Flames of Attraction: Quade's BabiesTall, Dark...Westmoreland! Read online

  “Well, if you need any help, let me know, although I’m not sure how much time I can spare now that Dana’s expecting and all.”

  Reggie rolled his eyes. Just last month Jared had found out he was going to be a father. “Dana is going to be carrying the baby, Jared, not you.”

  “I know, but I’m the one who’s been getting sick in the morning, and now I’m getting cravings. I never liked pickles until now.”

  Reggie couldn’t help but smile over his wineglass. “Sounds like a personal problem to me.” At the moment, his attention strayed from whatever Jared was saying. Instead, his gaze focused on the other side of the room. He noticed the woman whom he’d been watching sit down at a table. He had yet to see a man by her side, which meant she had come to the party alone.

  “Umm, I wonder who she is?” he asked.

  Jared followed Reggie’s gaze and chuckled. “What’s wrong? Don’t you recognize the lips?”

  Reggie shifted his gaze from the woman to his brother and frowned. “No, she’s someone new. I definitely haven’t met her before. Her lips don’t give her away.”

  “Then I guess the only thing left for you to do is go over there and introduce yourself.”

  Reggie grinned. “I know they don’t call you the sharpest attorney in Atlanta for nothing.”

  * * *

  “Don’t you know sitting alone at a party isn’t good for you?”

  Olivia swung her head around at the sound of the deep, throaty masculine voice to find a tall, handsome man standing beside her. Like everyone else, he was wearing a mask, but even with it covering half of his face, she knew he had to be extremely good-looking. In the dim lighting, her artist’s eye was able to capture all his striking features that were exposed.

  First of all, there was his skin, flawlessly smooth and a shade of color that reminded her of rich, dark maple syrup. Then there was the angular plane of a jaw that supported a pair of sexy lips. The same ones that bestowed a slow smile on her. Apparently, he realized she was checking him out.

  “In that case, I guess you need to join me,” she replied, trying to remember the last time she’d been so outrageously forward with a guy and quickly deciding never. But the way the evening was going, she would have to stir up her own excitement. And now was as good a time as any to start. Maybe it was the fact that the party was so unrelentingly boring that made her long for a taste of the wild and reckless. The other men who had approached her hadn’t even piqued her curiosity. She had no desire to get to know them better. But this man was different.

  “I don’t mind if I do,” he said, easily sliding into the chair beside her while his eyes remained locked with hers. Her nose immediately picked up the scent of his cologne. Expensive. She quickly checked out his left hand. Ringless. Her gaze automatically went back to his face. Beautiful. Now he was smiling in earnest and showing beautiful white teeth.

  “You’re amused,” she said, taking a sip of her punch but wishing she had something a little stronger.

  Whoever he was, he was certainly someone worth getting to know, even if she was returning to Paris in a few months. That made it all the more plausible. It had taken her two years to get on full-time at the Louvre, and the hard work was just beginning. Once she returned, she would be working long hours, with little time to get her painting done. That was why she had brought her paints to Atlanta with her. She was determined to capture something worthwhile on canvas while she was here. The man sitting beside her would be the perfect subject.

  “Flattered more than amused,” he said, his voice reaching out and actually touching her, although she barely registered his words in her mind, because she was too busy watching the way his mouth moved. Sensuously slow.

  She couldn’t help wondering who he was. She had been gone from Atlanta a long time. After high school she had attended Pratt Institute in New York before doing her graduate work at the Art Institute of Boston. From there she had made the move to Paris, after landing a job as a tour professional, a glorified name for a tour guide.

  He had to be around her brother Terrence’s age, or maybe a year or so younger. She wondered if he would give her his real name, or if he would stick to the rules and play this silly little game the coordinators of the ball had come up with. His name badge said Jack Sprat. No wonder he was in such fine shape, she thought. Even in the tuxedo he was wearing, she saw broad, muscular shoulders and a nice solid chest. All muscles. Definitely no fat.

  “So, Jack,” she said, smiling at him the same way he was smiling at her. “What is such a nice guy like you doing at a boring party like this?”

  He chuckled, and the sound sent goose bumps over her body. “Waiting to meet you so we can start having some fun.” He glanced at her name badge. “Wonder Woman.”

  The smile that touched the corners of her mouth widened. She liked him already. “Well, trust me when I say, it’s a wonder that I’m here at all. I really want to be someplace else, but I promised the person who paid for this ticket that I’d come in his place. And since it’s all for charity, and for such a good cause, I decided to at least make an appearance.”

  “I’m glad you did.”

  And Reggie meant it. He’d thought she had a beautiful pair of lips from afar, but now he had a chance to really study them up close. They were a pair he would never forget. They were full, shapely, and had luscious-looking dips at the corners. She had them covered in light lip gloss, which was perfect; any color would detract from their modish structure.

  “We’ve exchanged names, and I’m glad to make your acquaintance, Jack,” she said, presenting her hand to him.

  He grinned. “Likewise, Wonder.”

  The moment their hands touched, he felt it and knew that she did, too. Her fingers quivered on his, and for some reason, he could not release her hand. That realization unnerved him. No woman had ever had this kind of effect on him before, not in all his thirty-two years.

  “Are you from Atlanta?”

  Her voice, soft and filled with Southern charm, reclaimed his attention.

  “Yes, born and raised right here,” he said, reluctantly releasing her hand. “What about you?”

  “Same here,” she said, looking at him as if she could see through his mask. “Why haven’t we met before?”

  He smiled. “How do you know that we haven’t?”

  Her chuckle came easily. “Trust me. I would remember if we had. You’re the type of man a woman couldn’t easily forget.”

  “Hey, that’s my line. You stole it,” he said jokingly.

  “I’ll give it back to you if you take me away from here.”

  He didn’t say anything for a minute but just sat there studying her face. And then he asked, “Are you sure you want to go off with me?”

  She managed another smile. “Are you sure you want to take me?” she challenged.

  Reggie couldn’t help but laugh loudly, so loudly, in fact, that when he glanced across the room, his brother Jared caught his gaze and gave him a raised brow. He had five brothers in all. He and Jared were the only ones still living in Atlanta. He also had a bunch of cousins in the city. It seemed Westmorelands were everywhere, but he and Jared were the only ones who were here tonight. The rest had other engagements or were off traveling someplace.

  A part of Reggie was grateful for that. He was the youngest of the Atlanta-based Westmorelands, and his brothers and cousins still liked to consider him the baby of the family, although he stood six-seven and was the tallest of the clan.

  “Yes, I would take you in a heartbeat, sweetheart. I would take you anywhere you wanted to go.”

  And he meant it.

  She nodded politely, but he knew she was thinking, trying to figure out a way she could go off with him and not take any careless risks with her safety. A woman couldn’t be too trusting these days, and he understood that.

  “I have an idea,” he said finally, when she hadn’t responded and several moments had passed.

  “What?”

  He rea
ched into his jacket pocket and pulled out his cell phone. “Text someone you know and trust, and tell them to save my number. Tell them you will call them in the morning. When you call, they can erase the number.”

  Olivia thought about what he’d suggested and then wondered whom she could call. Any girlfriends she’d had while living here years ago were no longer around. Of course, she couldn’t text her father, so she thought about her brothers. Duan was presently out of the city, since his job as a private investigator took him all over the country, and Terrence was living in the Florida Keys. She and her brothers were close, but it was Terrence who usually let her get away with things. Duan enjoyed playing the role of older brother. He would ask questions. Terrence would ask questions, too, but he was more easygoing.

  Perhaps it was Duan’s inquisitive mind that made him such a stickler for the rules. It had to be all those years he’d worked first as a patrolman and then as a detective for Atlanta’s police department. Terrence, a former pro football player for the Miami Dolphins, knew how to have fun. He was actually the real swinging single Jeffries. He owned a nice club in the Florida Keys that really embodied the term nightlife.

  Her safest bet would be to go with Terrence.

  “Okay,” she said, taking the phone. She sent Terrence a quick text message, asking that he delete the phone number from which the message was sent after hearing from her in the morning. She handed the phone back to him.

  “Feel better about this?” he asked her.

  She met his gaze. “Yes.”

  “Good. Is there any particular place you want to go?”

  The safest location would be her place, Olivia thought, but she knew she couldn’t do that. Her father was home, going over a campaign speech he would be giving at a luncheon on Monday. “No, but I haven’t been out to Stone Mountain in a while.”

  He smiled. “Then Stone Mountain it is.”

  “And we’ll need to go in separate cars,” she said quickly. She had begun to feel nervous because she had never done anything like this in her life. What was she thinking? She got a quick answer when she met his gaze again. She was thinking how it would probably feel to be in this man’s arms, to rub her hand across that strong, angular jaw, to taste those kissable lips and to breathe in more of his masculine scent.

  “That’s fine,” he said in a husky voice. “You lead and I’ll follow.”

  “And we keep on our masks and use these names,” she said, pointing to her name badge.

  He studied her intently for a moment before nodding his head. “All right.”

  She let out a silent breath. Her father was well-known in the city, and with the election just a couple of months away, she didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize his chances of winning. Anything like having her name smeared in the paper in some scandal. Scandals were hard to live down, and she didn’t want do anything that would be a nice addition to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s gossip column.

  “Okay, let’s go,” she said, rising to her feet. She hoped she wasn’t making a mistake, but when he accidentally brushed up against her when they headed for the exit, she had a feeling anything that happened between them tonight could only be right.

  * * *

  Reggie, as a rule, didn’t do one-night stands. However, he would definitely make tonight and this woman an exception. The car he was following close behind was a rental, so that didn’t give him any clues as to her identity. All he did know was that she was someone who wanted to enjoy tonight, and he was going to make sure she wasn’t disappointed.

  She’d indicated that she wanted to go someplace in Stone Mountain, and she was heading in that direction. He wondered if they would go directly to a place where they could be alone, or if they would work up to that over a few drinks in a club. If she wanted a night on the town first, there were a number of nightclubs to choose from, but that would mean removing their masks, and he had a feeling she intended for these to stay in place. Why? Was she as well-known around the city as he was? At least after Monday he would be. Brent Fairgate, his campaign manager and the main person who had talked him into running for the Senate, had arranged for campaign posters with his picture to be plastered on just about every free space in Atlanta.

  Returning his attention to the car in front of him, he braked when they came to a traffic light. Just then his cell phone rang. He worked it out of his pocket. “Hello?”

  “Where are you?”

  He gave a short laugh. “Don’t worry about me, Jared. However, I do apologize for not letting you know I was leaving.”

  “That woman you were with earlier isn’t here, either. Is that a coincidence?”

  Reggie shook his head, grinning. “I don’t know. You tell me.”

  There was a pause on the other end. “You sure about what you’re doing, Reggie?”

  “Positive. And no lectures please.”

  “Whatever,” came his brother’s gruff reply. And then the call was disconnected.

  The traffic began moving again, and Reggie couldn’t help but think about how his life would change once the campaigning began. There would be speeches to deliver, interviews to do, television appearances to make, babies to kiss and so on and so forth. He would be the first Westmoreland to enter politics, and for him, the decision hadn’t been an easy one to make. But Atlanta was growing by leaps and bounds, and he wanted to give back to the city that had given him so much.

  Unlike his brothers, who had left town to attend college, he had remained here and had gone to Morehouse. And he had never regretted doing so. He smiled, thinking that the good old days were when he got out of college and, a few years later, when he opened his own accounting firm. At the time, his best buddy had been his cousin Delaney. They were only a few months apart in age and had always been close. In fact, he was the one who had helped Delaney outsmart her five overprotective brothers right after she finished med school and needed to get some private time. He had let her use his cabin in the mountains for a little rest and relaxation, without telling Dare, Thorn, Stone, Chase or Storm where she was. Lucky for him, his cousins hadn’t broken his bones, as they had threatened to do, when they discovered his involvement. The good thing was that Delaney had met her desert sheikh and fallen in love at his cabin.

  Reggie’s attention was pulled back to the car in front of him when Wonder Woman put on her blinker to turn into the parking lot of the luxurious Saxon Hotel. He smiled. He liked her taste, but given that they were wearing masks, he wondered how this would work. And then he got an idea and immediately pulled his cell phone out of his jacket pocket to punch in a few numbers.

  “Hello?”

  Reggie could hear babies crying in the background. “This is Reggie. What are you doing to my nieces and nephew?”

  He heard his brother Quade’s laugh. “It’s bath time, and nobody wants to play in the water tonight. What’s up? And I understand congratulations are in order. Mom told me you’ve decided to run for the Senate. Good luck.”

  “Thanks.” And then, without missing a beat, he said, “I need a favor, Quade.”

  “What kind of favor?”

  “I need a private room at the Saxon Hotel here in Atlanta tonight, and I know Dominic Saxon is your brother-in-law.”

  “So?”

  “So make it happen for me tonight, as soon as possible. And I need things kept discreet and billed to me.”

  There was a pause on the other end. “You sure about this, Reggie?”

  He shook his head. It was the same question Jared had asked him moments ago. “Yes, Quade, I’m sure. And I don’t expect any lectures from you, considering when and how my nieces and nephew were conceived.”

  “Go to hell, Reggie.”

  He smiled. “Not in front of the babies, Quade. And as far as going to hell, I’ll go, but only after I get a night of heaven. So make it happen for me, Quade. I’ll owe you. I’ll even volunteer to fly in one day and babysit.”

  “Damn, she must be some woman.”

  Reggie
thought about those lips he wanted so desperately to taste. “She is.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.” And then the call was disconnected.

  Smiling and feeling pretty certain that Quade would come through for him, he watched as Wonder Woman parked her car, and then eased his car into the parking spot next to hers. As soon as she turned off the engine, he got out of his car and glanced around, making sure there weren’t a lot of people about. She had parked in an area that was pretty empty, and he was grateful for that.

  When he got to her side of the car, she rolled down the window and looked a little flushed. “Sorry. I guess I didn’t think this far ahead.”

  He bent down and leaned forward against her door and propped his arms on the car’s window frame and smiled at her. She smelled good, and she looked good. His gaze shifted from her eyes to her lips and then back to her eyes again. He couldn’t wait to taste her lips.

  “Don’t worry. Tonight will end the way we want,” he said, with certainty in his voice and all the while thinking that if Quade didn’t come through for him tonight, he was liable to kill him. At her confused expression, he said, “I’ve made a call, and it will only be a few moments. I’ll get a call back when things get set up.”

  Olivia eyed the man staring at her and tried to ignore the stirring in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t help wondering just who was he and what kind of connections he had. They had to be big ones if he was able to get them a room at the Saxon from the parking lot. Would they have to do the normal check-in?

  One part of her brain was screaming at her, telling her that what she was contemplating doing was downright foolish and irresponsible. No good girl, certainly not one who’d been raised to be a proper young lady, would think about having a one-night stand with a stranger.

  But then the other part of her brain, the one that was daring, as well as wild and reckless, urged her on. Go ahead, Libby. Have some fun. Live a little. You haven’t been seriously involved with a man for almost two years. You’ve been too busy. You deserve some fun. What will it hurt as long as you’ve taken every precaution to make sure you’re safe?