"She doesn't believe you." Brad loosened his tie with a harried expression. "She says you're upset about something and her woman's intuition tells her it's a man."
Elinor sipped her water, silently wishing her best friend's intuition to perdition. "I'm not upset," she reiterated, replacing her water glass on the table.
Brad leaned back with a sigh of relief. "I told her she was imagining things. But you know how it is. She's had to quit work and there's nothing much to do at home all day. She'll be fine once the baby's here."
The waiter brought their orders, refilled the glasses and hurried off into the crowd.
Just then the band ended a rowdy number and began playing a slow, lilting ballad. The song was one of Elinor's favorites and she had to kill the impulse to hum along.
Turning slightly in her chair to get a better view of the dance floor, she couldn't help thinking of Cole. The song's plaintive words told of finding a long-lost love and living happily into the sunset years.
The dancers shuffled past, some swaying gracefully, others bouncing along incongruously to their own beat. Elinor watched a particularly energetic couple, amused by their graceless enthusiasm as they cavorted along the edge of the dance floor.
Then her heart went still. Just beyond the couple, a man stood, his broad back to Elinor. In the dim, smoky light, she couldn't make out details beyond the gleam of soft light on his hair. But she didn't need to, she'd have recognized Cole in a dust storm.
More startled than anything, Elinor watched him. He stood at the edge of the dance floor, apparently talking to someone out of her range of vision. Then in a smooth movement, he swept his partner into the crowd.
It didn't matter that she had no claims on him, no right to feel jealousy. Nothing mattered, except that her heart was suddenly pounding and she could no longer hear the music over the roar in her ears.
Elinor watched them for long moments, wondering what he was doing here and whose company he'd sought tonight.
Cole swayed to the music, his long, lithe body moving in perfect rhythm. Elinor couldn't help remembering the feel of being held in his arms. Was he holding someone else as tenderly, as passionately as he'd held her?
With a graceful turn, Cole pivoted his partner so that Elinor could see his face . . . and identify the woman in his arms.
Norell Stephens, the mayor's daughter.
"These are really great ribs," Brad said, bent enthusiastically over his plate.
"Good," Elinor murmured, no longer pretending to eat. She couldn't have taken her eyes off Cole and Norell if she'd tried.
The petite brunette in his arms wore a black dress that outlined her voluptuous curves, moving sinuously as she danced. The dress had long sleeves and a bow at the back of her neck that held it together. Below the bow, Norell was bare to the waist.
Elinor had never before felt the urge to kill another woman, but she recognized the source.
Norell Stephens was the perfect other woman. Sophisticated, sexy, and obviously available. She cuddled up to Cole, her dark, perfectly permed hair swinging around her cheek as she laughed into his face.
Elinor's fingers curled into fists. Cole Whittier had no right to come into her life and seduce her with his laughter and his kisses while he was dancing attendance on another woman. Particularly when that woman was as responsive as Norell seemed to be at that moment.
In the two years that Elinor had lived in Bayville, she'd never seen cool, sophisticated Norell so animated. Her dark eyes clung to Cole's face as she moved, her hips swaying just a shade more than necessary.
Swinging her gaze away from Norell, Elinor watched Cole. He moved to the music as if it were a part of him, laughing down into Norell's face. There seemed nothing ambivalent about the picture. Anyone watching them could see that here were a man and a woman with eyes only for each other.
Betrayal sliced through Elinor's body and was quickly squelched to be replaced by anger. She'd been right from the beginning: Cole Whittier was a man who got what he wanted no matter how he had to go about it. With Mayor Stephens and his well-connected wife on Cole's side, he could do what he wanted in Bayville.
Elinor supposed that even millionaires had to make sacrifices to get what they wanted, but Cole didn't look like he was suffering.
"Is there something wrong with your food?" Brad asked solicitously as he wiped his mouth.
"Uh, no," Elinor responded. "I'm just not very hungry."
"We could order something else if you'd like."
"No, really. I'll be fine," she promised as Brad went back to his dinner.
Out on the dance floor, Cole and Norell executed a twirl, laughing as they came back together. From a distance of twenty feet away, Elinor could feel the wattage in his smile. She took another sip of water, feeling slightly sick to her stomach.
She should ignore them, she told herself as her eyes went back to where they'd been.
But Norell was gone. In the spot where they had danced, Cole stood alone watching Elinor through the crowd, an intent, heated look on his face.
Elinor gasped as their gazes collided. There was no mistaking the recognition in his look.
Anger flared in her, the age-old rage of a woman who's been led on. She looked away quickly, panic, excitement, and fury fighting in her chest. Without glancing up, she knew he was crossing the room to where she sat with Brad.
Across the table, Brad had finished his meal and was launching into a story about his work.
She smiled at him, nodding encouragingly to cover for her total lack of attention.
A sizzle of sensation ran up her spine as she realized that Cole stood beside her.
"Elinor?" The husky velvet of his voice stroked over her like a lover's touch.
Brad stopped in midsentence, his pleasant face mildly surprised.
"Hello, Cole." Her voice came out high and brittle as she glanced up quickly, unable to bring herself to look into his eyes. "I didn't expect to run into you this evening."
"It's quite a lovely surprise for me, too," he answered, a questioning pause falling after his words.
Elinor unconsciously pleated her paper napkin, catching sight of Cole's frown out of the corner of her eye.
She dropped the napkin, hiding her hands in her lap.
He'd obviously picked up on her agitation. Elinor cursed his perceptivity. There were few things more dangerous than a fickle man who could see into a woman's heart.