His for the Taking - By Ann Major Page 0,61
leaving together? What about Maddie? Didn’t she know she was making a spectacle of herself?
Suddenly doubt had white-hot jealousy boiling to the surface. Clenching his hands, he fought for control.
He trusted Adam. And Maddie…
Then he saw his mother eyeing him triumphantly.
Misreading Cole’s silence as tacit agreement with his insulting comment, Lyle elaborated. “Nobody says you and your brother shouldn’t enjoy her, Cole. We just don’t think either of you should marry her.”
Suddenly Cole’s fist shot into Lyle’s smug jaw with such force he sent the man stumbling backward onto the hardwood floor where he lay spread-eagled, staring up at the ceiling as he rubbed his jaw.
“Damn it, Lyle, don’t you ever say another word about Maddie! Do you hear me? I’m marrying her, and I don’t care what you or anyone else in this room thinks!”
“But what do you think about her, Cole?”
Cole started, aghast at his behavior. Lyle had struck a nerve. Yes, he wanted Noah, and he wanted Maddie in his bed. But would he ever feel sure of her?
As his guests watched in shock, Cole leaned down and yanked Lyle to his feet. “Get the hell out of my house!”
Lyle scrambled for the door. When he was safely out of Cole’s reach, he said, “Did you see that? He hit me! He’s crazy! She’s made him crazy! You’re a damn fool to marry her, Coleman, and you know it!”
Cole raked a hand through his black hair. “Sorry about the disturbance,” he muttered before he plunged out of his house in search of Maddie.
He must have looked upset because when Maddie saw him, she got up from the chair where she’d been sitting beside Adam and ran to him.
“Are you all right?” she cried.
“We’re leaving,” he said.
“Okay, but since this is our engagement party, are you going to tell me why?”
“Because I just lost it in there.”
“He hit me—because I told him the truth about you and Adam. And I told him that he’d be a fool to marry you just so he could sleep with you, and he knows I’m right,” Lyle yelled at her as he roared past the porch in his truck before driving away in whorls of dust.
“Is that true?”
Cole flushed darkly.
“Because of me? And Adam?”
“He said something I didn’t like.”
“And you believed him? You thought that your brother and I…that we were flirting or worse?”
“No, I just didn’t like him saying it. I couldn’t let him get away with talking about you like that.”
“Because you don’t trust me.”
“I do trust you. It’s just that…”
“No, you don’t. You don’t respect me. You’re just like they are, ready to believe the worst of me at the slightest provocation—because you believed him, just a little. Or more than just a little.”
“No, I got mad. I lost it. I’m not feeling too good about it either.”
“You’ll always be the high-and-mighty Coleman, and I’ll never be anything but Jesse Ray’s daughter.”
“That’s unfair. You’re blowing this out of proportion… just like I blew what he said out of proportion.”
“Maybe, but there’s a grain of truth. For your information, your brother was just being nice to me…because everyone else was ignoring me. He was explaining how he understands how I feel, because sometimes he sort of feels like an outcast here, too.”
When she looked up, she saw that Cole’s mother, and everybody else, was staring at her.
“I’ve never felt so absolutely cheap and humiliated in my whole life as you made me feel tonight,” she whispered. “You believed what Lyle said—instead of having faith in me.”
“No! I got jealous!”
“I hate to say it, but your mother was right. She said you were attracted to me solely for the sex.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is. It’s all you see in my friendship with your brother—who’s a really sweet guy, by the way—who’s also having a rough time in this town.”
“I know his problems a helluva lot better than you do.”
“Sex is not enough to hold a marriage together. So, if you’ll be so kind as to lend me your truck, I’ll drive myself home to Miss Jennie’s. Then I’ll pack and return to Austin. Miss Jennie will call when I’m gone so you can pick up your truck.”
“Damn it. I’m not letting you go.”
“This isn’t going to work, Cole! You need a woman you and your friends can respect, a woman you can trust and be proud of.”
“You’re that woman.”
“I wish I was, but I’m not. Not if you found it that easy to believe I could hit on your brother at our