Do you take this rebel - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,66
the highest peak yet. This time there was no retreat, no blessed relief, just this building urgency, this frantic, fevered yearning that grew hotter and wilder until it exploded through her, then him in shuddering waves.
Cole murmured her name over and over as they clung together, trembling, then slowly…slowly returned to earth…to his bed…to reality.
And to all the problems that couldn’t be resolved so easily.
Cassie banished that thought as soon as it dared to creep in. She wouldn’t allow it, wouldn’t allow anything to spoil this moment. She had waited too long—not just since her wedding night, but years. Illusion or not, she deserved this sweet oblivion.
She sighed and cuddled more tightly against Cole. His arm held her securely, his hand rested on her hip. His breathing grew steadier, whispering against hot, fevered skin, cooling it.
“That was—” she began.
Cole touched a finger to her lips. “Don’t say anything.”
It was part command, part warning. “Why?” she asked as tension crept in to steal the serenity.
“Just let it be what it was. If we start examining it, things will only get complicated.”
Rather than quieting her, the request to leave things be stirred more questions. “Complicated how?”
This time Cole sighed heavily and pulled away, retreating from her not just physically but emotionally. She could feel the sudden chill in the air as surely as if the air-conditioning had kicked on. She gathered the sheet and wrapped herself in it before facing him.
“Cole, talk to me. Don’t you dare shut me out now.”
“What’s the point?”
It wasn’t the first time he’d asked that since she’d walked in on him earlier, but it was more devastating now. The hurt and anger she’d been living with for weeks bubbled back to the surface. “The point is that you and I have just made love—using no protection, I might add. We could have made another baby here today.”
An expression of such dismay crossed his face that Cassie’s heart sank. What she had viewed as a hopeful beginning Cole obviously saw as nothing more than another lapse in judgment. Rather than solving anything, tonight had only complicated their lives, perhaps more than either of them was ready to cope with.
“I assumed you were on the Pill,” he said stiffly.
She shivered as ice formed where only moments before there had been fire. “Why would you assume such a thing?” she asked. “I haven’t been involved with anyone. You certainly haven’t come near me since the wedding. Why would I be on the Pill?”
An unreadable mask slid over his face. “Because it would be the mature, responsible thing to do if you intended to come into my room and seduce me.”
“And the way you’ve been behaving is mature?” she snapped, losing patience. “You married me, Cole. For better or worse. Did you do it just so you could punish me till the end of time?”
He stiffened at the accusation, but he didn’t deny it.
She stared at him incredulously. “You did, didn’t you? Well, I don’t intend to live like this.” She leaped out of the bed and started grabbing clothes and putting them on haphazardly, not worrying with buttons or snaps, just the most basic decency so she could get from his room to her own.
“Oh?” he said with deadly calm, his gaze hooded as he watched her. “What will you do? Run?”
“Only across town,” she said. “I’ll take Jake and—”
“You won’t take Jake anywhere,” he said. “Jake stays with me.”
“Not until a court says he does,” she retorted.
He leveled a look at her that might have daunted her if she hadn’t been so furious.
“Are you willing to take that chance?” he asked. “Are you willing to risk losing your son? I won’t go about this halfway. I’ll go after full custody.”
She met his gaze and saw that he was absolutely serious. Fury died as fear crept back in. She wouldn’t let him see that, though. She couldn’t.
“Why do you want to keep me trapped in marriage, Cole? Have you asked yourself that? I think it’s because a part of you loves me, a part of you wants to know that I’m yours anytime you get around to forgiving me. You like dangling the prospect of forgiveness in front of me just to torture me, just to get a little revenge for what I did to you.”
He didn’t deny any of it, not even her claim that he loved her. He couldn’t, because they both knew it was true. The last hour had proved that. More than sex had been involved.