His for the Taking - By Ann Major Page 0,28

felt in years.

He pulled her closer. For the first time in ages she wasn’t afraid as she closed her eyes. Though she wasn’t ready to contemplate telling him about Noah, she knew that tonight, if she woke up screaming as she sometimes did, he’d be there. What a wonderful feeling of security it was to know that.

When they awoke, he made love to her again. Afterward she felt an even greater sense of belonging only to him. The feeling wasn’t based on anything more than the sensual pleasure of sex. But each time he made love to her, she felt happier, if that were possible. She snuggled closer against his warmth because he made her feel safe. Wrapped in his arms, she fell asleep.

Hours later, when she came awake with a start as she often did after one of her nightmares, Cole’s strong arms no longer held her. As always, she’d been running from some unknown black terror. Just when she was nearly to safety, a strong male hand reached out of the darkness and pulled her down roughly. No matter how hard she fought the faceless figure, she couldn’t free herself. Trapped and helpless underneath him, she opened her eyes.

Only the monster wasn’t there. He never was. She was all alone in the hot darkness of Cole’s bedroom, drenched with perspiration from her nightmare. Her fingers played across the nightstand searching for her flashlight, but it wasn’t there. Then she remembered she was at Cole’s, not in her own room where she kept a flashlight by the bed. But she did have a small one in her purse, which she’d left on that little table downstairs near the front door.

“Cole?” she whispered in a panic. “Cole!”

When he didn’t answer, she moved toward his side of the bed. If only he would wake up and take her in his arms, she wouldn’t feel afraid. But his side of the bed was empty. She pushed free of the cool tangles of sheets and sat up in the dark.

Shakily, she grabbed his pillow, which was cool although it held his scent, and pressed it against her lips. Because of her nightmare, all the newfound confidence Cole’s lovemaking had instilled in her deserted her.

Where was he? Why had he left? He’d made her feel so safe and cherished, but was their night together just rebound sex for him after losing Lizzie?

Desolation swamped her. The distrustful mindset she’d experienced ever since Vernon’s attack slid back into place. Suddenly she was filled with doubts about everything. About her feelings, about having given herself with such abandon to Cole when she barely knew the man he now was or what his true intentions toward her might be.

Did he believe what his mother had said, that Maddie was as low as ever and after him for his money? Did he regret sleeping with her? Or was she just a sexual outlet? Would she never be free of the stigma of her childhood in his eyes?

Made more anxious by her nightmare, she felt increasingly disconcerted by his absence as she stared at the flickering shadows on the ceiling. When he didn’t return after a lengthy interval, her doubts built to a terrifying level. She grabbed a sheet and pulled it around herself. Determined to reassure him that he owed her nothing, she stood up and padded out of the room to search for him in his vast, shadowy house.

* * *

When Cole switched on the overhead lamp in his office, his gaze zeroed in on the keys dangling from the lock of his bottom drawer.

“Son of a…” Cole cursed vividly under his breath. He would never have left his keys there. He remembered Maddie’s look of alarm when he’d entered the office earlier in the evening. She’d been pale, and her hands had shaken as she’d read that boring magazine article he hadn’t been able to get through about hay. He’d thought she was upset because of the hateful things his mother had said. Now he wondered.

Had Maddie played him?

The vague impression that something was not quite right in his office had niggled worrisomely at the back of his mind even after he’d collected Maddie, but he’d been so focused on trying to make up to her for his mother’s rudeness that he’d dismissed any suspicions he might have had.

Then they’d slept together, and their hot sex had distracted him further. Had she intended that? When he’d awakened, as he often did in the middle of the night,