His for the Taking - By Ann Major Page 0,16

dad was dying, he told me about my brother, Adam. I felt betrayed at first, of less importance to my father somehow. But I hid my feelings and drove to where he lived and met him. I asked him to come to Yella to help me manage the ranch so I could devote more time to the oil business. Mother didn’t want me to have anything to do with Adam. She felt betrayed even though Adam had been conceived before she met Dad and without Dad’s knowledge. She blamed Adam for the whole mess, and then me for accepting him. That’s when she moved out of the house.”

Maddie could understand Hester’s feelings, but the mention of Cole’s mother’s intolerance dampened her spirits—and reminded her of what was at stake. If she went to his house, maybe she’d find a way to get back her letters, which he’d said were in his desk in his home office, without him ever having read them. Maybe she could secure her future.

Be honest. Really, you just want to see his house and spend a little more time with him. “Okay,” she whispered faintly. “You win.”

“How early can you get away?” he asked.

“I’ll have to check with Miss Jennie.”

“Good. Mind if I tag along?”

“If you do, Bessie will tell everybody. Your mother will probably know in five minutes flat that we were in the woods together.”

“So what?” Smiling, he called to Cinnamon, and the maddening dog ran right up to him.

“He never does that when I call him!”

Casually Cole grabbed the leash and then laid the leather strap in her outstretched hand. His fingers brushed hers, causing a familiar jolt of heat that had her jumping back.

When he laughed, she scowled and kept a wary distance from him the whole way to Miss Jennie’s. Even so, his striding grandly beside her in his boots and Stetson made her tension build.

Inside the house with him, it was even worse. Just knowing that he was lounging indolently in the parlor waiting for her to figure out a schedule had Maddie unable to settle, much less focus on her routine chores. She dropped things, and forgot what she was doing in the middle of a task.

The lean male figure sprawled on Miss Jennie’s spindly ottoman was turning her life upside down, and she was powerless to stop him.

When her cell rang and she saw it was Greg, she declined his call.

“Who was that?” Cole demanded in a steely tone.

“Nobody important,” she said, blushing.

“You’re dating someone?”

“I don’t want to talk about him.”

He frowned as if the mere thought of another man in her life made him feel possessive, which, of course, he had no right to be.

“What about you? Are you dating?” she asked.

“No. When Lizzie died I told myself I wouldn’t date for a year…which is nearly up, by the way.”

“Oh….”

She was so mixed up. Usually she looked forward to Greg’s calls. Usually she loved having him tell her about his morning and sharing her own with him.

Guiltily she remembered Cole’s kisses on her mouth and breasts. Just thinking about them brought the butterflies back to her tummy and made her feel as wildly alive as an infatuated teenager.

Her pleasure in Cole’s possessiveness and her disloyalty to Greg only increased the confusion she’d been feeling earlier.

What was happening to her?

Five

There was no telling what the neighbors had made of her wet hair and wet T-shirt when she’d returned to Miss Jennie’s with Cole. So Maddie felt both light-headed and mortified when she left Miss Jennie’s on Cole’s arm later that afternoon. Not that he seemed to care what Bessie and her ilk thought about them being seen together.

He’d insisted on returning to Miss Jennie’s in his truck to pick her up, after he’d taken his horse back to his house. And now, while he strode confidently to his truck, she kept her eyes glued to the sidewalk. They were almost to his big, white pickup when she saw Bessie’s window shade move.

In a deliberate attempt to downplay her looks, Maddie had coiled her glossy black hair into a severe knot at her nape. She’d buttoned her white blouse to her neck and had secured its cuffs at her wrists. Her lips were pale because she hadn’t bothered to freshen her lipstick. Her jeans were tight, but she’d brought only one pair.

“Bessie’s watching us,” she murmured.

Without bothering to so much as glance in Bessie’s direction, he opened Maddie’s door.

“She’s probably already told everybody we went skinny-dipping,” Maddie said.

His dark