Barely Mistaken

A sense of destiny shook her.

He dragged his mouth away from hers. Their breathing rasped into the quiet of the garden. Before she could protest his abandonment, he scattered kisses along her jawline. Olivia dropped her head back to allow him fuller access to her neck. Quick study, her pirate. As he lavished her with kisses, his breath warm and moist against the chill of her exposed skin, she quivered and her body tightened.

He slid her dress off of one shoulder, baring it to his mouth. “So…very…very…sweet.” Nibbles punctuated his words and drove her further out of her mind, into a state of blissful sensation. “So…beautiful.” His tongue swirled against the exposed slope of her breast. Desire flashed through her, like a rampaging river swollen by torrential rains.

He slipped his thumb inside her bodice and brushed against her pearled tip. Olivia whimpered. A faint scrape of his thumbnail against her nipple and her hips undulated against him in supplication. He pushed aside the starched material and freed her breast to the nip of the night air.

She felt vulnerable. She also experienced a peculiar sense of belonging and shelter in his arms. Exposed, yet safe. It was an intoxicating combination.

“You…” he cupped her breast in his hand “…are…” he bent forward until his breath warmed her tight bud “…mine?” Part declaration, part question.

“Yes.” Part answer, part demand.

He suckled her deep into his mouth, then released her to tug at her nipple with his lips. Pleasure pulsed from her breast to her thighs. She clutched at the lattice behind her, bruising the delicate vine twining around it, and whimpered.

The sharp sound of crunching gravel nearby interrupted. Teasing laughter floated over the flowers and shrubs, as another couple sought the enchantment of a garden stroll.

Olivia froze, acutely aware of her semidressed state in the shadow of the trellis. Before she summoned the wherewithal, Adam restored her clothing with unsteady hands.

Instead of anticipated embarrassment, mild annoyance at the interruption stirred in her breast—and other parts farther south.

The night air carried a woman’s voice. “It’s cold out here. Let’s go back to your house.” A man murmured indistinctly, but retreating footsteps left Olivia and Adam alone once again.

Olivia had no intention of squandering even a minute of this night out of time. She smoothed her palms over the flat plane of his belly up to his chest. Standing on tiptoe, she whispered into his ear, “I don’t think it’s cold at all. In fact, I think it’s very, very hot.”

His wig, gathered at his nape with a leather strap in true pirate fashion, tickled against her nose, surprisingly silky and real. Tonight Adam had abandoned his hair gel with the annoying odor. She infinitely preferred the clean scent of sandalwood present beneath the wig.

“Honey, you are killing me.” His low murmur stirred her hair and her feminine self-esteem.

“Am I really?” Go figure. She, Olivia Cooper, a femme fatale? From the time she’d donned her costume and mask, it was as if she’d slid through the rabbit hole—Olivia in Sensual Wonderland.

He brushed his groin against her, the thick ridge of his erection apparent. “Really.”

Her thighs quivered and clenched in response. “Oh, my. Is that a sword in your pocket or are you just glad to see me, Captain Hook?” And now she was glib and flirtatious. Really, altogether too strange.

She sensed his smile in the dark as his thumb played against the hollow of her cheek. “Baby, I’m so glad to see you, there’s no damn way I can go inside now.”

Up until now Adam had always addressed her in a formal manner. His earthy sensuality struck a chord within her.

Where such boldness came from she would always wonder, but she reached between them and palmed him. He pulsed at her touch. “We could go to my house.”

“Are you propositioning me, Olivia?” Was that a hopeful note underlaying his incredulity?

She knew she’d stepped—make that leaped—beyond her self-imposed boundaries. But one night. For one night her mask and the shadows offered a measure of anonymity. She drew a fortifying breath and seized the opportunity. “Yes. I believe I am.”

“Thank God.” He wrapped her in his arms. “Pillage and plunder?”

“Hmmm.” Instinct took over. She licked at the base of his throat. He shuddered in response.

“Let’s go.” The strain in his voice and the fact she’d put it there, excited her.

She traced her tongue against the pulse hammering in his neck. He groaned and set her from him. “Let’s go now. No more of that.”

Compelled to seek one more touch, Olivia kissed the strong column of his throat. The slight chafing of his beard aroused her unbearably.

“Olivia, you’ve got to stop.” His voice echoed his harsh breathing. “We’re about one kiss away from the point when I won’t care if fifty people are inside that building. Before I prop you against the lattice, raise your skirts, and slip inside you while you wrap your legs around me.”

His words inflamed her. Moisture slicked her. Her nipples further tightened to hard points of want. She teetered dangerously close to the edge of not caring herself. The ten-minute car trip to her house loomed like an eternity.

She couldn’t get him home fast enough. “Let’s go. You can follow me.”

He twined his fingers through hers and tugged her along, leaving the privacy of their hidden corner behind. She sensed his urgent need matched hers. As they reached the front steps of the club, Adam tossed his ticket at the snoozing teenager on valet duty. “I’ll be back in a minute for my car.”

The boy scrambled for the appropriate key. “Yes, sir, Mr. Rutledge.”

Without speaking, they wound through the parking lot. When they reached her car, Adam caught her up in his arms and kissed her hard, as if he hadn’t touched her for days instead of a matter of minutes. His mouth’s demanding hunger reduced the world to just the two of them. Still holding her in his arms, he raised his head.

“Olivia, I want you to know there hasn’t been anyone for a long time.”

“Does that mean you’re desperate?” she blurted out, her insecurities running away with her mouth.

He chuckled as he slid the backs of his fingers against her cheek. Although she couldn’t see it, she felt the intensity of his gaze. “No. It means I’m choosy. Very, very choosy.” He bent his head and kissed her, a slow, lip-clinging, mind-drugging, heat-infusing kiss. “But I am desperate for you.” He brushed her lips with his once more. “I’ll be right behind you,” he promised, looking back as he strode away.

Olivia remained against her car, uncertain she was actually capable of driving.

She opened the door and fell into the seat, the bright light of the interior harsh compared to the soft moonlight. Olivia killed the dome light and fumbled for her glasses. She slid her mask to her forehead and donned her glasses. She cranked the car and pulled out of the space. Adam’s car lights flashed in her rearview as she turned left onto the highway.

If she hadn’t seen him drive up in his car, wearing the costume he’d described earlier, she wouldn’t have known him. Tonight everything about him—his voice, his scent, his touch—tapped something deep inside her.

Although she had her occasional wild impulses, there had never been anything of this magnitude. Tonight was so out of character for her, she should be frightened. But it was excitement that rendered her hands unsteady on the wheel. The only thing that scared her now was that Adam might change his mind on the drive.

She checked her rearview mirror. Yeow! Let him get a look at this and he’d change his mind for sure. Tortoiseshell glasses and a black velvet mask hiked to her forehead—not pretty. Without her glasses, she was a one-woman wreck waiting to happen. But the minute she pulled into the driveway, they were history.

LUKE FOLLOWED OLIVIA. Don’t change your mind, he silently willed her.

But what kind of son-of-a-bitch considered sleeping with his brother’s girlfriend? A worrisome remnant of his conscience niggled him. The kind who knew Adam didn’t really care about Olivia. The kind who knew she had never responded to Adam the way she responded to him. The kind who couldn’t manage a coherent thought after kissing her. The kind pulling into her driveway behind her…

In three quick strides he caught up with her as she fumbled with the key in the front door lock.

“Let me help you with that.” He reached around her, fitting his hand over hers, and inserted the key. Wisps of her hair tickled his chin. The curve of her buttock teased his erection. His hand shook so badly, it took both of them to open the door. Olivia in her seductive mode stirred the wildness in him to fever pitch.

He followed her into a small, dark foyer. The door barely closed behind them before she turned to him. He reached for her as she launched herself at him, her mouth demanding, her hands eager as they worked at the buttons of his shirt. His body surged a response, impatient to find release in her. He struggled to remember something important he should discuss with her. Her hips ground against him and his brain skipped to autopilot.

Harsh breathing—his—echoed in his ears. She mewled deep in her throat as his tongue parried with hers. He damn near came.

“Honey, we’ve got to find your bedroom or your couch because I can’t—”

“No.”