All Chapters of THE TWIN IN HIS BED: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

CHAPTER TWO The flight had taken four hours and twenty minutes.Four hours and twenty minutes was a long time to sit with a bad decision.I spent most of it staring through the window, watching the clouds give way to unfamiliar stretches of land, wondering if I still had time to turn around.I had left my mother behind.That thought kept returning.I hadn't packed a suitcase. I hadn't told her where I was going. I hadn't even given myself enough time to invent a convincing lie.I had only taken my handbag, the clothes on my back, and the envelope Arla had left for me.By the time the plane landed, I had already crossed hundreds of miles and somehow felt no closer to making peace with what I was about to do.The airport was larger than anything I was used to, bright and anonymous, filled with people who had no idea that one of them was walking straight into a lie.I followed the signs outside and climbed into the taxi Arla had arranged.The drive to the hotel felt like the beginning of

CHAPTER FOURHe wasn't supposed to be here. My mind repeated this thought uselessly, while my brain forgot to function. Arla said he wasn't due till next Friday. She was certain. Painfully certain.“Carlton doesn't deviate from schedules. He'll be back next Friday. You only need to answer the house phone if he calls.”So what was going on here? She'd said it so many times that I'd eventually believed her.Now I wondered if she had ever known her husband at all.Because standing before me was the one man who was supposed to be thousands of miles away.Carlton Holland.The husband I had spent the entire drive to the mansion convincing myself I would never have to meet.My lungs forgot how to work.Everything I'd memorized at the boutique—his call routines, the staff's names, where Arla kept her jewelry, which perfume she wore during the day and which one she wore at night—suddenly seemed laughably useless.None of it had prepared me for him.Carlton Holland stood a few feet away fr

CHAPTER SIX  The last time a man touched me was precisely eight years ago. And he was my one and only boyfriend.  After our messy break up, I had kept men farther than an arm's length.  Working two jobs while tending to a very sick mother had made it easier, and the only time I felt I was still a woman was whenever I took a shower.  But, Carlton's hands on my body reminded me in an instant what it felt like to be wanted.  To be woman.  But this was wrong!  He was Arla's husband.  He was my sister's husband! But, his hands ignited a fire I didn't know still existed.  “Relax, baby,” he whispered against my neck.  My pulse skyrocketed. Fire, liquid fire coursed through my veins. 

 CHAPTER EIGHT  Anger coursed through me, pushing my initial panic aside at the sound of her voice.  “What the fuck is your problem?” I snapped.  “I should be asking you that fucking question,” she retorted coldly. “Do you know what the time is?”  “You left me with nothing, switched your phone off, and I'm supposed to know what time it is?”   “I left you with everything you need, and I told you I had a flight to catch. Why the hell are you panicking?”  “Because your stupid plan—”  “Ellesmere,” her tone sharpened immediately. “Be useful for once in your goddamn life, and allow me to enjoy myself.”  Enjoy herself?  I sta

CHAPTER TEN The moment Carlton's lips crashed on mine, my world tilted on its axis. A quiver rippled through me, followed by a violent surge of desire. It was not a gentle thing, not a testing brush of lips. There was no careful pause to see whether I would pull away. He came at me with a certainty that made my pulse kick hard against my ribs, and for one stunned second I forgot the point of all this. I forgot the rehearsed lie. I forgot that I had touched him with a plan, with a purpose, with the thinly disguised intent to keep him busy and his questions asleep.I had meant to seduce him into silence.Stop his wheels from turning, that was all. A distraction. A tactic. A way to keep him from noticing what did not belong or fit, from looking too closely at the shape of my face and the edges of my voice.But the instant he touched me, that careful plan began to unravel.I had underestimated the power Carlton had over my body. He tasted like heat and impatience and something that fe