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Title Page for "Seduced by Mistake"
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SEDUCED
by
MISTAKE
Sandra Sinclair
Copyright © 2013 Steam Books Erotica & Romance
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
“Oh, Collin.” Amy’s voice, which trembled like the rest of her, was barely above a whisper as she clung to the man above her, digging her manicured nails into the back of his shoulders and moving her hips against him to meet his thrusts as she felt the beginnings of her orgasm.
Seemingly sensing it, he moved faster, at the same time, claiming her mouth once more, and as soon as she felt his tongue on hers, the pleasure swirling within her exploded, a soft scream escaping her lips as she detached her mouth from his and allowed the explosion to blow her away.
Vaguely, she felt Collin still moving above her and as her shivers subsided, just before her arms grew limp, she felt him give one final thrust before emptying himself inside her. Then, seconds after, he withdrew from her body and pulled her into his arms so that her back was against his heaving chest, and he planted a tender kiss in her brown hair before he spoke.
“You’re more amazing than I thought you’d be, Amanda.”
At the words, Amy immediately stiffened, her eyes, which had already closed from exhaustion, opening wide. It was a wonderful compliment, yes, but apparently, it was not meant for her.
Her full name was Amelia, after all. Not Amanda.
“I’ll just go wash up,” she said, and without waiting for a reply, she freed herself from his embrace and cast the blanket aside, walking towards the bathroom.
As soon as she reached it, she locked the door and then leaned on the sink. Then, taking a deep breath, she lifted her head to look at herself in the mirror, a small, heart-shaped face with messy dark hair and brown eyes filled with hurt and confusion staring back at her.
What on earth had she done?
She already had a feeling earlier that he might have mistaken her for someone else. She was not even supposed to be at that Michelin-starred restaurant of the Diamond Crane Hotel, after all, having only gone because she did not want to waste the gift certificate she had received as a bonus at work, much less meet someone there. Yet, he had acted as if he knew her, even calling her by her name, Amy, as if he had every right to be with her and have her for his own.
She had dismissed it, though, against her better judgement, so charmed by his blue eyes and his perfect smile which made dimples show up on his chiseled cheeks, and so captivated by his witty remarks and refined manners which, together with his crisp, tailored clothes, Patek Philippe watch and his choice of wine, made apparent his wealthy upbringing, that she had thrown a deaf ear to the voice inside her telling her that she was probably not who he had intended to spend the evening with.
She regretted that now as she took one of the terry robes hanging behind the bathroom door and wrapped it around her before taking a seat on the plush chair with the scrolled arms against the wall. True, she had enjoyed herself immensely, the evening having been one she would not easily forget since it was unlikely she would ever have one like it, yet she had to face the fact that it was now over. Worse, she had to deal with the fact that it should never have happened.
The question was: How?
Reluctantly, she went out of the bathroom and as she approached the bed, she realized that Collin was sleeping, his even breathing the only sound in the spacious hotel suite. For a moment, she thought of dressing up and leaving then and there, just as Cinderella had escaped from the palace when the clock struck twelve but decided that was not the right thing to do. She owed him an explanation, after all. If she left without any word, he would only come looking for her, just as the prince had searched for Cinderella, or worse, he would think ill of her, think that she was some criminal even, some woman who seduced rich men and then left them before morning, which she could not have, of course.
Yes, the only solution to her current predicament was to talk to him, to explain to him that he had mistaken her for someone else. Then, afterwards, she would be on her way, back to the reality that she had work to do and bills and debts to pay, and she and Collin would never see each other again.
At that thought, she could not help but feel a little sad. It was strange but in such a short time, she had fallen so hard for a man she didn’t even know. Still, she took a deep breath and told herself there was no reason to be sad. She should only be thankful that fate had given her the opportunity to meet such a wonderful man who was clearly out of her league.
Slowly and as quietly as she could because she did not want to wake him, she slipped under the covers beside him, rested her head on the soft pillow and closed her eyes.
For tonight, she would make the most of what fate had given her and get herself some good rest and then tomorrow, she would tell Collin everything.
~ ~ ~
She still had not managed to tell Collin anything.
As she glanced at her watch while keeping one hand on the reins of the horse which Collin had rented so they could spend the morning horseback riding, she realized, with a frown, that it was already almost noon and still she had not been able to explain the situation to Collin.
She had wanted to, of course. In fact, she had tried right after waking up but then, Collin had been all dreamy and romantic, carrying her out of bed and into the shower, and she had gotten cold feet, deciding to postpone the serious conversation for a little later in the day. Then, after that, each time she found an opportunity, she simply choked, her fear of the dream ending causing her mind to go blank so that she had been unable to say anything.
She knew she had to talk to him, though, and so, taking a deep breath, she tugged on the reins lightly so her horse would move closer to Collin’s black stallion.
“I have a question,” she spoke, trying to keep her voice from shaking.
“Sure.” He turned to her with a smile. “Ask me anything.”
“What if…” Amy took another deep breath. “What would you do if you spent a wonderful time, the best time of your life even, with another person, but then you realized that you should never have met that person in the first place?”
Collin’s eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t understand.”
“Let me change the question. What if someone mistook you for the person she loved and neither of you noticed it until it was too late?”
His eyebrows remain furrowed. “Is this a hypothetical question?”
She nodded slowly.
He paused to think. “Well, I don’t know why you’ve suddenly become serious and I have to tell you I hate hypothetical questions, but I think I would…”
Much to her dismay, he was suddenly interrupted by a ring of his phone and of course, he took it out of its leather case and answered the call. She waited patiently for him to finish, having no other option, and tried not to eavesdrop, though she could not help but listen in when she noticed the worry in his voice, and when she looked at his face, she saw that he was, indeed, concerned by something.
When he was f
inally done, she looked at him expectantly but he simply turned back to her with an apologetic smile.
“I’m very sorry,” Collin said. “But we have to go back to the hotel. It seems that there is some…some misunderstanding I have to clear up.”
“Oh,” Amy said. “Okay.”
She watched him pull on the reins of his horse and set off, then followed after him, riding behind him in silence until they reached the hotel where she disembarked with the help of a groom. A man came forward to meet Collin.
“I hope you enjoyed your ride, Mr. DuPont,” the man said. “Your guest is waiting in the private lounge.”
“Would you like me to wait for you somewhere?” Amy asked Collin.
“No.” Collin stretched out his hand to her. “Come with me.”
She wondered why he wanted her to accompany him when it seemed like what was going on was either a business or highly personal matter, none of which she found herself fit to be involved in, but she said nothing, simply following him towards the elegant double doors at the end of the lobby.
As soon as they entered, a woman with short, blonde hair and pale green eyes wearing a white dress with a low, diamond-studded neckline rose from the couch and she smiled as she saw Collin but frowned and took a step back the moment she saw her.
“Excuse me,” she said, clasping her white leather purse as she eyed Amy suspiciously. “Who is this woman?”
“I believe the question is: Who are you?” Collin said.
She gasped in disbelief. “I told the manager who I was. Didn’t he tell you? Besides, I thought you were…”
“So you’re saying you are Amanda Richardson and that this woman whom I have spent the night with is an impostor.”
She gasped again, this time lifting a hand to cover her mouth. “You spent the night with another woman.” She clenched her hands into fists at her sides. “But you’re supposed to be engaged to me!”
Collin sighed then turned to Amy. “Amy, kindly tell this woman who you are.”
Amy didn’t answer at once, her chest suddenly feeling too tight.
“Amy?” Collin threw her a questioning look.
“You’re right, my name is Amy,” Amy answered, taking her hand away from Collin’s. “Or at least, my nickname is. But my full name is Amelia Washington.”
Collin looked at her in astonishment.
“I never meant to lie to you or to ruin anything,” Amy went on. “In fact, I only realized the mistake last night when you called out her name after we…”
She was unable to finish talking because Amanda suddenly approached her, slapping her hard.
“How dare you steal my fiancé and then try to act so innocent,” Amanda said, glaring at her.
Amy ignored her, looking at Collin as she rubbed her cheek. “I’ve been trying to tell you since this morning…”
“Are you ignoring me?” Amanda interrupted again. “Why don’t you just leave? Just leave! You’ve done enough damage already.”
Normally Amy would have clocked the woman right back, but right now all she could focus on was Collin. She looked at him, hoping for him to say something in her defense, but when he didn’t, she turned to walk away.
“And don’t you ever come near Collin again, you piece of filth!” Amanda called out to her just as she passed through the doors.
Crying, but trying not to make the fact obvious so as not to draw attention, although it seemed heads had already turned in her direction, she ran quickly to the hotel entrance, but realizing that she still had the keycard to Collin’s hotel suite in her pocket and that her purse with all her valuables in it was still there, she went back to retrieve it. She decided to change back into her clothes from yesterday, as well, folding the new clothes Collin had bought for her into a neat pile on the bed, not wanting to owe him any more than she already had, and was about to leave when she realized her earrings were missing.
Briefly, she debated on whether or not to look for them or leave without them, but thinking that they were given to her by her mother before she became sick with Alzheimer’s, and that they were the best pair of earrings she had, she decided to spend a few minutes to look for them, part of her hoping that while she did, Collin would not arrive, while another part hoped he would so he could take her into his arms and tell her he had broken up with his engagement.
Stupid, she told herself, slapping her forehead at that latter thought. It was foolish enough that she had hoped, or even thought, that he had fallen in love with her the way that she had fallen in love with him. It was even more foolish to think he would choose to stay with her now that he knew who she really was. Why should he choose her, a mere assistant manager at a supermarket when he had a fiancée who was probably as rich as he was? True, she was quite pretty herself, with her light-skinned olive complexion and her brown hair being naturally shiny and straight and her eyes being of one of the rarest eye colors and framed with thick, long lashes that she loved to apply mascara on, but compared to the other Amy, Amanda Richardson, who looked like a fashion model with her own team of hair and make-up artists and perhaps even a wardrobe consultant who no doubt picked only the most expensive clothes straight from runway fashion collections, it was obvious who was more appealing to the eye.
No, she did not hold a candle at all to Amanda, and at that thought, she suddenly felt a tear streak down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away, though, focusing on her search for the earrings and after a few minutes, she gave up on even that. Her mother no longer remembered giving them to her, anyway, so she wouldn’t notice them missing.
Straightening the front of her dress and picking up her purse, she walked out of the room, went down to the lobby to drop off her keycard and then left the hotel, feeling like Cinderella walking out of the ball, except without any hope that the prince would come after her.
The dream had come to an end.
~ ~ ~
She was dreaming, Amy first thought as she heard knocks on the door to her apartment later on. It was the middle of the night, after all, and Amy was pretty sure she wasn’t expecting anyone.
As the knocks persisted, though, she was forced to believe that there was someone knocking on her door and muttering a curse, she took off her sleep mask, got out of bed and walked to the door.
“You better have a good excuse or…”
She stopped talking as she looked into the peephole and leaned on the door as she rubbed her eyes. If she thought she had been dreaming earlier, she was even more convinced that she was dreaming now, for surely, there was no way Collin could be at her apartment door.
“Amy?” he asked, seemingly sensing her presence behind the door. “Amelia?”
She frowned at the use of her full name, though that confirmed that everything was indeed, real.
“What are you doing here, Collin?” she asked, still leaning on the door.
“I want to show you something,” Collin answered.
The answer made Amy raise a brow in curiosity. She had expected Collin to say that he wanted to talk to her, but to show her something?
“You’re not supposed to be here,” Amy said, the stubborn part of her refusing to be made a fool of again.
“I wanted to see you.”
She was about to ask him how he found her but realized it was probably pointless since a man with as much money as he had could probably find anything he wanted. Instead, she said, “Why would you want to see me? You’re engaged, aren’t you?”
“Won’t you come with me, Amelia?” Collin asked instead of answering her question.
For a moment, Amy kept silent. Then, deciding she had nothing to lose, since she had already lost her heart to him anyway, which was why she had cried herself to sleep earlier, she sighed.
“Let me get dressed.”
She went back into her bedroom to change into a long-sleeved, cowl neck blouse and a pair of black jeans, then fixed her hair into a ponytail before picking up her purse and opening the door to find Collin standing there in a bla
ck turtleneck shirt, his hands tucked in the pockets of his gray coat.
She was tempted to throw herself in his arms there and then but managed to get a hold of herself. “I sure hope it isn’t your habit to wake people up in the middle of the night.”
“Not usually,” he said. “I’m sorry about that.”
He handed her a pair of earrings from his pocket. “You left these at the hotel.”
She gasped as she took them. “Where did you find them?”
“Under some clothes.” He stretched out his hand to her. “Shall we go?”
Amy placed her earrings in a pocket of her purse. “Only if you promise never to call me by my full name again.”
He grinned. “Deal.”
She gave him her hand and taking it, he led her down the stairs and outside to his car.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“It’s a surprise,” he said, grinning.
They rode in silence, with her fumbling with the strap of her purse, her glance darting every once in a while past the window to try and see where they were going. More than that, she wondered why he had come to see her and what he was planning on doing now.
One of her unspoken questions was answered when the car finally came to a stop in front of the city orchidarium. She still didn’t know what they were doing there, though, and so she kept on a curious, bewildered expression as she followed Collin out of the car.
At the entrance, he stopped to talk to the guard and seconds later, the gate was opened.
“This orchidarium actually belonged to my mother,” Collin explained as he stretched out his hand to her once more. “She donated it to the city but my family is welcome to visit it anytime.”
“Oh,” was all she managed to say.
She followed him through rows of orchids, some making her smile with their simple beauty and others making her gasp in wonder. Strangely, although she had been living in the city for three years now, she had never visited the orchidarium and she regretted that now, since the place seemed to be a fragment of paradise right in the heart of the city.
Seduced by Mistake - A Sensual Billionaire and Interracial BWWM Erotic Romance from Steam Books Page 1
