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THE DOORBELL INTERRUPTED him.
The twins looked at each other and then down at the Rolex watches their parents had given them for their fortieth birthday, identical except for the dark brown and black leather straps.
“Who the hell could that be?” Reilly demanded as he got up and headed for the front door.
Riordan relaxed back on the sofa. His brother would soon get rid of whoever it was.
“Riordan!”
He quickly sat up again at the odd tenor of his brother’s voice. Reilly was never anything but cocky and confident. Something had shaken him.
“Reilly?” He questioned, hastily getting to his feet in alarm and heading to the door himself.
When he caught sight of the woman walking towards him, just ahead of his brother, he understood his twin’s befuddlement.
She was perfect and not just for the portrait. Tall, easily five-feet-seven or -eight without the high-heeled pumps she was wearing; nicely rounded, with breasts large enough to overfill his hands, full hips that swayed seductively as she walked and a trim waist he suspected he could almost span with his hands, and beautiful. Not pretty or attractive...beautiful. The blunt ends of glossy, black, straightened hair just brushed her shoulders and framed a smooth, milk chocolate face. Her large, slightly-slanted, expressive eyes were dark and set off to perfection by thick, luscious lashes that had to be accentuated by mascara. Her nose was small and neat, in contrast to the full, sexy curves of her lips. Lips that rivaled a pair he had long thought the sexiest in the world—Naomi Campbell’s.
“Gabrielle, this is my brother Riordan,” Reilly introduced.
“Pleased to meet you.” Her voice was every bit as lovely as Reilly had described—low and sultry and with the merest hint of a West Indian accent.
“Likewise.” Riordan took her proffered hand and stared down into her face.
“I was just telling...” Her eyes widened as she stared back at him. “My word, you two look so much alike!”
“There was a person under the train ahead of the one she was on at Bethnal Green,” Reilly explained, conveniently moving Gabrielle towards a chair so that his brother was forced to release her hand. “She was held in the tunnel for over three hours.”
“You poor thing. You still look shaken by your ordeal.” Riordan sympathized, taking her by the elbow and helping to lower her to the seat. “Reilly, she needs a brandy.”
“I’m fine,” Gabrielle protested. The twins were more gorgeous in person than she’d prepared herself for. She needed to keep her wits about her, lest she jumped on one...or both.
“A shot of brandy won’t get you drunk,” Riordan promised as he sat down beside her and took her hands in his. “You need it for the shock.”
“It’s becoming so commonplace, you know,” she explained. “Almost every week there’s a delay caused by another ‘person under the train’. You get so used to it you forget it’s a euphemism for suicide. We were held just outside the station, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been if we were in the middle of the tunnel, but it suddenly hit me that someone had been so desperate to end their life that they’d jumped in front of the train. I started to wonder if it was a man or woman, or even a boy or a girl. I wondered how their family, relatives and friends will take the news.”
“You will drive yourself crazy trying to think of answers to those questions,” he soothed. “Whatever torment that person went through in life, it’s now over.”
Gabrielle stared at him in surprise. He was right. Though the end of the person’s life was the start of the nightmare for his or her loved ones, for the jumper there was now only peace.
“Here you go.” Reilly’s voice was abrupt and sharper than he’d intended as he noticed the woman’s slim hands enclosed in his brother’s larger ones. What the hell was Riordan thinking making a move on the woman as soon as his back was turned?
Instead of releasing the young woman’s hands entirely, Riordan used his right hand to keep hold of them and reached for the drink with his left. They were both ambidextrous, but Riordan, a natural left-hander was more truly so than Reilly.
Reilly glared down at his twin as he put the drink in his hand.
Riordan winked at him and then ignored him as he placed the glass between the woman’s palms and wrapped her fingers securely around it before sitting back in the chair.
She took a small sip and instantly looked a little better as the cognac warmed her.
“It’s very smooth.” She took another sip and gave a soft purr of appreciation before the liquid burned the back of her throat like a toasty fire. She gave a smothered gasp. “And very strong.”
“Are you okay?” Reilly asked, coming to sit on the sofa beside her.
“I’m fine, thank you.” She laughed. “I just took too much at once.”
“Good.” Riordan finally moved away and gave her some room. “Now tell us a little more about yourself.”
“You mean you still want to interview me?” she asked, surprised.
“We would expect you to be on time in future, but if you’re still interested, we can start the interview whenever you’re ready,” Reilly stated.
“Honestly?” She looked at Riordan for confirmation.
“Yes,” he agreed. “We have interviewed several women, but haven’t found what we were looking for.”
“Physically you’re perfect,” Reilly supplied.
“So what do you need to know?”
“Have you ever sat for a portrait before?” Riordan decided to ask the questions since his twin seemed occupied in checking out Gabrielle from head to toe.
“No,” she responded. “Does that matter?”
“Not usually,” Riordan quickly assured her. “Do you have any health issues? Sitting for several hours can be demanding.”
“I go to the gym regularly...well I used to up until a few months ago, but I think I’m healthy enough.”
“As we specified in the advert, we’re looking to start immediately and prefer to work with natural light. Can you be available from ten in the morning to about four in the afternoon for the next two weeks?”
“I couldn’t be if I was working, but I’m on leave for the next two months. That would be fine.”
“You’re not going abroad for your holidays?”
She and Isabelle had booked the time off specially to be in Guyana for both their mother’s fiftieth and their thirtieth birthdays, but had had to cancel due to lack of funds. Worst of all she had been unable to cancel the scheduled leave. She’d gone to the department head when Anita had declined her request for extended leave in the busiest period of the financial year. The man had approved it after she’d explained why she needed it at that specific time. Anita had been livid and later when Gabrielle had tried to cancel it, she had been perverse enough to refuse, stating that she’d already contacted a temporary agency for a replacement to cover the period. Gabrielle had had no choice but to take the time off and though Isabelle had had no such problem with her manager, she had decided not to cancel either.
“Not this year,” she replied in answer to Riordan’s question.
“Well, that’s all I needed to know.” Riordan stood up and offered Gabrielle a hand as she made to get to her feet, too. “We have several hours of daylight still left. I’ll like to make a start if you don’t mind.”
“Oh, I thought we’d start tomorrow.” She wasn’t ready to get naked in front of these two hunks! Stuff had to be done first.
“No time like the present. Come, I’ll show you where you can get undressed.”
“Okay,” she agreed reluctantly. She had come close to losing the job; she had to grasp the lifeline she’d been thrown. “But can I make a phone call first?”
She had called Isabelle just before she’d entered the house and had promised to call five minutes later, by which time she’d assumed she would have been on the way home, having blown any chance of getting the job by her lateness.
The police would be breaking Reilly’s and Riordan’s front door down in a couple of minutes if she didn’t call Isabelle soon.
“Sure.” Riordan held on to her hand as he led her out of the room. There’s a telephone in the changing room.”
“I’ve got my mobile, thanks.”
She was on the cheapest contract at the moment. At least she hadn’t had to give up the phone entirely. And she’d found that many of the friends she had spent her more generous calling and texting allowance keeping in touch with didn’t now seem willing to spend theirs on her. It had turned out to be a great opportunity to know who her true friends were and she’d already decided to keep the less expensive contract even when, hopefully, she got back on a more stable financial footing.
“Let me show you where to change.”
“Thank you.”
***
GABRIELLE CHANGED INTO the clean, soft, white dressing gown Riordan had handed to her before he’d indicated the adjoining door to the studio and left the room.
She glanced at her reflection as she speed dialed her sister’s mobile number. She looked plumper with the extra padding of the thick robe, but the advert had specified that the brothers were seeking a model with a fuller figure.
“How did it go?” Isabelle demanded.
“Okay. I got the job and they want me to start right away.”
“How do you mean start? Take your clothes off and pose for them?”
That’s the job description, Issy!
“Yes,” she confirmed. “Riordan, he’s the sweet one, showed me to the dressing room. I’ve just changed into a heavenly-smelling bathrobe and I’m off to meet them in the studio.”
“Is the other one horrible then?”
“No, he’s sex on wheels!” Gabrielle felt her nipples harden. The man was hot! “Actually, they’re both sexy. If they offer me a ménage a trios, I won’t be home for dinner tonight, darling.”
“Gabby Johnson, don’t you dare!”
“Issy, you’re such a prude, sometimes.” It was such fun to tease her sister. “Anyway, I have to go before they come looking for me.”
“Call me the minute you’re done!”
“Okay, Mother Dearest,” Gabrielle promised sweetly and hung up.
It was a miracle that they were sisters, much less identical twins. She had lost her virginity at seventeen, while Isabelle was...the very horror of it...still a virgin.
Gabrielle liked sex, especially if a man knew his way around a woman’s body and both of the O’Brien men looked as though they did, blindfolded.
***
REILLY SMILED AS GABRIELLE popped her head around the door and asked, “Are you ready for me?”
“Of course. Come on in.” Riordan waved her forward.
As she pushed the door open and walked into the room, Reilly understood her question. He was so not ready for the sight of her big, round, unbound breasts and seductively swaying full hips. He moved his eyes downwards to her feet to prevent his erection getting so large it popped the buttons of his jeans and immediately wished he hadn’t—God, even her bloody toes were sexy.
“What do I do next?”
“Let me put this around your neck.” Riordan got up and approached her with the necklace and the length of chiffon. He liked the fact that she was a little shy but not overly nervous. He clasped the piece of jewelry around her neck, feeling the satiny brush of her throat against the back of his fingers. Then he indicated the loveseat. “Now take off the robe and lie on your back, but turn your head towards us.”
“Just one thing.” Gabrielle hesitated as she reached to untie the robe. “I haven’t waxed recently. Is that going to be a problem?”
“Not at all.” Riordan smiled down at her. “That part of you will be covered with this, but the client wants to see a shadow of hair. We’d prefer it if you didn’t shave or wax until the portrait is finished, but we can fill it in if we need to.”
“No problem.” Less costly for her, Gabrielle decided and slipped the robe off her shoulders. She loved the smooth, clean feeling of her mons after an expert wax. The esthetician she’d used in the past was Brazilian and one of the best in London. She hadn’t come cheap and had quickly become one of the things Gabrielle could no longer afford.
“Use the cushions to make yourself comfortable,” Riordan advised as she lowered herself onto the oversized loveseat.
The cushions were luxuriously soft and Gabrielle found herself raising her arms above her head and arching her back in sheer bliss.
“Could you hold that pose?” Reilly asked.
He had stayed behind his easel, afraid that he would push Riordan out of the room, lock the room and fall on Gabrielle like a dog in heat.
“Sure.” Gabrielle tucked a cushion under the small of her back to support it and relaxed into the pose.
“Beautiful,” Riordan complimented and arranged the chiffon over her hips in a way that revealed rather more than it covered.
“Is this okay?” Gabrielle asked.
“Well, it would be better if your nipples were erect.”
“What?” She must have misheard him.
“May I?” Without waiting for a response he cupped her right breast which was closer to him and tweaked her nipple.
“Aaah!” Gabrielle squirmed against the loveseat as her centre immediately clenched in response.
Not the fucking nipples!
Her nipples were super sensitive.
“You want to give me a hand here?” Riordan asked his brother with a roll of his eyes.
“You seem to have it under control,” his brother replied, his jaw so tight the words barely came out.
“I just need to see how much they extend and how hard they get.” Riordan took the other nipple between his fingers and subjected it to the same squeezing pressure before he stood back and admired his handiwork. “I think you’d do just fine. The client likes to see nipples very extended and yours are a good length.”
Gabrielle couldn’t believe he was standing there looking unfazed after tweaking her nipples and almost making her come.
“Simply perfect.” Her skin was dewy and soft-looking. Riordan gave in to the urge to stroke it, running his hand over her arm from shoulder to elbow. “Right, let’s make a start.”
Gabrielle sneaked a glance at his crotch as he turned away and breathed a sigh of relief. Though there was a substantial bulge, there was no hint of arousal.
The same couldn’t be said for Reilly.
“Did you have to touch her?” he hissed as his twin settled behind his easel.
“You know Khalid likes big nipples.”
“Yes, but you didn’t have to get them big!” His brother had no business making the already irresistible woman even more so. And after the trouble they’d had finding a suitable model, they couldn’t afford to frighten her off before the commission was completed. The last time they had waited until the blonde had become comfortable with them, and then had explained what they needed. And the woman had tweaked her own damn nipples into erectness, not them. “She could have done it herself.”
“Her breasts are so incredible. I couldn’t resist.”
In dawning horror, Reilly realized that he badly felt like punching his brother hard in the face.
That had never happened before.
Usually he got off seeing his brother fondle a woman. Hell, nothing was more intense than coming while he was buried deep inside a woman, separated by only a thin membrane from his brother’s hardness.
There was nothing incestuous or gay about the feeling, as he’d told any woman who had inquired. It was purely intense love and it strengthened the bond between him and his brother.
Inexplicably, bond or not, he didn’t want to share Gabrielle with his twin.
*****
