bluntness and some of the older man's sharp intellect in Doug. His grades were average, but as he'd confided to Cole, his SAT scores were very high.
Cole glanced at his watch, saw that it was after eleven o'clock, and stretched his arms, stifling a yawn. He walked out into the corridor and took a last stroll down the long walkway to make certain everything looked all right for the night.
Chapter 9
Jessica Hayward stepped off the treadmill in the workout room that was part of the master bedroom suite and grabbed a towel, looping it around her neck. Clad in thin white shorts and a clingy red-and-white tank top, she walked into the bedroom, feeling energized and restless and alone. Her husband wasn't due home until the following day, but even if Charles had been there, he wouldn't have been able to give her what she wanted.
She wanted sex. hot, rough, mind-drugging, demanding, passionate sex. She did not want the sort of lukewarm, polite, predictably boring sex that Charles called 'making love.' She didn't want to make love at all; she wanted to make madness. She didn't want Charles.
She wanted Cole.
Furious with herself for helplessly lusting after an arrogant, disobliging, macho employee who was nowhere near her social equal, she went over to the bar built into the closet and took an expensive bottle of chardonnay out of the cooler. She opened it and poured some into a gold-rimmed glass; then she walked over to the windows that overlooked the back lawn and the stables off to the left. Closing her eyes, she conjured up a vivid image of Cole, his shoulders broad and heavy with muscle, his skin sleek with sweat as he drove into her with the tireless brute force she preferred most of the time.
Her thighs tightened involuntarily against the delicious recollections, and she tossed down the rest of the wine in her glass and turned away from the window. Tugging off the towel, she stopped long enough to run a brush through her hair, then she picked up the bottle of wine and another glass and brought them with her.
Her daughter's bedroom door was closed, but a strip of light was visible beneath it, and Jessica moved cautiously along the hall, then down the back stairs.
Outside, the night was hot and sultry, heavy with the scent of gardenias blooming in beds along the path that led to the stable. Moonlight lit the flagstone path that wound through the oaks, but Jessica didn't need it to find her way; she'd made this nocturnal journey many times in her dreams and often enough in reality. Balancing the bottle of wine and two glasses, she slipped in a side door of the stable, glad when the air-conditioning touched her damp skin.
Without bothering to turn on the main corridor lights, she walked quietly around the corner and stopped in his doorway. His back was turned, and she watched in anticipation as he stripped off his shirt and tossed it aside. The soft glow of light from the lamp on his desk highlighted the rippling muscles of his shoulders and tapered back, and when he reached for the snap on his jeans, her breath came a little faster.
Perhaps that almost imperceptible sound alerted him, because he swung around and pinned her with a look that was at first alarmed and then annoyed. 'You scared the hell out of me, Jessica!'
Jessica held up the glasses and wine bottle and strolled into his room as if she owned it, which she did. 'I saw the lights on down here and since neither of us seemed to be able to sleep, I thought we could share this.'
'As a matter of fact, I'm tired and I don't expect to have any trouble sleeping.'
'There's no need to snap my head off,' Jessica said as she perched on the edge of his desk and crossed one long, slender leg over the other, letting her sandal dangle from her lacquered toes. 'I haven't seen you in ages, and I decided to come for a visit, that's all,' she added as she leaned sideways and poured wine into both glasses.
'Really, that's all?' Cole said sarcastically as his gaze took in her scanty tank top, revealing shorts, and seductive smile. Deliberately, he reached for his shirt, but she shook her head, her smile turning hard and determined.
'Don't get dressed, darling. I like looking at you just the way you are.'
'Jessica,' he said sharply, 'we aren't going to go through all this again. It's over, done with, finished. I told you, I'm tired.'
'That's a very disrespectful way to speak to your employer,' she said, sliding off the desk and reaching for his cheek.
'Dammit, knock it off!' Cole snapped, jerking his head aside. For the moment, that was the only evasionary tactic available to him. As a last resort, he was prepared to physically force her out of his way, but he really didn't want to touch her. For one thing, he wasn't certain whether touching her would ignite her formidable temper or worse—ignite her passion. The bed was behind him, and short of physically lifting her out of his way, he was trapped for the moment. Jessica realized he was trapped, and she moved forward, a smile of victory on her face.
'Jessica—' Cole warned darkly. 'You're married,for God's sake!'
'I know that,' she replied, pulling off her top and tossing it behind him on the bed.
'I like your husband,' Cole said, trying unsuccessfully to sidestep her.
She gazed at him in wide-eyed wonder as she reached behind her back to unclip her bra. 'I like him, too,' she said.
If his predicament hadn't been so sordid and so dire, Cole would have laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of it: a beautiful woman was stripping in front of him, using her body to block his escape, while she innocently professed to like her husband, whom she was trying to cuckold. 'I'm not in the mood for a striptease,' he warned her.
'You will be pretty soon,' she promised, the bra straps sliding down her arms.
'You don't even know the concept of marital fidelity, do you?' he said, putting his hands on the straps to stop them from sliding off her wrists.
'I'm always faithful when Charles is in town,' she said, her eyes turning hot, her hands sliding up the matted dark hair on his chest. 'Only he's not here tonight, and you are, and I'm bored.'
'Then take up a hobby,' Cole said as he clamped his hands on hers.
She laughed low in her throat, wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, and began rubbing herself against his thighs.
Cole was not enticed, not excited, and he was losing his temper and patience. 'I'm warning you,' he said, grabbing her wrists and yanking them free. 'Don't make this hard for both of us.'
She shifted her hips sensuously against his and laughed suggestively in her throat as she deliberately misinterpreted his words. 'No, I wouldn't say it's very
Fluorescent light suddenly burst down the corridor outside his room as someone turned on the main stable lights, and Cole clamped his hand over her mouth.
'Cole?' Charles Hayward called out in a deep, friendly voice from thirty feet away. 'I saw your light on and decided to have a look at our new resident. What do you think of him?'
Beneath Cole's hand, Jessica's lips began to tremble and her eyes were huge with panic.
'I'll be right there!' Cole called out as he pulled his hand from her mouth.
'Oh, my God! I have to get out of here!' Jessica said, her entire body rigid.
She was shaking so hard that Cole would have pitied her if she hadn't just put both of them in jeopardy. As he knew from Charles Hayward's past nocturnal visits to the stable, the man would walk down to the tiny kitchenette and make himself a cup of instant coffee; then he'd expect Cole to join him as he walked along the stalls, discussing each occupant. That had become a pleasant ritual for both men over the years, and normally Cole thoroughly enjoyed the visits, particularly when Hayward stayed on and the conversation drifted to other topics. Hayward was well-read and well-informed on a staggering variety of topics. that did not include his wife.
'Listen to me!' Cole said, his voice low and fierce as he snatched her discarded shirt and thrust it into her
