"Yes. Ted's-Ted's son." She looked up, her eyes filled with pleading. "Peter's just a little boy. He has no part in any of this."
Cole folded his arms over his chest. "Go on."
She had to go on. She had no choice. Cole held the winning hand. What did pride matter now?
"It's not as if I want to stay in this house."
He smiled thinly. "Good. Because you're not going to."
"I'd already made plans to leave Liberty. To start over again, someplace where nobody knows us."
"Right. Someplace where you can find another sucker who won't have the disadvantage of knowing you kept my brother out of your bed. "
"You don't know anything about my relationship with Ted."
"Don't I'
He moved toward her. Faith saw the look in his face and moved back.
"No. You don't. I-I loved Ted."
"You don't know the meaning of the word."
"I loved him. And we both loved Peter. And-"Keep the boy out of this!"
"I can't do that. Peter's the reason I want to move away. I just need some time to-to get my life together. Find a job, in Atlanta."
Cole laughed. "Women with your skills don't find jobs, Faith, they find fools to support them."
"Find a job," she said, her face coloring, her chin lifting, her eyes steady on his. "I can commute. I can save money. Then I can move away."
"You can do that now. Move away, I mean."
"I just told you, I can't. I need money..."
She gasped as Cole caught hold of her and pulled her against him. "What you need," he said roughly, "is a man."
'No. No-
His mouth crushed hers in a kiss filled with anger and passion too long denied. Faith cried out, tried to twist away and he imprisoned her hands between his while his mouth slanted over hers. He thrust his tongue between her lips, tasting what he had never forgotten, and all at once the years rolled away. He was eighteen again, she was his girl. And she was in his arms, kissing him back...
Kissing him back, as she was now, with her hands in his hair, her body lifted to fit against his. With her little cries, her very breath shared between them. She was his, she was all he'd ever wanted...
God!
Cole thrust her from him and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. He saw her eyes open, saw the confusion in their depths and for one wild instant he almost believed she was as stunned by the power of that hungry kiss as he was.
He took a couple of breaths and regained his sanity.
"It won't work," he said in a low voice. "I know what you are. I'm not a kid anymore, Faith. And I'm sure as hell not my brother."
"No." Her voice quivered. She gave a little laugh and blinked back her tears. "You aren't."
"Tell the boy I'm sorry but I had to leave."
"Of course."
"Tell him I didn't mean to make a promise and then break it."
"No." The words were tinged with irony. "Certainly not." Cole walked to the door. He started to open it, then turned and looked at her. "What time does he go to bed?"
"Nine. But I don't see-"
"Tell him he can stay up later than usual tonight." He looked at his watch, then at her. "If he can hold out that long,we'll have supper in two hours and watch that video." "What are you talking about? I thought we'd agreed-" "Haven't you figured it out yet, baby? I'm the guy making the rules. You don't get to `agree' to anything."
Cole stepped into the hall. She ran after him, calling his name, demanding he come back and explain what he'd said... And ended up standing on the porch, watching the dust raised by the Jaguar as he gunned the engine and shot out of the driveway.
CHAPTER SIX
COLE had always driven fast. Too fast, sometimes, especially when he was a kid. He'd pushed his Harley to dangerous speeds on the empty dirt roads outside Liberty.
"Slow down or you're going to wipe out one of these days," Ted used to tell him. And Cole would grin and tell him to stop worrying, that he wasn't ever going to do anything their old man kept predicting he'd do.
He took the Jaguar into a hard left that would take him out to those dirt roads. Their father's predictions about both of them had turned out to be wrong. Ted was supposed to have become rich and successful. Cole was supposed to have ended up broke or worse. Instead, he'd managed to amass a fortune... and his cautious big brother had died penniless in a heap of twisted metal on a wet highway.
The irony was hard to believe. Life had taken the Cameron brothers in completely different directions... and one woman was the cause. If Ted hadn't married Faith, or if she'd at least been a true wife to him, he wouldn't have ended up on that road to Atlanta. He wouldn't have invested all his money in the market, either. It had to be costly to support a woman like Faith. Cole hadn't seen signs of it yet; she wore no jewelry except a simple wedding band, but surely she'd wangled more than that from his brother.