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"You don't have to do that, Cole. I'm not-I wouldn't want anything of yours if-if something went wrong between-"
He silenced her with another kiss. "Nothing will go wrong," he said softly. "I promise you that. This marriage is forever." His smile tilted. "You and I are going to spend the next hundred years together."
She laughed. "I hope so."
"Me, too." Cole cupped her face. "I don't want that piece of paper between us, baby. I made you sign it before I was ready to admit the truth, that I love you, that I've always loved you despite..." He cleared his throat. "We're going to put the past behind us, and we're going to start by tearing up that prenup." He bent his head, kissed her throat. "What's fair is fair, Mrs. Cameron. After all, we've already disposed of the terms of yours."
She smiled and put her arms around him. "I noticed."
"What else did you notice?" For instance..." Her breath hitched as he cupped her breast. "Did you notice," he said, his voice suddenly thick, "what happens to your nipple when I brush my thumb over it, like this?"
"Cole." She shut her eyes, then opened them again. "Yes. I-I noticed. I..."
"Or when I do this?" he whispered, kissing her breasts, closing his teeth lightly around first one pearled tip and then the other.
A soft moan rose from her throat. She shifted her weight, her body suddenly hot and lithe against his, and Cole felt himself turning to stone.
"You have beautiful breasts, sweetheart. Did I tell ever tell you that?"
"Tell me now," she said huskily, her voice breaking as he bent his head to her again, took her eager flesh into his mouth.
Cole lifted his head. His eyes were almost black with desire.
"Not until you say the words I've waited a lifetime to hear," he murmured.
Faith could feel her heart swell with love. "I love you," she said softly. "I love you, Cole, I love-"
She cried out as he put his hand between her thighs and found the soft, secret portal of her womanhood.
"Faith," he said, and opened her to him.
And after that, for a very long time, nothing else mattered.
Cole jerked awake, torn from sleep by a bad dream.
Really bad, he thought, and shuddered. Sweat dampened his skin, even though the room was cool. It was amazing, what a nightmare could do. What in hell had he dreamed? Something about Faith. And Ted.
The images were fading. He shook them off. Bad dreams about his wife and his brother shouldn't be on his mind now. The last thing he wanted was to think about stuff like that tonight. He didn't want to think about it any night. All of that was history. The present, and the future, were right here in the curve of his arm.
He turned his head, pressed a soft kiss into Faith's silky hair. She sighed, murmured something in her sleep and flung an arm across his chest. Cole smiled, drew her closer against him and shut his eyes, but after a little while he opened them and glanced at the lighted bedside clock.
Was it really just a few minutes after two? They'd been asleep for only a couple of hours but he felt energized.
Love could do that for a man, he thought, and kissed his wife's forehead.
The digital numbers on the clock's face blinked. Two-ten. Two-fifteen. Cole sighed and carefully eased his arm from beneath Faith's shoulders. She rolled onto her belly. He thought about waking her, kissing his way down her body from the sweet-scented nape of her neck to that little dimple at the base of her spine. He knew what would happen, that she would turn to him even before she was fully awake, sigh his name, reach for him and draw him deep, deep inside her...
He was hard as a rock.
No. He wasn't going to wake Faith. She had to be exhausted. They'd made love again and again, his need for her unending, hers for him every bit as intense, though she'd winced the last time he'd entered her.
"Baby?" he'd said softly. "Am I hurting you?"
"No," she'd whispered, "oh, no. Don't stop. Don't..."
And she'd moved, put her hand between them and touched him and he couldn't have stopped, not for anything, not until her body convulsed around his.
"Damn," Cole whispered, and rose from the bed.
Let Faith sleep. He'd worn her out. No matter what she said, she'd been tender that last time, tender and still so tight that he'd almost been able to forget she'd spent her nights in another man's arms for the past nine years...
Except, she hadn't. Wasn't that what Jergen had told him? That Faith had kept Ted out of her bed? That Ted had to seek solace with a woman in Atlanta?
Cole frowned. What was the matter with him? The last thing he wanted to think about tonight was his brother's sexual relationship with Faith.
He made his way through the darkened bedroom to his dressing room, pulled on a pair of sweatpants and went down the stairs to his study. That kind of thinking was bad news. Whatever had gone on between Faith and Ted had been their business. Besides, Jergen's stories were probably exaggerated. Everybody in town, the lawyer included, would have judged Faith Davenport harshly, maybe even made up the facts to suit their own vivid imaginations.
