Twin Temptation

Jase raised his voice. “How are the shoes?”

“Glorious to look at—but agony to wear.” She shot him a determined look. “It’s going to be worth every bit of discomfort when I walk into that store not looking like the country bumpkin they’re probably expecting.”

“You’ll be fine. Just remember the roles we’re assuming.”

“I’ll be playing myself—the other daughter.”

Taking her hand, he raised it to his lips and kissed her fingers. “And I’ll be playing your lover.”

Heat shot through her and Maddie was sure that if there had been room in the shoes, her toes would have curled. In spite of the role Jase was playing, she intended to keep her focus.

Suddenly, she stopped short and a startled pedestrian jostled her as he passed.

Gripping her shoulders, Jase pulled her out of the flow of traffic into a doorway. “What is it?”

“I forgot the earrings.”

“No, you didn’t. You’re wearing them.”

She shook her head. “I was going to take these off and put on one of Eva’s designs. My style is so…different. Next to hers, my earrings look…” She paused, searching for the right word.

“Beautiful.” He reached up and ran his finger down one of the horseshoes.

Her thoughts scattered. He was going to kiss her again. She could see the desire in his eyes, feel her own response rip through her. The noises that had surrounded them since they’d left the cab faded to a dim buzz. Her mind constricted like a spotlight on a stage until there was only Jase.

He slid his hands from her upper arms over her shoulders, then framed her face. It seemed as if it had been forever since he’d touched her. Had it only been a matter of hours?

Using his thumbs, he tilted her chin up. “I want to kiss you. I thought I could wait until later when we got back to the apartment. Back to my bed. But I can’t.”

He lowered his mouth slowly until it was nearly touching hers. Then he paused.

She should push him away, Maddie thought dimly. She’d always prided herself on having a logical, practical turn of mind. But she’d never experienced this kind of desire before. Each time he touched her or even looked at her, she wanted. It was just that elemental.

“I can’t wait either.” The words tumbled out of her on a ragged breath as she slipped her arms beneath his jacket and rose on her tiptoes. Finally, finally, their mouths were touching, tasting, exploring as hunger deepened into a fierce need.

The kiss was so much more than she remembered. What had happened between them during the night seemed more like a dream. This was reality. Each sensation was so intense—the hard planes and angles of body pressing her into the unyielding glass of the display window, the scrape of his teeth on her bottom lip, the heat of his hand as he slipped it beneath her jacket and ran it possessively from her waist to the side of her breast. Then he changed the angle of the kiss and she sampled again the flavor of his need. Irresistible.

Jase ran his hand down to her waist and then back up again. It seemed that he’d been waiting forever to touch her. She was driving him crazy. That had to be why he was acting this way. It wasn’t that he hadn’t lived dangerously or taken risks before. He’d made his living so far doing both. But he’d always been in control. Maddie Farrell was draining that away.

The taste of her surrender poured into him. He drew her closer until every curve of her body was molded against his. The thin material of her blouse was tempting, maddening. He wanted her out of it. Desperately.

They were standing in the middle of a busy Manhattan street. In some dim corner of his mind that hadn’t yet shut down, Jase reminded himself of that. But it was almost impossible to keep a grip on reality when the concrete sidewalk beneath his feet seemed to shift as easily as sand on a beach. He struggled to keep his balance. Shocked, he tried to strengthen the slim grip he had on his control. He should be damning himself for acting like a hormone-driven teenager. He should be damning her for driving him to this. But all he wanted was more of her.

When it finally struck him that he might not be able to stop himself from taking more, a sharp stab of fear gave him the strength to draw back. Releasing her, he took a step away. Even then he struggled, his mind battling against his emotions, and he very nearly dragged her back and kissed her again. He might have if a woman hadn’t chosen that moment to walk by them and enter the store.

Jase backed up another step. The first completely coherent thought that slipped into his mind was that he wasn’t capable of controlling this. The realization stunned him.

Maddie spoke first. “This is ridiculous.”

Jase studied her closely. There was a vulnerability in her that he hadn’t noticed before. And because he wanted badly to reach out to her, he slid his fingers into the pockets of his jeans. “That’s not exactly the word I’d choose.”

“I don’t understand what’s happening between us.”

“It’s a puzzler all right.”

“We’re on a crowded street and all I could think of was that I wanted to kiss you.”

“The feeling was mutual.”

She frowned at him then. “That only increases the problem. What we need is a solution. What are we going to do about this?”

Jase dropped his gaze to her mouth, then met her eyes again. “I think we both know the answer to that.”

She frowned at him. “I don’t like it. It’s going to interfere with everything. I have enough on my plate.”

“Me too.” The fact that the frustration in her tone was such a perfect match to his own eased what he was feeling. He managed a smile. “I guess we’ll just have to compartmentalize and work around it. And speaking of work, Eva Ware Designs has been open for a good fifteen minutes. I suggest we resume this discussion later.”

Maddie lifted her chin. “Fine. Good. We’ll keep our focus on our investigation.”

Together, they threaded their way back into the stream of pedestrians.

“I meant to tell you in the car that I have an idea about what we should do when we get to Eva Ware Designs.”

Jase glanced at her. “Don’t keep me in the dark.”

“We seem to have two goals. You’re primarily interested in figuring out who on the inside might have robbed the store. Of course, I’m interested in that too. I want to learn as much as I can about Eva, but I also want to find if there’s someone there Eva confided in.”

“Someone who might have known about you?”

Maddie nodded. “The more I think about it, the more I believe she must have confided in someone. And that someone may be able to shed some light on why Jordan and I were separated.”

Jase held his tongue. His impression of Eva Ware was that she was a very self-contained woman. He’d had some time to think in the shower earlier. As he’d turned it over in his mind, he’d become convinced that she’d had some idea of who had broken into her store from the very beginning, yet she confided in no one. Not in Jordan. Not in him. She was a private woman and she knew how to keep a secret. She’d kept a very important one for twenty-six years.

“And I want to see Eva’s appointment calendar. It might be better when we get there to separate and gather our information separately.”

It wasn’t a bad idea, Jake thought. “As long as I don’t have to let you out of my sight.”

“I have a question,” she said.

“Ask away.”

“Do you have any thoughts on why my mother asked Jordan and me to change places?”

Jase thought for a moment. “I think Jordan’s theory that she wanted the two of you to experience the life she and your father had separated you from is a strong possibility. Did the fact that you’re a talented jewelry designer play into it? Perhaps. But I also think she may have been experiencing some regret.”

“It that’s true, why didn’t she just bring us together? Why put it in her will so that our coming together would only occur after her death? Now, I’ll never get to know her.”

“I don’t know the answer to that question, Maddie. But this way she’ll never get to know you either. Her loss.”

“I’m going to get some answers.”

When they stopped at the corner, he ran a finger down one of her earrings. “By the way, I like these. For what it’s worth, your mother might have wanted you to experience Jordan’s life—but I don’t think she wanted you to stop being true to yourself.”

7

EVA WARE DESIGNS was housed in a building on the corner of Madison Avenue and 51st Street. Because her nerves had been steadily building during the last few blocks, Maddie slowed and focused her attention on the display windows. As distracting as the man beside her was, she was going to put him out of her mind and concentrate on what she’d come to New York to do—learn as much as she could about Eva and Jordan.

The white marble facade of the building framed four two-foot-square windows, two on each side of the glass-doored entrance. Each window was artfully lit and showcased a single piece of jewelry.Bait, she thought. The minimalist approach intrigued her, especially when she recalled the more cluttered window displays in the boutiques that carried her jewelry in Santa Fe. Most of the shop owners had no acquaintance with the idea that less might be more.