had a good job and a stable, loving family. Together, if they worked hard, they would build a respectable life. The kind of life she’d always wanted.
The Colemans were rich and powerful. They could do a lot for Noah. But they considered her inferior. What if they decided to use their money and connections against her—to prove her unfit and take Noah away?
Maybe she didn’t have their kind of money, but she had character and determination and a mother’s fierce love. If she followed her plan, she could give Noah the wonderful childhood and bright future she’d never had. Then Noah wouldn’t need the Colemans’ money or their name.
But if Cole found out about Noah now, she might never be free of his family and the past. And she had to be free of him…because he too easily aroused all her foolish dreams of love and romance. It wasn’t her fault he’d believed the worst of her and hadn’t cared enough to read her letters. She’d made a life for her son without him, a life that would soon include Greg.
Even though she was more mature now, just seeing Cole today had her heart racing in a torment of confusion that included hurt, loss and hope, which was the most dangerous emotion of all. She couldn’t let herself listen to his side and believe in those dreams again.
But what if he wasn’t like his mother? What if he had loved her when they’d been together?
And she couldn’t help feeling sympathy for Noah, who would never know his father, and for Cole, who wouldn’t know his son.
Maddie’s mind warred with her emotions.
She’d spent her whole life trying to prove she wasn’t like her mother, but she couldn’t deny the surge of excitement she’d felt in Cole’s presence this afternoon. She still wanted him.
If he learned about Noah and became a part of their lives, would Cole tempt her to cheat on Greg, the very best of men, whose appeal paled in comparison to the virile and charismatic Cole?
Bottom line—for Noah’s sake she needed to maintain a stable relationship with Greg. And that would be more easily achieved if she closed the door firmly on her past, and on Cole.
If only she could get her letters back before Cole read them. But how? She didn’t dare mention them again because that would just intrigue him all the more.
Suddenly she heard his heavy boots crashing through the brush behind her.
“Maddie!” he yelled in that deep, possessive baritone that instantly made her blood buzz with a fierce, hot need that both thrilled and terrified her.
Stunned by the urgency in her own heart, she whirled, her gaze widening when his green eyes caught and held hers. She should keep walking, but somehow she couldn’t when his desperately intent gaze refused to release her.
The past and its new truths couldn’t matter.
But they did.
Stirred too deeply to deny her true feelings, she felt herself in a time warp. A warm breeze swirled the emerald trees around them, and she remembered all the times she’d seen him looking just like this before she’d run into his arms in these very woods as a girl. Back then she’d trusted him completely. Back then he’d been hers to hold and love, at least in secret.
Now, instead of the hurt and rejection she’d felt for so long, she was remembering brighter moments, remembering how he’d picked her up and spun her around, remembering how he’d spread a blanket across the lush grasses beside the river before drawing her down beside him, remembering how he’d stripped her slowly so he could make love to her. Always, always he’d been infinitely patient and tender. And so dear.
At the happy memories, blood pounded in her temples, bringing tumultuous excitement and the kind of wicked delight she’d never once felt for Greg, not even when he kissed her. Six years were washed away in bursting sensations of breathless joy and hot carnal needs that exploded in every one of her nerve endings.
She hadn’t slept with anyone since she’d left Yella. It was as if she’d been frozen—until this afternoon…with Cole.
Why him? How could she still want him when he brought back the past and all the ugliness of her life here? Why couldn’t it be Greg? She wanted to look forward, not back.
What was happening to her? How could she feel so powerless to fight her feelings for Cole when she knew she could never trust him with her heart or with her son?
“I’ll always be Jesse Ray Gray’s daughter.”
“I don’t care.”
He looked as conflicted as she felt when he grabbed her by the wrists and spun her into his arms, hard against his body.
“I’ll get you all wet,” she cried.
“Feels good,” he rasped. “What could be better than a wet woman on a hot day?”
She felt herself blushing. When she clumsily dropped Cinnamon’s leash, the little dog yelped and dashed away. Not that she cared. How could she concentrate on the dog when Cole was holding her so close she was trembling? How could she resist the burning need in Cole’s eyes, even though some tiny, sensible voice in her head pleaded with her to be more intelligent?
Greg. Marriage. Stability. Noah’s future.
Greg will protect you.
Cole’s mother promised to destroy you.
“Cole,” Maddie begged as her breasts lodged snugly against his muscular chest. “Cinnamon…He’ll get away.”
Cole tugged her nearer so that her nipples peaked against the violent thudding of his heart in his warm chest. “He knows his way home.”
For no special reason her gaze lingered on Cole’s sculptured, sensual mouth.
Reluctantly, she laid her head on his shoulder and inhaled his dizzying, clean male scent and the lemony flavor of his aftershave. “Oh, Cole,” she whispered on a rush of longing.
He needed no further invitation. Pressing his warm lips against her earlobe, he sighed. “Baby, you feel so good.”
A delicious current raced in her blood. His mouth nibbling her flesh set off sparks even as the memory of his mother’s words ate into her soul.
You’re so far beneath him, all you’d ever do is drag him down into the gutter where your kind lives.
For a long moment, Cole simply held her tightly against his long, hard body. “You smell good, like the woods and the creek…like everything I love best.”
Feeling cherished, she closed her eyes and fought to forget his mother’s cruel assessment, fought to forget that he’d let her go when he’d promised to love her forever.
Stroking her fingers through his thick ebony hair, Maddie felt herself in a sensual dream. He was so tall and solid and hot. He felt so right. For the first time in years, everything seemed perfect. Had she been striving for all the wrong things, when all she’d ever wanted was Cole?
He’s the enemy, the man who threw you and Noah away.
No.
