Flames of Attraction

chapter 5



Olivia found that every time she lifted her fork to her mouth, her gaze would automatically drift to the next table, the one where Reggie Westmoreland was sitting. And each time, unerringly, their gazes would meet.

After their introduction, she had excused herself to the senator, smiling and saying she needed to go to the ladies’ room. Once there she had taken a deep breath. It was a wonder she hadn’t passed out. With his mask in place, Reggie Westmoreland had been handsome. Without his mask, he took her breath away. While standing in front of him, she’d had to tamp down her emotions and the sensations flowing through her.

His eyes were very dark, almost chocolate, and their shape, which she had been denied seeing on Saturday night, was almond, beneath thick brows. It had taken everything in her power to force her muscles to relax. And when he had taken her hand and kissed the back of it before walking off, she’d thought she would swoon right then and there.

“Libby, are you okay? You’ve barely touched your meal,” her father said, interrupting her thoughts.

She glanced over to him and smiled. “Yes, Daddy, I’m fine.”

“Westmoreland is the cause of it,” said Senator Reed, jumping in. “She met him right before we took our seats. He probably gave her an upset stomach.”

Her father frowned. “Was he rude to you, sweetheart?” he asked, with deep concern tinged with anger.

She was opening her mouth to assure her father that Reggie hadn’t been rude when Senator Reed said, “He was quite taken with her, Orin.”

She ignored the senator’s comment, thinking that he didn’t know the half of it. Instead, she answered her father. “No, he wasn’t rude, Dad. In fact, although we spoke only briefly, I thought he was rather nice.” She smiled. “Quite the charmer.”

“The enemy is never nice or charming, Olivia. Remember that,” the senator said, speaking to her like she was a child. “I strongly suggest that during this campaign, you stay away from him.”

She was opening her mouth to tell the senator that she truly didn’t give a royal damn about what he would strongly suggest when her father spoke.

“You don’t have to worry about Libby, Al. She’s a smart girl. She would never get mixed up with the likes of Westmoreland.”

The likes of Westmoreland? Was there something about Reggie that her father and the senator knew but that she didn’t? she wondered. Granted, that might be true, since she had arrived in the country on Friday. But still, she heard intense dislike in her father’s voice and pondered the reason for it. Did it have to do only with the campaign, or was there more? Marc Norris was the only other person at their table, and he wasn’t saying anything. But then Norris didn’t look like the type to gossip. She didn’t know him well. In fact, she had just met him on Friday evening.

“Well, if I didn’t know better, I’d think Olivia and Westmoreland had met before,” replied Senator Reed.

The senator’s words almost made her drop her fork. She had to tighten her grip on it. She thought about Reggie. Had their reaction to each other been that obvious?

There was a lag in the conversation at the table, and she knew from the brief moment of silence that the men were waiting for her to respond one way or the other. So she did. “Then it’s a good thing that you know better, Senator, isn’t it?”

She said the words so sweetly, there was no way that he or anyone else could tell if she was being sincere or smart-alecky. Before any further conversation could take place, one of the sponsors of the event got up and went to the podium to announce that the speeches were about to begin.

* * *

“Okay, Reggie. What’s going on with you and that woman at the other table? The one you can’t seem to keep your eyes off,” Brent said in a whisper as he leaned close to Reggie.

Reggie lifted a brow. “What makes you think something is going on?”

Brent chuckled. “I have eyes. I can see. You do know she’s Jeffries’s daughter.”

Reggie leaned back in his chair. He couldn’t eat another mouthful, although he hadn’t eaten much. He was still trying to recover from the fact that he and his mystery woman had officially met. “Yes, the senator introduced us. And grudgingly, I might add. He didn’t seem too happy to do so,” Reggie said.

“Figures. He probably wants her for himself.” At Reggie’s surprised look, Brent went on to explain. “Reed is into young women big-time. I once dated someone who worked at his office. He tried coming on to her several times, and she ended up quitting when the old man wouldn’t give up no matter how many times she tried turning him off. The man takes sexual harassment to a whole new level.”

Reggie’s jaw tightened. The thought that the senator could be interested in Olivia, even remotely, made his blood boil. “But he’s friends with her father.”

“And that’s supposed to mean something?” Brent countered, trying to keep his voice low. “I guess it would mean something to honorable men, but Reed is not honorable. We don’t have a term-limit law here, so it makes you wonder why he isn’t seeking another term. Rumor has it that he was given a choice to either step down or have his business—namely, his affairs with women half his age—spread across the front pages of the newspapers. I guess since he’s still married and his wife is wealthier than he is, although she’s bedridden, he didn’t want that.”

Reggie shook his head. “Well, he shouldn’t concern himself with Olivia Jeffries.”

“And why is that?”

Reggie didn’t say anything for fear of saying too much. In the end, he didn’t have to respond, because it was his turn to speak.

* * *

“You gave a nice speech, Dad. You did a wonderful job,” Olivia said once she and her father got home.

“Yes, but so did Westmoreland,” Orin said, heading for the kitchen. “He tried to make me look like someone who doesn’t support higher education.”

“But only because you are against any legislation to build another state university,” she reminded him.

“We have enough colleges, Libby.”

She decided to back away from the conversation because she didn’t agree with her father on this issue. The last thing she wanted was to get into an argument with him about Reggie Westmoreland and his speech. If nothing else, she had reached the conclusion at dinner that neither her father nor the senator wanted her to get involved in any way with the competition.

She glanced at her watch. “I think I’m going to change and then go to the park and paint for a while.”

“Yes, you should do that while you still have good sunlight left. And feel free to take my car, since I won’t need it anymore today. That rental car of yours is too small,” Orin said, already pulling off his tie as he headed up the stairs.

She could tell he was somewhat upset about how the luncheon had gone. Evidently, he had assumed, or had been led to believe, that winning the Senate seat would be a piece of cake. It probably would have been if Reggie Westmoreland hadn’t decided to throw his hat into the ring at the eleventh hour.

And she had to admit that although her father’s speech had been good, Reggie’s speech had been better. Instead of making generalities, he had hammered down specifics, and he had delivered the speech eloquently. And it had seemed that as his gaze moved around the room while he was speaking, his eyes would seek her out. Each time they’d done so and she’d gazed into them, she’d felt she could actually see barely concealed desire in their dark depths. She had sat there with the hardened nipples of her breasts pressed tightly against her blouse the entire time.

And all she’d had to do was to study his lips to recall how those same lips had left marks all over her body, how they, along with his tongue, had moved over these same breasts, licking, sucking and nibbling on them.

After the luncheon was over, instead of dallying about, she had rushed her father out, needing to leave to avoid any attempts Reggie might have made to approach her again. She would not have been able to handle it if he had done so, and it would only have raised Senator Reed’s suspicions. For some reason, the older man was making her every move his business.

Olivia had changed clothes and was gathering her art bag to sling over her shoulders when her cell phone rang. Not recognizing the local number, she answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Meet me someplace.”

She got weak in the knees at the sound of the deep, husky voice. She really didn’t have to ask, but she did so anyway. “Who is this?”

“This is Reggie Westmoreland, Wonder Woman.”

* * *

Olivia pulled into the parking lot of Chase’s Place, wondering for the umpteenth time how she had let Reggie Westmoreland talk her into meeting him there. The restaurant, he’d said, was closed on Mondays, but since he knew the owner, there would not be a problem with them meeting there for privacy.

When she’d indicated she did not want to be seen meeting with him, he’d told her to park in the rear of the building. She hated the idea of everything being so secretive, but she knew it was for the best.

Of all the never-in-a-million-years coincidences, why did she have to have an affair—one night or otherwise—with the one man her father could not stand at the moment?

Doing as Reggie had advised, she drove around to the rear and parked beside a very nice silver-gray Mercedes, the same one she’d seen Reggie driving Saturday night. After getting out and checking her watch for the time, she walked up to the back door of the restaurant and knocked. It opened immediately. A man who was almost as tall as Reggie and just as handsome opened the door and smiled at her before stepping aside to let her in.

“Olivia?” he asked, continuing to smile, as he closed the door behind her.

She was so busy studying his face, noting the similarities between him and Reggie, that she almost jumped when he uttered her name. Like Reggie, he was extremely handsome, but she didn’t miss the gold band on his finger. “Yes?” she said finally.

“I’m Chase Westmoreland,” he said, extending his hand. “Reggie is already here and is in one of the smaller offices, waiting for you. I’ll take you to him.”

“Thanks.” And then, because curiosity got the best of her, she asked, “Are you one of Reggie’s brothers?”

The man’s chuckle floated through the air as he led her down a hallway. “No, Reggie has five brothers, but I’m not one of them. I’m his cousin.”

“Oh. The two of you favor one another,” she pointed out.

“Yes, all we Westmorelands look alike.”

After walking down a long hallway, they stopped in front of a closed door. “Reggie is in here,” Chase said, grinning. “It was nice meeting you.”

Olivia smiled. “And it was nice meeting you as well, Chase.” And then he was gone. She turned toward the closed door and took a deep breath before turning the handle.

* * *

Reggie stood the moment he heard voices on the other side of the door. This was the only place he could think of where he and Olivia could meet without fear of a reporter of some sort invading their privacy. The political campaign had begun officially today, and already all the sides were trying to dig up something on the others.

He’d told Brent that he wanted a campaign that focused strictly on the issues. He wasn’t into dirty political games. He felt the voters should get to know the candidates, learn their stance on the issues and then decide which offered more of what they were looking for. If they wanted something different, then he was their man, and if they were used to the do-nothing agenda that Reed had implemented over the past four years, then they needed to go with Jeffries, since it was a sure bet that he was Reed’s clone.

As soon as the door opened, his heart began hammering wildly in his chest, and the moment Olivia walked into the room and their gazes met, it took everything he possessed not to cross the floor and pull her into his arms and taste those lips he’d enjoyed so much a couple of nights ago.

Instead of coming farther into the room, she closed the door behind her and then leaned back on it, watching him. Waiting. His hands balled into fists at his sides. He smiled and said, “Wonder Woman.” It wasn’t a question; it was a statement. He knew who she was.

The butterflies in Olivia’s stomach intensified as they flew off in every direction. As she looked across the room at the extremely handsome man, she couldn’t help but pose the one question that had been on her mind since they’d met earlier, at the luncheon. “How did you recognize me?” she asked in a soft-spoken voice.

He smiled, and she actually felt her heart stop. She felt her body begin to get hot all over. “Your lips gave you away. I recognized them. I would know your lips anywhere,” he said. His voice was deep and throaty.

Olivia frowned, finding that strange. But it must have made some sense, at least to him, because he had been able to recognize her.

“What about you? You recognized me also. How?” he asked.

“I’m an artist, at least I am in my spare time. I study faces. I analyze every symmetrical detail. Although you were wearing a mask, and I couldn’t see the upper part of your face, I zeroed in on the parts I could see.” She decided not to tell him that there was more to it than his face. It had been his height that had first drawn her attention, and the way he’d tilted his head and his broad shoulders. If she could find the words to describe him, they would be, in addition to handsome—tall, dark...Westmoreland.

“I guess both of us can see things others might miss,” he said.

“Yes, I guess we can,” she agreed.

The room got silent, and she could feel it. That same sexual chemistry that had overtaken them that night, that had destroyed their senses to the point where they hadn’t wanted to do anything else but go somewhere and be alone together, was still potent.

“Please come join me. I promise not to bite.”

His words broke into her thoughts, and she couldn’t help but smile. It was on the tip of her tongue to say, yes, he did bite and that she’d had numerous passion marks on her body to prove it. However, she had a feeling from the glint in his eyes that he’d realized the slipup the moment she had. His eyes darkened, and she felt heat settling everywhere his gaze touched.

She breathed in a deep breath before moving away from the door. She glanced around. The room was apparently a little game room. It had a love seat, a card table, a refrigerator and a television.

“This is where my cousins and brothers get together to play cards on occasion,” said Reggie, breaking into her thoughts. “They used to rotate at each other’s homes, but after they married and started having kids, they couldn’t express themselves like they wanted whenever they were losing. So we decided to find someplace to go where we could be as loud and as colorful as we wanted to be.”

She nodded and remembered how things were when her brothers used to have their friends over for poker. Some of their choice words would burn her ears. She then crossed the room to sit on the love seat.

He remained standing and was staring at her, making her feel uncomfortable. She cleared her throat. “You wanted to meet with me,” she said, reminding him of why they were there.

He smiled. “Yes, and do you know why?”

“Yes,” she said, holding his gaze. “It wouldn’t take much to figure out that now that you know my father is one of the men you’ll be running against in a few months, you want to establish an understanding between us. You want us to pretend that Saturday night never happened and that we’ve never met.”

He continued to stare at her intently. “Is that what you think?”

She blinked. “Yes, of course. Under these circumstances, there’s no way we can be seen together or even let anyone in on the fact that we know each other.”

“I don’t see why not. I’m running against your father, not you, so it shouldn’t matter,” he said.

Olivia felt her heart pounding hard in her chest. “But it does matter. Orin Jeffries is my father, and he and his campaign staff consider you the enemy,” she said truthfully, although she hadn’t meant to do so.

Reggie shook his head. “It’s unfortunate they feel that way. I’m not his enemy. I’m his opponent in a Senate race. It’s nothing personal, and I was hoping no one would make it such.”

Olivia didn’t know what to say. She knew Senator Reed, who seemed to be calling the shots as to how her father ran his campaign, could be ruthless at times. She had overheard the whispered conversations that took place at her table during lunch. She knew that the man had no intentions of letting this be a clean campaign, and that bothered her because it was so unlike her father to get involved in something so manipulative and underhanded.

“I’m sorry, but it will be personal. I don’t agree, but politics is politics,” she heard herself saying, knowing it wasn’t an acceptable excuse. “If I became involved with you in any way, it would be equal to treason in my father’s eyes. Things are too complicated.”

“Only if we let them be. I still say us meeting and going out on occasion don’t involve your father, just me and you.”

She shook her head as she stood. It was time to go. She really should not have come. “I need to go.”

“But you just got here,” he said softly in that sexy voice that did things to her nervous system.

“I know, but coming here was a mistake,” she said.

“Then why did you?” he asked softly.

She met his gaze and knew she would tell him the truth. “I felt that I should. Saturday night was a first of its kind for me. I’ve never left a party with someone I truly didn’t know, and I’ve never had a one-night stand. But I did with you because I felt the chemistry. One of the reasons I came today was that I needed to see if the chemistry between us was real or a figment of my imagination.”

“And what’s your verdict?” he asked, holding her gaze.

She didn’t hesitate in responding. “It’s real.”

“Does that frighten you?”

“It does not so much frighten me as confuse me. Like I said, I’ve never responded to a man this way before.”

“And what was the other reason you came tonight?”

“We never took our masks off, and I needed to know how you were able to recognize me today. I got the answers to both of my questions, so I should leave now.”

“But what about me? Aren’t you interested in knowing why I wanted to see you again? Why I asked for us to meet?” He was staring intently at her, and his gaze seemed to touch her all over.

“Why did you want to see me?” she asked.

He slowly moved across the room to stand in front of her, and her pulse began beating rapidly, and heat began to settle between her thighs from his closeness. “Your lips were one reason.”

“My lips?” she asked, raising a brow. He seemed to be searching her face, but she could tell his main focus was her lips.

“I claimed them as mine that night,” he said in a husky whisper. “I just needed to know if they still are.”

And before she could catch her next breath, he pulled her into his arms and captured her mouth with his.

* * *

They were still his.

This was what he needed to know. This was the very reason he had kept breathing since Saturday, Reggie thought as he hungrily mated with Olivia’s mouth. The memories that had consumed him over the past forty-eight hours had nothing on the real thing. And she was responding to his kiss, feasting on his mouth as greedily as he was feasting on hers. Their masks were gone but not their passion.

He hadn’t expected the fires to ignite so quickly, but already they were practically burning out of control. Her body was pressed fully against his, and he could feel every heated inch of her, just like he was certain she could feel every inch of him. Hard. Aroused. He knew he needed to pull back from her mouth to take a much-needed breath, but he couldn’t. He had thought of kissing her, dreamed of kissing her, every since the morning they’d parted. His tongue was tangling with hers, and it seemed he couldn’t get enough.

Instantly, he knew the moment she began withdrawing, and he pulled back, but not before tracing the outline of her lips with the tip of his tongue while tamping down on the stimulating effect the kiss had had on him.

“I really do need to leave.” Her words lacked conviction, and he couldn’t help but notice that she had wrapped her arms around his neck and hadn’t yet released him. He also took note that her mouth was mere inches from his, and she hadn’t pulled back.

Making a quick decision for both of them, he said, “Please stay and let’s talk. Will you stay a while longer if I promise not to kiss you again? There’s so much I want to know about you. I won’t ask you anything about your father and his campaign, just about you.”

“What good would it do, Reggie?” she asked, saying his name for the first time. The sound of it off her lips produced flutters in the pit of his stomach.

“I think it will appease our curiosity and maybe help us make some sense as to why we became attracted to each other so quickly and so deeply,” he responded. “Why the chemistry between us is so strong.”

Olivia pulled her arms from around his neck, thinking that what he was suggesting wasn’t a good idea, but neither was kissing. But then she really didn’t want to leave, and she had to admit that she’d wondered why they had hit it off so quickly and easily. But it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out some of the reasons. He was an extremely handsome man, something she had recognized even with the mask. And his approach that night had not been egotistical or arrogant. She had somehow known he was someone she could have fun with and whose company she could enjoy.

And those things had been verified in the most intimate way.

“And we’ll just talk?” she asked, making sure they understood each other.

“Yes, and about no one but us. That way you can’t feel disloyal to your father.”

She inhaled deeply. “But I still do,” she admitted openly.

He didn’t say anything for a moment. “Let me ask you something.” At her nod, he asked, “If we would have met at any other time and if I was not your father’s political opponent, would he have a problem with you dating me?”

She knew the answer to that, since her father had never been the kind of dad who cross-examined his children’s dates. He had always accepted her judgment in that area. Now, her brothers had been another matter, especially Duan. “No, I think he wouldn’t have a problem with it,” she said truthfully.

“That’s good to know, and that’s why we should move forward on the premise that the campaign should not affect our relationship.” His voice and smile conveyed that he truly believed what he was saying.

“But how can it not?” she asked, wishing things were that simple.

“Because we won’t let it,” he responded. “First of all, we need to acknowledge that we are in a relationship, Olivia.”

She shook her head. “I can’t do that, because we really don’t have a relationship. We just slept together that night.”

“No, it was more than that. It might have been a one-night stand, but I never intended not to find you after you left the Saxon on Sunday morning. In fact, I took this to a jewelry store this morning to see if I could trace where it was originally purchased,” he said, pulling her diamond earring from his pocket. “It might have taken me a while, but eventually, I would have found you, even if I had to tear this town up doing so,” he said, handing the earring to her.

She took it and studied it, remembering just when she had purchased the pair. It had been when she’d gotten her first position at the Louvre Museum. These diamonds had cost more than the amount of her first paycheck. But it had been a way for her to celebrate.

“Thank you for returning it.” She slipped the earring into her pants pocket and then looked back at him. “So, what do you want to talk about?”

“I want to know everything about you. Over dinner. In here. Just the two of us.”

She licked her lips and noticed immediately how his gaze had been drawn to the gesture. “And you promise no kissing, right?”

He chuckled. “Not unless you initiate it. If you do, then I won’t turn you down.”

She couldn’t help but smile at that. “You mentioned dinner, but the restaurant isn’t open today.”

“No, it isn’t, but Chase will make an exception for us. Will you join me here for dinner so we can talk and get to know each other?”

She was very much aware that if her father knew she was here, spending time with Reggie, he would think she was being disloyal, but she knew she truly wasn’t. If at any time Reggie shifted the conversation to her father, as if pumping her for information about him, she would leave. But for now, she owed it to herself to do something that made her happy for a change, as long as she was not hurting anyone. If Duan or Terrence had been caught up in a similar situation, there was no way her father would have asked them to stop seeing that person. She should not be made the exception.

Olivia knew Reggie was waiting for her answer. “And our time here together will be kept confidential?”

He smiled. “Yes. Like I said, this is about you and me, and not the campaign. As far as I’m concerned, one has nothing to do with the other.”

“Then, yes, I’ll join you here for dinner,” she said after taking a long, deep breath.