Stand-In Bride's Seduction

“I don’t know if I could eat another thing after those delicious bites,” she halfheartedly protested as she tucked her clutch bag under her free arm.

He smiled in return and leaned closer to her, his lips almost grazing the shell of her ear as he spoke.

“I think I can tempt you to more, just you wait and see.”

Even in the subdued lighting of the bar, he saw the flush creep across her cheeks and noted the change in pitch in her breathing.

They strolled back toward his apartment building, a mere ten minutes away, and he allowed the silence between them to continue. Far better to allow her to consume her thoughts with what he might have in mind than to cloud them with inane conversation. Outside the restaurant, he drew her against his side, one arm casually draped across her shoulders and his fingertips tracing small patterns over the top of her bare arm.

He felt her skin react instantly, tiny goose bumps peppering the surface, and sensed the shiver that ran through her body.

“Cold?” he asked.

“No, not at all,” she replied, her voice slightly thick, as if she’d just woken.

He allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction, but it was short-lived because even as he recognized how his touch affected her, so did it in turn affect him. Desire could be a double-edged sword at times, he mused as he led her through the vast, glass sliding doors leading into the lobby of his building.

He guided her into the mirrored elevator and as they traveled to the top floor he marveled anew at just how identical she and Sara were. If he hadn’t been aware of that intrinsic spark of difference in his reaction to them, he would never have been able to pick one from the other. From the lush, dark red spirals of hair, the wide-set gray eyes thickly lashed in black, to the long patrician nose and the full, deliciously sensual mouth—Sara and Sarina were mirror images of one another.

On his floor, he swiped his electronic key to open the double doors, again carved with the family crest, and showed Sarina into his apartment. The carefully carved words seemed to leap out at him as he passed through the doors and pulled them closed behind him. Honor. Truth. Love. It was as if each word echoed in his mind. His internal response was instant and emphatic. Of course he abided by all three. How could he do anything else and still hold his head high?

But what of the lie he’d been perpetuating with Sara? a quiet deep voice asked from within. Could he swear that he’d been truthful about that? Could he claim his actions had been fully honorable? He puffed out a breath of frustration at the train his thoughts were taking. He had no time to examine this now.

“Is everything okay?” Sarina asked.

“More than okay,” Rey said, gliding across the carpet and gathering her in his arms.

She slid into his hold as if she’d been doing this for weeks rather than days, he thought. There was no sense of restraint, no physical holding back. Her lower stomach and thighs pressed against him and she curved into his body as if it was the most natural thing in the world to her.

And it was certainly the most natural thing for his body to welcome hers, he thought ruefully as his pulse began to beat that bit faster and his temperature rose. The scent of her hair and the fragrance she wore wound their delicate way around him, casting a spell upon his senses.

Sara had never affected him so deeply, he acknowledged as he stroked his hands over the bare skin of Sarina’s back. Sure, he’d been attracted to Sara. He was a hot-blooded, heterosexual male with a well-honed appreciation for a beautiful woman, but there was something about Sarina that hit a different chord with him.

Perhaps it was the fact that he knew she was not who she claimed to be that added that extra touch of spice to being with her. He eschewed the thought even as it occurred to him. It had been different from the moment she’d arrived here, not since he’d figured out that she was an imposter.

He tipped her chin up to his and kissed her lightly on the lips before reluctantly setting her away from him.

“I need to check on something in the kitchen. I’ll be right back.”

He needed to create some distance before he lost himself in her and forgot what he was trying to find out.

“You cooked?”

She followed him into the large and well-equipped kitchen.