For His Brother's Wife

Sighing, she thought about how she felt now as opposed to the way she had felt as a wide-eyed teenager. At sixteen, her feelings had been those of an innocent, inexperienced girl with a crush on the best-looking boy in school. But now she was looking at Cole through the eyes of a woman, and her feelings were far from chaste.

A shiver slid up her spine as she undressed and pulled on her nightshirt. She and Cole were adults now, with adult desires and needs. And although she knew it was for the best that he hadn’t kissed her, she couldn’t help but wonder if he felt as let down and disappointed as she did.

* * *

Cole stopped gazing up at the ceiling long enough to glance over at the clock on the bedside table. He had gotten into bed more than two hours ago and he was still as wide-awake as when he’d first stretched out.

Punching his pillow, he turned to his side to stare at the closed bedroom door. Why did he have to be so damned honorable? He had given Paige his word that nothing was going to happen between them. And it hadn’t. But he was paying a hell of a price for his nobility.

It had been nothing short of torture helping her empty Craig’s office and not being able to take her in his arms. The sound of her soft voice, the herbal scent of her long, auburn hair and just the sight of her moving gracefully around the room had tied him into a knot the size of a basketball. But as torturous as the day had been, sitting on the porch swing beside her this evening and keeping his hands to himself had been pure hell.

Feeling as if he were ready to crawl the walls, he ground his teeth against the tightening in his lower body. Maybe he needed to make a trip up to Dallas this coming weekend and give Sally Ann Denton a call. Neither he nor Sally Ann were interested in a serious relationship, but they came together from time to time for a “no-strings-attached” night of relief from the stress and tension of their day-to-day lives.

But even as the idea came to mind, Cole rejected it outright. Sally Ann wasn’t the woman he wanted. The woman who created the need burning through him at the speed of light was sleeping right across the hall.

How had his brother been able to spend one single night away from Paige? And what in the Sam Hill had Craig been into that kept him away from the ranch so often?

Cole clenched his jaw so tight it ached. He wasn’t buying for a minute that his twin had been away on ranch business. There were the occasional weeklong stock shows a rancher needed to attend, but those only took place a couple of times a year. And he seriously doubted Craig was going to the smaller, local auctions. For one thing, those wouldn’t require an overnight stay. And for another, a ranch the size of the Double R didn’t normally buy or sell cattle at those because the smaller sales barns couldn’t deal with the volume of livestock from a ranch that big. Besides, the Double R raised nothing but top-quality, purebred Black Angus cattle. They had contracts with processing plants to supply the beef for high-end restaurants and gourmet meat shops across the country. A marketing firm handled that end of the ranching business, so there was absolutely no reason Cole could see for his twin to be away from the ranch so often. At least, not on business.

Surely Craig hadn’t been so stupid that he...

A sudden flash of light, followed immediately by what could only be described as the sound of a bomb exploding, shook the house. But it was the sound of shattering glass and Paige’s terrified scream that rocked Cole all the way to his core and had him throwing back the covers to jump out of bed. He grabbed his jeans and pulled them on as he raced to jerk open the door.

He had just taken a step out into the hall when Paige ran headlong into his bare chest. His arms automatically closed around her to keep her from falling backward.

“I think lightning hit the house,” she cried, wrapping her arms around him as if he were a lifeline.

“Did it break the windows in your room?” he asked, his heart pounding hard against his ribs.

It wasn’t something that happened often, but he had heard of lightning coming through windows and striking people inside a house. She was clearly all right, but it was the thought of what might have happened that caused a cold feeling to fill his chest.

“N-no,” she said, trembling against him. “It wasn’t in my room.”

“Stay here while I go check the rest of the bedrooms.” He started to take a step back, but she continued to cling to him.

“N-no,” she said shakily. “I’m going with you.”

“It’s going to be all right, sweetheart,” he said, tucking her to his side as they started down the dark hall.