by Lori Wilde
Her breath still came in heavy, heated spurts, but she did not let that deter her. He leaned back against the pillows, enjoying the moment, relishing her desire.
Unsnapping the button of his jeans, she then went for the zipper, easing it down inch by inch. Occasionally she glanced over at him, flicked out her tongue, and sent him a naughty grin. Raising his hips, he helped her shuck his pants free and toss them in the corner.
He was reminded of the night he returned from Mexico, the night he’d inadvertently started this whole deception.
For a brief second, his passion began to dissipate as he thought about what he was doing. Making love to her under false pretenses. It wasn’t the honest thing to do and for his entire life Jack had been the honest, reliable twin.
But as his doubts reared up in his conscience, CeeCee went to work on him with her tongue, strumming it back and forth against one of his nipples, jettisoning him straight into outer space.
He was wearing the briefest of briefs, CeeCee noted. More leopard print. Tarzan in all his manliness.
And there was no hiding his arousal, barely covered by the thin material.
Oh my! The room was hotter than a sauna and twice as steamy.
She kissed him everywhere. His chest, his arms, his legs. He groaned and flailed and twisted his fingers through her hair.
“C’mere, Red,” he gasped and hauled her to his chest and things got really real from there.
He kissed her sweetly, then deeply, and finally ravenously. CeeCee melted into him. Spun dizzily into a place she’d never been before. Hung there like a kite in the wind. How she wanted this to go on and on and on forever.
If she and Zack could just stay in bed, maybe they could thwart the Jessup family whammy. Maybe the curse only worked when you were out of bed.
What a fantasy. What a dream.
“Focus on me,” he said as if reading her mind. “On us. On now. Forget about everything else.”
And so she let go of all conscious thought, simply let her body experience what the night held in store.
“I gotta have you,” she whispered into his ear. Jack’s name was on the tip of her tongue, but at the last minute she managed to bite it back. She wasn’t going to make that mistake again. She was with Zack, the temporary twin who made her blood race but that was all.
“I gotta have you, too, babe.”
“I can’t take it anymore.”
“Me, either.”
He whisked off his briefs, and they disappeared over the edge of the bed.
Holy Tarzan!
She had no idea he was so...so...magnificently endowed. Now she knew why he had such a reputation with the ladies.
He laughed at her expression. “Surprised? Pleased? Perplexed?”
“Yikes.”
He nuzzled her neck. “Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle.”
She felt his heart pounding through his chest, matching the rhythm of her own erratic heartbeat. They pressed their palms together and stared into each other’s eyes. He kissed her again, his fingers dancing over her back, causing her to melt.
“Protection?” she whispered.
“Got it covered.” He laughed. “Pun intended.”
His sheathed hardness throbbed against her thigh, pressing into her soft flesh. A searing moisture flowed through her. She felt on fire, alive with yearning to be one with him. He cuddled her into him, and she arched her hips.
Fever swept her body, clouded her brain. There was no reasoning, no rational thought left. She acted on pure instinct. She lifted her legs and curled them around his waist.
“Come to me,” she murmured.
With a groan he surged forward. Her body filled to overflowing with him.
“CeeCee,” he cried and to her shock she saw a single tear glisten on his cheek. She reached out and brushed it away with her fingertips. Their lovemaking had moved him to tears? It seemed so out of character for cocky Zack.
He moved deeper into her, taking it slowly at first then upping the tempo. Stroke after stroke, building the fire, escalating the sweet torture.
She clutched his shoulders, begged him for more.
He complied, bringing her to the edge of oblivion.
Her head reeled. Her stomach contracted. She’d never experienced such physical intensity. Two weeks of sexual teasing had taken its toll.
She hung suspended, staring up at him. At his dark eyes, the curve of his cheek, his scruffy beard. She stared at the face that looked so much like her dear Jack’s but wasn’t.
Why couldn’t he be Jack?
A stabbing loneliness knifed through her at what she could never have, at what she had lost through no fault of her own.
In that awful moment, just before she exploded with an earth-shattering release, she realized she’d just had sex with one twin when she was in love with his brother.
Jack stared at the ceiling. CeeCee was curled in a ball on the bed beside him sleeping soundly, her legs entangled with his under the sheet. Her hair spread out across his pillow.
His deepest dreams had finally come true.
Part of him was happy, euphoric.
Another part was filled with impending doom.
He’d finally made love to CeeCee, and it had been every bit as wonderful as he’d imagined.
But he had made love to her in the guise of his twin brother and that wasn’t right, even though he had been forced to pose as Zack because her belief in the curse left him no option. His plan, which had once seemed so foolproof, now seemed very foolhardy. What if the whole thing blew up in his face? What if she ended up falling in love with Zack and not him? What if she ended up hating him for his duplicity?
His gut wrenched.
What if he lost not only his lover but his best friend as well?
Jack drew in a deep breath. It was time to tell her the truth. But how? And when? And where?
Closing his eyes, he remembered the intimacy they’d shared. Three times in fact. Even now, just thinking about making love to her had his body responding in a very unruly manner.
She’d been perfect in every way. Her sexual hunger matched his own. She’d known exactly where to touch, exactly what to do to send him spiraling into the stratosphere. She was without a doubt the best lover he’d ever had, not that he had anywhere near Zack’s level of experience.
He could only hope and pray he hadn’t screwed things up. That she’d forgive him for his charade.
Gulping, Jack opened his eyes and looked over at her. The covers rode low, exposing her silky bare skin. In repose her normally animated face was calm and serene. She looked like an angel.
His heart flapped raggedly against his rib cage.
“I never meant to hurt you, angel,” he whispered. “I just didn’t know any other way to get you into my arms.”
Should he wake her now and tell her what he must? He reached out a hand to stroke his fingers through her curls. No. Not yet. He had to find the right time, the right place. He had to make certain she’d fallen in love with him first.
Her cell phone was ringing.
Groggily CeeCee reached for the phone on the bedside stand.
“Hello,” she muttered. She heard nothing on the other end, but the phone kept ringing.
Huh? She dragged herself to a sitting position, then looked over and saw a man-size lump in her bed. Her pulse skittered like a lizard up a brick wall as it all came back to her.
She’d made love to Zack last night after finding out Jack had another woman.
She froze.
The phone rang again.
Leaning over the edge of the bed, she searched for the insistent sound.
Hmm, Zack’s pants were ringing.
“Zack,” she said, nudging him with her toe. “You’ve got a call.”
Zack was sound asleep, not moving a muscle.
She poked him again. Nothing. Just like his brother. At the hospital, Jack was notorious for being difficult to awaken when he got a chance to nap on his thirty-six-
hour shifts. Apparently, the Travis twins could sleep through a bomb.
The phone chirped a fourth time. Maybe she should just let it go to voice mail.
Fifth ring.
What if it was an emergency?
“Okay, okay, I’ll answer it.” CeeCee leaned over the bed, hooked Zack’s pants with a finger, and hauled them onto the covers with her. She grappled in the pockets, finally found the cell phone, and hit “accept” even though she didn’t recognize the number.
“Hello.”
“Why, hello,” purred a smooth, male drawl that sounded a lot like Zack’s. “My, what a sexy voice you have.”
“Please don’t tell me this is an obscene phone call.” CeeCee rolled her eyes to the ceiling.
“No, no, not at all. I’m just not accustomed to a woman answering my brother’s phone. Then again, maybe I have a wrong number.”
His brother? CeeCee frowned. What was this guy talking about? He wasn’t Jack and she was sleeping with Zack and they didn’t have any other brothers that she knew about. Surely, it was a wrong number.
“Who’s your brother?” she asked.
“Jack Travis. He called and left a message on my machine on Thursday telling me not to worry about showing up for the bachelor auction, but I just now got home. I had a spill on my bike. Nothing major, a slight concussion, but they kept me in the hospital for observation. His message was kind of garbled, and I’m not sure I understood. I thought he was in Mexico.”
“Wait a minute. Hold on. I’m confused. Is this Zack?”
“Wild Man Zack Travis Motocross Champion two years in a row,” he said proudly.
“Excuse me?” Stunned, CeeCee stared at the man beside her.
If this was Zack on the other end of the telephone, then who in the heck was in her bed!
Who had she made love to last night like a crazed nymph?
“Indeed. Guess what? I had no idea Jack had returned from Mexico,” she said. “In fact, I thought you were staying at Jack’s place and that you’d already appeared in the auction on Friday afternoon.”
“What? I’m not following you.” Then from the other end of the line she heard him say, “Aha. I get it. Jack’s been running the old switcheroo on you.”
“Come again?” She gritted her teeth and clenched one hand into a fist, barely keeping her anger in check.
Anger that sprang from hurt. She felt confused, betrayed, and duped. How could she have been so gullible? All along it had been Jack she’d given therapy to in the hot tub. Jack that she’d kissed. Jack that she’d just spent the night with.
But if that was the case then who was the señorita on the phone last night? And the anonymous Chihuahua?
In an instant, she knew the answer. Miss Abercrombie and Muffin. The Missing Link wasn’t suing the elderly lady. She and Muffin were in on Jack’s scheme.
“Aw, when we were kids, we used to switch places,” the real Zack told her. “When I had a test I couldn’t pass, Jack would take it for me. When he had a woman he wanted to ask out, I would do it for him. It’s kinda underhanded, but most identical twins pull that sort of thing at least a few times growing up.”
“Really,” she said dryly.
“But I was always the instigator of the switch,” Zack said. “I can’t believe Jack pulled this on his own.”
“Well,” CeeCee said, trying to be fair despite having the strongest urge to kick Jack out of bed. “To his credit, I was the one who assumed he was you, but he went along with it.”
“He must really care about you,” Zack mused.
“How do you figure?”
“Jack’s as honest as the day is long. He’d never pretend to be me in order to win a woman unless he thought he had absolutely no chance on his own.”
“How did he think he was going to get away with this?” CeeCee sighed, exasperated now.
Zack was right. She would never have gone to bed with Jack. He was her best friend, and she would have done anything to avoid hurting him. She was shocked by what he’d done. Shocked and guiltily pleased to discover that he had cared enough to pull such a stunt.
Still, no matter his motivation, the bottom line was they were both going to be hurt.
Looking over at him, she shook her head. Oh, Jack, what have you done?
“Would you like to know an underhanded way to wring a confession out of him?” Zack asked, a chuckle in his voice.
“Yes,” she said without hesitation.
“Then listen up. I’ve got a plan that’ll take the starch out of Jack’s socks and get you the answers you need. We’ll teach that son of gun to try the old switcheroo with you.”
15
“Wake up, Zack, we’re going skydiving.”
“Huh?” Jack blinked at CeeCee.
She was standing over him dressed in a denim jumpsuit and knee-length black leather boots, looking all the world like a dominatrix. Give her a few props, like a whip and handcuffs and she’d be set.
“Remember when you told me that you’ve always wanted to go skydiving? Well, surprise! I’ve already called the local parachuting operation, and they’ve got a class starting in an hour. If the weather’s right, we can jump this afternoon.”
“But my knee.” Jack looked panicky and grabbed hold of his knee. The thought of skydiving terrified him.
“Up, up, up.” She whipped the covers off him.
What in the world had gotten into CeeCee? She seemed a woman possessed, tugging on his arm with a determined thrust to her chin and a scary gleam in her eyes.
“Your knee is healed and with your athletic skills, I’m sure you won’t have a bit of trouble landing smoothly,” she said glibly, and he thought, a little heartlessly. “Now get up and get dressed.”
He tried to come up with another excuse, but CeeCee didn’t give him time.
She clapped her hands. “Chop, chop. Get moving. The sky awaits.”
What was he going to do?
Why, turn on the old Zack charm and lure her back to bed. He gave her a seductive wink, purposely ran a hand across his bare chest, and flicked his tongue over his bottom lip.
“Hey, babe, you look good enough to eat. C’mere.” He reached out to grab her wrist, but she danced away.
“What’s the matter, Zack? I thought you were the Wild Man,” she taunted. “Nothing you won’t try. Isn’t that right?”
Her angry tone confused him. What was she mad about? Had he done something wrong last night? Had she been disappointed in the sex?
“Uh...that’s right.”
Just tell her the truth, Jack. Confess you’re not Zack. You’re terrified of heights and you can’t go jumping out of airplanes.
But was now the right time? Especially when she was acting so weird? What had happened to her? He’d expected them to cuddle in bed until noon, then go out for lunch in a nice quiet restaurant. He’d wanted handholding and stolen kisses and deep passionate sighs. He had expected her to fall in love with him.
Instead, CeeCee was revved on superspeed, talking quickly with a hard inflection on the last word of her sentences. She barked out orders like a senior surgeon heading a dicey operation. She drilled him with looks that would make the bravest medical student quake.
Was she always like this after sex? No wonder her other boyfriends never hung around. Her irrational fear of the Jessup family whammy ran deeper than he had imagined.
“Why don’t you call and cancel the lesson.” He tried soothing her. He gave her what he hoped was an endearing grin and patted the mattress. “So we can spend the rest of the morning in bed. We can go skydiving another day.”
“Need I remind you,” she said. “Jack will be coming home next week, and you’ll be leaving town. We’ll probably never see each other again. Come on, Wild Man, get out of bed. The time has come to put your money where your mouth is and prove you’re as daring as everyone claims.”
“Last night wasn’t proof enough?”
“Sex doesn’t count as fearless.”
“I
t does with you.” He wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“I’m beginning to have my doubts about your supposed fearlessness. Maybe we should change your name from Wild Man to Child Man.”
“CeeCee,” he protested.
“I’ll wait for you in the car.” She turned on her heel and walked to the door, then stopped, red hair tumbling down her shoulders, and looked at him with an expression that threatened to stop his heart. “Don’t disappoint me, Zack.”
The plane vibrated with sound. Was the damned thing supposed to be so noisy? And did it have to be so old? He could have sworn the plane was manufactured during World War II. His fear of heights was chomping on him like T-cells on a virus.
Jack huddled beside CeeCee, parachutes harnessed to their backs. They’d spent the last six hours in ground school training, learning far more than he’d ever wanted to know about skydiving.
He’d tried several times to find a way to tell her he wasn’t Zack, but they’d been surrounded by instructors and other students all day and the opportunity had never arisen.
And then there was that part of him that whispered that he could be like his twin brother. Maybe he could jump out of the plane. If he could ignore the giant boulder in his throat that is. If he could unglue his butt from the seat.
Chicken.
Maybe this was exactly what he needed to prove to himself that he was brave and strong and tough and that his fear of losing her was much greater than his fear of heights.
Then again, maybe he needed a straitjacket and a heavy-duty antipsychotic. They were going to shove him out of a plane and into the empty atmosphere, for pity’s sake. Had he lost his ever-loving marbles?
He looked over at CeeCee. She met his gaze with a stony stare. She’d been like that all day. Edgy, fierce. He still couldn’t figure out where he’d gone wrong. Instead of their lovemaking binding CeeCee to him as he’d imagined it would, their passionate night together seemed to have agitated her and pushed them farther apart. His plan was unraveling like a ball of yarn in a roomful of kittens.
