Sweet Seduction Sabotage Read Online Free PDF Page A

long had he watched me?
    "A while."
    His lips twitched, lopsided, but still a smirk.
    "Do you wish to be alone?" he asked. Not the Drew I'd come to know.
    Andrew Kline demanded. Walked into a room and stole all the air. One look and I was his. One nod of his head towards a hidden spot and I was there. One touch and I was gone.
    But tonight I was empty, and even his presence didn't fill me up.
    Is that why he was treading so carefully? No look. No nod. No touch.
    Until I asked.
    I shook my head in answer to his question. It happened naturally. I hadn't meant to make the move, but there it was.
    I'd cut one of my five off tonight, I couldn't manage a second within an hour of the first. That's what I told myself, but when Drew finally reached forward and slipped his hand into mine I realised I was a hopeless liar. Even to myself.
    Drew was never going to be the next I would cull. I was always going to save him 'til last. I'd not consciously acknowledged that until now. With his big, smooth hand in mine, his quiet, steady grey eyes holding me trapped, I finally felt something fill that emptiness inside.
    This was dangerous. I knew it. Drew was not the answer to my fucked up life. He was part of the problem.
    Wasn't he?
    He pulled me slowly from behind the table and then wrapped my arm up in his to guide me from the bar. We came out into the brighter atrium of Sky City Casino, pausing for a few tourists to pass. I had no idea where he would take me. He'd never taken me home to his bed before. Would he break that rule now? I'd never wanted him to. Had that changed?
    Or would he simply book us into the hotel attached to the Tower, offer to shag me behind the slot machines, drag me to the lifts and hit the emergency stop button halfway between floors?
    "Ever played Roulette?" he asked, from out of nowhere.
    "Ah, no. Blackjack, Poker. Anything with cards." That you could strip to, I didn't add. The evening had taken on a surreal quality. I was well out of my normal depth.
    "Roulette's a game of chance, Kelly," he said, leading me towards the entrance to the Casino itself. "Take a gamble on life. Press forward and see what pops up."
    In any other circumstances I would have considered those words a come-on. But Drew wasn't looking at me, he was searching for an available place beside one of several big spinning Roulette Wheels, concentration, not flirtation, marring his commanding façade.
    A sense of burgeoning excitement filled me, somehow dulling the ache of just moments before. The Sky City Casino is a bright and frantic place, full of colours and lights, noise and laughter. The clink of plastic chips, the rattle of dollar coins spilling out of a One Arm Bandit machine. House calls and croupier catch phrases making for a heady mix of anticipation and fun.
    I slid into the seat Drew offered, feeling his hand linger on the back of my neck before he sat himself down. Handing over a credit card to the croupier, he passed me two large predominantly yellow plastic chips he'd received in exchange. A picture of One Tree Hill was on the centre and small lettering bordered the edge, that let me know they were worth a whopping great one thousand dollars a piece.
    I stared at the chips, feeling Drew's heated gaze.
    "All at once, Kelly? Or are you a dip your toe in first, to see if it's warm, kind of girl?"
    My eyes came up to his, a sparkle of mischief glinted in amongst the grey.
    "Take a chance, Kelly. What's the worst that can happen?"
    "We lose two thousand dollars of your hard earned cash?"
    He shrugged elegantly clad shoulders and leaned forward to whisper against my ear, the first truly provocative move he'd made since I'd laid eyes on him tonight.
    "I think you're worth it, Ms Quayle."
    I pulled back and frowned at him. What, just two grand? Those bloody beautiful lips tipped up at the edges again.
    "Well, if that's what you think," I said, turning back to the Roulette Wheel and reaching across the red felt covered table, placing both