Hong Kong Heat Read online

  Unfortunately for her, and damned lucky for him, he’d set the door to lock automatically.

  “Open the fucking door, Braam.” Debra tugged and turned the handle, anger in every jerky movement she made.

  “No. And you think that’s suitable language?” Why was he adding fuel to the fire? Did he have a death wish? No, he needed her to shoot him down, pick him up and be his.

  “Oh, yes.”

  Braam bit his angry retort back. She didn’t deserve it.

  She spun back and that floaty skirt flicked way too high for his libido to cope with.

  “Speak to the hand, buddy.” She gave him two fingers. “It’s all you’re fit for. What on earth is eating you? You asked me to turn up. I got out of my bed at silly o’clock and for what? A bucket of grief. What is eating you? And open the sodding door.” She kicked it with her trainer-covered foot and winced. “Sheesh, what’s it made of, concrete?”

  The look she gave him would have felled a lesser man. The sheen of tears in her eyes felled him.

  “Oh, God, Deb, I’m so sorry,” he said hoarsely. He walked across to her and tried to take her in his arms.

  She brushed them away as if she was flicking a speck of dust and stared, stony-faced, at him.

  “Go away. I have a mad. A big, hot in my gut, want to thump you mad.” She sniffed and dug in her pocket, to bring out a tissue and blow her nose. “Bastard.”

  “You’re right, I am. You’ve done nothing wrong and everything right.” How on earth could he explain it, when he didn’t know himself what he was trying to explain? “It’s me and I’ve no idea why I’m like this. Well, except I’m scared you don’t feel the same way, worried how we’re going to sort the future out, concerned I’ll be sent to darkest wherever is farthest from you and I’m as horny as a rhino. Only for you, Deb, only for you. Please don’t go.” He finished in a flat monotone. “Hell, don’t cry. I’m not worth it.” Braam wiped his thumb across the tears under her eyes. It cut him so deeply to see her like this and know it was all down to him.

  She bit her lip. “You, Mr. Van M, are an idiot. You so are. Worth it. We are.” She took hold of his hand and he folded his fingers around it. It was warm and soft and to his sorrow it shook. “But hello? This is hard. You make it almost impossible to, well, to get to know you. There’s a great big wall to climb and I’m scared of heights without a safety net.” She bit her lip and refused to look him in the eyes.

  “Shit, Deb, am I such an ogre?” Braam was appalled at what he had done. “I scare you and make you shake?”

  She stared him in the face. He couldn’t decipher her expression.

  “Tell me,” he said as he looked at her and wished he could kick himself for causing the misery he could see in her eyes. “Please, for God’s sake, tell me.”

  She sighed. “No, no ogre. Merely a complicated man who doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve. Break down the wall, Braam. Then tell me, what exactly do you want?”

  “You,” he said instantly. “You, with me.”

  She looked doubtful. How the hell could he reassure her?

  “I know there’s no reason for you to believe me. If I knew why I was such an idiot, I’d tell you. I don’t have a dodgy past. I have no reason to block you out of my life. Well, except for some work-related stuff. But why should you trust my word? Especially after I’ve acted like I have today. For no good reason. Well, except that you matter.”

  “Well you’ve got a crappy way of showing it.”

  Debra stared at him for so long, Braam wanted to fidget. Finally she walked past him to the water cooler, filled a paper cone and turned back to him.

  “I should throw this over you and walk away. After all, life is too short to back a loser. But you know?” she sighed. “I can’t.”

  Braam let out the breath he hadn’t been aware he held and moved toward her. Debra held up her hand.

  “Hold on. I expect more of a grovel.” She looked at him speculatively.

  He grinned warily and was pleased when she half smiled back. Her face had lost its pinched look and the color that had leeched out when he’d torn into her was coming back.

  “Mea culpa? I owe you chocolate?”

  “That’s a mini grovel. I want a great big one.”

  Braam got down on his knees in front of her. The floor was hard and he wondered whether he’d need help getting up. That would be enough to spoil any grand gesture. “I, Abraham Van Meister, do humbly grovel at the feet of Debra Scotburn. To apologize for my pissy, up myself mood and admit there was no reason for it except my own self-doubt. Not doubt about how I feel about her, which is very deeply, but myself. As in why me?”

  “Hmm.” Debra knelt down next to him. “It’s a start. However, you still owe me chocolate. And something else.”

  He hoped to hell she didn’t want to see him bleed. Because he knew his reputation would be shot to bits if she did. He went giddy at the sight of blood.

  “Champagne? Dinner at Sun Tung Lok?” He named a nearby Michelin starred restaurant. “My head on a plate?”

  “Maybe, oh wow and no, not your head or a plate.” Debra pinched his ear. “What I want…” She paused and tilted her head to one side. “Is…”

  Braam held his breath.

  “You.”

  He swallowed. His mouth was dry and his skin clammy. “Me? As in…?” His words came out in a croak. Braam cleared his throat and began again. “I mean, how?”

  “Like this.”

  He could hardly believe his eyes. Debra looked around the gym and made a noise deep in her throat. He could only liken it to a purr.

  “Over there, I think.” She pointed to the exercise mats and blanket he’d heaped together earlier. “I won’t make you crawl, although in the last book I read it sounded fun.”

  Crawl?

  “Oh, love, you’ve had me crawling this last half hour or so, believe me.”

  “Then enough is enough.” Debra stood up and held her hand out to him. “I guess we can say we’ve had our first row?”

  He nodded and wondered what she was thinking. The look on her face was serene and gave no indication of what was in her mind.

  “Good then, now we need makeup sex.”

  We do? Oh yes we do.

  “As in here and now makeup sex? I’m forgiven?”

  “Well, once we have makeup sex you will be. So?”

  “Love, you humble me.”

  “No, no humbling, I want a big, strong man to take me to heaven again. And I’m sure you’re the man to do that. I’ve even brought something with me to help you.” Debra put her hand inside a pocket of her skirt he hadn’t noticed and brought out a foil packet. “In case you needed one.”

  “Snap.” He slipped his fingers into the pocket sewn into the waistband of his running shorts. It was supposed to be for an MP3 player but it was very versatile. “In case my fantasy came true.”

  Debra ran her fingers over the handle of the exercise bike. The tactile way she did it, made Braam wish he were the recipient not the bike. She looked at him from under her lowered lashes.

  “And has it?”

  “Not quite yet, but I live in hope. Your skirt plays a big part. So does the purple peril over there.” He nodded toward the colorful Pilates ball in the corner. His heart and his cock swelled as her eyes widened and she gave a slow and incredibly wicked grin.

  “The Pilates ball? How?” She didn’t sound mad, but definitely interested.

  “May I show you?” Braam stroked her cheek. The tiny touch was something he couldn’t have enough of. Her soft skin almost vibrated as he skimmed across the surface. She leaned into the curve of his palm and sighed a needy moan.

  “Oh yeah.”

  Funny how once you made your mind up to forgive, forget and act like an adult, things all slipped into place. Well, Debra amended in her mind, so far they had. There was one, much more important thing that needed to slip into place. His cock into her pussy. How that was going to happen and involve the Pilates ball,
she had no idea. But was desperate to find out.

  Oh, God, I’m acting like a sex-starved man-hungry predator. And I love it. Well not the predator bit and not the starved bit but, ohh, shut up. Debra squashed her thoughts and let herself concentrate on Braam, his touch and the here and now.

  A sudden thought made her slow down at the same time as Braam set off to take her toward the ball.

  “The door?”

  “Still locked,” Braam reassured her.

  “People wanting to get in?”

  “We don’t open today until eight. It’s one of the deep clean days.”

  “Deep clean?”

  He flicked her nose. “Where we do more than the everyday cleaning. Every other day, it’s almost like a shut up shop and repaint job. Without the paint. Enigma did it last night when it closed because he wants to go to his sister’s husband’s cousin’s son’s wedding celebrations early today. I said fine and I’d check it was all okay this morning for him.”

  As much as she wanted to know the difference between a thorough clean and a deep clean and who Enigma was, Debra reckoned it could wait. She wanted to know the difference between making love and involving a Pilates ball and making love and not.

  “Um, so you thought of everything? Ah, good. Oh yeah.”

  “Well, I’m hoping you’ll agree it’s very good. I thought of so many things. How you’d look naked and on top of the massage table. Whether the vibrating plates over there would help or hinder us.” Braam had slipped his hand under her skirt. “How your skin would color and whether you get red all over and… Damn, Deb, it’s as well I wasn’t totally sure you were buck naked or I’d have had you over the seat of the weight bench ages ago.” He started to knead and stroke each globe of her ass, hard enough to send a shiver and a surge of red-hot arousal through her.

  The weight bench? “Ah, right, well I’m glad you didn’t. I’m much more interested in the Pilates ball. I’m sort of fond of purple.”

  “I’ll be even fonder soon.” He rolled the ball around with the hand not playing with her rear. “How supple are you? Don’t look as if I’ve asked you if you can run down the central escalator whilst it’s going up.”

  Debra closed her mouth that she’d let drop open at his question. Her? Supple? Actually, even though she wasn’t an exercise freak, she was reasonably fit. She enjoyed walking and although she didn’t do a lot of bending and lifting, what she did do, she did well. After all her protestations that exercise was a dirty word, she might be about to surprise him.

  “Hmm, let me see. What about this?” She measured the distance in her mind and with a wink, lay face down over the ball with her ass in the air. She made sure her skirt barely covered her rear.

  It was weird with her boobs squished against the PVC, her face dangling over the other side of the ball and her toes on the floor to give her any balance. Debra let her feet rise and fall so the ball moved forward and back a little.

  The air conditioning cut out in its cycle. The silence was almost absolute. Except for the soft squeak of PVC on floor tiles, Braam’s sharp intake of breath and his reverent, “Oh my, yeah.”

  She wriggled her butt and giggled. Oh, was she enjoying teasing him.

  “But if I’m like this, how will you play with me?” She knew she was playing with fire. “Oh, that’s no good. I know.” She swung around until her back was on the ball and her legs were at ninety degrees from it, with her feet on the floor. She wriggled until she was sure she had her balance and used her hands to anchor the ball in place.

  “I don’t know if this is enough suppleness?” She deliberately lowered her voice and was pleased with the result. Whoever would have guessed that listening to an old program about an ex UK prime minister and how she’d reinvented herself would bring off such a result?

  “More than. Can you keep yourself like this?” Braam lifted the hem of her skirt and rubbed her clit. Debra mewled as her juices gathered and she pushed into his touch.

  “Don’t fall off now.” He grinned, put his hands on the floor either side of her and bent his head. His tongue swirled around her clit then the tip entered her vagina far enough for her to arch her back and gasp. The feeling of his tongue pushing into her, the way his teeth grazed her skin and the gentle rocking of the ball, sent skitters of red-hot arousal through her. Her body was on fire, her climax building faster than a tidal wave hit the shore. She couldn’t thrash her head around as she wanted to. She panted and muttered incoherently as Braam continued his relentless pressure on her pussy.

  The noise of foil tearing barely registered in her mind. The way he moved away from her did. She felt cold and lost and she must have made some noise of disapproval because Braam spoke near her ear.

  “Give me a second, love. I haven’t left you, you’re not cold and I’m going to warm us both up even more. Hold on now, let’s go for a ride.”

  All of a sudden her legs were lifted off the floor. Debra steadied herself with her hands and thanked every god in the world that they’d backed the ball to the wall. Although she might roll off sideways, she’d not fall front wise onto her ass. She had to hope she didn’t bang her head.

  “Oh so ready for me.” Braam crooned the words. “My cock is oh so ready to fill you. Look, feel.” The tip of his cock teased the entrance to her channel and the length of it slid into her as if it was coming home.

  In a way, Debra thought hazily, it was.

  Then Braam moved. He set up a steady thrust where each push sent him a little farther into her. Debra matched him as she clenched and relaxed her muscles to help him and her.

  The rock of the ball, the thrusting of Braam, his harsh breathing and the sensations that bombarded her sent Debra into a vortex she hadn’t known existed. Her body shuddered as her climax overtook her. Colored lights flashed under her eyelids and she dimly heard a voice screaming, “Yes… Mine…”

  Then Braam shuddered and gave one long, hard thrust. Deb tightened her legs around him and held him deep inside her.

  “Ah… Yes, mine.”

  Oh and mine.

  How long they stayed like that, Debra wasn’t certain. Neither did she care. The facts that her bottom half was naked, that Braam was still buried inside her and that some time soon the gym would maybe have people hammering on the door and demanding to be let in didn’t bother her one bit.

  The air con switched on and cold air hit her butt. She shivered. She hadn’t registered whether it was on or off whilst she and Braam made love, but now? Now she wanted to throw something at the switch.

  Braam stirred. “Hold on, we need to move. Or I do, or I’ll get all over excited again and I don’t think these condoms are two timers. Although in the coming in you sense, not the cheating on you sense, I reckon I could be.”

  So did she. His cock hadn’t softened that much and Debra was of a mind that with a few judicious muscle clenches and wriggles they could go another round. However, the mention of condoms was a blast of cold reason.

  She held her tongue and herself still, as Braam pulled out and swore. “Shit we need to move. Hell and damnation, love, I hadn’t realized how long I could last for.” He didn’t sound that perturbed. “I need to have that door open in twenty minutes max. Let me get rid of the condom and then help you up.”

  It was nice of him to think of her, but Debra thought she’d better try to help herself a bit. She didn’t bother to open her eyes as she let her arms go loose and slid onto the floor. It was chilly and she shivered. Hot sex was fantastic—cold floors and air, not so much.

  “Hey, I said I’d help. Come on, oops a daisy.”

  Her world behind her eyelids tilted. Her nostrils filled with the earthy, all male scent of Braam. She inhaled deeply. Perfect. Debra opened one eye a millimeter and watched the walls of the gym move past her. She smiled to herself. That was a stupid thing to think.

  “As much as I’d love to shower with you, I don’t think we’ve got time.” Braam set her onto her feet.

  Debra swayed.
r />   “Here, hold onto me.” Braam held her steady until she believed the walls weren’t moving and her legs would hold her.

  “Okay now.” Debra wasn’t positive her voice was strong enough to confirm the truth behind her words.

  “Sure?” It seemed Braam wasn’t certain either.

  She nodded. “If I can wash my face and tidy myself, I think I’ll head back to my suite to shower. After all, nobody would believe I’ve done any exercise, on the machines,” she emphasized the words as Braam raised one eyebrow. “Dressed like this,” she finished.

  “You have a point.” He’d put on some loose sweat pants over his shorts and a T-shirt over the vest he’d worn. Whatever state his cock was now in, the sweats hid it well.

  He looked hot in all the best ways. Debra gave into impulse and wound her hands around his neck. “You make me feel young and sexy. May I say how good that is?”

  “And back, love, and back. Though I’m glad I know what I know now and don’t have to rely on what I knew then.”

  She could relate to that.

  “Right, let’s get this door unlocked so if anyone does turn up on the dot, we’ll look all above board.” He did as he’d said, then turned to Debra with a wicked glint in his eye.

  “So, Mrs. Scotburn, what do you think of the facilities and the equipment? Oh hello, Mr. Brinkman, how are you this morning?”

  Debra swung round to face a closed door and nobody about.

  “You sod.” She punched his shoulder and giggled. “I died a hundred deaths then. I suddenly realized that my skirt was ruched up and my arse was probably on show.” She tugged the offending garment down. “As for the equipment? Oh, in perfect condition. The facilities? Very interesting.”

  The door opened and a tall middle-aged man entered the room and let the door swing closed behind him. Debra gulped and stifled a grin. “Thank you so much for showing me around, Mr. Van Meister. I’ll certainly think about using the gym.” She held out her hand as the newcomer walked past them and climbed on the cross trainer. Braam took her hand and scribed erotic circles over the back of it. Debra scowled as he grinned. That wasn’t going to help her get out of the room without stumbling.