Mistaken Identity (2 page)

Or maybe he did, subconsciously.  Maybe that was why he was always trying to get a rise out of her by making snide comments about her work or her appearance.  Honestly, there was nothing wrong with Olivia in any way, shape or form.  She was damn near perfect.  She was a hard-working, beautiful woman.  But he hated the indifference.  Just once he wanted her to smile at him or share in the easy camaraderie that she and David had. 

He gave a silent, mirthless chuckle at how he thought she’d react when she found out exactly who she’d slept with.  Daniel pulled her closer and lightly ran a hand up and down her back and felt his body stirring again. 
Olivia was a passionate woman; from the moment she’d kissed him, Daniel knew it was going to be one hell of a ride.  Though he’d never admit it, Olivia had starred in more than a few of his fantasies but the reality was far greater.

Olivia ran her leg up over his in an attempt to get closer.  Daniel knew that she was asleep and probably wasn’t even aware of what she was doing, but still, the action turned him on.  He wanted her again and had a feeling that she wouldn’t complain if he did his best to wake her up.

Knowing that he was going to hell already for what he’d done tonight, he figured he might as well make the trip well worth it.  Sliding a hand down the side of Olivia’s body, from shoulder to knee and back again, Daniel began to roll her beneath him.  In his mind he pictured her on top of him, riding him, but in this extreme darkness, it wouldn’t do.  When Olivia took that ride, and she would, he wanted to see her in all her glory.

He kissed her cheek, her jaw and down her throat.  When his mouth reached her breast she arched beneath him and sighed his name – well, his brother’s name – and Daniel hovered over her and silenced all of her words with his mouth. 
He didn’t want any reminders of why she was really here.  For now he wanted to live the fantasy that she was there for him; that is was Daniel that she wanted and not his brother. 

And he spent the rest of the night doing his damndest to chase all thoughts to the contrary away.

Chapter Two

Olivia woke and stretched like a very contented cat and felt the need to purr –again.  David had certainly made her do that more than once over the course of their long night.  Her every fantasy had come true and she felt nothing but joy bubbling up inside of her.  Would he want to see her again?  Would he want to make love again this morning with some light finally breaking through the curtains?  She’d finally get to see her lover.  The thought made her smile.

Pressed up close to her back lay the man responsible for the incredible way she felt.  They had reached for each other and made love all through the night. 
Thank you, Tina, for convincing me to do this! 
It was hard to believe that it had finally happened and that David so clearly felt for her what she had been feeling for him.  There was no awkwardness; they had been completely in tune with one another.  That was a rarity in her book.

With the sun streaking through a small break in the curtains, Olivia could finally see around the room.  It was large and done in all neutral tones.  She wished she could have spent the entire weekend in here, sleeping beside this amazing man. 

Her lover.

After such a passion-filled night, it was nice to be able to think of David in those terms.  Her mind wandered to where this was all going to lead.  She prayed that he wasn’t going to just wish her well and send her on her way.  Olivia knew she had said that she just wanted the night but after the night he had given her?  She was greedy for more. 

Anxious to be awake and talk to David about their night, Olivia gently rolled over and had to stifle a scream.

Daniel?

Daniel?

What the hell was Daniel doing in bed with her??

Oh…my…god…

It hit her like a ton of bricks.  She hadn’t slept with David.  She hadn’t spent the night making love with David.  She hadn’t spent the night like some sex-crazed lunatic with David, but with Daniel!

Oh…my…god…

Pushing all thoughts of modesty and her embarrassing behavior aside, Olivia slid quietly from the bed and tiptoed naked over to where her silk robe lay on the floor.  Donning it quickly, she refused to even glance at the bed and the man who had made her body sing like never before.

Daniel!

This was why she never took chances!  This was why she was always so cautious and played things safe!  Because when Olivia threw caution to the wind, bad things like this happened.  Well, nothing quite like this had ever happened to her before but then again, who could even believe that something like this actually could happen?

Sneaking out of his room as quietly as humanly possible and down the hall to her own room, Olivia didn’t even stop for a moment.  As soon as she closed her bedroom door, she yanked the robe from her body and dressed quickly, throwing all of her belongings haphazardly into her suitcase.  With a quick scan of the room, she exited and ran down the stairs, hoping to escape without running into anyone.

She stopped briefly in the kitchen and scribbled a note saying that she decided to get an early start back home and thanked everyone for a great weekend.

Oh, god…would Daniel see that and think that she was speaking directly to him?  Crumpling up the note, she leaned on the granite counter top and laid her head on her hands and forced herself to think fast.

“Olivia?”

Sure, now it was David.  She stood upright and faced him.  “Hey, David,” she said casually, hoping he didn’t sense her complete distress.  In all of her rushing around and trying to make a fast escape, she had forgotten that David was always up early to go running.  He stood before her in shorts and a tank top, glistening with sweat and made her feel…nothing.

What the…?

“You’re up early this morning,” he said with a smile as he turned and reached into the refrigerator for some juice.  After pouring himself a glass he looked just beyond Olivia and saw her suitcase.  “Are you leaving already?”

Nervously, Olivia licked at her dry lips while she tried to think of a believable reason for her early departure.  “Um, yes.  I got an early call from Tina about some work that needs to be done today at the shop and so I thought I’d hit the road early to avoid the weekend traffic and get back to help her.” 

That sounded plausible, didn’t it?

David walked toward her.  His brown hair was wild from his run and his six foot frame towered a good six inches above her.  He smiled and Olivia waited for that now-familiar fluttering of her heart, but it didn’t come.  That was strange, wasn’t it?

“I’m not going to say goodbye because we are going to stay in touch, right?” he asked.

“Of course,” she stammered, anxious to get the hell out of Dodge.  Before she could turn and grab her luggage, David pulled her into his embrace.  Twenty-four hours ago, this would have meant the world to her.  Now it made her feel sick.  She gave him a brief hug and stepped away from him. 

“Please tell everyone that I said goodbye and that I had a great time this weekend.  I’ll be around this week to help Anna out and I promise to let you know when the big grand opening is, okay?”  Hell, she couldn’t even look at him as she collected her things.  If David found her behavior to be odd, he said nothing.

“Take care of yourself, Liv,” he said with sincerity.  “I know that doing this catering thing with Tina has always been a dream of yours, but if you ever want your old job back, just say the word.”

Olivia laughed.  “Please, within a week you’ll forget all about me.”  She straightened and looked at him, finally, one last time.  How could she have gone to the wrong room?  She should be basking in the afterglow with him this morning, not running out in shame after having sex with the wrong man!

“That will never happen,
Liv.  You’re the best and no one will ever replace you.”

Great, more words that would have meant the world to her if she hadn’t screwed things up so royally last night.  Unable to help
herself, Olivia turned to leave and then turned back around to face David.  She had to find out why it was Daniel in that bedroom and not David. 

“I, um, I noticed Daniel going into your room last night.  Everything okay?”  There, that was a tactful way to ask, wasn’t it?

“Oh,” he said, looking somewhat bashful as he averted his gaze.  “We, um, switched rooms last night.  I had…company and wanted the top room.”  Daniel’s bedroom was on the top floor of the house and took up the entire floor.  There was an amazing 360 view of the island, a perfect scene for seduction.

Dammit.

“Oh,” she said quietly, her embarrassment growing more and more by the second.  Luckily he did switch rooms otherwise she would have been in for an even greater shock than she’d already had!  Threesome’s were so definitely not her thing.  Part of Olivia wanted to know who it was that he’d shared a bed with last night, and part of her urged her way out the door with promises to see each other later in the week and to keep in touch. 

She was inches from a clean getaway when he approached her one last time beside her car and hugged her close.  “Thanks for always being so great, Liv,” he whispered, and kissed her on the forehead.  “I’ll see you soon.”

Not likely.  Her only saving grace at this low point in her life was that the Slade brothers were both going to be tied up in court and meetings all week long and the chance of seeing either of them was close to nil.  She’d take the week to power train Anna and make sure that she was done by Friday.

Climbing into her car with a sigh of relief, Olivia gunned the engine and sped off, not taking a chance on looking back.

Daniel watched her exit from the bedroom window, hands clenched at his side.  While her leaving saved them an awkward encounter with an audience, he knew that their time together was far from over.

****

“How could you do this to me?” Olivia screamed into her phone at her still-sleepy best friend. 

“Hmm…what?  Liv?  What happened?”

With her words matching the speed of her car racing on the highway, Olivia recounted the events of the previous night and this morning, all of which brought Tina to full alertness. 

“Wait, wait, wait,” Tina began.  “You mean to tell me that you slept with Daniel?  Daniel, the brother that you hate?  Why would you do that?”

Olivia had to stifle a scream.  “Trust me, I didn’t do it intentionally!  It was dark; I didn’t even think that there was a possibility of it not being David!  I mean, for more than three years the man has functioned like clock-work.  Very reliable; never varies from his routine.”

“And you wanted to sleep with this man, why?” Tina asked with genuine confusion.

“So not the point!  What am I going to do now?  You know that Daniel hates me just as much as I hate him and you just know that he is going to go to David and blab all about last night and all the dirty, stupid things we did and I’m going to come off looking like some…whore or something!”

“Well…”

“Oh, shut up!  How could you let me do this?” Olivia cried.

Tina cut her off.  “I didn’t let you do anything, Liv!  All I did was encourage you to do something that you really wanted to do.  I had no idea that it could have gotten this twisted up.  Only you, my dear Olivia, could take something as simple as sleeping with the man that you’re attracted to and mess it up!”

Sighing, Olivia knew that her friend was right.  “We need to do some damage control, Tee.  How am I supposed to go into the office this week and face them both?”

“You don’t work for them anymore.  Problem solved.”

“You’re forgetting that I promised to come in this week to help Anna with the transition.”

“So?  Say that you changed your mind.  Say that we had issues here with the new business and that you can’t spare the time.  I mean, it’s not like they can force you to go in.”

“I know, I know,” Olivia agreed, “but that’s not fair to Anna.  It took David a little longer to find someone suitable and I gave my word that I would help out.”

Tina huffed with frustration.  “How about thinking about
you for a change?  Why don’t you put your needs first for once?”

“That’s what got me into this crazy mess!” Olivia reminded her.  “Look, just be thinking of how I’m supposed to walk through the doors of that office tomorrow with an ounce of dignity and I will talk to you when I get home, okay?”

“Okay, but Liv?”

“Yeah?”

“Just one more thing.”

Olivia sighed.  “What?”

“The dirty things that you said you did with Daniel?”

“What about them?”

Tina chuckled.  “How dirty?”

Olivia couldn’t help but chuckle back.  “You know a
ll of the things that I said I would never do with any man?”

“Yeah?”

“I did them all.”

Tina nearly choked.  “Really?” she squeaked.

Though her friend couldn’t see it, Olivia nodded.  “Twice.”

Shutting her cell off, Olivia tried to force her mind from the memories of last night.  She shifted uncomfortably in the driver’s seat.

Daniel.

Of all of the people in the world that she could have stumbled into bed with, why, oh why, did it have to be him?  The man was insufferable!  A snarky, condescending jackass.  No matter how she dressed, he had a comment about it. 
‘Isn’t that skirt a little too tight?
Or
What are you trying to do, look like someone’s spinster aunt?’
  There was no pleasing the man and it made her crazy!

Then there were his snide comments about her work. 
‘It took you long enough.  Do you only use the cheap stationary?’ 
He was absolutely impossible to please.  Well, her mind wandered for jus the briefest of moments to last night.  She seemed to please him just fine then.

Which brought an alarming thought forward – Olivia had clearly stated who she was from the get-go last night.  Daniel had known all along
whom he was sleeping with and that she thought he was David.  Why would he do that?  Was he that sick that he got a kick out of humiliating her on this level, too?  A shudder of disgust ran down her spine.

Damn him.  Damn him for being such a jerk.  And damn him for being the most incredible lover she’d ever had.  Oh, this just kept getting more and more twisted and complicated by the minute.  Even in the best scenario, she could never face him again, let alone have a repeat performance of last night.  She was too humiliated.  She must have seemed like such a desperate and pathetic excuse of a human being for throwing herself at the wrong person.  Did he laugh at her?  Was he mocking her the entire time they were making love? 

Making love?  Hardly.  Realizing now that Daniel had knowingly kept her in the dark and had used her repeatedly throughout the night just angered her.  Olivia swore that if she ever did have the misfortune of seeing Daniel face to face ever again that she would most definitely give him a piece of her mind.

The best thing for her to do was to just focus on the drive home and to force all thoughts of Daniel and last night from her mind.  Olivia flipped on the radio and turned up the volume.  Luckily there to suit her mood were the angry vocals of Kelly Clarkson vowing
Never Again.