Mistaken Identity (3 page)

“Right there with you, sister.”

Chapter Three

Olivia was in stealth mode.  By Wednesday, she had managed to avoid seeing either of the Slade brothers and was nearly giddy with the thought that with only two days left of her commitment to them and the company, she would be able to walk away with a somewhat clean conscience.

It was four o’clock and she was gathering up her belongings when her cell phone rang.  Tina’s face showed up on the screen.  “Hey, what’s up?”

“We have a crisis,” Tina said, her voice laced with panic.

“Okay, take a deep breath and tell me what’s going on.”

“We have that cocktail party tonight, remember?”

Olivia did.  “And?”

“We had a server call in sick.  I really don’t want to go in there short staffed, Liv!  This is our first official event and I don’t want to look unprofessional!” she cried.

“Okay, okay, calm down.  What do you need me to do?”

“Will you be a server?”

She was afraid of this.  Olivia had loved the idea of having this business with Tina but had hoped to sort of stay behind the scenes in the management area.  Her silence must have spoken volumes because Tina finally spoke back up.

“I know that you said that you didn’t want to do this sort of thing but I’m already going to be there working the party and we could really use the extra hands.  Please, Liv!  This business if fifty percent yours and…”

“Alright,” Olivia sighed.  “Of course I’m going to do it.  What do I need to wear?”

“Black skirt, white button-down shirt, black heels.”

Sounded simple enough, Olivia thought.  “Fine.  I’ll have to go home and change but I’ll meet you at six at the shop, okay?”

Tossing her phone into her bag, Olivia turned and faced Anna.  “Everything okay?” she asked.

Olivia relayed the conversation she just had and then gave a sad smile.  “I’m sorry to have to bail on you like this but I’ve got to go and find the right clothes to wear for this party so that I blend in with the rest of the staff.”

“No worries, Olivia.  You have been a great help.  And really, if you have a late night tonight, don’t feel obligated to come in tomorrow.  I think I want to try a day on my own.”

“Are you sure?”

“You’re only a phone call away, right?” Anna asked with a smile of her own. 

“Thanks for understanding.”  Olivia stopped and looked around to make sure that she wasn’t forgetting anything.  “Okay, I’m going to run and please call me tomorrow if you need anything.”  With a quick wave, she ran to the elevator and pushed the down button and waited, pulling her phone out to
send a quick text to Tina asking her if she had an extra pair of black heels that she could borrow.

With the ding of arrival, the doors opened and
Olivia distractedly walked into the elevator and right into the solid wall of a male chest.  She looked up and was about to apologize when she realized it was Daniel.  A million thoughts ran through her mind and all of them had to do with the feel of his body pressed up against hers.  Her mouth moved to say something but no sound came out.

“Done for the day already?” he asked, his tone just as curt as it always was.

Olivia cleared her throat and forced herself to speak.  “As a matter of fact, I am.  Anna is settling in perfectly and I’ve got a cocktail party to get to.”  She did her best to put some distance between them but Daniel seemed in no hurry to get away.  Olivia reached around him to push the button for the main level.  “I really need to go,” she said weakly, hating the way her body was humming with this close contact.

Daniel’s eyes skimmed her from head to toe, seemingly caressing her.  He smiled inwardly when he noticed her nipples hardening under his intense gaze.  So she wasn’t as immune to him as she’d like him to believe.  Interesting.  Taking a hesitant step back, he placed his hand on the elevator doors as they were beginning to close to stop them.  “Have a good night, Olivia,” he said, his voice deep and seductive.

He stepped out of the elevator but stood and stared intently at her as the doors closed.  With a wicked smile on his face, he wasn’t sure if Olivia knew it just yet but she was most definitely going to be seeing a lot more of him.

Soon.

****

The party was in full swing and Olivia felt exhausted.  It was ten o’clock on a Wednesday night for crying out loud, weren’t these people ready to call it a day?  She sure as hell was!  She did a quick scan of the room and slipped away into the butler’s pantry to catch her breath.

Her feet ached, her back ached and all she wanted to do was go home and tear her bra off and relax.  She sighed wearily knowing that wasn’t going to happen any time soon and rested her hands on the granite counter top in front of her.  It took only a second for her to realize someone had come in behind her.  She straightened quickly and turned with a smile on her face to ask the guest what they needed and froze.

No.

It was impossible.

Why was he here?

“Daniel?” she asked wearily. “What are you doing here?”

“The Taylor’s are good friends of mine and I hadn’t planned on stopping in but it was on my way home and so I thought, why not?”

Olivia plastered a polite smile on her face and simply nodded.  “That was nice of you.  Now if you’ll excuse me…”

Daniel blocked the door.  “When you said you had a cocktail party tonight, I assumed you meant one that you were a guest at, not the hired help.”

She almost smacked him.  That snarky, condescending tone always brought out that reaction from her.  “Yes, well, being that my new business is catering occasions such as this, I’ll be attending many a party in this capacity.  Again, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to the guests.”

He wasn’t going to be swayed.  “Everyone’s fine and having a good time.  The food was wonderful.”  He moved an inch closer and smiled as Olivia had her back up against the cabinets.  “You left so early on Sunday that we never did have a chance to…talk.”

Olivia paled.  He wanted to talk about their night together?  Now?  Which is exactly what she said to him.  “I really don’t think this is the time or the place for that discussion, Daniel.  Clearly you realize that what happened was all a big mistake.  I would appreciate it if we just let it be and never discussed it again.”

“We haven’t discussed it even once,” he said silkily, reaching out to brush a stray lock of hair away from her face, his gaze heated on hers.  “I want to discuss it.  I want to discuss it in great detail.”  With every word, he leaned in that much closer to Olivia until she was clearly holding her breath.

If there was one thing Olivia didn’t like, it was being mocked and that was clearly what Daniel was doing right now.  He thought he was so smart trapping her in here with him and doing his best to intimidate her.  Well it was time to put him in his place.

“Really?” she asked.  “You want to discuss Saturday night in great detail?”  Daniel lifted his head and her eyes locked on his.  “You want to hear about how I thought you were your brother?  How I thought it was your brother I was having sex with?  That in that darkened room, it was David’s face that I was picturing?  Is that what you wanted to discuss?”  She folded her arms across her chest and
stared defiantly at him.

“Olivia,” he warned.

“Or maybe you want to discuss how when I realized that it wasn’t David in bed with me that I ran out of the house as soon as I could?”

Daniel’s swift intake of breath told Olivia that she had hit her mark.  She had seen Daniel in various stages of anger and irritation and knew that he was fuming with rage right now.  “Was there anything else?” she asked triumphantly as she moved to get around him.

He reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her.  “Actually, there was,” he said smoothly.  “Tell me, Olivia, with all that talk of sex with David and picturing David while I was deep inside of you, are you thinking of him now?  Is that what has your nipples so hard?”  To prove his point, he gently ran the tips of his fingers over one hardened peak and smiled when she shivered.

In that moment he was sure that he had her; now she would admit that she was attracted to him and he’d feel free to move forward with his plans to seduce her back into his bed.

“As a matter of fact, I am,” she said and Daniel felt as if he’d been slapped.  “You see, Daniel, I would have never slept with you willingly.  It was David that I wanted; David that had me turned on.  You took advantage of that fact and just the thought of how I let you do the things that you did to me makes me sick,” she spat.

He instantly released her.  “You didn’t seem so sick at the time, sweetheart,” he reminded.  “You were begging for more; even when we were both breathless and sweaty and near delirious with lack of sleep you begged for my touch.”

“No,” she said with deadly calm.  “I begged for your brother’s.”

And with that she left the room.

****

A black rage filled Daniel.  Olivia had never spoken back to him in all of the years they had worked together and in that short exchange she had managed to not only put him in his place but fairly made him doubt himself as a man and his masculinity.

Their night together had been beyond hot; it had been the greatest sex of his life.  But knowing that in reality Olivia hadn’t been having sex with him, at least not mentally, irritated the hell out of him. Physically she had been all his but mentally, it was David that she was responding to.

“Like hell,” he growled and began to pace in the small confines of the pantry.  This was something that he couldn’t let be.  She may not have known that it was him in that bed but Daniel was sure that given the opportunity, her body would respond just as eagerly to him and that he could make her even hotter for him than she’d been Saturday night.

Kicking the swinging door open, Daniel scanned the crowd and saw Olivia off in the far corner talking to some of the guests.  He wouldn’t bother her again while she worked but their discussion was far from over. 

The crowd was starting to thin and he approached his hosts to thank them for a pleasant evening and managed to linger until almost everyone was gone.  With a final goodnight, he walked out to his car and formulated a plan on the best time to finish talking to Olivia.

****

Olivia had never been happier to be home.  It was after midnight and the only thing keeping her sane was the fact that she didn’t have to wake up early the next morning.  Tossing her keys and purse onto the
bench she kept in the entryway of her condo, she was about to kick off her shoes when a loud knock sounded at her door.

Her heart rate went into overdrive.  Who could possibly be at her door at this hour?  “Who is it?” she asked nervously.

“Open the door, Liv.”  Daniel.

She didn’t want to open
it; she really didn’t but couldn’t seem to help herself.  With a deep breath, Olivia reached for the handle and yanked the door open, a look of defiance and annoyance on her face.  She didn’t speak; she merely waited for him to explain his presence on her doorstep.

Not waiting for an invitation, Daniel stepped around her and let himself in.  When Olivia still didn’t speak, he knocked the door out of her hands so that it slammed shut.  That got her attention.

“What are you doing here?” she snapped.

“You know, you had a lot to say earlier and there is one thing that keeps niggling at the back of my mind.” 

When he didn’t elaborate, Olivia sighed with frustration.  “Daniel, it’s late, I’m tired and I really don’t have times for games.  I think we said all that needed to be said earlier.  I’d like for you to leave.”  She reached for the doorknob again but he stopped her.

“No, you got to say what you wanted to say and at the time, I didn’t respond.  Now I have something to say.”

“Then just say it and go,” she said wearily, hating that he was here, hating that they were still talking about this and mostly, hating the fact that his nearness had her body aching in all kinds of new ways.

“You made sure to tell me that it was David that you were responding to; that in the darkness, it wasn’t about me or what I was doing but all about him.  Right?”  She nodded.  “Well, I’m not one who steps away from a challenge.”

“A…a challenge?  What are you talking about?” she asked nervously.

Daniel stepped closer, close enough that Olivia had her back against the front door.  “I’m talking about proving that here, with the lights on, that you’ll still respond to me.  That it’s my body that will have you turned on and not some image in your mind.”

Oh,
that
challenge…

“
You’re crazy,” she said but it came out as a whisper.  “You have no way of knowing what’s going on in my mind.  You can’t control that.”

“Oh, but I think I can, Liv,” he said in a low, rumbling voice. 
“You see, I can look at your right now and see that your pulse is racing, your nipples are hard and I can bet that you’re already wet…and it has nothing to do with anyone else but me.”  He was careful to not say David’s name.  He wanted Olivia fully focused on him and no one else.  It was insane to be pursuing this but he had to have her and know that she was in full knowledge of who was making her scream.