Black Lace Quickies 3 Read Online Free Page B

and rest. Excuse me.’ Again, Tessa urged her horse on and headed across the arid yard to the stable block. Even though the sun was teetering on the horizon, the temperature was still in the high eighties and the humidity was unbearable – quite different to the tepid English summer she had left a couple of days earlier. Orange and gold fingers spread from the sunset and stretched over the distant hills, illuminating the far-away clouds like brightly coloured saris. Tessa was aware that the man was following her and, as she gave Nitro to the stable boy, she felt a hand in the small of her back steering her towards the clubhouse.
    ‘You look thirsty. Come and have a drink with me.’
    Tessa was annoyed. She was exhausted, dirty and needed to collect her thoughts in readiness for tomorrow’s game but nevertheless allowed herself to be guided to the clubhouse veranda, driven simply by intrigue.
    Seated at a table underneath a gently ticking fan, Tessa enjoyed the feeling of sweat evaporating from her face. She allowed her head to drop back on to the soft padding of the cane chair and let her eyes fall shut. All she could hear was the pounding of her horse’s feet through the dust and the thwack of mallet on ball in the day’s relentless heat. The practice sessions had gone well and she was sure that her all-female team would easily hold their own in the initial games of the tournament.
    Jack Wentworth soon returned with two tall gin and tonics and unexpectedly seated himself directly next to Tessa on the small Colonial-style chair.
    ‘You don’t remember me, do you?’ He took a long draft of the icy drink and plucked out the chunk of lime. Jack was sitting with his elbows resting on his knees, his upper body angled round to confront Tessa.
    She stared hard at his sun-browned face and noticed his southern-hemisphere accent. She drew upon all her remaining resources to place him but simply couldn’t. The way his face broke into a series of laughter lines around his white teeth stirred something within Tessa but she finally convinced herself that she was merely responding to his fierce good looks. She shrugged and picked up her drink. ‘Sorry, I don’t.’ She didn’t want to flatter the stranger with too much interest and so gave more thought to sipping her drink and admiring the sunset.
    Jaipur was certainly a stunning place and, as if he had read her mind, Jack Wentworth interrupted her thoughts. ‘Indian sunsets are like no other in the world.’ He gestured towards the west and the accumulating cirrus clouds hanging over the distant hills. ‘There’s a storm brewing. Tomorrow, maybe the day after.’
    ‘I don’t think so,’ Tessa said, thankful for the change in conversation. ‘I’ve heard that the –’
    ‘Melbourne 2001. Our team won, yours lost. We got the prize.’ Jack Wentworth’s clipped tone coupled with the look of absolute triumph and smugness he now wore as he sipped his gin and tonic shattered any feelings of tranquillity or enjoyment the sunset held for Tessa. The man was clearly trying to suppress his laughter.
    ‘Melbourne … prize?’ Tessa stammered. How could she ever forget
that
match? Simply the worst game of Polo her team had ever played; totally and utterly the most humiliating three days of her life. After leading her team to defeat on the field during the mixed-team match, she then had to lead three of her best players to the beds of the opposition. Having made the bet with the cocky, self-assured captain of the all-male over-35s team, it would have been dishonourable not to keep to their side of the bargain.
    Tessa wasn’t sure if it was shame or an involuntary reaction to the memory that caused her top lip to curl into a smile as she sipped her gin. The memories filtered back like the gathering clouds on the horizon. She recalled agreeing to such outlandish sexual frolics because she hadn’t known any of the men in the room and had convinced herself and her teammates that