His for the Taking - By Ann Major Page 0,32
drive me back to Miss Jennie’s.”
The finality in her tone cut him like a blade. But he refused to react, refused to let her see how her indifference shredded him.
“Sure. But we talk tomorrow. Don’t you dare even think about leaving Yella before we talk. Because if you do, I’ll make things worse for you. I could come to Austin, meet the do-gooders who pay you, tell them what people here think about you.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Noah is my son, too.”
“Why are you doing this? Surely you can’t want Noah!” she whispered.
“Wrong!” He sprang to his feet, truly infuriated now. “I didn’t know about him! Now that I do, you’re going to have to deal with it, the same as I am! I could do a lot for Noah, you know. And for you.”
“I want you out of my life!”
Heat engulfed him.
Her words pushed him over some dangerous edge, because he wanted her in his life as much as he wanted Noah. Even now, knowing that she’d probably slept with him for the sole purpose of remaining in his house long enough to get her letters so he would never find out about Noah, he wanted her.
“Well, that’s too damn bad! Noah has two parents!”
After she’d left him for Vernon, he’d felt dead. Even when he’d been married to Lizzie, he’d felt dead. For years, he’d buried himself in his work in an attempt to forget her. Lizzie had felt neglected, and rightfully so. When Lizzie had died, he’d chosen booze so he wouldn’t have to face the guilt and the emptiness that ravaged him—or the insane need he’d felt to search for Maddie.
When he’d seen her at the pool this morning, the sun had seemed to brighten and the water to sparkle with a special blinding radiance. Because of her, the whole world had seemed new and fresh. He couldn’t tell her any of that, though, because then she’d know her power and use it against him.
“I don’t like this any better than you do!” he yelled as she ran out of the room and up the stairs with his sheet trailing behind her.
Angry as he was, the knowledge that her voluptuous body was soft and naked under his sheet had him brick-hard again.
When he tore after her, he intended to appease her at least a little before pulling her into his arms, but she turned on him at the top of the stairs. And the words she flung at him through her sobs slammed him like mortal blows.
“I’m engaged to be married! To a wonderful man, I’ll have you know! He grew up poor like me, so he understands me. He’s a teacher, so he’s wonderful with kids. He would never reject and abandon me, the way you did, and he already considers Noah his son. He’s everything that Noah needs in a father.”
“Then why the hell did you just sleep with me?” he thundered.
“Hormones. It was a horrible mistake. Please, just drive me home, and stay out of our lives!”
“You ask the impossible,” he whispered in a ravaged tone. “Where’s his damn ring anyway?”
“We’re…we’re informally engaged.”
She raced into his bedroom and slammed the door.
* * *
Moonlight flooded his bedroom as Maddie sank down on his big bed with its tumbled sheets where they’d made love such a short time ago, where she’d been so happy…so foolishly happy, she thought now.
When she’d awakened from her nightmare filled with doubts and insecurities, he hadn’t been there, and she’d felt rejected and afraid of her own powerful emotions.
She’d felt afraid that he didn’t care about her, that he never had and that he never could. She thought maybe to him she was just a carnal pleasure—and of no more consequence than a coveted toy a spoiled child might enjoy from time to time.
Had Cole come after her when Vernon had hurt her? Had Cole rescued her like a knight in shining armor? Not that she believed in fairy tales, but still… Had he even questioned her mother’s sordid story? Or had he simply believed the worst, like everybody else? Had he ever tried to find her? Or had he already been chasing after Lizzie—a proper girl, Yella’s sweetheart? If she’d mattered to him at all, if she’d had a background he’d approved of, wouldn’t he have found a way to reach her?
All her old doubts and insecurities had torn at her as she’d lain in the dark. Then she’d gotten up the nerve to search for him to determine