Twin Temptation

“More.”

Had he said the word? Had she?

All he knew was that there was more. Impossibly more. The single word became a drumbeat in his head as he drove her, drove them both higher and higher until they reached the peak together and shattered.

LAYER BY LAYER, Jase’s mind found its way back to reality. The scents were the first to penetrate—body heat—a mix of his and hers and sex. His mouth was at her throat, the memory of her taste still haunting him. Beneath him, her heart beat fast. One of his hands was tangled in her hair though he had no clear recollection of how it had gotten there.

It had all happened so fast.Opening his eyes, Jase confirmed what he already knew to be true. He’d just made love to Maddie Farrell in an elevator at the Donatello. And he was still sprawled on top of her. In spite of that, he didn’t seem to have the will to move.

With great effort, he managed to lift his head. Her eyes were open, her face flushed and her mouth still moist and swollen. In his peripheral vision, he could see their reflections in the mirrored wall. Their clothes were in disarray, their hair wildly mussed. They each looked as if they’d just survived some kind of natural disaster. Barely.

He plucked a twig out of her hair. He hadn’t been gentle with her—not here and certainly not when he’d shoved her against that boulder in the park. He frowned. “I was rough with you. Are you all right?”

“Better than all right.” She studied him for a moment. “I’m a lot tougher than I look.”

“Yeah.” He thought of how she’d clocked the hit woman with that tree branch—and how she’d knocked him on his ass earlier that day.

Earlier that day? It seemed impossible that he’d known her for less than twenty-four hours. So much had happened.

“How about you?” she asked. “Are you all right?”

Something in her tone finally eased the knot of guilt that had tightened inside him. “Much better than all right.” He grinned down at her. “I haven’t done anything like this since I was sixteen.” And he’d been a randy teenager then.

“I’ve never done anything quite like this—ever.”

“Good.” He didn’t want to imagine her making love in semi-public places with anyone but him.

Her eyes widened. “You’re…”

“Yeah.” Incredibly, he could feel himself growing hard inside her again. Experimentally, he rocked into her and watched her eyes cloud.

“Jase.”

The word was half question, half demand.

With a groan, Jase eased himself up to his knees. First he did his best to rearrange her rumpled clothes. Then he managed to pull up his jeans. Finally, he got to his feet and helped her up. “I think we’d better take act two to our suite. Louie might decide that the elevator has malfunctioned and if anyone sees us like this, he might not ever do me a favor again.”

He shoved a button, and the elevator began to climb.

MADDIE WOKE to the sound of rain, the hard, pounding kind that often produced flash floods at the ranch. She was going to use it as an excuse to spend an extra hour in bed before she went to her studio. Burrowing more deeply into her pillow, she tried to slip back into her dream.

But the scent was all wrong. It wasn’t the lavender from the fabric softener she used on her sheets, it was stronger, male.Jase.

Opening her eyes, she sat straight up and found herself in the middle of a bed. Alone. The covers were tucked neatly around her. The last she recalled the bedding had been rumpled, some of it on the floor.

Come to think of it, she and Jase had been on the floor too. Using both fists, she rubbed sleep out of her eyes and tried to clear the fuzziness out of her brain. Then she looked down at the bed again. He must have tucked her in. Something inside her softened at the sweetness of the gesture.

How long had she been out? She was reassured when she spotted a sliver of sunlight sneaking through the drawn drapes. That’s when she realized that what she’d mistaken for rain was the sound of the shower in the next room. The last thing she remembered, Jase had been on his cell phone, first with Dino and after that, she was pretty sure he’d talked to someone about who might have fenced the jewels. That was when she must have shut down.

A double-toned chime sounded.

Not Jase’s cell, she decided, glancing at the small table near the bed where he’d left it.

The chime sounded again.

Maddie crawled from beneath the covers and reached for the hotel robe Jase had thoughtfully left on the foot of the bed.

When she reached the door to the suite, she used the peep hole. On the other side was a tall woman in her late thirties wearing a black suit. Her long dark hair was curly, and she reminded Maddie of Julia Louis-Dreyfus from Seinfeld.

“Yes?” Maddie said.

“I’m Sabrina Michaels and I’m delivering some packages Mr. Campbell ordered from the shops at the Donatello.”

Maddie opened the door and took the bags.

Sabrina smiled at her. “If there’s any problem with the selections, just let me know. Mr. Campbell was pretty specific with his requests, but I can certainly bring up more for you to look at. You can reach me through the hotel operator.”

As soon as she shut the door, Maddie couldn’t resist. Jase was still in the shower, and she didn’t want to wait. She carried the bags further into the main room of the suite, and set them on one of the long glass-topped coffee tables. Jase had been pretty specific with his requests, Sabrina had said. That must have been after she’d fallen asleep.

In the first bag she found a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved blue chambray shirt that Jase had evidently ordered for himself. Beneath those, she found a black scarf and a pair of sunglasses. For disguise purposes? Setting the first bag aside, she lifted a pair of cream-colored strappy sandals out of the second one. Unable to resist, she ran one finger over the buttery soft leather and sighed. The heels were only half as high as those on Jordan’s blue shoes, but they were still very stylish. And she was dead certain they’d be easier to walk around Manhattan in. At least for her.

In the second bag, she found a summer-weight blazer in the same creamy white. And instead of a matching skirt, she found a pair of slacks.

Slacks.

Hugging them to her, she sank down on one of the sofas. Jase had remembered her saying that she felt more comfortable in them. Maddie felt her heart take a little tumble. She’d grown up around men, and her impression of them was that while they were well-meaning, they weren’t the most attentive of creatures.

But Jase was different. With a little sigh, she rose and laid the slacks carefully over the back of the couch.

When she peeked in the third bag, she found lace panties, a bra and a silky black nightgown. Definitely more seduction-wear than sleepwear. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that if Jase had ordered the slacks to please her, he’d ordered the frothy black nightgown to please himself. She made a mental note to wear it that night.

That night.

After the hours they’d just spent together, she was actually thinking of making love to Jase Campbell again. Something must have happened to her brain. Perhaps the pollution in the Manhattan air had affected her synapses. She’d never before developed an intimate relationship with a man she barely knew.

Correction. She hadn’t known Jase at all when they’d first made love. That had been a mistake made by two strangers because she’d accidentally crawled into the wrong bed.

Maddie sighed again. But making love to Jase Campbell never felt like a mistake. It always felt so right.

Jase was different for her. In so many ways. And because of him, she was becoming different too. She’d never known she could be this way—happy, sexy, desperate, crazy. Every time he touched her she felt something new.

It wasn’t just the sex. Not when she looked at him or thought of him and something inside her tilted. That was emotion.

Maddie thought of the strategy she’d developed to handle Jase when she’d been in the shower this morning. Logic and reason. Hah! Being logical and reasonable just wasn’t part of the equation where Jase was concerned. She wanted him and he wanted her. It was just that simple. Just that elemental.

She also recalled telling him that she only had three weeks to accomplish her agenda in New York, and that making love again with him would only complicate things.

Maddie turned and walked toward the bedroom. Like it or not, making love again with Jase Campbell had become an important part of her new agenda in New York.

And she was certain that she was going to like it. A lot.

12

JASE STARED at himself in the mirror. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d spent this much time in the bathroom. He’d showered and shaved. He’d even considered using the hotel hair dryer to do something with his hair.

Pitiful.But Maddie needed some sleep. And he hadn’t trusted himself to stay in the same room with her and not make love with her again.

Even when she’d finally fallen asleep, he hadn’t been able to stop himself from watching her. Finally, he’d moved to the bed and stroked her hair. He couldn’t seem to prevent himself from touching her.

That’s when it had happened. It was while he’d stroked her hair that he’d felt something move through him, something that had nothing to do with the fact that he wanted very much to make love with her again.