His for the Taking - By Ann Major Page 0,55
a sleepover, which I planned so we could enjoy—”
“Our own sleepover,” Cole finished.
“Exactly.” Blue flames lit her violet eyes as he nipped her bottom lip seductively. When he kissed her harder, he felt her body heat against his. He loved how responsive she was.
“Here. I’ve got something special for you,” he said, pulling a little black velvet box from his shirt pocket. Feeling embarrassed, he sank to one knee. “I’m afraid I should have thought of a more original and romantic way to propose.”
Taking the box and opening it, she laughed, gasping with awed pleasure when she saw the huge diamond. “Wow!”
“So, will you marry me?” he whispered, looking up at her.
She knelt to his level, her fingertips skimming his cheek. “Yes. Yes!”
He took her hand and slid his ring onto her finger.
When she turned her hand to admire it, the diamond flashed. “I definitely can’t wear this to work. I’d blind everybody. Or get my finger cut off walking across the parking lot.”
“Well, wear it whenever you feel like it.”
“Like when I come back to Yella.”
“I’ve been thinking that maybe people there need a little more time to adjust to the idea of you and me.”
“So, you’ve told them about us and they warned you away.”
He was silent.
She studied his grave expression. “Have they said things to make you ashamed of me?”
“No. I just don’t like giving them the chance to hurt you again.”
“I need to go back and face the past, for myself as much as for us. I’ve been running from shadows for far too long. I gave one incident too much power over me. Since I told you about Vernon, I haven’t had another nightmare. It’s like this huge emotional weight just lifted off me. I don’t understand it. For the first time in years I feel free. And good about myself. I think that if I faced other demons, I might feel even better.”
“I’m so glad.”
“Maybe I need to convince myself you’ll really stand up for me, as well. So, I’ve made arrangements to get off work and come to Yella for a week or two. I guess we’ll find out if we both have the guts to take this thing to the next level. Only you have to promise me that if it turns out one of us doesn’t think it’ll work, you’ll let me go.”
He wasn’t about to do that. “What about Noah?”
“You’ll always be his father. No matter what, I want you to play an active role in his life. It’s just that we might not marry…”
“I can’t go there.”
“What if we both realize marriage isn’t the best solution?”
“I refuse to believe that.”
* * *
It was nearly noon, and Maddie’s brow was wrinkled from so much paperwork. She was looking forward to taking a break before her lunch meeting when her phone buzzed. Hoping it was Cole phoning to say he’d arrived safely back in Yella, she blushed as memories of the wild sex they’d indulged in the night before bombarded her. He’d possessed her in every possible way, in every possible position—on her bed, on the floor, against her wall. On her bedroom desk. And she’d reveled in it like the wanton she was reputed to be.
“Hello,” she whispered a little too huskily.
“I have a lady in the waiting area to see you, Miss Gray,” Lucy, her secretary, said.
“Oh.”
“I can’t place her, and she refuses to give her name. She looks important.”
Maddie smoothed her hair and glanced at her watch. Maddie understood wealthy donors. So much for taking a quick break.
“Show her in.”
Seconds later, Hester Coleman, her black silk suit as severe as her face, stood before Maddie’s desk. Gloved hands knotted, Hester stared down the length of her long, aquiline nose, her gaze sweeping both Maddie and her tiny office with its stacks of papers and folders on the floor.
In her rush to stand, Maddie knocked over the bud vase with Cole’s single yellow rose in it, spilling water onto the stack of envelopes she’d just sealed for mailing.
“Oh, dear.” Quickly she set the vase and the rose upright and lifted dripping envelopes out of a puddle of water. Mopping at her desk with one of the paper towels she kept nearby, she attempted a smile.
“May I sit down?” Hester said.
“Why…of course.” Nodding nervously in the direction of the chair opposite her desk, Maddie sank back down in her own.
“I know about the child you’re using to blackmail Cole.”
Maddie went hot with indignation. “I would never use Noah in such