Winning Ace: A Winning Ace Novel (Book 1)

by Tracie Delaney

  Tally moaned softly as Cash deepened the kiss. His hand cupped the back of her neck, anchoring her in position as he took what he wanted and gave her what she needed. Lost in a sea of emotions, she forgot where she was, and as her hands knitted into his hair, she became an equal partner rather than an inactive participant.

  Cash groaned loudly, the sound rumbling in his chest, and Tally felt her seatbelt spring back into its holster as he tugged her to sit across his lap side-saddle.

  “You’ve cast a spell on me, sweetness.” He moved in to kiss her again.

  Several minutes later, the car stopped, and the interior lights came on.

  Cash’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “Looks like we’ve arrived at stage two,” he said, lifting her off his lap and back into her own seat.

  Tally peered out of the window. Several small planes were dotted around. Some seemed abandoned while others had several workmen milling about.

  “Where are we?”

  “City Airport.” He opened his door and climbed out. Tally watched him walk around the back of the car, too dumbfounded to move. What on earth were they doing at City? Cash opened her door and held out his hand. “Come on. We take off in five minutes.”

  “Take off where?” Her voice squeaked, and she cleared her throat. “Where are we going?” she asked in a much more acceptable tone.

  Cash tapped the side of his nose with his finger. “That would be telling.”

  The playful glint in his eye was hard to resist. She bet Cash knew exactly how to show a girl a good time, although the way he’d acquired that skill wasn’t something she wanted to dwell on. Better to focus on the fact that in this moment, she was the girl he wanted to spend time with. She was under no illusions—this wouldn’t last. And when it ended, it was going to hurt. But for now, she was going to push aside any negative thoughts and simply live in the moment.

  With her hand firmly in his, Cash led Tally up the steps of a small plane. The inside couldn’t have been more different to a commercial jet. Towards the front were two sets of seats in pale-cream leather, each facing the other with a square, light-oak table in between. At the back of the jet was a sofa full of squishy cushions, and a small galley behind that. She’d never seen anything like it.

  “Is this yours?” she asked.

  “One of them, yes.”

  “One of them? Wow, it’s fabulous.”

  Cash shrugged. “It’s okay for short trips. I use it mainly for travelling around northern Europe, but for longer trips I have a larger jet. With a bedroom.” He winked suggestively making heat rush to her cheeks.

  He showed her to one of the seats at the front and had a brief chat with a man she assumed was the captain before sitting down opposite her.

  “You’re not going to tell me where we’re going, are you?”

  “Not a chance,” he said.

  “You know I’m due at work in the morning, right? No whisking me off to the Caribbean.”

  With a smirk, Cash settled back in his seat. As the plane began to taxi, he gazed out of the window, but when the engines throttled and the plane began to accelerate down the runway, his face paled, and he gripped the arms of the chair tightly.

  “Don’t you like flying?”

  “Hate it,” he said through gritted teeth, his knuckles turning white. “Particularly this bit.”

  “Why are we here, then? Wouldn’t it have been easier to head for the nearest steakhouse?”

  Cash flashed a look that didn’t invite further conversation, and as the plane lifted into the sky, he sucked in a breath, the air whistling through his teeth.

  “Fuck,” he bit out.

  Tally shuffled as far forwards as her seatbelt allowed and grabbed his hand, which stayed rock still beneath hers. He squeezed his eyes shut, and as his breathing escalated, his chest rose and fell with increasing speed. After a few minutes, the captain switched off the seatbelt signs. Tally unfastened hers and swept her tongue over her dry lips. Ignoring the nervous fluttering in her stomach, she walked around the table that separated them. She hitched up her skirt and straddled his legs, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  “You did great.”

  “Oh, baby,” he murmured, burying his face in her neck and massaging her inner thighs with his thumbs. “If the plane crashed now, I’d die happy.”

  “It’s not going to crash.” She squeezed him tightly then began to stand.

  “Don’t,” he said, gripping her hips to hold her in place. “Stay, Natalia. Please.”

  She grinned. “No one calls me Natalia. Only you.”

  He gave her a crooked smile. “A beautiful name for a beautiful woman. Anyway, I told you at the fundraiser I wasn’t most people.”

  “You’ve got that right,” she mumbled as he began to nibble on her earlobe. The sensation travelled right to her groin, and she clenched her inner muscles, hoping to control the heat pooling in her abdomen. A low grumble sounded deep in Cash’s throat as he trailed kisses across her neck. She closed her eyes and held back a groan of pleasure.

  When he pulled away, his breathing was ragged. “It pains me to do this, sweetness, but as I don’t have a spare pair of trousers…” He left the reason hanging in the air as he lifted her off his lap. Wrapping a hand around her neck, he kissed her hard. “Best get back in your seat before you force me to change my plans.”

  With her pulse racing, Tally sat down while Cash wandered to the back of the plane, the bulge in his trousers unmistakeable as he passed by. She hid a smile behind her hand at his obvious attraction to her. When he returned with a bottle of champagne and two glasses and expertly popped the cork without spilling a drop, she couldn’t stop the rush of happiness.

  “To us.” He clinked his glass against hers and took a sip. She followed suit. Crisp and delicious, the champagne went some way to helping with her nerves.

  It wasn’t long before the ping of the seatbelt sign broke the spell. As she buckled up, Cash’s easy manner disappeared, and the white knuckles made a return.

  “If you hadn’t stopped me before, you wouldn’t have even noticed the descent,” she said, holding her hand out for him to grip. Surprised but pleased with her boldness, she grinned. Something about Cash made her want to be reckless.

  A brief smile flashed across his face as he clutched her hand. “Now that has taken my mind off things.”

  Ten minutes later, they landed with a bump, and Cash cursed under his breath. As the aircraft came to a stop, the tension he’d suffered evaporated, and a slow grin spread across his face. “Ready?”

  FOURTEEN

  The captain switched off the seatbelt signs, and Cash rose from his chair. “Come on.”

  Natalia peered through the plane’s tiny windows into the darkness beyond. “Where are we?”

  “Ah, that would be telling.” He held out his hand. “Only one way to find out.”

  She gave him a shy smile before taking it. “Okay. Lead the way.”

  Cash helped Natalia down the steps to the waiting limousine complete with chauffeur. Her eyes widened as she took in the huge black car and uniformed driver, and he repressed a smile. He was determined to make their date amazing from start to finish. That he gave a shit surprised him, but at the same time, there was something about Natalia. She was sparky and challenging one minute, shy and uncertain the next, and he loved the fact he didn’t know which one he was going to get.

  He showed their IDs to the official and handed Natalia’s back to her. “After you.”

  She climbed into the car, and he got a great view of her backside in the close-fitting skirt as she bent down. He shuddered with pleasure.

  Aren’t you getting in?” she said when he remained rooted to the spot, his mind still firmly on the sight of her arse.

  “Sure thing, baby.”

  As the car set off, Natalia wiped a hand over the steamed-up window. “I can’t see anything. It’s too dark.”

  “We’re at an airport,” he teased.

  She rolled her ey
es. “I know that. Which airport?”

  “Nice try, sweetness.” He dug a hand into his pocket and produced an airline sleep mask, his stomach clenching as all sorts of possibilities sprang to mind. “No peeking.”

  She glanced at the mask and swept a few strands of her hair off her face. “You’re not serious?”

  “Deadly. Let me surprise you. I promise I’ll behave. Scouts honour.” He held up three fingers, and Natalia giggled.

  “You were never a scout.”

  “I’ll have you know, until tennis took over my life, my father used to take me to the local scouts group every Wednesday.”

  It was clear he’d made a mistake the minute her eyes widened, and he half expected her to take out a voice recorder or a notepad and start scrawling. He inwardly cursed.

  “Your father? You mentioned him at the gala, but when I was researching the article, I couldn’t find much about him online at all, only that he died just before you turned sixteen.”

  The old familiar anger at his father began to build, and he ground his teeth, his muscles quivering with barely contained rage.

  “But you had a good go at digging up some shit, right?” he said, his tone bitter and harsh. He watched her wither as the venom spilling from his lips killed her earlier spark. Yet despite that, he kept going. He moved in closer and narrowed his eyes. “I’d better not see that little nugget in the next edition of your paper.”

  Her shoulders sagged, and she pressed her body farther into the corner. “Is that what you think of me?” she whispered.

  “Once a reporter…” He was remotely aware—through the red mist that thinking of him always brought about—that he was killing her spirit, killing the small shoots of something pretty wonderful that had sprung up between them.

  A single tear fell from her right eye, and she dashed it away before leaning forward and tapping the driver on the shoulder. “Can you stop the car, please?”

  “Ignore her. Keep driving.”

  “Stop the car,” she repeated.

  The driver pulled over, and Natalia wrenched the door open. Before Cash could wake himself up from being a total fucker, she’d already spilled out onto the pavement. He scrambled across the backseat.

  “Natalia, don’t,” he said to her retreating back. “I’m sorry, okay. I’m sorry.”

  She drew to a halt but didn’t turn around. He placed his hands on her shoulders and eased her to face him. “I’m sorry,” he said again. He cupped her face and wiped away mascara smudges with his thumbs. “I can be a real bastard at times. I didn’t mean it. I know you’d never spread my personal life across the front pages.”

  “But I did,” she said, her face glum. “And that’s always going to be the elephant in the room, isn’t it?”

  “I shouldn’t have said what I did. Please get back in the car. It’s freezing out here.”

  She hesitated for a few moments and then brushed past him and slipped inside the car. He breathed a sigh of relief and followed her. Once they were moving again, Natalia turned to face him.

  “Cash, I’m a journalist. And I’m ambitious. Writing for a living is all I’ve ever wanted to do since I was a kid. But this…” She swung her hand between them. “I need you to believe that I’d never write about what goes on between us. You don’t need to watch what you say around me, worried that it’ll end up on the front pages. You have my word on that.”

  He picked up her hand and pressed her palm to his cheek. “I believe you. Forgive me.”

  She smiled and held out her other hand. “Give it here, then.”

  He frowned. “What?”

  “The mask. If you want me to wear the damned thing, I will. But I’m warning you, if you draw a moustache on me or shave off my eyebrows, I will be seriously pissed off.”

  The warm laughter in her eyes lit him up inside. How easily she’d forgiven him. How quickly she’d changed the subject to something lighter and more fun. It was more than he deserved. He picked the mask up from the floor and handed it to her. She slipped it on.

  “How do I look?”

  “Sexy as fuck.”

  And it was true. His desires roared to the surface, allowing his imagination to run riot. Natalia naked, blindfolded, his to savour. Cash glanced out of the window to distract himself. He so badly needed to fuck her. He wanted to prove to himself that a screw was all he needed to get her out of his system, but he also wanted it to be the best night of his life and strengthen the errant thought that one night with her would mean more than the others all put together.

  “How much longer?”

  He rested his hand on her leg, resisting the urge to push up her skirt and bury his fingers inside her.

  “Five minutes tops.”

  A few minutes later, the car drew to a halt. Cash glanced out of the window and grinned. She was going to love this. “Ready, baby?”

  “Yes.”

  He removed the eye mask and tucked it in his pocket.

  She blinked a couple of times as her eyes readjusted to the light, and she gave him an uneasy smile. “Where are we?”

  “Look.” He opened the window and pointed. Natalia stuck her head out.

  She gasped. “I don’t believe it.”

  FIFTEEN

  The Eiffel Tower stood towering above them, brightly lit with thousands of golden lights. Tally twisted around and stared disbelievingly at Cash. When he’d put her on a plane, it had been obvious they weren’t exactly going down to the local Indian for a curry, but she’d never imagined this.

  “You brought me to Paris? Cash, we’re in Paris.” She felt herself glowing from the inside out, and she was smiling so wide her cheeks began to hurt. “I’ve never been to Paris.”

  He flashed a grin. “That’s what I hoped. I wanted our first date to be different. Special.”

  “Well, you’ve achieved that.” She stuck her head back out of the window, unable to tear her gaze away. The Eiffel Tower was more magnificent in reality than a thousand pictures could hope to show. She wished she had a better camera than the one on her phone.

  The chauffeur opened the car door and helped her out. Cash followed directly behind, and as he slipped his arm around her waist, she leaned into his body. She tugged her phone out of her bag and took a few shots. “It’s amazing.”

  Cash pointed upwards towards the top of the structure. “That’s where we’re going for dinner.”

  Tally craned her neck, eyes shielded behind her hand, before she met Cash’s excited gaze and broad grin. “Cash, I’m sorry. I can’t go up there. I’m afraid of heights.”

  His smile fell, and he gaped at her as his excitement turned to horror. “You’re kidding.”

  “Yeah, I am,” she said, giving his shoulder a playful nudge. “I love heights.”

  Cash eased her around to face him. The lights from the Eiffel Tower were reflected in his eyes, which were twinkling with mischievous intent. “Ah, so that’s how we’re playing tonight. Okay, sweetness, let’s play. But I warn you: I play hard. And I play to win.”

  She grinned. “Bring it on.”

  Cash leaned in and kissed her hard right under the arcs of the tower. When he withdrew, the earlier playful glint in his eyes had disappeared, replaced by a look that made her knees tremble and her head spin.

  “Dinner first,” he said.

  Her stomach flipped at the not-so-hidden meaning behind his comment. Every fibre of her being was vibrating with barely contained anticipation as Cash took her hand and led her to some stone steps covered with a canopy that read “Le Jules Verne.” A glass elevator whisked them to the second floor of the tower, opening onto an opulent restaurant. As they stepped inside, the smell of freshly baked bread wafted over.

  “I’m a sucker for fresh bread,” she said.

  Cash smiled. “Me too.”

  A waiting staff member showed them to a generously proportioned table adorned with a vase of fresh white lilies. The table overlooked a large, grassy rectangular area with lights on either side. />
  As the waiter pulled out her chair, Tally peered through the window. “Wow, what a view.” She tucked her skirt beneath her as she sat down.

  “Yeah, it’s quite something.”

  Cash ordered the wine while Tally continued to stare out of the window at people milling about far below. She was so high up they looked like Lego figures.

  “Is that some sort of a park?” she asked Cash after the waiter had retreated.

  “Yeah. Champ de Mars. In the past, it was used as a training ground for the military, but now it’s a public space.”

  “It’s so beautiful.”

  “Compared to you, it’s ugly.”

  She snorted. “You need glasses.”

  The waiter returned with the wine before Cash could answer, but it was hard to miss the slight shake of his head. He took a sip of the wine and gave a curt nod. The waiter filled her glass before returning to fill Cash’s.

  “Why do you do that?” he said as soon as the waiter had moved away.

  “Do what?”

  “Say things that are so self-deprecating. If you keep telling people bad things about yourself, they’ll start to believe them.”

  Tally gnawed the inside of her cheek. Cash’s dressing-down took her back to her form teacher at school, who had mastered the art. “I have issues.” She softened her comment with a grin, but Cash simply clenched his jaw and frowned at her.

  “Well, I want you to stop.” He reached across the table and took her hand in his. “There are many special things about you, Natalia McKenzie—your sharp mind, quick wit, sense of humour, great smile, and perfectly curvaceous body. So you’re not a stick-thin model. Who cares?”

  She sighed and tried to tug her hand from his, which proved impossible when his grip tightened. “I do, and you do. I’ve got eyes, Cash. Every woman you’ve ever been seen in public with is about six stone wet through, tall, blond—the complete opposite to me.”