His long fingers stroked her bare arm as they swayed together. Elinor's eyes closed as his touch washed over her. She felt him brush a kiss against her temple, a tantalizing caress.
Still, they swayed, Cole directing their movement as his hands stroked her back and arms. A subtle, powerful hunger vibrated in his body. She felt it in the bunched muscles of his shoulder and heard his swiftly indrawn breath when he pulled her against him.
They rounded the house again, once more on the uninhabited side near the dark pool. In a sudden fluid motion, Cole moved away from the house, toward the edge of the gallery. Elinor felt the cool hardness of column behind her back just as he bent his head to hers.
There was nothing gentle in this kiss. Pure hunger drove them along with an aching, desperate need. The emotions between them held such power, and yet stood on such shaky ground. She felt it in the flavor of his kiss, his recognition of their tenuousness. Elinor tasted determination, too, a bull-headed persistence in the sweep of his tongue against hers.
Cole wasn't used to losing battles.
Elinor arched her neck, lifting her hands up to slide through his hair. She needed to be in his arms, to feel his powerful craving for her.
Kissing hungrily, their hands roamed, fondling, caressing longed-for flesh. Cole urged her arms up closer around his neck, his bent elbows caging her breasts against his chest. He moved against her, groaning in his throat with deep pleasure. With his movement, she felt the evidence of his desire.
He lowered one hand to cup her, his splayed fingers molding her breast gently through the fabric of her dress. Elinor's head dropped back against the pillar that bolstered her. Cole's hand circled her breast, fondling the orb with an elemental intensity as if her flesh were riches.
She felt herself burst into flames, the liquid heat at the juncture of her thighs a conflagration. Cole held her, one arm bracing against her back, as she allowed him his way with her body.
After long, hot moments punctuated by breathless matings of their mouths, he pulled away, staring down at her in the dim light.
"Come on," he muttered abruptly, tugging her bodily away from the column where she leaned.
Still gripped with paralyzing passion, Elinor allowed him to drag her toward the shallow gallery steps. Cole led her down the steps and across the lawn, the cool, thick grass tickling her sandal-clad toes.
As he towed her down the jungle-dark path to her cottage, his long strides ate up the distance, her wrist still imprisoned in his grip.
Hurrying to keep up with him as he strode through the night, the thick haze of passion began to drop away from Elinor. Her reservations about Cole came rushing into her clearing head.
How could she want him this bad when she didn't trust him? The thought shocked her into reality. He might have been plunging through the overgrown lawn planning on spending the night in her bed, but she knew it wouldn't happen.
His drive for more success, more money, put him in the same class as her grandfather and father. And she wouldn't let money govern her life as it did Cole's.
They reached the cottage in record time, Cole loosening his grip long enough to guide her onto the gallery step. Settling his hands on her shoulders, he looked into her eyes.
"Elinor, you make me wild. Too wild to trust myself. I don't want us to do something you're not ready for." His splayed fingers slid up her arms. "And I sure hope to heck I get credit somewhere for my sacrifice."
She stared at him in confused disbelief. He wasn't planning on sleeping with her?
He leaned forward to deliver a chaste kiss to her forehead. "Goodnight."
Five
"I'm so glad you called on your way through town, Brad." Elinor smiled at her best friend's husband across the checkered tablecloth. "I talk to Julie on the phone every week, but you know how she is."
The sandy-haired man nodded and laughed. "You ask how she is and she says, 'fine,' even if she's dying."
"That's it," Elinor agreed. "And I know this pregnancy hasn't been easy for her."
"The doctor says she's okay now." Brad's face looked relieved as he picked up the menu. "She just needs to rest and avoid stress."
The restaurant was filled to capacity with a boisterous Friday-night crowd. Across the room, the band played a mix of zydeco and country music, all projected at high decibels.
Having made her selection from the menu, Elinor watched the ever-moving mass of people on the dance floor. She was grateful Brad had asked for a table away from the band. That way they had a chance at being able to carry on a conversation. And she definitely wanted to hear all the news.
Julie had been her best friend since college, and never had their long-distance friendship been more frustrating than now when Julie faced her first pregnancy.
Concentrating on Julie would also help Elinor put Cole out of her mind. Ever since last night, her mind had whirled with a jumble of thoughts, none of them productive.
She couldn't decide whether to be relieved or frustrated that Cole had decided to be noble. He'd been right to put a stop to their heated passion, she recognized. She certainly hadn't been making a rational decision about their involvement.
But that hadn't stopped her from tossing and turning in her bed the drumbeat of desire surging through her body, her mind racing with confusion.
On the surface, Cole didn't seem like a driven, success-obsessed man. From what she could tell, he wasn't a workaholic. But money polluted everything, everyone. She'd known that early on when her weak father and wealthy grandfather had parted ways over a plantation house and its accompanying fortune.
Every wealthy person she'd ever known had been governed to some degree, by their money. How could Cole be different?
Elinor had battled preoccupation all day, struggling to focus on some back work she needed to finish. So, when Brad called and asked her to have a bite of supper on his way through town, she had jumped at the offer. Anything to get away from her own thoughts.
After a waiter took their orders, she and Brad chatted above the music, catching up since she'd last visited with him and Julie.
After a moment, Brad sat forward, leaning his elbows on the table, and began an obviously reluctant interrogation.
"So, Julie wants to know about this guy you've been seeing."
Elinor had to chuckle at the look on his face. Clearly, her nosy friend had roped her husband into questioning her. "I'm not seeing anyone, Brad." She shrugged nonchalantly. "I told Julie that."