a goner.” He moved to position his body over hers and nudged her legs apart with his knee.

  His gaze locked on hers. He knew she’d been taking the Pill for years to regulate her periods, but for both of their protection, he reached into a small table and retrieved a foil square.

  Before he could open the small packet, Brooke took it, opened it and carefully placed the sheath on his erection.

  He reached out and brushed his hand against her cheek. “I want you so much, Brooke,” he murmured softly, and then with a primal growl he entered her, throwing his head back as something wild, primitive and obsessive took control inside him.

  She was tight, nearly as tight as she’d been the first time they’d made love and she’d been a virgin. It wasn’t his imagination, and he met her gaze, ignoring the hunger that propelled him to start moving. She was so tight that it felt like she was squeezing him, locking her feminine muscles securely around him, claiming him, making sure he couldn’t pull out even if he wanted to.

  She didn’t have that to worry about. He wasn’t going anywhere other than deeper inside her once he fully understood just what the tightness of her body meant. He met her gaze, and the look she gave him all but said, You figure it out.

  So he did.

  “This is the first time for you since…?” He couldn’t finish the question, since the very thought shocked the hell out of him. Four years was a long time and her devotion to him was the most touching thing he could ever imagine. The very idea that even now he had been her first and only lover tore a soundless howl of possessiveness from his throat. Her body knew him and only him.

  At that precise moment he wanted her with a passion he’d never felt before. Grasping her hips he began moving, stroking back and forth inside of her, going deeper. Her muscles clenched with each and every thrust he made, forcing his strokes to become more frantic.

  He had to look at her, had to remember this moment for the rest of his life, and he brought his head forward, met her gaze and saw the heat in her eyes and knew neither of them could last much longer although they were fighting to do so. This would be the last time they came together this way, and they intended to make a memory to last a lifetime.

  The thought, the very idea of not making love to her ever again, had him leaning forward, nipping at her shoulders, branding her while he felt her fingertips dig into his back as if to brand him, as well.

  “Ian, I—”

  He kissed the words off her lips. There was nothing to be said and when an explosion sent a million shudders ramming through his body, a loud growl tore from his throat through clenched teeth. He felt her come apart in his arms which caused another orgasm to rip through him. He thought he was going to die and quickly decided if he was about to take his last breath then this was definitely the way to go about it.

  And he knew, as he buried himself inside of her to the hilt again as a third orgasm quickly hit him and triggered a similar explosion inside her body and he began rocking back and forth inside of her with a hunger that wouldn’t let up, that he had miscalculated his emotions.

  He’d erroneously figured he could sleep with her this one last time and be done with it, effectively getting her out of his system. Instead, as he cupped her buttocks tighter in his hands and felt her thighs quake beneath his at the same time his release shot deep into her womb, he knew that she had burrowed deeper into it.

  * * *

  “Stay here and rest. I’ll let you know when dinner is ready,” Ian’s warm breath whispered against Brooke’s ear before he slipped out of bed.

  He glanced back over his shoulder long enough to see her eyes slowly drift open at the same time an adorable smile touched her lips as she snuggled under the covers. “Um, okay.”

  His lips twitched into a smile. He’d totally worn the woman out. She needed rest, and the only way to guarantee that she got it was for him to leave for a while. So after putting his pants back on he quietly eased open the door and slipped out of the room.

  Talk about him being obsessed with making love to her. They hadn’t made it past the foyer. She’d had no idea he’d set the stage for seduction with romantic lit candles. Their pure vanilla fragrance was sending a sweet scent through the rooms. He knew Brooke was partial to Thai food and so he’d had one of the resort restaurants prepare a special meal for them. He hoped the meal he had selected would please her. Making his way across the room, he picked up the phone and within minutes had instructed room service to deliver their dinner to his penthouse.

  Knowing there was nothing for him to do but wait, he walked over to the window and looked out. It was dark outside, but the shape of the mountains could be seen across the lake. He would love to share this beautiful view with Brooke.

  If he were to go back to his bedroom now and wake her he would do more than just show her the view. It was bad enough that he had to get her up when their meal came. He wouldn’t take any chances. Brooke was too much of a temptation, and now that he had made love to her he wanted her more and more.

  The memory of their bodies tangled together in his bed was so vivid in his mind that his blood was racing through his veins a little too fast to suit him. Although they had turned the heat up a notch, in fact had kicked it into a full blaze in his bed, a part of him refused to remain anything but cautious where she was concerned. She had hurt him once and could possibly do it again and he wasn’t a glutton for punishment.

  “Ian?”

  At the sound of her soft voice he felt his entire body go tense. Squaring his shoulders and taking a deep breath, he turned around. Immediately he wished he hadn’t. She was wearing the shirt he’d worn earlier, but she hadn’t bothered to button it up, giving him a good frontal view.

  He heard himself groan as his mind savored what he was seeing. There was nothing more beautiful than a naked or half-naked Brooke. A Brooke who’d recently been made love to or a Brooke who was wearing a let’s-do-it-again look on her face.

  The memories of what they had shared in his bedroom were tossing his mind every which way but loose. He fought for composure. He fought for control. He fought the urge to cross the room and take her again. If she was trying to get him all hot and bothered again, it was a complete waste of time because he was already there. He hadn’t cooled down from the last time.

  “Yes, Brooke?” he answered in a low, barely audible voice. “What is it that you want?”

  He met her gaze. Heaven help him if she even hinted that she wanted him to make love to her again. There was no way he would be able to resist. Even now his arousal was thickening beneath his zipper. “Just tell me what you want, sweetheart. Your ev
ery wish is my command.”

  Brooke’s breath caught as Ian’s gaze held hers. She tried to remember the last time he had called her sweetheart and couldn’t, it had seemed so long ago. But the endearment had flowed off his lips just as easily as it used to. And then there was the way he was looking at her with dark eyes filled with more than just heat and desire. Hope escalated within her at the thought that maybe, possibly…

  She quickly pushed the far-fetched thought from her mind. Ian might desire her but he no longer loved her. She tried to think but decided she couldn’t think very well with him looking at her like that. He’d said her every wish was his command. Well, she decided to put him to the test.

  “How soon will the food arrive?” she asked, sliding into one of the high-back chairs at the casino-style blackjack table in the room.

  “How soon do you want it?”

  She smiled, wondering if they were still talking about the food. “If the chef decided to cook slowly tonight it won’t bother me,” she said silkily.

  No sooner had the words left her lips than the zing of the elevator let them know that, unfortunately, the chef hadn’t been slow and their food was on the way up. Ian glanced across the room and saw the disappointed pout on her lips. Lips he couldn’t wait to devour again.

  “There’s no law that says we have to eat it as soon as the food gets here. It will keep for a while,” he assured her.

  Her response was a slow, sensuous smile, and a deliberate shifting of her body in the chair exposed a lot more than a bare leg. He bit back the growl that threatened to roar from deep within his throat.

  “Don’t you dare move,” he said when the elevator arrived on his floor. He quickly left and went to the elevator.

  Brooke smiled as a shiver slithered through her, and she found she couldn’t sit still as he’d instructed. When she had walked into the room and had seen the flickering candles and inhaled the scent of vanilla, as well as seeing Ian standing at the window shirtless, displaying his muscular shoulders and wearing pants that showed what a great butt he had, she had fought back the need to cross the room and touch him all over, ease down on her knees in front of him and unzip his pants and ultimately savor him the same way he’d done her earlier.