The Perfect Seduction, page 17
‘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 again.
‘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....’
‘Our plan?’ Bobbie questioned drolly and then reached out to hug her twin. ‘Oh, I do hope you find someone soon, Sam. Junior in here is going to want to have cousins to play with, you know,’ she warned her sister as she patted her stomach.
‘I don’t need a man to provide him or her with that, not these days,’ Samantha retaliated, adding ruminatively, ‘In fact, I rather think that might be a good idea. I could—’
‘Sam!’ Bobbie warned her twin. ‘Whatever it is you’re planning, the answer is no. No...no again. Now, come on, let’s get these dresses on properly. The rehearsal for the wedding starts in half an hour and we’re going to be late. Luke will be here to pick us up and we won’t be ready unless we hurry....’
As she quickly finished fastening her matron-of-honour gown, she studied her twin uneasily. Samantha wouldn’t do anything so foolish as she had just suggested... would she? Would she! No! No, of course she wouldn’t.
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‘NIGHT night, Daddy,’ Meg murmured drowsily, lifting her head from her pillow to kiss Saul as he bent over her, and then to Tullah’s consternation she added, ‘I want Tullah to kiss me, as well.’
Uncomfortably Tullah edged carefully round Saul as he turned towards Robert’s bed.
‘Night night, Tullah. Thank you for reading to us,’ Meg told her lovingly as Tullah kissed her gently.
She could feel Saul standing behind her, feel him almost as though their bodies, their skins, were actually touching. Her face flamed at the treacherous direction her thoughts were taking. Not that they had any reason to do so, she decided crossly five minutes later as she started back downstairs.
And she couldn’t even begin to think why her heart suddenly wanted to audition for a circus act and turn spectacularly dizzying and breathtaking somersaults. It was impossible that such an unfamiliar reaction could have been caused by Saul’s proximity. Impossible, unpalatable and completely untenable, she decided firmly and then gasped aloud as her foot missed one of Olivia’s uneven stairs and she started to fall forward.
Instinctively she cried out, but Saul was already reaching for her and responding to her plight, quickly grasping hold of and virtually swinging Tullah off her feet and back against his body as he caught her in mid fall.
Shaken and breathless, Tullah could only cling weakly to him as she later wrathfully mentally berated herself like a second-rate actress trying for a part in Gone with the Wind. Only she was no dainty, fragile lightweight, but a healthy, modern young woman who prided herself on keeping her rebelliously feminine curves under control with thrice-weekly gym workouts and as many fresh-air walks as she could fit into her busy schedule.
But if the effect of supporting her, holding her, wrapped in his arms against his chest, was imposing any kind of physical strain on him, Saul certainly wasn’t showing it, Tullah acknowledged.
Yes, his heartbeat had accelerated. His muscles had tightened as he tautly braced himself against her weight, but from her snugly secure position against his body with her head tucked protectively into the oh so comfortable space between his shoulder and his jaw that might have been made for her, she could neither see nor feel any evidence of his straining.
‘I...I...you can put me down now,’ Tullah started to inform Saul in what she had intended to be a courteous but dismissively distant tone. But what emerged instead sounded revolting, coy and horribly breathless.
‘That’s just as well, because I’m afraid my endurance and stamina are just about to give in. They aren’t really up to much more,’ Saul told her dryly.
Feeling mortified, Tullah immediately started to push herself away from him as he carefully set her back down on her own feet. It was perhaps unfair of her to feel that he was being ungallant in announcing that he found her too heavy but she was, after all, a woman and as such surely allowed to be a little illogical if and when she wished.
‘I’m sorry if I’m too heavy,’ she apologised insincerely once she was back on the floor and able to take a couple of wary steps away from him as she moved a little bit farther downstairs but this time concentrating on where she was putting her feet and holding on to the stair rail in addition.
‘I never said you were too heavy,’ Saul murmured to her before leaning forward and almost absently straightening the rucked collar of her top.
Tullah gaped at him, too caught off guard by the unconscious intimacy of his careful, almost paternal touch, the kind of touch she could so easily imagine him giving to one of his children, to think to question his words very deeply. If he wanted to backtrack and pretend that he hadn’t implied she was too heavy...
His hand was still resting on her shoulder, his fingertips touching the bare flesh of her collarbone.
Upstairs, the children had fallen silent. They were completely alone in the still intimacy of the narrow stairway.
IMPRINT: e-book HMB Specials A Format
ISBN: 9781742910437
TITLE: The Perfect Seduction
First Australian Publication 201101
Copyright © 201101 Jordan, Penny
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Penny Jordan, The Perfect Seduction
