Mistaken Identity (2 page)

She swallowed nervously, mesmerised as he lowered his head. One large hand moved into her hair, the other pressed against the small of her back, urging her body closer to his.

A small whimper of delight escaped from her as their lips touched. The sound communicated an agony of need she didn’t fully understand.

The kiss was everything she’d ever dreamed a kiss should be: warm, firm, and tantalising. It promised, then delivered, a tidal wave of passion that coursed through her body and swept away her sanity.

The pressure of his lips increased. Became demanding. Unrelenting.

She melted against him as his hands ran along her slender frame, moulding to the indentation of her waist and the flare of her hips. She felt them against the firm roundness of her buttocks, urging her against his hardening arousal.

The intimate sensation of his maleness sent frissons of shock and excitement dancing along her spine. Raising her arms, she let her fingers thread themselves through the thick blackness of his hair. She was on fire, returning each of his kisses with frenzied need. Conscious thought was drowned out by the insistent demands of her senses. The pressure of his lips, the feel of his body against hers, the firmness of his hands shaping her was beyond anything she’d ever imagined.

Alex was also caught up in the confusion. Why did he suddenly feel this magnetic attraction to Susan? He’d kissed her to prove her attraction to him, but instead of leaving a bitter taste in his mouth, her lying lips were sweeter than honey. His tongue darted out of its own volition, eager to delve into her mouth and explore every ounce of sweetness that it offered. She was so soft and sexy. His need to feel her pliant nakedness against his own hard strength was almost as unstoppable as responding to a siren’s song. It was no wonder Spiros was attracted to her.

Spiros.
The thought of his brother arrested Alex’s movements. He’d promised his father that he’d take care of his brother.

How could he respond to Susan Hamlin this way? She was a woman so bitter and twisted by his rejection of her advances that she’d targeted his brother. She was trying to ruin Spiros’s happiness — to exact revenge or gain Alex’s attention. Either way, he’d make certain she didn’t succeed.

Leah moaned a protest against Alex’s lips the second his hands stopped caressing her. Her hands slid under his suit jacket and tugged his shirt free of the waistband of his trousers. As her hands made contact with the bare skin of his back, he jerked away from her as though he’d been singed by a branding iron.

She was in a daze. She’d felt alive in a way that she’d never been before, but now she was bereft at the loss of physical contact. Her brain screamed out in protest.
What is he doing? Why is he stopping?

‘You don’t love my brother!’

Heat raced up her neck and into her cheeks. She broke eye contact with him and lowered her head in pained confusion. She’d never responded to any kiss with such wild abandonment before, so why now?

‘It’s time to face facts, Susan. I know what you’re up to, and it won’t work.’

Leah squeezed her eyelids tight and grimaced. He was a stranger to her — Susie’s enemy. She’d just made things worse for her sister. She was going to have to tell him who she was.

Steeling herself for the consequences, she opened her mouth to speak, and then a thought struck her like a lightning bolt: Was Alex attracted to Susie?

‘You’re jealous!’ she accused, voicing her thoughts. ‘You don’t want me to be with Spiros because you’re attracted to me.’

He shook his head. ‘No way. You’re delusional.’

‘You’re the one who’s delusional. It’s obvious you want Sus…me.’ She forced her eyes to look down at his jutting arousal, willing herself not to blush, and prayed he wouldn’t pick up on the fact she’d almost used her sister’s name.

‘You know how to turn it on, but then you’re so practised at it.’ He flicked a look of disdain at her clothing. ‘The packaging says it all.’

She pulled self-consciously at the hem of the black leather mini skirt that he was regarding with disapproving eyes and wished the neckline of her top didn’t reveal quite so much of her cleavage. That was Susie’s style, not hers.

‘I would never bed a tarty little pop star, especially one who spends most of her existence drugged up to her eyeballs.’

She sucked in an indignant breath. Her back became ramrod straight.

‘I’m not a tart, and I don’t take drugs. The newspaper report that claimed I was a drug addict was all lies.’

Alex’s dark eyes bored into hers for several long moments. His lips curled in distaste. ‘I have something to show you.’

She frowned as he walked over to the far corner of the room.

‘A photographer approached me a few days ago.’ He unlocked a briefcase and withdrew a large envelope. ‘He asked me whether I wanted to purchase these. Gave me first offer before he approached one of the tabloids.’

One look at his cold expression told her she wasn’t going to like what was inside.

‘Open it.’ Ice dripped from every syllable as he offered her the envelope. ‘These are the reason I asked you here today.’

Leah’s fingers shook as she opened the envelope. Seeing the contents was like receiving a forceful blow to her solar plexus, driving the air out of her lungs. Every ounce of energy she had seemed to drain away from her, and the room began to spin.

‘I paid a considerable amount of money to stop these photos reaching the tabloids,’ Alex informed her with frosty derision.

As distasteful and graphic as the photos were, she couldn’t tear her eyes away. Her mind refused to accept the visual evidence in front of her.

After a few minutes, he prised the photographs from her bloodless fingers. ‘I bought these to protect Spiros. I don’t want his reputation destroyed by his association with you.’ He placed the photos on his desk. ‘But I will show them to him. He needs to know that he’s involved with a faithless, drug-addicted tart.’

‘I…’ What could she say? She was in shock.

‘You’re wasting your time lying to me about your drug habits and promiscuity. You’re definitely wasting your time pursuing Spiros.’

Several of the photos had revealed Susie engaged in sexual acts with different men. The rest showed her snorting cocaine.

Leah couldn’t meet his eyes. A mass of emotion clogged her throat. Overwhelmed by the shameful and graphic images, her vision swam with tears. How could she champion her sister now?

‘You’ll have no further contact with my brother. One of my security men will tail you to make sure you stay away from him.’

Now she understood why Alex disapproved of Susie’s relationship with Spiros. She raised her head and looked at him. She could see the determination in his clenched jaw, and just for a second she thought she saw something else in his eyes. Pity? Regret? Before she could identify it, his eyes hardened.

In response, outrage replaced her shame. ‘I’ll bet you had a photographer stalk…me to take these shots. That must be illegal!’

‘The photographer arrived at my office three days ago with these. If I hadn’t bought them, they’d be splashed all over the tabloids by now. They still will be if you see Spiros.’

Nausea clawed at her stomach as the atmosphere in the spacious room became suffocating. She turned and fled the room. She wasn’t aware of getting into the elevator or running from the building and climbing into the nearest taxi. All she wanted to do was put as much distance as she could between herself and the damning reality of those photos.

The evidence she’d seen of Susie’s illicit lifestyle was sickening. When had her sister begun to sink to such lows?

She and Susie had been separated at an early age, when their parents had divorced and moved to different towns. Susie went with their father and his second wife, making it impossible for the twins to see each other very often. As they grew up, they kept in touch via mail and phone calls, although their communication had become less frequent in the last couple of years because Susie had been so busy with her career.

Leah loved her sister. She’d idolised Susie’s flamboyant personality long before her sister had become famous, but Alex had just revealed a very different sister to her.

Alex.
Her shock had temporarily suppressed her incredible attraction to him. Her heart rate accelerated as she pictured him in her mind’s eye. She crossed her arms and slid her hands up towards her shoulders, remembering how good it had felt to be held by him. She’d welcomed his kisses and caresses.

Her skin broke out in goose bumps, and shivers of longing raced up and down her spine.

Heart heavy, she couldn’t respond with anything more than detached politeness to the taxi driver’s cheery farewell. Each step toward the house, knowing she had to face her twin after all she’d learnt, added to the tension within her — she bit down on her lip until she tasted blood. Pausing at the door to reach into her handbag for her keys, the door was pulled open by Susie.

‘What happened? Did you pull it off?’ her sister asked, urging her inside.

As the door closed behind her, she regarded her twin as though they were meeting her for the first time. Susie looked dreadful. She was still pale and washed out from a bout of bronchitis, but how much of her ill health was actually a result of her drug use?

‘What did he say to you, Leah?’

Where do I start?
‘He told me he found you in his bed.’

Her sister’s head jerked back. ‘He’s lying!’

‘No, Susie. You’re lying!’ she stated angrily. The tears pooled in her eyes, then trickled down her cheeks. ‘I know about the drugs and how cheap you’ve become.’

‘How can you believe anything that bastard says? I told you — he hates me.’ Susie’s body jerked as she coughed.

‘He has photos,’ Leah told her in a flat voice.

Susie paled further and sank down into the closest couch. ‘Photos?’

‘Incriminating photos.’

‘He showed them to you?’

She nodded her head sadly. ‘What’s happened to you?’

Susie suddenly jumped up. She paced toward the door, then turned on Leah. ‘Don’t you judge me! You don’t know what it’s like to live in a goldfish bowl. It’s been absolute hell.’

‘I didn’t know you felt like this.’

‘Why would you? You have a secure home with Mum. I’ve been moving from hotel to hotel, with no friends and no one to talk to.’

‘But Dad was with you,’ Leah protested.

‘Was he? Dad was supposed to be my manager, but our delightful stepmother Janice monopolised his time. She’s always been jealous of me.’

‘You never gave me any indication you were unhappy. I’m sure Mum didn’t know.’

‘I pretended to be happy, but I was lonely. I was terrified of having to go out on stage in front of all those fans. All of them yelling and screaming at me, wanting to touch me...’ She stopped. Her throat worked up and down, her lips moved to form words, but she could only manage a quiet sob. A few seconds later she drew a deep breath, and her mouth tightened. ‘Don’t judge me.’

‘We all thought you were thriving because of your success.’

‘Well, I wasn’t.’ Susie banged her fist down on a nearby table. ‘Only Spiros understands. He knows what it’s like to have to perform to meet your family’s expectations.’

‘Our expectations?’ Leah was stunned. Where was all her sister’s rage coming from? Raising her hands in a helpless gesture, she refuted Susie’s claim. ‘You weren’t pushed by us to pursue stardom.’

‘That’s not true. Janice saw the dollar signs when I was offered my first contract. By the time I saw past the dream, it was too late. I’d signed and started earning heaps of money. Dad had quit his job to be my manager.’ She shrugged. ‘I couldn’t leave.’

‘Suze, I didn’t know.’

‘No, you didn’t, because you didn’t ask.’ Susie pointed a finger at her, started coughing again, and let her body drop back on the sofa as if her legs simply didn’t have the strength to support her weight. ‘You just assumed.’

‘That’s unfair. You were enthusiastic about your concerts, all your fan mail, and the famous people you met at parties. Of course Mum and I assumed you were happy.’

‘It suited you to think I was basking in all the attention, because my income funded your university education,’ Susie declared in a bitter tone.

‘I’ve never regarded your career that way!’

‘Yeah, well it was my income that paid the bills in this family.’

‘Oh, Susie…’ She trailed off, her voice heavy with emotion. ‘Couldn’t you have talked to Dad? Told him how you felt?’

‘Get real! You know he was always ruled by whatever Janice decided.’

‘You don’t need drugs, Susie.’

‘You don’t know what I need. Anyway, since I’ve met Spiros my life’s started to turn around.’ She reached out for Leah’s hands. ‘He’s my lifeline, Leah. He’s helping me cope without drugs, and I’m using less.’ Susie started sobbing. ‘I won’t make it without him. I don’t want to live if I can’t be with him.’

Suicide?
Was that what her sister was suggesting? Susie had a current top ten hit. If anyone had suggested a few hours ago that her twin was suicidal, Leah would’ve thought they were crazy. Now, she had real concerns about her sister’s state of mind.

Leah’s own mind was reeling. She hugged her sister. ‘Somehow we’re going to get through this.’

‘I can’t do it without Spiros.’

‘Suze, Alex is planning to release the photos he has of you to the media if you continue to see his brother.’

‘No! What am I going to do?’ She jumped up from the couch and paced the floor, chewing on her long painted fingernails. ‘You promised you’d get Alex to back off. You were supposed to be providing a solution.’

The venom in Susie’s voice stunned Leah. This was all a side of Susie she’d never seen. ‘Hang on! You pleaded with me to pretend to be you, and I spent all of yesterday afternoon changing my appearance so I’d look identical to you. Despite feeling the deception was really wrong, I went in to defend you, but I didn’t know the truth. I think you owe me an apology.’

Her sister ignored her words. ‘You know Alex’s obsessed with breaking Spiros and me up. I told you he’s pressuring Spiros to marry this other girl, Elena, because he wants a family alliance with her mega-rich father.’