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

sound of the breeze and the lapping of waterblended with the roar of blood in her ears. Patrick’s lips trailed down her check and pressed to the side of her throat. He was lightly sucking the skin and she wondered if she’d have a mark there when he finished—something that branded her, however temporarily, as belonging to Patrick O’Rourke.
    The thought didn’t displease her as much as it should have. She didn’t belong to him, and wasn’t likely to in the future. The man she kept glimpsing below Patrick’s charming, easygoing surface was as appealing as he was unattainable. Whatever demons drove him, they weren’t the ones he told the world…they probably weren’t even the ones he told himself.
    If she hadn’t been able to understand Ted, how could she possibly understand a man who was a thousand times more complicated? And she…a sigh escaped as Patrick began flicking her skin with the tip of his tongue. The velvety, moist caresses made her squirm again, and she threaded her fingers through his dark hair.
    “Maddie.” Her name was more a vibration, than a sound. “Do you understand now?”
    Understand?
    For an instant she wondered if Patrick had read her mind about understanding him.
    “About…what?” Maddie managed to get out.
    “About what I was saying.”
    It took another long minute to process the question, partly because she was so muddled. Patrick was still holding her, but he wasn’t doing anything, and she really wanted him to keep doing what he’d been doing, which was kissing and touching her in all kinds of lovely places.
    She remembered they’d discussed Ted being a louse. She wasn’t entirely certain her ex-fiancé was a louse, just immature and thoughtless. They should have talked more over the years, but sometimes talking meant honesty, and neither one of them had really been willing to admit their teenage passion had fizzled like a wet firecracker. Even to themselves.
    “Maddie?”
    Jeez, why did Patrick have to start talking now of all times.
    “What?” she said crossly.
    “Do you believe me now, that you’re attractive?”
    Maddie’s mouth tightened. So, he’d just been trying to demonstrate she wasn’t such a dog when it came to being desirable, which meant nothing at all. She decided she was right after all. Men were… men. Maybe they couldn’t help being rotten. She stiffened and tried to step backward, but she was trapped by the car, and Patrick’s fingers still curved around her bottom.
    Fine, she would just shove him away, that’s what.
    Her fingers were more reluctant than her mind to let go of such an attractive male, but she managed to free them from Patrick’s hair.
    “Sure, I believe you,” she muttered, and pushed at his chest. He didn’t budge, of course, it was like pushing at a rock face in El Morro. There wasn’t any justice in the world.
    She heard him sigh.
    “What’s wrong now?
    “You,” Maddie snapped. She tried to wiggle sideways and met with no more success than her previous efforts. “Let go of me.”
    “Not until we talk about it.” Patrick wasn’t aboutto admit he was having trouble bringing his body under control, something he didn’t want Maddie to see. Not that she couldn’t have figured it out for herself, but she was so riled up—for reasons he couldn’t begin to imagine—she obviously wasn’t paying attention to the physical evidence.
    Unless…there was another possibility he didn’t want to think about. Maddie couldn’t possibly be a virgin at the age of twenty-six. Her fiancé might have been a skunk, but he couldn’t have been that slow off the mark.
    Could he?
    Patrick shook his head. He hadn’t tried to seduce a virgin since he was a teenager. Not that he’d had a particular interest in virgins, but when you’re a kid, the choices are limited. If Maddie was really that inexperienced, then she was even more vulnerable than he’d imagined.
    God, Maddie lived with her feelings visible to everyone, making her