Free The Right Twin For Him (O'Rourke Family 2) by Julianna Morris Page A

embarrassing to go back to face the gossips than if you’d truly been in love?” he asked. “And does finding Ted with another woman hurt any less because of it?”
    She shook her head.
    “Then stop telling me not to worry. The O’Rourkes are professional worriers and I’ll worry if I want to.” Patrick knew he sounded belligerent, and getting more involved with Maddie was a big mistake on his part, but he wasn’t buying her brave talk.
    “Well, it probably would have worked out all right if it hadn’t been for that punch girl.” Maddie scowled. “We should have never hired someone from out of town, but there isn’t a caterer in Slapshot.”
    “I don’t think you can blame the punch girl for Ted being a louse.”
    “No, just my flat chest,” Maddie retorted.
    Patrick turned and rested his hip against the Blazer.A lock of Maddie’s long hair blew across his shoulder and he reached up, smoothing it back against her cheek. It was pretty in the sunlight, with glints of gold and red, catching on his rough fingers like spun silk.
    “Stop saying that. You don’t have a flat chest,” he said. “It happens to be a very nice chest.”
    “That’s not what Ted—”
    “I don’t care what Ted said,” Patrick interrupted harshly. He already wanted to grind the little toad beneath his heel, and hearing more of what Ted had said about Maddie’s chest wasn’t going to relieve that desire. “And nothing justifies him saying something mean.”
    “He was just being honest.”
    “Like hell.”
    Patrick deliberately planted his hands on either side of Maddie, caging her between him and the vehicle. They were on a little-used back road, shielded on either side by tall mounds of blackberry vines and the tinted windows of the Blazer. It was secluded enough to offer privacy, and public enough to keep him from getting carried away.
    “Maddie, he was trying to push his inadequacy onto you. Not every man requires an exaggerated version of womanhood to get his jollies. Some of us even enjoy a figure built on more elegant lines. Like yours. So don’t tar us all with the same damned brush.”
    “But I’m not very generous up—”
    Patrick gave up and fastened his mouth over hers. Quite possibly it was the only way to get Maddie to be quiet, and right now he needed her to be quiet.
    He needed…oh, hell, he needed something he shouldn’t need.
    For a fraction of a second Maddie was frozen inshock. She might have wondered what kissing Patrick O’Rourke would be like, but she’d never expected to find out. One thing was certain, there wasn’t a single easygoing thing about his kiss—it was pure electricity.
    Maddie raised her arms around Patrick’s neck and held on for dear life. Heat poured through her veins, making her aware of every part of her body. The sensations seemed so strange and unexpected, shivering through her body with a power that reminded her of lightning over the desert.
    “That’s it…yes,” Patrick muttered into her mouth.
    His hands moved, stroking her back, his fingers gliding over the curve of her bottom. It made her insides jump in response and she stretched more fully against him, feeling small and fragile and protected within his embrace, though she wasn’t the least bit small and fragile and didn’t need protection.
    Patrick was a tall man, equal in size to his older brother, and so similar in appearance to Kane O’Rourke it was uncanny. She couldn’t imagine wanting Kane touching her, but she’d wanted Patrick’s kiss, maybe even from the beginning when he’d mistakenly bussed her cheek and shocked the socks off her.
    Fool, a voice whispered in her head.
    Getting tangled up with another man was not the way to discover what to do with her life, but it felt so good having his hard length pressed against her, she couldn’t stop. In five minutes, perhaps, but not now. She might be a fool, but she’d missed so much in her twenty-six years that she wasn’t going to miss this.
    The