The Look-Alike Bride (Crimson Romance) (12 page)

Adam slipped his hands beneath her silk camisole. How it had come untucked from her trousers, he wasn’t sure, but he was glad that it had. It saved him the trouble of tugging it free and perhaps calling her attention to what he was doing.

Not that she would have noticed. She was as caught up in the magic they made together as he was. When she felt his hands slide behind her back and unhook her bra, she made no protest. But when he covered her bare breasts with his palms, she jolted as if she’d been zapped by a lightning bolt. Her back arched, pushing her further into his hands, even though her eyes popped open and she gave a startled gasp.

Her reaction drove Adam to use his thumbs to make little circling movements around her nipples while his tongue explored every square centimeter of her mouth.

The soft moans she made sent his senses into orbit. He jerked the camisole up to uncover her breasts. The nipples were erect, and he found the sight so beautiful, he lay staring down at her for long moments. She was lovely, perfect, made just for him. The light blue tracings of the veins in her breasts beneath the translucent, pale skin made her look almost too delicate for the things he wanted to do to her.

When she whimpered, he touched her breast tenderly with his tongue then took her into his mouth, sucking gently. If he managed to last through the next five minutes, it would be a miracle. If he thought he wanted her earlier, he now thought he might die if he didn’t have her.

On that thought, he got up from the couch, lifted her in his arms and strode toward the bedroom, still kissing her.

• • •

Leonie had no idea how she got from the big living room of the cabin to the bedroom and she didn’t much care. What counted was that she lay on the bed with Adam on top of her, touching every inch of her body, and she loved it. She loved the weight of his body and the heat that radiated from him into her that set her on fire.

She forked her fingers through his dark hair and used it to hold his face still so she could explore his face with her lips. When she had finished, he did the same to her, touching her eyelids and her nose and everything in between with his lips and tongue.

While he examined her face with his mouth, his hands slid beneath the raspberry silk blouse she still wore and palmed her breasts. The sensation burned through her entire body, all the way to her core. She had never felt anything like it in her life and she wanted more of it. Much, much more. Her breath left her in a long, keening moan that would have shocked her if she hadn’t been so busy experiencing the incredible feelings his thumbs created when they rubbed across her nipples.

She would die if the fires raging through her grew any hotter. Or so she thought, until she felt the cool air on her skin when he pulled her top off over her head and tossed it aside, then covered her breast with his hot mouth. The exquisite drawing sensation was unlike anything she had ever experienced before in her life.

Leonie cried out and arched her back in an effort to get closer to that source of intense pleasure. When his mouth left her to transfer to her other breast, she felt bereft, until the pleasure struck again with even greater intensity.

“Easy, angel,” he said, as well as he was able while he worked her slacks off. “Don’t worry. I’m not about to stop.”

If he wanted her pants off, he should have asked, she thought with what was left of her mind. She lifted her hips and helped him take her panties off along with the slacks then she flung one leg across his to draw him closer.

But now he wore too many clothes, so she attacked his belt and zipper with fingers that fumbled. She gave up the fight and slid her hands beneath his shirt, savoring the heat and hardness of his chest muscles beneath her sensitive fingertips.

“You’re going to kill me yet.” He wrestled off his trousers and boxer shorts and ripped his polo shirt up over his head then turned back to stare at her. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

She sat up and pounced on him and they rolled together to the center of the bed. Leonie ran her hands over him, entranced at his maleness and the feel of the hard muscle and bone beneath her fingers. He returned the favor and appeared equally enchanted by her feminine attributes.

She burned all over and craved more of the fire. She reached up as he hovered above her and pulled him down for a searching, lingering kiss. He obliged and caressed her breasts with his hands in a way that built the fires within her into a conflagration so wild it consumed him as well as her.

“Hold still, angel,” he whispered against her hair. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

She groaned aloud when he entered her body at last, certain she would die if he didn’t fill her quickly and deeply. He moved inside her, slowly at first, then with all the passion and fire she wanted, filling her and satisfying her in ways she had never dreamed of.

In fact, the experience satisfied her so much, she screamed with intense pleasure and felt vaguely surprised to recognize her own voice mixing with Adam’s groan of satisfaction. In the silent aftermath, she lay in complete relaxation and tried to catch her breath.

Leonie closed her eyes and snuggled her face into his shoulder. Somewhere out there lurked a set of very good reasons why she shouldn’t have done this, but at the moment, she didn’t regret a thing. How could she, when she knew very well that this pleasure she had just experienced was that once-in-a-lifetime thing, something one was lucky to find wherever one found it.

She had found it with Adam, who thought she was Zara.

Leonie drew in a deep breath and snuggled closer. She would have to tell him the truth, and the sooner the better.

Everything inside her protested that idea. She had a month before Zara returned, and she wanted that month, or however long he stayed around, with Adam.

Common sense told her there was no way Adam would think she was an adequate substitute for her older sister. Whatever Leonie could do, Zara always did better.

On that thought, Leonie resolved to keep her big mouth firmly shut. She wanted that month.

Adam lay in the darkness and cradled Leonie against his shoulder while she slept. For a few moments, he had almost felt her thoughts as she processed what they had just shared and came to a decision. What the decision was, he had no idea, but he knew she had reached a conclusion because she relaxed and drifted asleep immediately afterward.

Not a woman who relished post coital discussions, he thought, grinning into the darkness. He sensed a movement behind the bedroom door, which he had left open, and glanced toward it. Butch stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the lights in the living room, as if studying the situation and weighing his options.

Adam wondered if the options included sinking his teeth into his rival’s posterior. He needed to grill that dog a steak and the sooner the better.

A shrill sound from the kitchen area shattered the quiet. It took him a second to realize it was the kitchen telephone.

Leonie sat up, blinking.

“Let it ring,” he said and almost laughed aloud when she looked down at him in shock.

“I can’t. It’s probably my sister.” She rolled out of bed to the opposite side, grabbed a T-shirt from a drawer, and hurried toward the kitchen, throwing the shirt over her head as she went.

Adam appreciated the view until she vanished into the kitchen then grimaced. The caller was probably Zara, who would remind Leonie of everything Adam would rather she didn’t dwell on, such as the fact that she was supposed to be acting like Zara.

“Hello?”

Although she kept her voice pitched low, the kitchen was so close he could hear her very well. Adam rose and went to the bedroom door, careful to remain in the dark. If he’d been a suspicious sort, he’d have thought she was talking to another man, judging from the way she turned her back to the bedroom and spoke into the receiver. He remained where he was, employing all his former skills to listen.

“I can’t talk right now,” Leonie said in a low voice. “Can you call me back tomorrow?”

Tomorrow, his left elbow.

“Just call me back later, okay?” She sounded frustrated and flustered.

Adam wondered what Zara thought of being told to call back.

“I said I can’t talk,” Leonie insisted. “What? Okay, go ahead. But talk fast. I have company.”

Adam tried to decide whether or not he felt offended at being designated as “company.” He would have preferred her to say she was entertaining her lover.

“I’ll tell you later.” Leonie’s voice took on the stubborn note he was beginning to recognize. “What was it you needed to tell me?”

Perhaps Zara was going to order Leonie to abandon the cabin and fly immediately to some other location. Well, he’d just see about that. He could book a flight as well as Leonie could.

“Yes, I was followed by a bronze sedan today when I drove into the mountains to watch the sun set. Can you look into it?” She recited the license plate number.

Adam mentally nodded approval. Zara was checking into Leonie’s peeping Tom. He’d like to speak to her himself in order to find out what she might have learned.

“What? Oh. Just—someone I met at the lake.”

She had her back to him, but Adam knew exactly what Zara had asked and how Leonie felt about evading her sister’s questions. He wondered why Leonie didn’t go ahead and tell Zara he was there. Zara was bound to be thrilled, he thought cynically. After all, she had more or less let him know she was available and interested. Maybe she’d think Leonie was furthering her cause.

“No, it is not. Why should it be him?”

Adam’s eyes widened. Leonie was lying. He knew it, just as he knew Zara had asked her outright if the man with her was Adam.

Leonie didn’t want her sister knowing he was with her. Adam supposed he could understand why not, although he had every intention of making sure everyone knew it before too much longer. And “everyone” included, first and foremost, Zara Daniel.

Leonie probably thought she was stealing her sister’s boyfriend. Adam noted the look of guilt on her expressive face when she turned, and knew he was right in that surmise.

The next few days, he reflected as he faded back into the darkness of the bedroom, should be really interesting.

• • •

Leonie replaced the telephone receiver, amazed at herself. She had just outright
lied
to her sister when Zara had asked if Adam was her mysterious visitor.

But if a woman intended to enjoy a vacation romance, especially if it was with her sister’s crush, the first rule was to keep the matter private. The fewer people who knew about it, the better.

Or so she told herself. After all, what did she know about vacation romances or any other kind of romance?

But, by golly, she now had a prime opportunity to learn, and she fully intended to seize her chance.

She padded back to the bedroom, clad only in the soft cotton T-shirt she had snatched up in passing. She would not have been surprised if Adam had been fully dressed and ready to leave, especially now that he had gotten what he probably came for. In her limited experience, once a man got a woman into bed, he was either ready to move on to the next woman or to get back to his own life until he wanted sex again.

To her joy, Adam awaited her in bed. She walked toward him cautiously and wondered what she should say next.

He stretched out a hand to her. “So was it your sister? I didn’t know you had one. How is she doing?”

“Yes, it was her.” She sat down on the edge of the bed and wondered what a sophisticated woman might do next. “She’s fine, but if I don’t answer the phone when I’m supposed to, she calls my parents. Believe me, we don’t need them descending on us.”

That was so lame, it needed crutches, but Adam appeared to notice nothing amiss. “True. It would ruin the solitude around here. Come back to bed, angel. I missed you.”

“I’ve only been gone about five minutes.” She slid in beside him, still wearing the T-shirt, and reflected that Adam must have a lot of experience with the opposite sex. In her opinion, he could not have said anything more romantic.

“It was four minutes and fifty-five seconds too long.” He ran his hands up her sides and skimmed the T-shirt off over her head. “You’re so beautiful, I could stare at you all night.”

She ran her fingers over the muscles of his shoulders. “I’m glad, because I’d like to do the same to you.”

“In that case, look all you like, because I’m definitely going to be looking at you,” he said in a desire-roughened voice.

Leonie gloried in the way he looked at her in the semi-darkness, as if he couldn’t get enough of her. He rubbed his hands over her nude body, creating heat that was not entirely due to friction. She did the same to him. His taut skin felt rough and heated. Better, he showed his pleasure in the way she touched him by closing his eyes and groaning softly. It drove her to find new ways to explore his body, and she loved it when he did the same to her.

They made love a grand total of four times during the night, if she counted the early morning session when they both awakened face to face and took up where they had left off during the hours of darkness. Leonie considered it the most exciting and satisfying night of her existence, and she very much doubted if anything else in her life would ever top it.

She wished she had a book that would list for her the rules of conducting a short-lived romance, but failing the book, she figured the best thing to do was take things light and easy. She would make no demands and enjoy each day as it came. Most of all, she needed to bear in mind the fact that it would end when her so-called vacation ended.

In short, she must not fall in love with Adam Silverthorne, even though she feared she was already most of the way there.

Who was she kidding? She was
there
.

On that note, she waited until Adam was in the shower before she arose and dressed in a pair of her favorite jeans and one of her own T-shirts. She went to the kitchen barefooted, noting her state of relaxed bliss. After their night together, they both needed a good breakfast, and one thing she knew how to do really well was cook breakfast. In Zara’s neat kitchen, which someone had thoughtfully stocked for her stay, she could scramble eggs, fry bacon, and toast bread like a master chef.