Tall, Dark & Scandalous. Кэрол Мортимер

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      ‘She put a frog down the shirt of a boy at school when he dared to tease her by chanting her full name,’ she remembered affectionately.

      ‘And the black eye?’

      ‘A man she dated for a while at university.’ Stephanie shrugged. ‘Needless to say they didn’t date again after that.’

      ‘No, I don’t suppose they did,’ Jordan chuckled softly as he felt his muscles starting to relax from the effects of the wine and the soothing firelight. ‘So how old is Joey and what does she do?’

      ‘She’s a lawyer.’

      ‘Aged…?’

      ‘Late twenties,’ Stephanie answered evasively before taking a sip of her own wine; she had known exactly where this conversation was going the moment Jordan asked to know about her family!

      ‘Older or younger than you?’

      ‘Slightly younger.’

      Jordan gave her a considering glance, sensing there was something that Stephanie wasn’t telling him. ‘How much younger?’ he prompted slowly.

      Her eyes glittered in the firelight as she glared across at him. ‘About five minutes!’

      ‘Why, Stephanie,’ Jordan murmured teasingly, ‘does this mean that you’re a twin, too?’

      Her mouth thinned. ‘Yes.’

      ‘And are you identical?’

      ‘Yes.’

      Jordan’s brows rose incredulously. ‘You mean there are two of you with that unusual red and cinnamon-coloured hair, those flashing green eyes, a determined chin and an infuriatingly stubborn temperament?’

      Those green eyes instantly flashed. ‘I do not have a stubborn temperament!’

      ‘And the grass isn’t green or the sky blue,’ he retorted.

      ‘Sometimes they aren’t!’ she pointed out triumphantly.

      ‘I’m sure that once in a blue moon you aren’t stubborn, either,’ Jordan jeered. He gave her a considering look. ‘Let me guess—Joey has short red hair and tends to wear mainly dark business suits and silk blouses?’

      Stephanie gasped. ‘How could you possibly know that?

      Jordan shrugged. ‘For the same reason Gideon and I are completely unalike in our tastes—twin or not, no one really wants to be a clone of another person.’

      ‘But you and Gideon aren’t identical.’

      ‘In colouring, no,’ Jordan said. ‘But we’re the same height, and we have a similar facial structure.’ He smiled. ‘Maybe we should introduce your twin sister to my twin brother and see what happens? As they’re both lawyers they already have something in common.’

      Stephanie knew exactly what would happen if the fiercely independent and outspoken Joey ever met either of Jordan’s arrogant older brothers: sparks would most definitely fly!

      ‘Perhaps not,’ Jordan acknowledged dryly, seeming to read her mind. ‘Much as they sometimes annoy the hell out of me, I’m not sure I would want to wish that onto either of my brothers.’

      Stephanie bristled. ‘Meaning?’

      ‘Meaning that having one stubborn McKinley sister around is more than enough for any man.’ He laughed huskily.

      The wine had obviously relaxed Jordan. So much so that he was back to tormenting her. Making her less wary of his hair-trigger temper and more aware of the dizzying attraction of him that could be so utterly mesmerising.

      Stephanie moistened dry lips as she stood up restlessly. ‘I think I’ll just go and check on dinner—’

      Jordan reached out to grasp hold of her arm as she passed his chair, his fingers like steel bands about her wrist. ‘There’s nothing in the oven that will spoil, is there?’

      She sincerely hoped that the sudden thundering of her heart at Jordan’s touch wasn’t echoed by the pulse beating beneath his fingers! ‘Not really.’ She swallowed hard. ‘I just thought—’

      ‘You think far too much, Steph. Why don’t you just allow yourself to feel for a change?’ he encouraged softly.

      Stephanie was feeling too much already—that was the problem!

      She could feel the strength of Jordan’s fingers curled about her flesh, the firm caress of his thumb against that rapidly beating pulse in her inner wrist, the heat of those gold-coloured eyes on her moist and parted lips, then moving lower to her rising and falling breasts. Holding her captive. Drawing her into the deep well of sensuality she could feel rising between them…

      ‘I believe I told you not to call me Steph,’ she murmured breathily.

      ‘Your lips have told me several things that aren’t echoed by your body language,’ he murmured as he placed his wine glass down onto the table. ‘You obviously have feeding me well in hand, so perhaps now would be a good time for you to amuse me,’ he suggested softly as he tugged firmly on her wrist.

      Stephanie tried to resist that tug. And failed. Instead she overbalanced and toppled over the arm of the chair to end up sitting on Jordan’s thighs as he took her into his waiting arms. ‘Jordan, this is definitely not a good idea—’

      ‘I’m all out of good ideas, Stephanie,’ Jordan said gruffly. ‘Let’s go with a bad one, instead, hmm?’ he encouraged, as his head began to lower towards hers. ‘They’re usually much more fun, anyway.’

      Jordan was going to kiss her. More than kiss her, Stephanie knew as she became instantly mesmerised by the intensity of his gaze.

      ‘Maybe we’ll have more success with this sitting down,’ he murmured throatily, his breath a warm caress against her parted lips.

      Stephanie attempted one last appeal for sanity. ‘Jordan, we really can’t do this.’

      ‘Oh, but we really can,’ he muttered, and his lips finally claimed hers.

      It was a slow and leisurely kiss as Jordan sipped and nibbled at Stephanie’s lips, tasting her, tantalising her, encouraging her to reciprocate, groaning low in his throat when her arm finally moved up about his shoulders and she pulled him down to her so that she could kiss him back.

      Jordan felt a surge down the length of his spine as her fingers became entangled in the darkness of his hair when the kiss deepened, lips tasting, teeth gently biting, tongues dueling. Stephanie was obviously feeling a desire that was echoed in the pulsing hardness of Jordan’s thighs.

      He shifted slightly in the chair, so that Stephanie lay back against the arm of the chair as his mouth left hers to trail sensuously down the long column of her throat, his tongue rasping across that silky flesh. She tasted of warmth and sunshine, the lightness of her perfume shadowed by the essence of sweet arousal. An arousal that reflected СКАЧАТЬ