by Sonya Weiss
That one was easy for her. “Losing my family. Something that makes you happy?”
His smile was slow and oh-so-sexy, leaving no doubt about the meaning behind it.
“Out of the bedroom,” she scolded.
He reached for her hand, clasped it as he tangled their fingers together. “Truthfully? Spending time with you.”
“Wow. Guess you really do have the charming part of the prince down.”
“I’m serious.”
“All of this…whisking me away to the island…please tell me it’s not you feeling sorry for me because I was left behind for the original trip.”
“I feel a lot of things for you, Maddie, but pity isn’t one of them.”
She nodded, thankful for that much, then realized what he’d said. “What kind of things do you feel?”
Soft music began to play, and Cole came around the table to take her by the hand. “Dance with me.”
She went into his arms, and he slowly moved them around the room. Tipping her head up, she looked at his handsome face, her eyes searching for answers.
A muscle worked in his jaw. “I feel things I don’t want to feel.”
“And you don’t want to because?”
He glanced down at her. “Because I can’t allow myself to be weak.”
Understanding dawned. “You care about me.”
“I do, but not enough not to go after your family.”
She sighed at the warning in his tone. She wished he could let go of the past so that he could live fully present in the moment. Hanging onto things that other people did to you only hurt you. Maddie had already learned that lesson. You could have plenty of money like Cole had and still be poor. She didn’t have plenty of money yet she was by far the richer of the two.
“Still think we’re friends?”
“I can still care about someone even when I don’t agree with what they do,” she said. “Besides, because you are a good person, I think you’ll eventually forgive whatever wrongs you say were done against you.”
He stopped dancing and tipped her chin up. “One thousand and eleven.”
She didn’t understand that. “What?”
“Those are the number of marks on the wall in a windowless little concrete box on the first level of the juvenile facility. There’s a single lightbulb high in the ceiling. No bed and a hole in the floor to use to relieve yourself.” He swung her around, dipped her low. “Forty-one days in that hot, stinking hole thanks to your grandfather. I see a lot of things in his future. Forgiveness from me isn’t one of them.”
“I’m sorry you had that experience, but I won’t stop believing that regardless of whatever happened to you, you’re strong enough to let go.”
…
“I can let go?” he said softly, frustrated that she didn’t see the reality her grandfather hid behind his polished facade. “It’s not strong to let go, sweetheart. It’s strong to follow things through until the end.”
“You’re hell bent on revenge, and you’re not going to stop until you either destroy my grandfather or yourself. I certainly don’t want to see you hurt him, but I don’t want to see you self-destruct, either.”
He caressed the backs of his fingers along her jawline. “You say that only because you don’t believe he’s guilty of what I say he is.”
“I don’t,” she agreed.
“Then let’s go back to the room and I’ll show you. I have files in an online folder that I can access from my phone. You can see for yourself.”
At first, Maddie was reluctant, and he knew she was warring with her belief that her grandfather was innocent versus wanting to see what information he had. Apparently deciding on the latter, she nodded. “Fine. Let’s go.”
She was silent on the way back to the suite. As soon as he opened the door, he went straight to his phone and pulled up the folder.
Maddie took the phone and sat on the end of the sofa as she began to read the pages. She curled her legs under her, and he couldn’t help but feel that she was bracing herself.
“The teenage boys who really started the arson fire that you and your friends were accused of were the sons of families that my grandfather wanted to do business with.” She looked up at him. “That’s hardly damning. My grandfather did business with a lot of different families in Texas.”
“Keep reading,” Cole said.
“In exchange for consideration in the deal, my grandfather agreed to help make sure those boys didn’t take the fall for the fire.” Maddie’s face paled, and she began to scroll madly through the pages, no doubt reading detail after detail about the fire.
When she’d looked through the folder, Cole took the phone from her and accessed another. “Your grandfather’s testimony.”
She clutched the phone tightly as she read, then looked up at him through shell-shocked eyes. “The date…I never paid attention. Oh my God. I missed this. He couldn’t have seen you there that night.”
“How do you know?” That was the part that Cole had never been able to get an answer to. No one had been able to prove Samuel Russell was lying.
“Because it was my mother’s birthday that night and he flew with her on the private jet to New Orleans along with my father to celebrate with them. I didn’t connect the dates before. Oh no.”
Cole swallowed. “Are you sure?” There would be flight records he could get ahold of if that were true.
She nodded, her shoulders slumping. “How could he…” Without another word, Maddie leaped to her feet, fleeing the room. She barely made it to the bathroom before she was sick. When she leaned her head against her forearms, Cole could read from her body language that she wanted to deny the truth.
He gently squeezed her shoulder. “Here.” He passed her a wet washcloth before kneeling beside her.
“All your suffering…all your friends’ suffering…Adam’s death… My family did that.” She stared down at the washcloth. “No wonder you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you. Look at me.”
Maddie raised her eyes to his.
“It took me a while to realize it, but you’re nothing like your family.”
Her lip quivered. “I was so self-righteous around you. So sure I was the one on the right path and you were the one who was wrong. I can’t believe I talked to you about letting go and forgiveness.” She rose and moved to the sink to wash her face and brush her teeth, then leaned against the counter and closed her eyes. “I don’t know what to even think about my grandfather right now.”
Cole knew what it was like to experience the emotional smackdown when someone you looked up to was a fake rather than a hero. He’d been through that with his father and his mother. He’d thought that when Maddie realized the truth that he’d feel justification. Maybe even gloat a little. But he didn’t feel any of that. His heart ached for her heartache.
She turned to face him. “My grandfather should face up to what he’s done, and I understand now why you want revenge. But I’m so sorry. You’re never going to get it.”
Cole stilled. “Because you won’t testify to what you told me about that night, will you? It doesn’t matter. I can get flight records.”
“That’s not it. He has dementia.”
Her words made an ice-cold chill run down the length of Cole’s spine.
“Even if you do find him and confront him about the past, he won’t know who you are. No prosecutor in Texas will go after him.” Maddie’s eyes filled with tears. “He’s as forever lost to your revenge plan as he is to me.”
“If you’re lying to me…”
“I swear to you that I’m not.”
Everything he’d worked so damn hard for…and he’d failed Adam. All his carefully laid plans rained down on his shoulders, crashing at his feet.
“I really am sorry.” Maddie walked over and wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder. After a few minutes, she looked at him, then reached up to press a kiss against his lips.
Chapter Fourteen
M
addie woke and took a few seconds to get her bearings. Last night, she and Cole had spent the majority of the hours making love until they were both exhausted. She stretched and took inventory of how she felt. Stubble burn lingered against the side of her neck and the sensitive skin on her breasts. Her body ached but not unpleasantly.
She leaned up on her elbow. When she’d told Cole that she was sorry, she’d meant it. Anger at how she’d been lied to all these years churned in her stomach. Both her father and her grandfather had led her to believe the worst about Cole, but as it turned out, he was the better man.
Getting out of bed, she dug her phone from her purse and sent a text to her parents and her grandfather, telling them all how she felt about what they’d done to Cole. Then she switched her phone off and dropped it back into her purse. She didn’t feel like talking to anyone at the moment.
With the sheet wrapped around her, she paced the floor, trying to determine where to go from here. She wanted Cole. He wanted her. That much was obvious from the beginning. But last night she’d sensed that their lovemaking had meant more than just the two of them slaking their mutual desire. She’d needed him, and he’d needed her.
She stopped in front of the window and stared out toward the ocean. If she was completely honest with herself, she could admit that for her, last night was because she realized she was falling for Cole. But after what she’d discovered about her grandfather’s part in Cole’s suffering, there was no way she could tell him that. He would think it was pity or he wouldn’t believe her.
Sighing, she leaned her forehead against the wall.
At the sound of the door opening, she turned to face Cole. He closed the door behind him with one hand. “Are you okay?”
“Other than being tired, I’m perfectly fine.” She regarded him. “I didn’t hear you leave.”
“I went to arrange for horses so we could explore the island. Unless you’d prefer to head to the children’s fairy tale park?”
She smiled at that. “Exploring would be great.” She searched his face for any sign of how he was feeling after last night’s revelation about her grandfather’s health but saw only the same usual steadiness. Like nothing ever bothered him. She indicated the sheet around her body. “Guess I’d better put on something a little more appropriate.”
“Personally, I like what you’re wearing, but I can see where it might not go over so well with the other couples.”
For some strange reason, her heart jolted at the word couple, then she mentally scolded herself not to be foolish. He hadn’t meant it the way it sounded. She pulled out some clothes to wear and started dressing. She was in the middle of slipping a pair of slacks over her hips when he came to sit on the edge of the bed.
“I’d like to find your grandfather. I want to see his condition for myself.”
Maddie finished pulling on her pants, then grabbed a hairbrush. “I honestly don’t know where he is right now.” She stroked the brush through her hair. “But I’ll find out,” she said, knowing that even if he couldn’t exact revenge, he needed some kind of closure.
“Thank you.”
Maddie put her hair up and secured it with a clip. Her stomach churned, and she pressed her hand against it.
His sharp gaze didn’t miss the movement. “Not feeling well?”
“Hmmm. Might be the rich food from last night.” She gave him a playful slap on the ass as she passed him. “Put your fears to rest. I’m not going to be the one to make you a father.” She thought about that, Cole as a father, and a white-hot surge of emotion shot through her, astonishing her. She was jealous of a hypothetical woman in a hypothetical situation.
He captured her arm, stopping her in her tracks. “Good, but if that happens, I’d want to know.”
“I would tell you,” she promised softly, but she had no intention of ending up in that situation. A flash of memory hit her. Cole lying behind her, her back against the solid wall of his chest, his arm around her stomach. She’d let herself ease against him. During the day she could easily brush off her rampant thoughts concerning him. She could flirt and tease and pretend.
But at night, when all her defenses were on the floor along with her clothes, she wanted nothing more than to share what was on her mind. She wanted to tell him that he was beginning to matter more than she should allow. That she didn’t look forward to the day when they’d go their separate ways. Cole being who he was would no doubt hate that. Worse, he’d tell her that he enjoyed her company. Maybe even want to toast to “friends” again.
They downed a quick breakfast and then went outside to the stables. Though she’d ridden horses all her life, Cole helped her swing onto the white Quarter Horse the stable staff referred to as Promise. Maddie gently patted the side of the horse’s neck and waited for Cole to ride out of the yard with her.
He’d left his jacket in the suite and wore only his light blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. In the bright sunshine, a pair of sunglasses hid his eyes. Once they were clear of the stables, Maddie urged her horse forward, enjoying the wind in her hair and the freedom she found in giving the horse the freedom to run.
She let the horse go until they reached a small clearing and Cole motioned for her to stop. His horse danced a step backward, and Cole spoke to it. The animal stilled, and Cole swung down, then came to help Maddie. She leaned down into him, and he put his hands on her waist, lifting her and lowering her to her feet as if she weighed nothing but air.
“Where are we?” She looked around but couldn’t see anything through the trees ahead.
“It’s an old stone winery. Mostly in ruins.”
Maddie stopped just inside the broken arch leading into the place. The roof was gone, and there were only walls and the floor left. Thick patches of ivy grew on the walls and pink wild roses twined into and around what was once a window. She closed her eyes and heard the sound of birds singing along with the gushing of water.
“There’s a waterfall a few miles up, but it’s not accessible from here.”
“It’s like all the busyness of the world fades away.”
“It is and it’s peaceful.”
Maddie grinned. “After a week or so, the solitude would get to you, wouldn’t it?”
He laughed. “If I made it a week. I prefer the pace of city life.”
“Everything you want at your fingertips.”
“Exactly.”
Maddie sighed and wrapped her arms around herself, then sent him a devilish look. “This is pretty secluded. I’ll bet not many people come to this part of the island.”
“They don’t.”
“It’s too bad then that we don’t have a blanket to sit or…do something else on.”
“Insatiable.”
Maddie plucked at the buttons on his shirt. “Only with you.”
…
Reckless. That’s what he’d become with Maddie. Doing things he’d never done before like risking a scandal that could hurt his reputation by making love in the remnants of the winery. He’d lost his head so completely that he’d sunburned his bare ass.
Even now with Maddie asleep beside him on the ride back to his house, he wanted her and not just because they had a deal. He wanted her in ways he’d never wanted another woman because he wanted her in his daily life and not just in his bed. Which was exactly why he was going to have to let her go soon. He couldn’t afford to start thinking that any of this would end well. It never did.
When the car eased to a stop in front of his house and his driver opened the rear door, Cole stepped out first and carried Maddie inside. He placed her gently on the sofa and covered her with a blanket. It was only six, but they’d been running on little sleep the entire time on the island. Mainly because they couldn’t get enough of each other. The memories of touching her, tasting her, made his body stir.
He backed away as quietly as possible and went to take a shower. He was due to go to the office to meet his friends along with a new client. Though he would have preferred to st
ay home with Maddie, Jake had reminded him that the client had insisted that he’d wanted to meet all of them. He couldn’t blow a deal just because he was…he was… Cole shut down the thought and finished his shower, not liking where his mind had almost gone.
He changed into a clean suit, and when he returned downstairs, Maddie was up, standing in the doorway of the kitchen with a cup of coffee in one hand. She held it out. “Want some?”
He looped his tie around his neck. “No time. I have to get to the office.”
“You want me to make us a late dinner?”
These meetings never ended early, so Cole shook his head. “I probably won’t be back until long after you’re asleep.”
“Oh. Do you want me to sleep in my bed or yours?”
Mine. But they were back in the real world now, where the clock was ticking on their time together. “Sleep where you want to.” Without looking back, he went out to the garage and drove away.
He arrived at the office in record time, and by the time he made it up to the conference room, his friends were already waiting.
“Client’s on his way,” Mason said.
Cole eased gingerly into a chair, and when Jake raised his eyebrows, he said, “Sunburned my ass on the island.”
“With Maddie,” his friend said.
“Because you like her,” Mason added.
Cole adjusted his tie. “She’s an incredible woman. Any man would be lucky to have her in his life.”
“But not you?”
Cole shook his head. “I’m not the right man for her. I can never love her.”
Jake gave Mason a glance that Cole didn’t understand before he looked at Cole again. “Are you sure you don’t already love her?”
“Positive,” Cole said. “And it’s time I ended things.” His gut tightened.
“Then why don’t you sound happy about that ending?” Jake asked.
“Because endings never run smoothly and I don’t want to hurt her.”
Mason raised an eyebrow. “If you think she’s so incredible, why not give the relationship a chance?”
“Because you both know I’m not forever material.” To keep from feeling the white-hot burn of loss and failure, he kept people at arm’s length, and while he was okay with that, a man who couldn’t give himself completely wasn’t the right kind of man for Maddie. He was the man who’d walk away to keep his ghosts from haunting her. “I don’t want Maddie to waste her years on me.”