His for the Taking

Fifteen



One long week later, Cole checked his watch as he rushed up Maddie’s sidewalk. He’d made it. It was 5:30 on the dot. He’d even managed to buy her a long-stemmed yellow rose from a homeless vendor on a busy street corner.

As soon as he’d completed his well, Cole had jumped in his truck and driven straight back to Austin.

Not that he was sure he’d find Maddie home yet. The traffic had been so bad on the south side of the city, it seemed very likely she’d be stuck somewhere. But before he was halfway up her sidewalk, her front door opened and she ran toward him.

God, she was beautiful in her sexy blue sundress. When he swept her into his arms, her brilliant smile warmed him as nothing else could. He caught the sweet fragrance of gardenias before he crushed her close.

“My well came in.”

“Congratulations!”

“How’d your week go?” he murmured, handing her the rose that was a little worse for wear due to the Texas heat.

Taking the golden blossom, she clung to him. “I missed you,” she admitted huskily. “Craving you is beginning to feel like an addiction.”

He sighed. “I’m just as hooked as you are.”

Even though they’d spoken over the phone, being away from her hadn’t been easy. She’d tentatively accepted his proposal, and they were trying to figure out how to share their lives. For some reason she was determined that he shouldn’t cut himself off from everybody in Yella because of her, and she’d offered to come back to Yella to face both the gossips and her demons.

“You’ve been through enough there,” he’d said.

“We need to give your community a chance to accept me now,” she’d said bravely.

“I don’t care whether they do or not.”

“But I do—not only for your sake, but for Noah’s. Your mother lives in Yella. It would be nice if Noah had at least one grandmother.”

Because of Maddie’s insistence, Cole had already told friends and family the truth about their relationship and the truth about Noah’s paternity. They had understood his being infatuated with her in the past and getting her pregnant, but they didn’t approve of him being seriously involved with her again. Everybody except Adam warned him to stay away from her.

Not wanting to think about other people’s prejudices, Cole pushed a long strand of black hair back from Maddie’s face. “Where’s Noah?”

“At Tristan’s. Watching a movie. Which means we have a little time alone. He’ll be home soon, but then they’re doing a sleepover, which I planned so we could enjoy—”

“Our own sleepover,” Cole finished.

“Exactly.” Blue flames lit her violet eyes as he nipped her bottom lip seductively. When he kissed her harder, he felt her body heat against his. He loved how responsive she was.

“Here. I’ve got something special for you,” he said, pulling a little black velvet box from his shirt pocket. Feeling embarrassed, he sank to one knee. “I’m afraid I should have thought of a more original and romantic way to propose.”

Taking the box and opening it, she laughed, gasping with awed pleasure when she saw the huge diamond. “Wow!”

“So, will you marry me?” he whispered, looking up at her.

She knelt to his level, her fingertips skimming his cheek. “Yes. Yes!”

He took her hand and slid his ring onto her finger.

When she turned her hand to admire it, the diamond flashed. “I definitely can’t wear this to work. I’d blind everybody. Or get my finger cut off walking across the parking lot.”

“Well, wear it whenever you feel like it.”

“Like when I come back to Yella.”

“I’ve been thinking that maybe people there need a little more time to adjust to the idea of you and me.”

“So, you’ve told them about us and they warned you away.”

He was silent.

She studied his grave expression. “Have they said things to make you ashamed of me?”

“No. I just don’t like giving them the chance to hurt you again.”

“I need to go back and face the past, for myself as much as for us. I’ve been running from shadows for far too long. I gave one incident too much power over me. Since I told you about Vernon, I haven’t had another nightmare. It’s like this huge emotional weight just lifted off me. I don’t understand it. For the first time in years I feel free. And good about myself. I think that if I faced other demons, I might feel even better.”

“I’m so glad.”

“Maybe I need to convince myself you’ll really stand up for me, as well. So, I’ve made arrangements to get off work and come to Yella for a week or two. I guess we’ll find out if we both have the guts to take this thing to the next level. Only you have to promise me that if it turns out one of us doesn’t think it’ll work, you’ll let me go.”

He wasn’t about to do that. “What about Noah?”

“You’ll always be his father. No matter what, I want you to play an active role in his life. It’s just that we might not marry…”

“I can’t go there.”

“What if we both realize marriage isn’t the best solution?”

“I refuse to believe that.”

* * *

It was nearly noon, and Maddie’s brow was wrinkled from so much paperwork. She was looking forward to taking a break before her lunch meeting when her phone buzzed. Hoping it was Cole phoning to say he’d arrived safely back in Yella, she blushed as memories of the wild sex they’d indulged in the night before bombarded her. He’d possessed her in every possible way, in every possible position—on her bed, on the floor, against her wall. On her bedroom desk. And she’d reveled in it like the wanton she was reputed to be.

“Hello,” she whispered a little too huskily.

“I have a lady in the waiting area to see you, Miss Gray,” Lucy, her secretary, said.

“Oh.”

“I can’t place her, and she refuses to give her name. She looks important.”

Maddie smoothed her hair and glanced at her watch. Maddie understood wealthy donors. So much for taking a quick break.

“Show her in.”

Seconds later, Hester Coleman, her black silk suit as severe as her face, stood before Maddie’s desk. Gloved hands knotted, Hester stared down the length of her long, aquiline nose, her gaze sweeping both Maddie and her tiny office with its stacks of papers and folders on the floor.

In her rush to stand, Maddie knocked over the bud vase with Cole’s single yellow rose in it, spilling water onto the stack of envelopes she’d just sealed for mailing.

“Oh, dear.” Quickly she set the vase and the rose upright and lifted dripping envelopes out of a puddle of water. Mopping at her desk with one of the paper towels she kept nearby, she attempted a smile.

“May I sit down?” Hester said.

“Why…of course.” Nodding nervously in the direction of the chair opposite her desk, Maddie sank back down in her own.

“I know about the child you’re using to blackmail Cole.”

Maddie went hot with indignation. “I would never use Noah in such a way!”

“How effective to tell Cole now…when he’s free again. How else could a girl like you get him to consider marrying you? You don’t care what you cost him, do you?”

Maddie did care. “Does Cole know you’re here?”

“That’s hardly the point. He may be a fool, but I’m not. I’m here to offer you a generous settlement, in cash, if you refuse to marry him.”

With her rage and hurt simmering just beneath the surface, Maddie stood up. “This interview is over. I want you to leave my office.”

“What? You can’t throw me out!” Outraged, Hester arose. “When you’ve cut him off from everybody he’s known and loved his entire life, how long do you think you’ll continue to fascinate him? He’ll resent you,” Hester cried. “Eventually he’ll leave you.”

“Maybe.” Maddie picked up her purse. “But you’re risking as much as I am. You have a grandson. Do you want to lose him? Do you want to be cut out of his life forever? Is that what you really want?”

Color flamed in Hester’s cheeks. “No, but whatever sorrows I might be experiencing as a grandmother, my real distress has to do with my son for becoming involved with a woman who will ruin his life. If you were any kind of mother, you would understand.”

* * *

Maddie, who hadn’t been able to eat more than a couple of saltine crackers after Hester left, had felt so weak and shaken she’d barely been able to function for the rest of the afternoon. Her anger and sense of injustice ate at her. Indeed, she was so upset she made a mess of every project she touched. Finally, she grew so frustrated with herself for letting the woman’s words get to her, she went home early.

Once home, she took her phone off the hook and tortured herself by replaying the older woman’s vicious looks and cruel slights in her mind. Was Hester right about Maddie’s background making her unfit to be Cole’s wife? Would their marriage cut him off from everybody he knew and loved? He had said he thought they should live in Austin, so the past wouldn’t cloud their future. But she knew what Coleman’s Landing meant to him.

After a miserable hour spent beating up on herself for no crime other than having been born who she was, she dragged herself out of the depths and reconnected her telephone. When Cole called five minutes later to ask about her day, she didn’t mention Hester’s visit. Instead, she gave him the dates for her upcoming visit to Yella.

“Maybe we should put that off and just enjoy each other for a while.”

She sensed his hesitation and doubt. He’d been sweet and understanding when she’d told him about Vernon. But would he fight for her? Did he truly believe in her?

Or did he just want Noah?