His for the Taking - By Ann Major Page 0,53

When she threw me out, I didn’t know who to turn to or where to go, so I called you…and got your mother, who told me how cheap I was.”

He shuddered. After an endless pause, he managed, “And then you went to Miss Jennie?”

“Yes. She was wonderful.”

“Thank God.” He reached across the table and took her hand, pressing her slim fingers hard. “I should have guessed the truth.”

“How could you?”

“I don’t know, but I shouldn’t have been so wrapped up in my own damn ego and pain, so furious and hurt that you could leave me for Vernon that I didn’t question your mother or the gossip. I drove you away. I was as bad as everybody else in Yella—worse, because I should have known better since I really knew you.”

“I felt so ashamed…”

“I’m the one who should be ashamed. It’s a good thing he’s locked up, or I’d have to find him and make him pay.”

“No.” She began to shake. “Then they’d lock you in a cage, too. I don’t want that.” She paused. “When Noah was around one, Vernon came to Austin. He told me that if I ever went to the police and told them the truth, he’d kill me. You see, he was on parole at the time. He said any infraction could put him away for good. He put his hands around my neck and squeezed so tightly I couldn’t breathe…just for a few seconds, just to give me a taste of what it would be like to die, he said. He said Noah would be raised by foster mothers who’d be worse than my mother. After that, I was scared of everything, of my own shadow. Even after he went back to prison for raping another girl, I was still scared. That’s when the nightmares started.”

“If only you’d called me.”

“I did,” she reminded him. “You hung up on me because you’d just married Lizzie.”

“Oh, God. My sorry treatment of you…”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“The hell it doesn’t! It will always matter. In my own way I was worse than Vernon. If I’d claimed you as my girlfriend from the beginning, maybe he would have been afraid to touch you because of the high-and-mighty Coleman name. Did I ever go to your home once? Take an interest in what you had to deal with there? Warn him to leave you alone or he’d have to deal with me? No, I left you powerless, defenseless. Oh, it matters. It damn sure matters.”

She looked into his eyes and saw everything she needed to see. He believed her.

“You were in college.”

“I was old enough to know better,” he said, his low tone filled with self-loathing.

“I blamed myself, too. My mother said I’d been asking for it for weeks, dressing sexily to put her down and make her feel old…but I’d only been trying to be pretty for you. I should have been more aware of how I affected Vernon.”

“It wasn’t your fault. Get that through your head.”

“It wasn’t yours either,” she said, rising from her chair because she wanted to touch him and to be held.

Slowly she slid her hands across his broad chest and laid her head against his shoulder. When his lips brushed her forehead and he pulled her even closer, happiness filled her. His dark head bent over hers. Then he lifted her chin and kissed her gently on the lips. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she inhaled his scent and savored the muscular texture of his body.

She was sighing when the door behind them banged, and Noah hurled himself into the kitchen.

“Can I have pancakes for break—” When he saw his mother wrapped in Cole’s arms, his eyes widened and his bottom lip stuck out.

Stunned, she sprang free of Cole and rushed to her son. Kneeling beside him, she said, “Darling. Mommy’s late for work, so we need to get you dressed and ready for school.”

Noah stared at Cole. “What’s he still doing here? Why was he kissing you?”

“I said we have to get you dressed and ready for—”

“How come you let him sleep over and you never let Greg?”

“Honey, Greg and I broke up yesterday.”

“Because of him?” Noah waited. Then he tore free of her and crossed his arms over his thin chest.

“We’ll…we’ll have to talk about all this later.”

“I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to go to school.” Noah turned and marched huffily back to his room.

“Do you want me to try to talk to him?” Cole asked.

She shook