His Last Gamble Read Online Free PDF Page A

first meal out, or that first visit to the cinema.
    It was Lucy who was the famous actress. Lucy who could be really beautiful, just because she made people believe that she was so. Lucy who had the charm, the talent, the appeal. It had always been so.
    She just designed dresses.
    For a moment, she felt an intense longing to be back home. Safe in her cottage, with her cat, Wordsworth, and the garden that she loved to fill with all the old-fashioned country garden plants. There all was calm and right with her world. Here, she was lost. Buffeted by sensations and feelings that were alien and strange. And, she was sure, dangerous.
    Unspeakably dangerous.
    â€˜Your friend is well named,’ he said, wondering what was making her shake all over again. Surely it wasn’t her temper coming back.
    â€˜Who? Jo-Jo?’
    â€˜No. Jinx.’
    And suddenly Charmaine was burbling with laughter. He hadn’t fallen for the super-glamorous model after all, then. When she’d seen them dancing, with Jinx’s flame-red hair against his shoulder, they’d looked so right together. But they’d only danced the once, and she’d hoped, oh how she’d hoped, that she hadn’t imagined it when he’d seemed relieved to deposit her back at the bar.
    Now she knew she’d been right.
    â€˜Most men fall for Jinx like a ton of bricks,’ she felt obliged to point out.
    â€˜And isn’t she just used to it,’ he drawled. ‘No. I’m much more interested in you.’
    Charmaine stumbled against him.
    â€˜You are?’ she whispered. Her heart seemed to lift, then plunge, like a bird about to take wing, then realising, just before it was too late, that it couldn’t actually fly.
    â€˜Hmm-hmm,’ he confirmed lazily. ‘Just what makes you tick, Charmaine? One moment you’re the hard-bitten woman with her eye on the main chance. The next, you’re all a-tremble.’
    Charmaine pulled her head back to look at him. ‘What do you mean? What main chance?’
    â€˜Oh come on,’ Payne said. ‘Don’t tell me you’re not sleeping with the boss?’
    Charmaine gasped. She stepped back, her eyes firing up like an acetylene torch. Payne felt a huge surge of desire hit him. Yes. Now. Now she would erupt.
    â€˜You certainly live up to your name, don’t you?’ Charmaine hissed. ‘Payne by name, and pain by nature.’
    â€˜Whereas you don’t,’ he shot back. ‘You may be Charmaine by name, but charming by nature—I don’t think so.’
    He laughed then winced as she kicked him on the shin.
    His jaw tightened, but his dancing step never faltered. In fact, Charmaine realised, they were still dancing, and had never stopped.
    â€˜For your information,’ she hissed, ‘Jo-Jo is gay. He’s been living with his partner, Peter, a top investment banker, for nearly ten years now.’
    Payne smiled. ‘Is that a fact,’ he said gloatingly.
    And Charmaine realised how neatly he’d tricked her into divulging information. Information she could have used to her advantage, if only she’d kept her big mouth shut. She could have used Jo-Jo to make him jealous. Or even, to act as a much-needed shield and buffer.
    Too late now.
    Her eyes narrowed. She drew her foot back in preparation.
    â€˜Ah, ah, ah,’ he said warningly, turning sharply, pivoting her around and bending her supple back over against his arm, laughingly neutralising her. ‘No more kicking.’
    Charmaine clung on to his shoulders, despair burning deep inside her again.
    It was all going wrong again!
    First the disastrous start, now this. If she was going to go through with her plan, she had to pull her socks up! How was she ever going to win him over when she kicked his shins like a frustrated schoolgirl?
    But she knew only too well what had come over her. Temper. And fear. For the first time in her sheltered, ordered, calm life, she