Tall, Dark_.Westmoreland! - Brenda Jackson [25]
“I’m Chase Westmoreland,” he said, extending his hand. “Reggie is already here and is in one of the smaller offices, waiting for you. I’ll take you to him.”
“Thanks.” And then, because curiosity got the best of her, she asked, “Are you one of Reggie’s brothers?”
The man’s chuckle floated through the air as he led her down a hallway. “No, Reggie has five brothers, but I’m not one of them. I’m his cousin.”
“Oh. The two of you favor one another,” she pointed out.
“Yes, all we Westmorelands look alike.”
After walking down a long hallway, they stopped in front of a closed door. “Reggie is in here,” Chase said, grinning. “It was nice meeting you.”
Olivia smiled. “And it was nice meeting you as well, Chase.” And then he was gone. She turned toward the closed door and took a deep breath before turning the handle.
Reggie stood the moment he heard voices on the other side of the door. This was the only place he could think of where he and Olivia could meet without fear of a reporter of some sort invading their privacy. The political campaign had begun officially today, and already all the sides were trying to dig up something on the others.
He’d told Brent that he wanted a campaign that focused strictly on the issues. He wasn’t into dirty political games. He felt the voters should get to know the candidates, learn their stance on the issues and then decide which offered more of what they were looking for. If they wanted something different, then he was their man, and if they were used to the do-nothing agenda that Reed had implemented over the past four years, then they needed to go with Jeffries, since it was a sure bet that he was Reed’s clone.
As soon as the door opened, his heart began hammering wildly in his chest, and the moment Olivia walked into the room and their gazes met, it took everything he possessed not to cross the floor and pull her into his arms and taste those lips he’d enjoyed so much a couple of nights ago.
Instead of coming farther into the room, she closed the door behind her and then leaned back on it, watching him. Waiting. His hands balled into fists at his sides. He smiled and said, “Wonder Woman.” It wasn’t a question; it was a statement. He knew who she was.
The butterflies in Olivia’s stomach intensified as they flew off in every direction. As she looked across the room at the extremely handsome man, she couldn’t help but pose the one question that had been on her mind since they’d met earlier, at the luncheon. “How did you recognize me?” she asked in a soft-spoken voice.
He smiled, and she actually felt her heart stop. She felt her body begin to get hot all over. “Your lips gave you away. I recognized them. I would know your lips anywhere,” he said. His voice was deep and throaty.
Olivia frowned, finding that strange. But it must have made some sense, at least to him, because he had been able to recognize her.
“What about you? You recognized me also. How?” he asked.
“I’m an artist, at least I am in my spare time. I study faces. I analyze every symmetrical detail. Although you were wearing a mask, and I couldn’t see the upper part of your face, I zeroed in on the parts I could see.” She decided not to tell him that there was more to it than his face. It had been his height that had first drawn her attention, and the way he’d tilted his head and his broad shoulders. If she could find the words to describe him, they would be, in addition to handsome—tall, dark…Westmoreland.
“I guess both of us can see things others might miss,” he said.
“Yes, I guess we can,” she agreed.
The room got silent, and she could feel it. That same sexual chemistry that had overtaken them that night, that had destroyed their senses to the point where they hadn’t wanted to do anything else but go somewhere and be alone together, was still potent.
“Please come join me. I promise not to bite.”
His words broke into her thoughts, and she couldn’t help but smile. It was on the tip of her tongue to say, yes, he