"No, just that." He grinned as he wrung the mop out for the last corner. "There's something very rewarding about physical labor."
"Don't try that on me," she scoffed, dumping the scrub water. "I'll bet you have an army of servants to clean up after you."
Cole finished the floor and rinsed the mop again. "One housekeeper, El. But when we're married, I'll tell her to leave the kitchen floor for us to do together. Particularly if you'll wear that outfit."
Elinor looked at herself in surprise. Her attire of tank top and shorts wasn't intended for anything but maximum coolness, but she had left off her bra this morning. She felt her nipples hardening beneath Cole's caressing gaze.
"Think how much fun we could have, El." He leaned the mop in a corner. "Just you and me, playing house every day."
"There's more to marriage than that," she retorted, a shiver of anticipation and excitement racing up her spine as he sauntered across the room to where she stood.
“I know," said Cole, his voice husky. "I'm counting on you making my life hell, and making me enjoy it." Cole's hands traced a damp pathway down her bare arms.
"Cole!" She batted his hands away, backing up as he crowded into her space. A few steps brought her up against the counter, pinned by a grinning blue-eyed devil who knew just how to raise her temperature.
"I'm all sweaty and everything," she protested breathlessly moments later as she surfaced from his kiss.
"No, you're not," he disagreed, his hand cupping her taut breast through the stretchy knit tank top. "You're just glowing a little, and I like it."
Biting a tender trail along her shoulder, Cole lifted her top and filled his hands with her breasts. "Mmmm, maybe I'll fire my housekeeper. Housework with you is so stimulating."
Heat and the scent of arousal filled her as Cole took his time fondling her flesh. Elinor clutched his shoulders, her knees buckling.
Feeling her sag, Cole lifted her effortlessly and sat her on the counter. He positioned himself between her dangling legs. "Say you'll marry me, El. I need you."
"To do your floors?" she gasped as his thumb brushed her peaked nipple.
"I'm sure we could work that into the deal," he murmured, pressing himself against her outspread thighs. "But I'm negotiable on the details as long as you'll marry me, be the mother of my children, and love me forever."
"Ohhh," Elinor moaned unintelligibly, her mind as stirred up as her body.
"What do you say, El?"
"I say, you don't play fair," she accused, straining toward the movement of his hands.
"Not when the game's this important," Cole admitted, bending to kiss her again.
"Have I mentioned," Elinor said in a strained voice as he reached for the button at the waist of her shorts, "that I'm expecting Daisy at any time? Cole?"
He lifted his head, his passion-filled eyes the color of storm clouds. "Daisy?"
"Uh huh." She nodded reluctantly. "Anytime now. She's coming to finalize some things about the Peach Festival."
"Peach Festival," he repeated, his voice heavy as he slowly drew his hands from under her shirt.
"It starts tonight," she told him, as disappointed and frustrated as he was that they didn't have the opportunity to finish what he'd started.
"Oh, yeah." Cole levered himself away from her, leaning against the counter as he struggled to cool down. "I remember hearing something about it. A weekend celebration in the park?"
"Yes." Elinor jumped down from the countertop. "Daisy's on the committee every year and she always manages to rope me into helping." She straightened her tank top, aware of Cole's eyes fastened on her with an arousing intensity.
He sighed. "It's probably better that we finish this later." He smiled at her crookedly, laughter in his eyes at his own physical predicament. "I'm supposed to be at the closing for the Lanier place in five minutes. I should have known better than to stop by here first."
When he was gone a few minutes later, his affluent businessman look restored Elinor found herself staring at the floor he'd mopped a bemused feeling in her chest. Suddenly, she could see herself married to him, the mother of his children. Loving him forever.
Maybe it was time she listened to her heart and put the past behind her. How long could she hold Cole responsible for the failures of her father and grandfather?
Looking out the kitchen window, she saw the hazy bulk of Oakleigh through the trees. She'd come back to Bayville to find her roots, hoping to find a place to belong. But now that her grandfather was dead, all she had of her past was a beautiful, desolate house.
Oakleigh was hers, Daniel's attorney had assured her. Her grandfather hadn't had anything else to pass on to her but the house that had symbolized so much of the pain in her childhood.
It didn't carry those memories now. Now the house would always stand in her mind as a place of loving and passion. She had found ecstasy there, locked in Cole's arms. And that was what brought a pang to her heart as she faced the inevitable.
She had to sell the house. The back taxes could be paid off with her savings, but she couldn't afford to restore it. And she had to set up a pension for Charlie. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she didn't.
And she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if she let her past drive Cole away.
"Yoo hoo!" Daisy's voice floated down the hall from the front. "Anyone home?"
"I'm in the kitchen," Elinor answered, her thoughts clearing as she made a decision.
"Hi, there." Her friend stood in the doorway surveying the kitchen. "You've been busy this morning."
"Yes, I have." Elinor dried her hands on a towel.
"Good," Daisy commented. "Let's go in your office and get some of these last-minute things worked out for the festival."
"In a minute, Daisy." She crossed the kitchen. "I have a phone call I need to make."
Her fingers trembled as Elinor punched in the number. Even when she knew it had to be done, letting go of the past was scary.
The phone rang two times before a man's voice said, "Ace Realty."
She took a deep breath. "This is Elinor Prescott, Mr. Brinkman. I'm ready to sign."