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leading up to the veranda now. „I would have given you all the time you wanted, within reason. But you had to push a little too hard, didn’t you? You have a lot to learn.“
    „I refuse to begin an affair with a man I can’t trust,“ she flared.
    „Tell me you still refuse and that you don’t trust me after we’ve spent the night together,“ he challenged tightly.
    „By morning the world is going to look very different to you, Kelsey. I’ll see to that.“
    „One night in bed with you isn’t going to change anything,“ she protested wildly as he carried her inside the house.
    „Tell me that in the morning,“ he taunted. Cole balanced her easily as he slammed the sliding-glass door shut. Then he started down the hall to the bedroom that Kelsey used when she stayed in her mother’s home.
    Torn between panic and desire, Kelsey caught her breath and began to struggle again as Cole walked into the cream-and-yellow bedroom. „You can’t do this to me and you know it. I don’t care what kind of attitude you’ve got toward the rights of others, you can’t treat me like this!“

    His cool gray gaze swept over her as he stood her on her feet. Tm an old friend of the family’s, remember. All I’m going to do is take care of you, see that you get properly warmed after that stupid dash out into the rain.
    „Cole, listen to me,“ she pleaded, her voice wavering under the impact of his relentlessness. „We need to talk.
    Communicate. That’s what’s been wrong with this…this relationship of ours since the beginning. You keep drawing lines and putting up walls. You haven’t let me get to know you.“
    His fingers went to the first of the gold buttons on her red dress. „You’ll know everything you need to know by morning.“
    „Damn you, I won’t let you do this to me!“ Tears of frustration and rage burned in her eyes as Kelsey tried to slap aside his hands. She was cold and wet and miserable. She was also more than a little frightened. She knew she was dealing with a man and a situation that had, in a matter of minutes, flared out of her control. And the most shattering aspect of the matter was that she was no longer in full control of herself, either.
    „Stop fighting me, Kelsey,“ Cole urged huskily as he caught her wrists and pinned them quite gently behind her back. „I’m doing this for your sake, as well as mine.“
    „At least spare me the self-righteous act.“
    „Look at me, Kelsey,“ he ordered softly, using his free hand to lift her chin. „Look at me and tell me you don’t want me.“
    „I don’t want – “ she began heatedly, only to have the words cut off as he stopped them with a warning kiss.
    Kelsey’s mind and body absorbed the threat along with the heavy passion behind it. Every inch of her was tingling with awareness and longing. She could no more stop her response to this man than she could stop the rain in the night.
    „The truth, Kelsey. Give me that much at least.“
    „Why should I?“ she breathed painfully. „You won’t give me the same in return.“
    „You’ve always had the truth from me. You always will,“ he vowed. „I may not tell you everything you want to know, but what I do choose to tell you is for real.“
    „That’s not good enough!“ she cried.
    „It’s.going to have to be good enough.“ Once more he kissed her, crushing her against the length of his body untO she could feel the hard planes and angles of him through his damp clothing. When he lifted his head this time there was raw, insistent demand in his bluntly hewn features. „Admit you’ve wanted me this past month. Tell me you’
    ve known from the beginning mat sooner or later we would find ourselves in bed together.“
    „There was nothing inevitable about it,“ she said shakily, and knew now that she lied. It was shockingly, brilliantly clear to her senses that this moment had been preordained from the first time she had met Cole Stockton. Why was she trying to deny