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That’s when the dream had begun—and her lover had joined her. And he was still with her. The smooth taut skin on his shoulder was warm beneath her hand, and above the sounds from the street below she heard the steady rate of his breathing.
Was she still trapped in her dream?
A mix of emotions swept through her—fear, excitement. Anticipation? Gingerly, Maddie opened one eye. There was just enough light seeping through the slit in the drapes for her to see that her senses were not deceiving her. Her hand was indeed resting against a man’s shoulder. And the rest of her body was totally wrapped around his. Everything about him, the hint of stubble on his chin, the strength of the arm wrapped around her waist—even the erection growing harder against her stomach—seemed to be very real.
Squeezing her eye shut again, Maddie drew in a deep breath and let it out. One thing she’d learned growing up on her father’s ranch was that you had to face facts. So the dream lover who’d joined her in bed last night had been real. Was real.
And facts had to be dealt with. A cut fence had to be mended ASAP so cattle didn’t stray. Still, a real lover in one’s bed instead of a dream one presented more complicated problems—one of them being that she didn’t seem to want to disentangle herself from him. What she was tempted to do more than anything else was to push him onto his back and taste him again, touch him again.
Not happening, Maddie lectured herself. And why was she even considering the possibility? No man had ever made her feel the way this one had. Ever. And she didn’t even know who he was.
Stiffening her resolve, Maddie slowly drew her head back and this time she opened both eyes. Even in the dim light, recognition was instantaneous. After all, she’d memorized those features—the angled cheekbones, that strong chin, the firm lips.
At some point in the night, she’d made love to Jase Campbell. And he’d made love to her.
Heat shot through her. But it wasn’t from embarrassment. Her body was on fire because she wanted to repeat the experience. Right now.
Not going to happen. She had to get a grip. And she had to get out of this bed. If she could just get away before he woke up, maybe she could pretend that the night they’d just shared hadn’t happened. If he brought it up, she’d just tell him that he’d been dreaming. That would be one way to mend the fence. Maybe the only way.
Dragging her eyes away from his face, she focused on ungluing herself from him. But her body rebelled, refusing to take orders from her brain. Her hand seemed permanently affixed to his shoulder, her fingers splayed. Maddie faced another fact—she didn’t want to stop touching him, and she knew that if her hand moved at all, it would slide down to wrap itself around the length of his erection which was pressing against her stomach more insistently with each passing moment.
When he sighed, his breath feathered along her temple, and his arm tightened more firmly around her waist. Maddie barely managed to stifle a moan. He was waking up. Once he did, the pretend-it-never-happened scenario would no longer be an option. But it wasn’t panic she was feeling, it was a wild thrill.
What was happening to her? Why was she reacting this way?
He stirred again. Maybe there was still time to slip away. She focused all her effort on pushing against his shoulder. It was like trying to dislodge a boulder. Then she felt his whole body stiffen. Before she could blink, he slipped a hand beneath her chin and tilted it up so that she had to meet his eyes.
She was aware of several things at once. The body pressed against hers had grown harder, and the heat that seemed to leap from him to her was enough to melt her bones. But it was his eyes she couldn’t look away from. The photo hadn’t captured the color. The mix of dark green and blue reminded her of some of the rarer turquoise stones she worked with.
Then suddenly his gaze narrowed, darkened, and his fingers tightened their grip on her chin. Their mouths were close, nearly touching. If either one of them moved…Just anticipating the brush of those lips against hers, Maddie felt her brain cells wink off one by one. Yes.
No. Jase felt his mind clouding over and fought to clear it. He was holding a woman in his arms, and he had no idea how that had come to happen.
The last thing he remembered was reaching his apartment and falling into bed. Memories began to trickle in. That’s when the dream had begun. There’d been a lover waiting for him, hungry for him. What she’d ignited in him had gone beyond anything he’d ever experienced before. Desire had never been so compelling. Passion had never been so consuming.
But what had happened during the night hadn’t been a dream.
It was morning now. The sound of traffic floated up from the street below. Her hair was just brushing his chin, her breath was hot on his chest. She was very real. And so was the fresh surge of desire he was feeling. A thin stream of sunlight fell across the delicate line of her cheekbone.
If he gave into temptation and traced a finger along the path of the light, he knew just what her skin would feel like. Soft as the petal of a flower, warm…
Jase clamped down on the heat that shot through him. She wasn’t a dream. This was a real woman. And she was wrapped so tightly around him that he wasn’t sure he could ever break free.
And he still wanted her. Desperately. Her mouth was so close, barely a breath away. His leg was already nestled between hers, and he could feel that she was ready for him. More than anything, he wanted to sink into her, to lose himself in her again.
No. Gripping her shoulders, Jase disentangled himself, pulling back far enough so that he could see her face clearly for the first time. It was the eyes that drew his attention first. They were dark—a deep blue that bordered on violet. And they were very familiar. The color, the shape—they were Jordan’s eyes. And she had Jordan’s face. But…Narrowing his gaze, he studied her more closely.
“You’re not Jordan.”
He would have staked his life on it. Her scent was all wrong. Jordan always smelled like some exotic French perfume. This woman smelled like wild flowers and sunshine. And Jordan’s hair wasn’t long enough to pull into a braid.
Then there was the chemistry. As long as he and Jordan had known each other, there’d never been any spark between them. And spark was far too tame a word for what he’d experienced with this woman.
Those eyes, damn them, were still clouded with desire. The pulse at the base of her throat was hammering. Whoever she was, he could have her again. Right now. Jase wasn’t usually one to throw caution to the winds either in his personal or his business life. But for one precarious moment, he was outrageously tempted.
He tightened his grip on her shoulders. “Who are you and what are you doing in my bed?”
THE NOTE of command in Jase’s voice snapped Maddie out of the trance she’d fallen into ever since he’d pulled back and she’d looked into those mesmerizing blue-green eyes. A moment ago, she’d been sure he was going to kiss her again. And she’d wanted him to. More than that, she’d willed him to. But he hadn’t. And now he seemed to be focused on getting answers. Okay, maybe he had a right. But so did she.
She squirmed backward, intending to get out of bed. But she was naked. Sweeping her hand beneath the covers, she searched for her tank top. Without success.
“I’m still waiting for an answer.”
The sudden hint of humor in his tone had her chin lifting and her temper surging. This was not funny. “What I was trying to do here was sleep. When I arrived last night, I was nearly blind with exhaustion and I simply got into the wrong bed. Do you know how many planes I’ve been on in the past three days?”
“Not as many as I have, I’ll wager. Is this what you’re looking for?”
She glanced up barely in time to catch the tank top he tossed her. Then her gaze focused on him. Big mistake. He was lying on his side now, his head propped on his hand. The sheet barely covered him to the waist.
An intense wave of hunger shot through her. Why was this happening to her? Baffled, she tore her eyes away from him, slid off the side of the bed, and tried to cover as much as she could with the tank top. If she wanted to think clearly, her best bet was to get out of the room. But the door was on his side of the bed. There was just no way to make any kind of a dignified exit.
“You haven’t answered my first question. Who are you?”
She shot him a narrow look. He was definitely enjoying this. “I’m Jordan’s twin sister and Eva’s other daughter.”
It gave her some satisfaction when a bit of the humor faded from his gaze.
“You’ll have to do better than that. Jordan doesn’t have a twin.”
“Yes, she does. Turns out we were separated when we were babies, and neither one of us knew anything about it until four days ago.”
For two full heartbeats silence stretched between them. He was studying her as if he were weighing what she’d told him. And she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Worse, she could feel her brain cells start to click off again. She had to get a grip.
“Where is Jordan?” he asked.
Her chin lifted. “She’s at our father’s ranch in Santa Fe.”
“Why?”
Maddie welcomed the surge of temper. “Look. It’s a very long story, and if you were any kind of a gentleman, you’d leave right now and give me a chance to get dressed. Then I’ll be happy to answer all of your questions.”
He smiled slowly, fully.
Maddie felt the heat shoot all the way to her toes.
“Never let it be said that my mother didn’t raise me to be a gentleman.”
Maddie stared as he threw back the covers and got out of bed. For the first time, she got a good look at what she’d explored with her hands during the night—the broad shoulders, the strongly muscled back, the bronze skin that ended with a clearly defined tan line at his waist.
And his butt. There were muscles there too. She remembered exactly what they’d felt like beneath her palms, tensing and then relaxing as he’d moved inside her. When he turned, Maddie’s throat went dry as fresh need thrummed through her.
“My jeans…ah, there they are.” He leaned down to scoop them up. “But these are yours, I believe.” He laid her panties on the foot of the bed.
She ignored the panties and focused her gaze on his. He knew exactly what effect he was having on her. Damn him.
Still smiling, he took another step toward her, extending his free hand. “I’m Jase Campbell, by the way. I’m Jordan’s roommate. And your name is…?”
“I’m Maddie Farrell.” She sent him a thin smile as she shook his hand. The instant he relaxed his grip, she hooked her foot behind his right ankle, then used both hands to shove hard against his chest. His butt hit the floor with a very satisfactory thud. There, she thought. Enjoy that.
He grinned up at her. “Nice move, Maddie Farrell.”
She snatched her panties off the bed. “I believe you said something about your mother raising a gentleman.”
He winced a little. “So I did.” He stretched out a hand. “You wouldn’t want to give me a hand, would you?”
“Do I look as though I have stupid branded on my forehead?”
“No. But it was worth a try.” He rose in one graceful movement, but she noticed that he took his time walking to the bedroom door. When he reached it, he turned back. “I’ll make us some coffee, Maddie Farrell. Then we’ll talk.”
For a full thirty seconds after he’d disappeared from view, Maddie didn’t move. Because she wanted to run after him? What in the world was wrong with her? The man thought this whole situation had a humorous side to it. Maybe—in a hundred years—she could agree with him.
Biting back a groan, she sank onto the bed. Maybe if she burrowed under the covers, she’d wake up and discover that it was all a dream.
But it wasn’t. In a few moments she was going to have to join him for coffee and answer his questions. Besides, she wasn’t the kind of person who ran from problems. On a ranch you just couldn’t do that.
You grew up around men. You know how to handle them.
All she needed was a plan.
Chapter Four
JASE LEANED his hip against the counter and sipped coffee. He could hear the shower still running in the bathroom, so he had a few more minutes to figure out what in the hell he was going to do. Usually, he wasn’t at such a loss. But the night he’d just spent with the woman who called herself Maddie Farrell had been unprecedented. She’d scrambled his brain.
And she was going to be a problem for him.
For the first few minutes after he’d left her in the bedroom, he’d struggled hard against the urge to forget about the questions he had and just walk back in there, toss her onto the bed and make love to her again. Instead, he’d run water in the sink and splashed it on his face. He might not be a gentle lover, but caveman tactics weren’t his style.
Then again, no other woman had ever shoved him onto his ass. His lips twitched at the memory, then he sipped more coffee. He’d told her the truth about his mother. His father, a career army man, had died when he was ten. D.C. had been nine and their sister Darcy had been six. Their mother had gotten a teaching job in Baltimore and had proceeded to raise her children the way she managed her classes—with a firm hand.
Problem was, he didn’t want to be a gentleman with Maddie. If he did make a move on her, she wouldn’t resist. Just in those few moments that they’d lain together in his bed after they’d awakened, he’d sensed she was as reluctant as he to pull away. And she was just as curious as he was about what it would be like to make love while they were both fully awake. That made the temptation almost irresistible.
If he joined her in that shower now, they could both find out. In a matter of seconds—perhaps ten to get into the bathroom and another five to strip out of his jeans—he could step under the spray and…
With an oath, Jase set his mug down, then gripped the edge of the counter with both hands. Being this enthralled by a woman just wasn’t like him. He couldn’t deny that he had a reckless streak. He and D.C. had gotten into more than their fair share of trouble in their teenage years. According to his mother, they were responsible for turning her hair prematurely gray. But college with a major in business and four years in the navy, two in special ops, had pretty much drummed recklessness out of his system.
As he glanced down the hall at the closed shower door, guilt moved through him. Hadn’t he already taken enough advantage of her? Sure, he’d been exhausted, sleep-deprived, but the bottom line was that he’d allowed himself to be lulled into making love to a woman he’d found in his bed. He should have fought harder against the dream she’d enveloped him in. Making love to her had been a mistake. A big one.
And he shouldn’t have to be fighting so damn hard against the desire to repeat the experience. If she was telling the truth, she was his best friend’s sister.
Jase refilled his mug and took a long swallow. Time to step back, look at the big picture and come up with a plan. That was what had saved his life several times during his specialops missions in the navy.
He should be focusing on what she was doing here, not joining her in that shower. And what in the hell was Jordan doing on a ranch in Santa Fe? He nearly grinned at the thought. Talk about a fish out of water. From the time he’d first met her, Jordan had been a city girl right down to her weekly manicure and pedicure.
While he’d waited for the coffee to brew, he’d tried to contact Jordan on her cell to check out the twin story, but she wasn’t picking up. Then he’d typed Maddie Farrell into his laptop.
Madison Farrell was a Southwestern jewelry designer in Santa Fe. In addition to her photo, her Web site featured images of finely carved silver pins, belt buckles and rings, all with a clearly Southwestern flair. When he’d searched Santa Fe’s newspaper, The New Mexican, he’d found an article praising the intricacy and modern artistry of her designs. Like mother, like daughter, he’d thought. He’d also come across an obituary for a local rancher, Mike Farrell, who’d died a year ago and had been survived by his only daughter, Madison.
So, she was evidently who she said she was, and she looked enough like Jordan to be her twin—but he still had questions—a lot of them.
And until he got some answers, he was going to put any plans for taking Maddie Farrell back to his bed on hold.
MADDIE TURNED a complete circle in the shower and let the hot water sluice over her. Her body ached in places it had never ached before, places where Jase Campbell had touched her. And it felt wonderful.
With a sigh she rested her head against the shower wall. She had to think—and not about Jase. What had happened between them in that bed of his during the night had been crazy. Wonderful. Amazing. But it had been a mistake. And mistakes were for learning, not for repeating.
Waking up beside him had distracted her. Big-time. He didn’t even know about Eva’s death. Jordan hadn’t been able to reach him.
Pouring shampoo into her palms, she lathered her hair lavishly, then rinsed it, wishing she could wash the man right out just as easily as soap. It might not be that simple, but she was going to try. She had to be practical, use some common sense. And get herself back on track.
After all, she only had three weeks to walk around in Jordan’s shoes, and she had a lot to do. It hadn’t been just to please her sister and fulfill the terms of the will that she’d come to New York, she reminded herself. Before she went back to Santa Fe, she intended to find out everything she could about Eva Ware. If Jordan was right and Eva had been truly interested in a daughter who designed jewelry, why had she waited so long to act on that interest? Too long.
Each time she thought about the fact that she’d never really get to meet or talk with Eva, a little band of pain tightened around her heart.
If she could, she was going to find out why she and Jordan had been separated. The key was there. She was sure of it. Though she hadn’t mentioned it to her sister, she had a theory that Eva might have confided in someone that she’d had twins. She’d bet that Cash’s father had known. But he’d passed on a year before her own father had.
Getting the answers to her questions and getting to know as much as she could about Eva Ware—those had to be her priorities.
Twisting off the faucets, she stepped out of the shower and wrapped her hair in a towel. Then she swiped the steam off the mirror over the sink and faced her image.
“You have too much on your plate right now to fit Jase Campbell in.”
And wasn’t it possible that Jase felt the same way about her? After all, he’d been out of the country for over three weeks. He must have a lot to catch up on at his office.
Bending over, Maddie began to towel-dry her hair. The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that she might have hit on the key to extricate them both from an…awkward situation.
Reason and logic—that was the strategy. After all, she’d grown up surrounded by men—her father and Cash, to name two. The business of running the ranch had always been the men’s primary focus. Her father had even missed her first jewelry show because he’d had to meet personally with a buyer in Albuquerque.
Though it had hurt at the time, she’d come to understand his decision. How many times during the past year had she prioritized her growing design business over the ranch? Often enough that Cash was growing concerned. He’d taken over more and more of the work she should have been doing, including driving her cattle to market.
It had helped to talk to Jordan about her concerns that she really couldn’t run the ranch on her own. How much longer could she rely on Cash’s help? She hoped that Jordan would have some ideas on that score, because she didn’t want to have to sell.
Maddie hung up the towel and pulled on the clothes she’d unpacked from her suitcase—her old standbys—jeans and a T-shirt. Then she frowned as she glanced at her image in the mirror. Her problems at the ranch had to go to the back burner for now. Jase Campbell was the big issue she had to deal with. Surely he’d understand that what had happened between them was, no, had to be, a one-time fling. A mistake that could not and would not be repeated.
Her frown deepened when she felt the sharp twist of regret. She wondered for a moment just who it was she was trying to convince that the time they’d spent in Jase’s bed couldn’t be repeated.
WHEN JASE heard the door to the bathroom open, his first instinct was to turn away. But there was no time like the present to discover just what effect Maddie Farrell would have on his senses after their short reprieve. Her walk was a lot like Jordan’s—long purposeful strides—but Maddie’s was slower. And he’d never found himself staring at Jordan’s legs. He slid his gaze up body-hugging denim and over the white T-shirt that revealed everything about that tight compact body he’d only begun to explore during the night. The clothes were nothing that he’d ever seen Jordan in. Even when she went casual, she looked like a fashion plate.
When Maddie finally came to a stop in front of the island that separated the main room of the apartment from the galley-sized kitchen, Jase shifted his eyes to her face. It was there that he noted the biggest difference between the twins.
