Returning his attention to the car in front of him, he braked when they came to a traffic light. Just then his cell phone rang. He worked it out of his pocket. “Hello?”
“Where are you?”
He gave a short laugh. “Don’t worry about me, Jared. However, I do apologize for not letting you know I was leaving.”
“That woman you were with earlier isn’t here, either. Is that a coincidence?”
Reggie shook his head, grinning. “I don’t know. You tell me.”
There was a pause on the other end. “You sure about what you’re doing, Reggie?”
“Positive. And no lectures please.”
“Whatever,” came his brother’s gruff reply. And then the call was disconnected.
The traffic began moving again, and Reggie couldn’t help but think about how his life would change once the campaigning began. There would be speeches to deliver, interviews to do, television appearances to make, babies to kiss and so on and so forth. He would be the first Westmoreland to enter politics, and for him, the decision hadn’t been an easy one to make. But Atlanta was growing by leaps and bounds, and he wanted to give back to the city that had given him so much.
Unlike his brothers, who had left town to attend college, he had remained here and had gone to Morehouse. And he had never regretted doing so. He smiled, thinking that the good old days were when he got out of college and, a few years later, when he opened his own accounting firm. At the time, his best buddy had been his cousin Delaney. They were only a few months apart in age and had always been close. In fact, he was the one who had helped Delaney outsmart her five overprotective brothers right after she finished med school and needed to get some private time. He had let her use his cabin in the mountains for a little rest and relaxation, without telling Dare, Thorn, Stone, Chase or Storm where she was. Lucky for him, his cousins hadn’t broken his bones, as they had threatened to do, when they discovered his involvement. The good thing was that Delaney had met her desert sheikh and fallen in love at his cabin.
Reggie’s attention was pulled back to the car in front of him when Wonder Woman put on her blinker to turn into the parking lot of the luxurious Saxon Hotel. He smiled. He liked her taste, but given that they were wearing masks, he wondered how this would work. And then he got an idea and immediately pulled his cell phone out of his jacket pocket to punch in a few numbers.
“Hello?”
Reggie could hear babies crying in the background. “This is Reggie. What are you doing to my nieces and nephew?”
He heard his brother Quade’s laugh. “It’s bath time, and nobody wants to play in the water tonight. What’s up? And I understand congratulations are in order. Mom told me you’ve decided to run for the Senate. Good luck.”
“Thanks.” And then, without missing a beat, he said, “I need a favor, Quade.”
“What kind of favor?”
“I need a private room at the Saxon Hotel here in Atlanta tonight, and I know Dominic Saxon is your brother-in-law.”
“So?”
“So make it happen for me tonight, as soon as possible. And I need things kept discreet and billed to me.”
There was a pause on the other end. “You sure about this, Reggie?”
He shook his head. It was the same question Jared had asked him moments ago. “Yes, Quade, I’m sure. And I don’t expect any lectures from you, considering when and how my nieces and nephew were conceived.”
“Go to hell, Reggie.”
He smiled. “Not in front of the babies, Quade. And as far as going to hell, I’ll go, but only after I get a night of heaven. So make it happen for me, Quade. I’ll owe you. I’ll even volunteer to fly in one day and babysit.”
“Damn, she must be some woman.”
Reggie thought about those lips he wanted so desperately to taste. “She is.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” And then the call was disconnected.
Smiling and feeling pretty certain that Quade would come through for him, he watched as Wonder Woman parked her car, and then eased his car into the parking spot next to hers. As soon as she turned off the engine, he got out of his car and glanced around, making sure there weren’t a lot of people about. She had parked in an area that was pretty empty, and he was grateful for that.
When he got to her side of the car, she rolled down the window and looked a little flushed. “Sorry. I guess I didn’t think this far ahead.”
He bent down and leaned forward against her door and propped his arms on the car’s window frame and smiled at her. She smelled good, and she looked good. His gaze shifted from her eyes to her lips and then back to her eyes again. He couldn’t wait to taste her lips.
“Don’t worry. Tonight will end the way we want,” he said, with certainty in his voice and all the while thinking that if Quade didn’t come through for him tonight, he was liable to kill him. At her confused expression, he said, “I’ve made a call, and it will only be a few moments. I’ll get a call back when things get set up.”
Olivia eyed the man staring at her and tried to ignore the stirring in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t help wondering just who was he and what kind of connections he had. They had to be big ones if he was able to get them a room at the Saxon from the parking lot. Would they have to do the normal check-in?
One part of her brain was screaming at her, telling her that what she was contemplating doing was downright foolish and irresponsible. No good girl, certainly not one who’d been raised to be a proper young lady, would think about having a one-night stand with a stranger.
But then the other part of her brain, the one that was daring, as well as wild and reckless, urged her on. Go ahead, Libby. Have some fun. Live a little. You haven’t been seriously involved with a man for almost two years. You’ve been too busy. You deserve some fun. What will it hurt as long as you’ve taken every precaution to make sure you’re safe?
And at the moment she was safe. Terrence had this man’s phone number, and the hotel was definitely a respectable one. And it was one she had selected, not him. But she had to admit, she felt a little silly with the two of them still wearing their masks. At least she had taken off her name badge.
“So, Wonder Woman, what’s your favorite color?”
She couldn’t help but smile. He evidently felt the tension and was making an attempt to ease it. “Lavender. What’s yours?”
“Flesh tone.”
She grinned. “Flesh tone isn’t a color.”
“Depends on who’s wearing it,” he said softly, and then his eyes flickered to her lips. She felt the intensity of his gaze just as if it was a soft caress. Suddenly, she felt the need to moisten her lips with her tongue.
“I wish you hadn’t done that,” he whispered huskily, leaning his body forward to the point where more of his face was in the window, just inches from her face.
A breathless sigh escaped from her lips. “What?” she asked in a strained voice.
“Tasted your own lips. That’s what I want to do. What I’m dying to do.”
“What’s stopping you?”
Reggie thought that was a dare if ever he’d heard one. Deciding to take her up on it, he leaned his body in closer. She was tilting her head toward his face when suddenly his cell phone rang.
Damn. He reluctantly pulled back and pulled the cell phone from his jacket.
Olivia took that time to take a deep breath, and then she listened to his phone conversation.