The Perfect Seduction

‘Oh, Bobbie...’

She had to swallow hard when she looked at him and saw that his eyes were full of tears.

‘What are you doing here anyway?’ she asked him shakily. ‘I thought that by now Sam would have said enough to ensure that...that you had every reason to hate me.’

He smiled at her and gave her a wry look. ‘Nothing and no one could ever do that. Not even you and most certainly not your twin sister. You didn’t really think I wouldn’t know she wasn’t you, did you?’ he asked her roughly as he bent his head and slowly started to caress her exposed nipple, lapping at it with his tongue and then slowly starting to suck on it so that she wriggled protestingly against him.

‘How can I concentrate when you’re doing that,’ she demanded huskily, ‘and how did you know that Sam wasn’t me? Even our own family can be fooled when we really want to.’

‘How do you think I knew?’ Luke asked her, and then when she looked questioningly at him, he told her dryly, ‘You have a very specific physical effect on my body, to the extent that it can be extremely uncomfortable, not to mention potentially embarrassing being in the same room with you, whereas Samantha...’

‘Samantha...?’ Bobbie pressed, holding her breath as she lifted her head to look into his eyes.

‘Your sister,’ Luke told her firmly, ‘does not. Yes, physically you may look alike, but my body knows that you are not. My senses, my emotions, my...my self knows you are not. My self knows, for instance, that there is only one Bobbie, only one woman who can make me feel the way she makes me feel, make me ache the way she makes me ache...make me...’

‘Mmm...’ Bobbie gave a little moan as Luke interspersed his words with increasingly lingering kisses.

His hand cupped her body, holding the soft, still-damp tangle of pubic curls; he caressed her gently and felt her body shudder in delighted response.

‘We shouldn’t really be doing this,’ he murmured. ‘I was in such a damned hurry to see you that the thought of doing anything about precautions never even crossed my mind.’

‘If I’m right in what I’m thinking, I’m pretty sure that it’s too late to start worrying about that now anyway,’ Bobbie told him with shy breathlessness.

The look in his eyes as he translated her muddled words drove away any lingering doubts she might have felt the need to cling protectively to and any pretence that she didn’t love him.

‘You mean you think...’ He paused and took a deep breath, his nostrils flaring. ‘Already...?’

‘Already,’ Bobbie whispered back.

‘If you’re right, that just shows how good we are together, how right for one another,’ Luke told her lovingly. His hand still covered her body and Bobbie moved slightly against it, conscious of the ache already building inside her again.

This time their lovemaking was far more leisurely. In the candlelight, Bobbie watched their mirror reflections as Luke slowly and thoroughly kissed every single inch of her. They could have been two Renaissance lovers in some romantic Venetian palazzo. There was something almost wickedly and alluringly sensual about the way their bodies moved together, fitted together.... Bobbie gave a voluptuous, shuddering sigh of pleasure as Luke’s mouth reached the place where his hand had been.

‘So when did you first know you loved me?’ Luke demanded half an hour later as they sat at Bobbie’s breakfast bar, wrapped in thick, fluffy towelling robes, Bobbie watching whilst Luke cooked her some scrambled eggs.

‘I knew there was something very special and very dangerous going on the first time you kissed me,’ Bobbie admitted, watching his face as she asked, ‘and you...?’

‘Oh, long, long before that.’ He started to laugh, and then stopped laughing as he told her soberly, ‘I fell in love with you as soon as I set eyes on you, but I definitely knew it that night at my flat.’

‘I couldn’t believe you’d left me there alone and free to “escape”,’ Bobbie interjected.

‘I needed time to think, to come to terms with the reality of my love for you, and perhaps psychologically, I wanted you to go, but I wanted to keep you, as well—for ever!’

‘How did you know I’d be here, that I’d even want to see you after all the things you’d said and done...and how did you manage to get in?’ Bobbie asked Luke curiously once she had finally started to come back down to earth.

Luke’s admission that he had fallen in love with her on sight had resulted in the scrambled eggs he had just cooked for her being left to grow cold whilst she showed him just how she felt about it.

The rueful look Luke was giving her now made her gasp in indignation, ‘Samantha told you,’ she guessed, using her twin’s full name as an indication of how seriously she viewed this departure from sisterly solidarity.

‘Yes, but only after she had persuaded me to tell her how I felt about you,’ Luke assured her. ‘Until she knew that, I can tell you she was pretty fearsome in her desire to let me know what kind of a rat she thought me and pretty resourceful in her attempts to prevent me from guessing just how you felt and where you were, despite the fact that I’d already warned her that I knew she wasn’t you.

‘She doesn’t kiss anything like you,’ he whispered teasingly and then reached out and wrapped Bobbie tightly in his arms as he saw the look in her eyes, holding her firmly as he whispered, ‘Hey, come on, do you think I wanted to kiss her, or indeed kiss anyone but you, and even if I had wanted to, do you think she would have let me?’

‘I never suspected I could be this jealous.’ Bobbie grimaced.

‘Me neither,’ Luke admitted. ‘So jealous in fact that right now I hate the thought of ever having to share you with anyone else, even your twin.’

‘And our baby?’ Bobbie asked.

‘We’ll get married just as soon as it can be arranged,’ Luke told her masterfully and then gave her a wry look as he asked penitently, ‘You do want to marry me, don’t you, Bobbie?’

‘Yes,’ she agreed softly. ‘Whether or not a couple decide to marry is a very personal decision and one only they can make, but I guess after seeing the effect that not knowing her mother had on my mom, I feel that I want to make it as difficult as possible for either of us to ever walk away from our children.’

‘Children, is it now?’ Luke teased, his mouth against hers. ‘You know what that means, don’t you...?’

‘What?’ Bobbie asked, her question muffled by his kiss.

‘Let’s go back upstairs and I’ll show you,’ Luke suggested wickedly.

EPILOGUE

Five months later

‘TRUST you,’ Samantha moaned to Bobbie as they tried on their matching dresses. ‘I just get to be Gran’s brides-maid, while you have to go and be her matron of honour, a very blooming matron of honour, as well,’ she added meaningly, glancing at the small swell discreetly covered by the high-waisted style of their long dresses. ‘You know there’s going to be one heck of a lot of finger counting by the family back home when Junior arrives.’

When Bobbie laughed, Samantha watched her in fascination.

‘You just don’t care, do you?’ she marvelled. ‘And to think that you’ve always been considered the conservative one. If that’s what being in love does for you, I guess I’d better not try it.’

‘You should,’ Bobbie told her twin vigorously. ‘I can definitely recommend it.’

Samantha rolled her eyes. ‘I think two romances and two weddings in the family within nearly as many months is sufficient, don’t you?’ she asked her sister tartly.

Bobbie smiled. ‘I think it’s wonderful that Grandpa and Ruth have actually decided to get married,’ she told her sister dreamily. ‘I mean, I know it was obvious how they felt about one another. Luke laughed when he brought me back to England. He said that watching the two of them together made him feel positively inhibited and old-fashioned....’

Samantha rolled her eyes again. ‘He certainly wasn’t inhibited in private, was he?’ she reminded her twin dryly.

Bobbie laughed aga

in.

‘Who’d have thought twelve months ago that within a year one of us would have actually married one of the enemy and become a Crighton? And even more incredible, that Ruth and Grandpa should have fallen in love with one another all over again and if it hadn’t been for the coincidence of Ruth happening to be there when Grandpa telephoned Queensmead to speak to you...?’

‘I don’t think they ever fell out of love with one another,’ Bobbie responded soberly, ‘and as for coincidence, Grandpa claims it’s like twins and that it runs in families!’

They both laughed.

‘Yes, and Mom is so loving it, isn’t she? I’ve never seen her so happy.’

‘No, me neither,’ Samantha agreed, declaring triumphantly, ‘You see, our plan worked after all....’