Mistaken Identity (7 page)

Her lips twisted in disdain as she remembered her former boyfriend. What had drawn her to Kyle in the first place? She thought really hard about it.

Kyle was a good-looking guy, athletic and smart. She thought she’d done well. She’d never expected anyone as popular as him to be attracted to her. He’d been the first guy to be interested in her, whereas Susie was never short of boyfriends.

But Leah hadn’t been as strongly attracted to Kyle as she was to Alex. The relationship between her and Kyle had been platonic, at her insistence.

For the first time, she was able to look at Kyle’s betrayal with objectivity. It was her pride that was hurt, not her feelings. In all honesty, it had upset her more that the girl she’d been friends with since primary school had eventually betrayed her with Kyle.

Loyalty was very important to Leah. She’d agreed to this whole deception out of loyalty to, and love for, her sister and parents. That was the only reason she was being deceitful.

Alex had denied pushing Spiros to marry Elena for his own gain. He was adamant he was protecting his brother’s best interests. Was he acting out of family loyalty too? Perhaps they had more in common than she’d first thought. Was he justifying keeping her against her will in the name of brotherly love?

It was hopeless. She couldn’t sleep. Now the effects of the drug were wearing off, sleep would elude her as she tried to sort out the tangled mess of her thoughts and emotions. She was also still worried over the identity of the men who attacked Susie.

Through the window, the sea beckoned.

Sitting on the sandy beach, a movement in Alex’s peripheral vision captured his attention.

Susan was there. No, she wasn’t a product of his imagination. She was really there, walking across the sand barefooted and in her pyjamas, heading toward the water’s edge.

He tensed. What was she doing on the beach in the middle of the night? Had she also found sleep impossible?

He watched, transfixed, as she bent and rolled up the legs of her pyjamas, then waded into the sea.

At first, she didn’t go in very far. He saw her looking back at the house, then off along the beach. As he was sitting very still in the shadows, she hadn’t seen him.

A second later she was out of the water, stripping off her clothing. She folded her pyjamas up and stacked them neatly in a pile on the sand.

Like a man encountering an immortal goddess, Alex was awestruck. He’d seen her partially naked before, but from a distance he could view and appreciate her form in all its vivid glory. Her body was extremely desirable, with feminine curves in all the right places. Completely naked, she strode confidently into the sea, like one of Poseidon’s daughters returning home.

Sitting up straighter, he watched her wade waist-deep into the water. She propelled herself forward, and disappeared into the sea. For several seconds he forgot to breathe as he waited for her to resurface, half afraid she’d gone down to live in Poseidon’s kingdom forever. She bobbed up, much further out than he expected, and struck out in a freestyle stroke, parallel to the shore.

A strong swimmer, she cut through the water with great speed, moving further away from where he sat. He stood and walked along the beach to keep pace with her, surprised at her endurance. Given her addiction, he wouldn’t have thought she would be fit enough to keep up such a pace. Just how far did she intend to swim?

Fifteen more minutes passed. Susan showed no sign of slowing down.

A surge of adrenaline burst into his blood as she dived again. Time seemed to stretch out forever as he waited for her to reappear. There was no sign of her. Anxious, he started to undress, releasing the buckle of his belt. His eyes focussed on the sea, searching for her.

He undid the buttons on his shirt. She should’ve re-surfaced by now.

His heart pounded heavily in his chest cavity. He cast his shirt off. He was certain she’d got herself into trouble, probably swimming out too far and getting a cramp. Or maybe she’d held her breath for too long and passed out under the water. Unless he found her, she’d drown.

In one fluid movement, he stripped off his trousers and sprinted into the water.

‘Susan!’

He was preparing to dive in when he heard a splash. She broke the water’s surface, gasping for breath to fill her oxygen-starved lungs. Turning to his left, he saw her just a few feet in front of him, standing in the water.

Relief flowed through his veins. A split-second later, his hands were on her wet, naked shoulders, shaking her.

‘You little fool! What the hell are you doing swimming alone at this time of night?’

Her eyes were huge saucers of blue in the moonlight.

‘I…couldn’t…sleep,’ she told him, her chest heaving with every breath.

‘You could’ve drowned!’

‘No, I’m a…competent swimmer.’

‘Look at you. You’re desperate for air.’

‘I’m okay. I knew…I was in shallow water.’

His hands tightened on her shoulders. ‘You are not to swim alone.’

She drew a few more breaths. Her breathing was almost normal now. ‘I thought I was alone, but obviously I was wrong. You followed me.’

‘I didn’t follow you, I was already at the beach.’ His agitation grew. ‘What if you’d got a cramp?’

She looked hard at him for several moments. Her breathing steadied. ‘Well, I guess that would’ve been the end of all your problems, wouldn’t it?’

‘
Theouli mou!
Do you have a death wish?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous! I was perfectly all right, until I surfaced and saw you.’ She jabbed a finger at him. ‘You scared me half to death! Then you bellowed at me.’

‘You stayed underwater too long. I —’

‘You were worried about me.’ Her head tilted slightly to one side as if she seemed surprised by his reaction.

‘I…Of course I was worried about you. You think I want you to drown?’

‘You came in to save me from drowning?’

‘Yes,’ he said grudgingly.

‘Why?’

Why?
Her question rattled him. ‘That’s a stupid question. Is your opinion of me so low that you think I’d sit back and wait for your lifeless body to bob up to the surface?’ He cursed harshly in his native tongue.

‘I guess it was a stupid question. I’m sorry.’ She shrugged. ‘We’re not exactly friends, so I wouldn’t expect you to try to save me.’

Didn’t she understand that he’d merely acted with human decency? He’d do the same for anyone. It wasn’t that he was feeling protective, was it?

‘My mother drowned,’ he told her hoarsely.

He watched her features soften. ‘I’m so sorry.’

She reached out for him in a gesture of sympathy. Normally, he would have brushed away her hand and rejected her sympathy. The memories of his mother were usually locked away, but tonight they’d broken out from the deep vault in his mind.

Susan’s caring words reached out to him, curled around his heart like hot chocolate on a cold night. They flooded him with warmth, nurturing him.

Slowly, he pulled her against him. A tremor ran through him as he felt the length of her smooth, wet, naked body against his own. He’d wanted to save her from drowning, but now he wanted to drown in her.

The yearning in her eyes told him that the rapid pumping of her heart beat wasn’t just from the exertion of swimming. It felt like the most natural thing in the world to lower his head and take possession of her sweet lips.

She wrapped her arms up around him. He felt her hands stroke the texture of his skin and the contours of the muscles of his back. Her full breasts were squashed against his hair-roughened chest. Her mouth returned his kisses with an almost-innocent eagerness that drove him wild.

He wanted more.

Very gently, he urged her upper body away from his so he could access her breasts. He cupped their lushness in his large hands, teasing one nipple and then the other with his thumb and forefingers. Her skin was so soft.

She moaned against his mouth and wriggled herself against him, sending an acute surge of need along his erection.

His hands left her breasts, released his straining arousal from his briefs, and shifted to her waist. He lifted her up.

‘Wrap your legs around me,’ he urged.

She did as he requested, pushing his erect shaft hard against his stomach.

‘Not like that,’ he told her raggedly. Didn’t she know what he wanted?

He created enough room between them for his fingers to hone in on her sex. She gasped. He stroked her until her arms began to lose their grip around his shoulders, and he knew she was weak with longing.

He settled the tip of his manhood just outside of her entry.

‘Like this,’ he whispered huskily. His hands slid around to cup her buttocks, and he urged her forward against his tip. He’d gained a small degree of entry into her tightness when she stiffened, pulling her mouth away from his.

‘No!’

She was pushing against his shoulders.

‘What?’

‘I can’t do this!’

It took him a few seconds to compute what she was telling him.

‘I want you to stop, Alex!’

Disbelief overwhelmed him. No woman had ever told him ‘no’. He was used to hearing the words ‘yes’ and ‘more’. What did she mean, ‘no’? She wanted him just as much as he wanted her. She’d wanted him for years.

Her fists pummelled at his chest. He let her go, and the ache in his loins instantly intensified at the loss of contact.

Incredulously, he watched her make her way through the water away from him. He couldn’t let her go like that. Pulling his briefs back into place, he caught up to her at the water’s edge. He reached out and spun her around to face him.

‘What are you doing?’ he demanded.

She looked at him briefly. There were tears in her eyes, and her lips trembled.

His emotions felt like they were under siege — they’d been ambushed by an enemy he didn’t quite understand. His values in the midst of an earth tremor that was shaking their foundations to the core because he wanted to ignore her protests and make her his.

‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled, her head lowered. ‘I didn’t mean to…’

His eyes narrowed. Again, he reached out and took her chin between his thumb and forefinger. ‘Look at me!’ A shiver racked her slender frame as she reluctantly met his gaze. She seemed embarrassed to be standing in front of him undressed. It didn’t gel.

‘You want me. Why the change of heart?’

‘I…’ she faltered, her hands making agitated little circles in the air.

‘You’re acting like a frightened virgin.’

‘No. I —’

‘You can cut the act, Susan. We both know you’re no innocent.’

‘Let me go!’

Fuming, he let her go. He strode toward his clothes. They were still scattered on the sand where he’d dropped them in his haste to rescue her.

‘Put this on.’ He thrust his shirt at her, then pulled his trousers on with savage movements.

‘What are you playing at?’ he demanded, turning back to her as she fumbled with the buttons of his shirt.

Never mind, Susan
, his conscience criticised.
How do I explain my own actions? What was I thinking?

He wasn’t thinking — that was the problem. He was feeling. That was the second most stupid thing he’d done in his life. Not since Christina had he lost control of himself with a woman, and to want to have sex with Susan was certifiable behaviour. To nearly have unprotected sex with her? Sheer lunacy. He didn’t trust himself near her.

‘I’m flying to Athens today,’ he decided aloud. ‘I’ll be away for a couple of days.’

She nodded without looking at him.

‘Damn it!’ He felt his control slipping away again. ‘I can’t work you out,’ he admitted. ‘Just who the hell are you?’

Leah’s fingers stilled at the buttonhole between her breasts.

Does he know I’m an impostor?

How could he not know? She’d responded to him with wild abandonment, then backed off at the crucial moment due to her inexperience. Susie would never do that; her twin was both confident and experienced.

‘You scared me!’ she said, lying in her desperation. ‘I wasn’t thinking straight. In the moonlight, you looked like Spiros.’

His broad muscular frame stiffened. Heat blazed from his eyes like lasers in the night.

‘You weren’t thinking of my brother. You responded to me.’

She’d been overcome by her physical response to him, but now she was back in control of her body and her mind. Not only was he her enemy,
he was married.

‘Who were you responding to, Alex? Your wife?’

His head jerked back as though she’d slapped him in the face.

‘I know you’re married. You’ve got a nerve, criticising my morals when you’re prepared to cheat on your wife.’

‘I never cheated on my wife. Not ever.’

‘What do you call just now?’

The fury etched into his features made her take a step backward. His hands were tightly clasped, as though he was resisting the urge to wring her neck. Every instinct she had screamed at her to run. Then he turned away from her and began walking back along the beach toward the house.

Oddly, she felt deflated. She didn’t expect to be let off the hook so easily. But what could he say? He couldn’t attack her. His own actions were indefensible.

Reluctantly, she trudged after him but made sure she kept a safe distance.

He didn’t turn to see if she followed him.

Just as well. He’d ignited her libido into a raging inferno, and now every one of her cells was screaming in frustration. She was so close to discovering the joys of sex.

But that was the problem — it was just sex. It wouldn’t be difficult for her to find someone to have sex with, but she wanted and needed for it to be meaningful. That’s why she hadn’t lost her virginity. And that’s why she’d stopped Alex, even while her body was clamouring for him.

Alex was married, and she could never have an affair with a married man. Besides, it would be Susie he was making love to, not her. Leah might be pretending to be her famous sister, but she’d never be her substitute.

Early the next morning, Leah was awakened by Soula the housekeeper, who carried a tray full of fresh fruit and yoghurt. As Leah sat down to eat her breakfast, she heard a knock on the door. Probably Anna coming to do her observations.