Player's Challenge Read online

  Not going to be a problem! With him pushing her buttons, she’d probably come louder than Big Ben.

  She more than proved it an orgasmic second later.

  Rendered almost insensible by the explosive assault on her senses, by the agonizing pleasure, she lay adrift absorbed by the rapture strumming through her body. But Devin, an adept lover, continued to forge forward, his mouth milking her, breaking her down and then building her up again. He sucked harder, rimmed her quivering flesh, alternating between slow savoring licks and demanding thrusts of his tongue. Dazed and boneless, Gemma gasped his name. There was no way he could give her back-to-back orgasms.

  “You taste so good. I can’t wait to have your sweet juices coating my cock.”

  Gemma rolled her eyes, his mouth and words transporting her over the edge.

  Devin pushed to his feet, his eyes never leaving the object of his every desire. Sprawled, with her legs dangling off the bed, Gemma remained blissfully unaware of his regard. Sighing contentedly, toned thighs parted, she was still riding the wave of a third orgasm.

  Perfectly sculpted with a celestial beauty, she was a goddess blessed with dark skin, lush lips, and mouth-watering curves deserving to be zealously worshiped.

  With quick efficiency, Devin discarded his trousers. He didn’t want to give Gemma time to rethink their finally coming together. Sure, he’d just rocked her world with back-to-back orgasms, but that didn’t mean she would let him finish what he’d started.

  When his thumbs hooked in the top of his briefs, she suddenly sat up, startling him.

  “Wait—!” Her tone bordered between an order and a wail.

  Suspicious, his eyes narrowed. “So help me, if you’re about to tell me you’re not ready, I’m going to tear this bedroom apart.”

  Chuckling, Gemma shook her head. Her dark tresses, no longer as sleek as they were before, brushed her delicate shoulders. When she wiggled her fingers at him, he stepped forward.

  Immediately latching onto his hips, the heel of her hand grazed the tip of his cock and he drew in a ragged breath. “I want the pleasure of taking these off,” she quietly said.

  Colored with reticence and uncertainty, her voice caused the blood to rush to his shaft. Beyond ready to bury himself inside her, he shoveled his hand in her hair, and tipped her head back. “Fancy them do you?”

  Eyes locked with his, Gemma pulled on the thin cotton at his hips and tugged. “Earlier, when I saw you standing in the closet, wearing nothing but these, my brain literally fried.”

  Devin smiled. His plan had worked. “You’re in luck. I’ve got a dozen more.”

  Her mouth parted in a delightful, husky gasp, and he hoped with age had come sexually maturity. He’d love her luscious lips wrapped around his cock. She’d refused often enough when they were kids, thinking blowjobs were gross, so he hoped she no longer had the same mindset. Eager to be inside her, Devin helped her slide the briefs down his legs and then happily kicked them aside.

  “Oh, boy,” she whispered when he fell heavily into her palm. The swollen tip visibly pulsing, the distended veins throbbing with the rhythm of his heartbeat.

  “Have I changed much?”

  Her gaze traveled up his body and met his. “Only improved. You’re beautiful…all of you.”

  Moved by her admiration, his cock jumped in her hand, drawing her attention. She bent her head and she licked the tip. Devin expelled a sharp breath. Her tongue traveled like a hot brand against his sensitive skin. Wanting more, he pressed against her lips.

  She took his hard length in her hands, running her palms up and around him, circling him with her fingers. She opened her mouth, and her wet lips surrounded him, her tongue sliding down him like an ice lolly. He moaned at the enveloping heat and lash of her tongue, his balls tightening with each stroke.

  Wanting more…needing more, he flexed his hips. With each thrust, she took him deeper until his balls kissed her bottom lip. She was driving him wild. “If you keep it up,” he warned. “It’s going to be my turn to come.”

  As if he’d given her the keys to the kingdom, she gripped his rear and squeezed. Her mouth held him, sucking harder. Devin followed her lead, pumping his cock deep, bumping the back of her throat.

  “You got me so close,” he groaned, feeling a knot of pressure in his balls and the root of his cock, the ecstasy bombarding his nerves. It was almost as if they’d never been separated because there was no explanation for the insatiable need she incited in him. This overwhelming desire, these sensations were like a fever he couldn’t check. Never could, he admitted, like when he was a boy in Birmingham.

  And like a pubescent boy, Devin was swept up in a frenzy with Gemma as the ultimate mastermind. He shut his eyes as she released him to the tip, the moment heart stopping. And when her hands gripped his shaft, jerked once…twice, he shot his seed into her mouth.

  Only when the flaring intensity had partially diminished, his lashes lifted letting the world in again. She was balanced on her knees with her palms resting on her thighs, her hair askew, her lips wet and glistening. Heart practically bursting with emotion, Devin smiled. He might have floated back to reality, but he’d found the woman of his dreams.

  Chapter Eight

  “Slide over into the middle of the bed.”

  Gemma obeyed while Devin walked around the bed to the nightstand. Vaguely, she heard a drawer open and shut, followed by the sound of foil tearing. Body throbbing in anticipation, she turned her head and looked at him. His gaze was riveted on her as he rolled a condom over his shaft. Gemma inhaled and exhaled. This is going to hurt!

  Before she could second guess her decision, he climbed onto the bed and stretched himself on top of her, pinning her to the mattress with his body. Almost reverently, he pushed a lock of hair from her face. “Feels like the first time doesn’t it?”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Gemma confessed. She gasped when the head of his cock pressed against her labia. With a sudden flush of shyness and trepidation, she froze up. And then she felt the warmth of his breath upon her skin and moist heat upon her breast.

  “I’m nervous too,” he whispered. “You make me feel unsure of myself. Inside, I’m praying I don’t mess this up.” His lips made soothing, insinuating forays across her collar bone and her throat and upward to her face. “You don’t mind if I go slowly the first time?”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’d like that.”

  His lips captured hers. Unlike before, the urgency was gone, the almost primitive aggression, and she responded to it. Softening underneath him, melting against him. Gemma knew she’d reached the point of no return, and she didn’t care. She’d been too long without a man—without this man.

  Words spilled out of him, soothing murmurs of endearment. He kissed her, worshipping her with his lips, his touch, and his voice until her legs curled around him.

  “I’m ready,” she whispered.

  His hands slipped beneath her hips, lifting her, parting her legs on either side of him. When he entered her, Gemma gasped. He was so big and hard, the connection so brutally intimate, she’d never felt this close to anyone in her life.

  “I missed this…I missed you.” His entire body tensed, biceps straining as he retreated, leaving only the head of his cock inside her. “Did you ever think about me?”

  “Too much.”

  “Makes two of us,” he said, thrusting home.

  Pleasure washed over her like a wave, taking with it all the regret and what ifs. All the lonely nights had been worth it for this moment. Better to have no sex than bad sex, she’d always believed, and Devin’s brand of lovemaking was mind numbing.

  A storm brewed inside her, blood pounding like thunder in her ears. Desperate for him, for more, she clutched at him, her fingers digging in the warm flesh of his back. He answered in kind by tightening his hold on her hips and lifting her to meet his measured strokes. Gemma squeezed her eyes shut as a coil of heat unfurled deep in her belly.

 
She was going to come again. She attempted to hold out, but when he bit down on her nipple, a mixture of pleasure and pain shot through her. Her body tightened and clenched around him as she climaxed.

  “Gemma, you’re making me come.” From the dim edge of consciousness, she felt his last powerful thrust, his tortured groan, as he held himself deep inside her. Once sated, he collapsed next to her. Not quite ready to relinquish contact, he slipped his arm beneath her shoulders and drew her close.

  “Just like old times.”

  Her body still pulsing from the aftershocks, Gemma ran her hand over his chest. “Better than old times.”

  “I concur, my dear Watson.” He lifted his head and smiled. A jolt of excitement charged through her. “Ready to top it?”

  She nodded and he rolled her beneath him.

  ***

  Gemma slid the screen saver on her phone to bring up a text message from her boss. She peeked at Devin as she rolled off the bed. After a night of marathon sex and giving her multiple orgasms, he’d finally crashed at dawn.

  Since her clothes were still in the hallway, Gemma pulled the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around her.

  “Hey what’s up, kiddo?”

  “I’m fine, and you?” Gemma slipped into the guest bedroom and closed the door behind her.

  “I’m having a fantastic morning,” Yvonne gushed. “I just finished watching Devin’s interview. Freakin’ fantastic! I knew you two would work well together.”

  Riddled with guilt, Gemma whispered, “Ah, thanks.”

  “Did you plow through Devin’s current contract last night?”

  More like he plowed me. “Almost. I want to read through it one more time before I submit my report.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Gemma!”

  Gemma winced. Could he be any louder? “Is there anything else?” she asked, talking over Devin’s caterwauling.

  “No. Just email me the preliminary contract when you get a chance.”

  “Will do! Enjoy the rest of your day. Bye.”

  Gemma hung up the phone so fast she didn’t hear her boss reciprocate. Instead, she yanked opened the door and caught Devin stalking down the hallway gloriously naked.

  “GEMMA!”

  “Are you trying to wake up the entire building?”

  He swiveled around, his gaze zeroed in on her, while hers focused on his semi-hard cock already sheathed in a fresh condom. She could just envision him putting on the hot pink prophylactic, turning over in bed and finding it empty. Poor baby.

  “What took you so long to answer?” His chest was rising and falling as if he’d just run a mile. For some insane reason, she kind of liked this possessive side of him.

  “I was on the phone with my boss.” Smiling, Gemma held up her cell phone as she met him halfway. “She called to congratulate you on yesterday. In her words, she said you were ‘freakin’ fantastic’.”

  He wiped his hand over his mouth, visibly relieved. “I thought you’d left.”

  “Nope. I’ve been here the entire time.”

  His eye lids fell to half-mast and his expression went blank, shrouding his emotions. “I’m not happy about you being here.”

  Gemma frowned. Boy did she read his body language wrong. Was he kicking her to the curb already? Couldn’t he have waited until she’d at least taken a shower? Her skin and even her hair smelled like sex. And in all honesty, she hadn’t fully bounced back from her assault. Just yesterday, she’d crossed the street to avoid a group of skateboarders loitering in front of the laundromat on the corner.

  Still, she wouldn’t beg him to stay. “Ah…you’re right,” she conceded, blinking back angry tears. What a fool she’d been. “I shouldn’t be here. Give me thirty minutes and I’ll be out of your hair.”

  When she pivoted on her heel, heading toward the guest room, his hand shot out. “You aren’t going anywhere.”

  Gemma groaned. His touch could make her heart race faster than the Eurostar. “You just told me to leave. Make up your bloody mind.”

  He walked her backward until her back hit the wall. “I meant you shouldn’t be in the hallway. You should still be in my bed.” He rested his arm above her head and leaned closer. Only slightly turned on before, her libido was now running at full throttle. “I didn’t like waking up and finding you gone.”

  The tension between them was so thick, she could cut it with a knife. She licked her suddenly dry lips and his eyes tracked her tongue until it disappeared into her mouth. “I guess I’ve been a bad girl.”

  “Very bad.”

  “What are you going to do about it?” Gemma inhaled sharply.

  “I’m going to teach you a lesson.” He slid his hand down her arm and grasped her wrist. “I’m going to take you right here against this wall. Maybe then, you’ll appreciate my bed.”

  He tilted his head at the same time he undid the knot at her bosom, causing the sheet to puddle at her feet. Her nipples instantly beaded.

  “I can’t get enough of you,” he said, while circling a brown nipple with his thumb and forefinger. Even though she anticipated his next move, Gemma gasped loudly when he captured the bud between his lips.

  His erection brushed her inner thigh, spurring her desperation to have him inside her. She looped her arms around his neck, lifted her right leg, and rose to her toes on the other to gain leverage. The head of his cock brushed the folds of her cleft and she shivered as a ripple of pleasure cascaded over her.

  “Put me inside you,” he rasped, tilting his hips toward her, putting him at the perfect angle. Gemma curled her hand around him. She positioned him just so, and then pressed down.

  “Can’t believe you’re already wet for me.” He drew her nipple into his mouth and suckled, enflaming her desire. “You have no idea how much that turns me on.”

  Oh, she had a pretty good idea. His cock had grown exponentially, stretching her. He was almost too big. But her body didn’t mind because she drew him in deeper, accommodating him to the root.

  Using both his hands, Devin slowly lifted and lowered her. His hips churned fiercely, banging her into the wall. The nonstop pounding and violence spurred her primitive instincts, exciting her. She raked her nails across his shoulder blades, tearing his flesh.

  “I’m going to come so hard.” He growled in the crook of her neck, driving her wild. He clutched her buttocks, holding her as his hips moved harder and faster, driving into her without any subtlety, but rough and with a maddening sense of urgency. As if he needed to come or the world would end.

  His impatience and frustration flowed from him to her. Panting and frantic, she worked herself into a frenzy on his thick cock. “Yes…yes,” she encouraged, her core tightening with each forceful thrust.

  The air around them grew hot and humid, practically stifling. Their bodies now perspiring with sweat, slid against each the other. Squeezing her thighs, Gemma closed her eyes and focused on the rhythmic slap of his balls against her ass and the exquisite feel of him filling her, stretching her.

  Pulling away from him, she gasped for air. She was so close to a mind-shattering climax she could taste it.

  “Let go,” he demanded, sounding winded from exertion. And yet he maintained his rhythm, pumping into her over and over again.

  As if on cue, her body responded. The first ripple hit her and she moaned. The second pulse slammed into her and she splintered, crying out with the intensity of her climax.

  “So beautiful.” Devin arched his hips, pushing deeper, holding onto her as she fell.

  Gemma wasn’t quite sure how they made it into the living room. Both of them sprawled on the couch with her draped across him like a blanket, his hands caressing her lower back and the curve of her ass. She was very aware of the fact they’d been holed up in his penthouse, for the past three days, refusing all calls, not conducting any business, basically ignoring the outside world. Every single minute had been sheer heaven.

  “Any regrets?” he whispered into her hair.r />
  Gemma propped her chin on her hands. Eyes heavy-lidded from too much sex and not enough sleep, Devin was so impossibly gorgeous her heart swelled.

  “No.”

  Glittering green eyes searched her face. “Really?”

  “You said you respected me. So I’m hoping you’re going to respect my wishes.”

  He stiffened. “And what are your wishes?”

  “For however long this lasts, you will keep this just between us.”

  With what looked like relief, he raked a hand through his hair. “Close to my heart, if it’s what you want.”

  Moved, Gemma glanced down at his chest. Like always, his tattoos caught her eye. She traced the outline of the heart above his pectoral muscle. Her hand stilled on the downward curve. Gemma blinked. Just to be sure, she sat up. Nope, she wasn’t imagining things. Her name was etched in cursive letters along the neck of a golden key dangling from the tattoo.

  Not the least bit embarrassed, Devin grinned. “I was wondering how long it was going to take you to finally notice.”

  She reached out and traced the key’s outline. “But why?”

  “It’s true.” His head fell back against the arm rest and he closed his eyes as if they were discussing one of his favorite reality shows.

  “You’re crazy,” she said, even though her heart was swelling with emotion.

  “A tad bit.”

  “What if this doesn’t pan out?”

  “Are you asking me if I’ll remove it?

  “More or less,” she mumbled. Deep down she hoped he never would, but her self-esteem needed validation.

  “Doubt it. Others, who shall remain unnamed, have asked and yet it remains.”

  Gemma suddenly remembered something she’d read in a gossip rag. “Wait. Is this the tattoo Cecilia Millbrook wanted you to remove?”

  Devin popped an eye open. “She gave me a good excuse to end things,” he drawled.

  WTF? He refused to remove the tattoo even for a BAFTA-nominated actress and as a result the relationship fizzled?

  Gemma reached out and smacked him. “You wanker.”