Winner Takes All (21 page)

CHAPTER TEN

Cole watched Eva
dig her keys out of her bag and open the door. That she was surprised to see him was obvious. Her steady gait had slowed as she approached the landing, and her fingers trembled slightly as she tried to undo the lock. While she fumbled with the keys, Cole waited patiently. He had done a lot of that this evening and had almost perfected the art. When he’d first arrived at her door an hour before, he’d been full of barely leashed fury, pacing back and forth and looking daggers at anyone who had the misfortune to walk down their own staircase.

But his temper had cooled with the passing minutes, and he had time to consider the situation. As far as he was concerned, only one of three things could happen: She would come home alone, she would come home with Wyndham or she wouldn’t come home at all. He refused to consider the last option. He might be a fool, but the idea that Eva would go back to Ethan’s place to spend the night was simply unthinkable. The second possibility, although also repellent, at least gave him the opportunity to thrash the bastard for calling Eva his in that proprietary way.

Needless to say, he stood in her hallway, waiting and hoping for her to climb the stairs alone, and when she finally did, he was more relieved than he was willing to admit.

That he was there at all—waiting and hoping—was still something of a surprise to him. He hadn’t meant to come there. When he’d left the restaurant in the company of the men from Time Warner, he had every intention of calling Lucy or another woman he’d been flirting with. Cole hadn’t been behaving like himself lately—witness the three-o’clock-in-the-morning stop of her apartment on Saturday night or the very important lunch that got canceled this afternoon so he could see Eva at his mother’s house—and he was tired of it. He didn’t want to be led around by some ambitious office grunt who didn’t know her own mind.

By the time his driver, James, had pulled the car around, he had settled on a course of action and was calling Lucy to see if she was free. The phone rang twice before she answered with an enthusiastic “Cole?”

God, what am I doing? he’d wondered, immediately disconnecting. He would not renew a failing relationship in a fit of pique. He wasn’t that stupid.

A second later, his phone had started to chime. He didn’t have to glance at the display to know it was Lucy calling back. Annoyed, he turned off the ringer, threw the phone across the floor and directed James to Eva’s apartment. His anger was hot and needed a target and who better than the woman who’d struck the match. He would go there, and she would answer a few questions. Namely, how dare she think she could use him like that? He was an experienced man, not some callow youth to be manipulated with desire. The decisions he made were always based on sound business reasoning, and he’d never compromise his principles because of a beautiful, tempting woman.

Cole couldn’t believe Eva actually thought she’d get away with it and imagined her snickering with Ethan over his gullibility. Then he recalled their embrace that morning on his mother’s sofa—the look in Eva’s eyes as she realized how much she wanted him—and felt himself stirring. The desire was real. He knew that. He had been with enough women who wanted him for his Hammond name and wealth to know genuine desire when it trembled in his arms.

Another image immediately asserted itself: Ethan kissing her hand and fondly calling her “his Eva.” The bloody bastard!

It was in this frame of mind that he’d arrived on Eva’s landing. He’d paced and thought about what he would say and slowly got his anger under control. And then finally she was there—alone.

Eva opened the door. Cole followed her into the small apartment and watched as she kicked off her shoes. She looked exhausted. Her shoulders were stiff, and she laid a hand on her forehead as if to ease the tension. She didn’t look like a woman who had just had a romantic dinner with a man she adored. But nor did she seem happy to see him.

He stood by the front door and considered her carefully. There were so many invectives running around his head and the anger that he’d thought gone resurfaced. Again, it was the image of Ethan kissing her hand as if he owned it that did him in. “Are you in love with him?” he asked harshly.

Eva’s eyes popped open. “What?”

“I think the question was clear: Are in you in love with him?” he bit out again, not sure who he was more angry at: her or himself. This wasn’t why he was here. He didn’t care what her relationship was with her sleazy boss. He only wanted to know about the Hammond collection. Did she really think she could manipulate him like that?

“With Ethan Wyndham?”

Cole heard the surprise in her voice but didn’t trust it. It could be a diversionary tactic to buy her some time to think of a believable lie. He took two steps toward her and watched her sink into the kitchen wall. She didn’t look like a woman who was in love with her boss. She seemed almost appalled at the very notion. His heart started beating erratically, and he wondered for the first time if he’d misread the situation. He told himself not to be a fool. He told himself that he was only seeing what he wanted to see, but it didn’t matter. He was already a fool. “Are you in love with him?” he asked again, his voice soft.

As he waited for her answer, Cole realized that he’d never felt like this before in his entire life. She was the first woman who made him want more than a fun time in bed and decent conversation. He wanted to build something—to know her thoughts, to anticipate her desires, to discover what she liked to watch on TV or what she liked on a hamburger. It was humiliating to think she didn’t want to get to know him in the same way, that she didn’t care about his likes and desires because she was already in love with somebody else.

Eva stood straight and looked him in the eye. “God, no.”

Cole thought he saw her shiver as if revolted by the idea, but he couldn’t be sure. It was subtle, so subtle that it might have been his imagination—or wishful thinking. “What’s between you?”

“There is nothing between us,” she said.

The vehemence in her voice was strong, and he wanted to believe her. He
needed
to believe her. Cole walked across the room and stood a few inches away from her. “I’m not a fool, Eva. I can recognize a proprietary glint in a man’s eye. There’s something there. If nothing else, he wants you.”

Eva opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Her lips moved as she tried unsuccessfully to pull together a sentence. She could only look at him speechless.

He watched her struggle for an answer and grew impatient with the entire scene. He didn’t want to talk about Ethan. He didn’t want to hear how she felt about her boss. All he wanted was to be close to Eva. And he was, only inches away. His control snapped and he pulled her into his arms. “Well, he can’t have you,” Cole muttered before his lips crushed hers in a searing kiss.

The second his lips touched hers, Eva woke as if from a trance. She’d wanted to say so much to Cole—to deny his crazy accusations, to explain the odd behavior of Wyndham, to tell him how happy she was that he was there—but she couldn’t form any sentences. There were too many thoughts racing through her head and all she could do was stare into his beautiful sapphire eyes.

But now everything was clear: She wanted Cole. She wanted to kiss him and hold him and absorb him through her skin. She was sick of the sharp pain of unfulfillment. Good God, this afternoon in his mother’s front parlor! The way he’d watched her with heavy-lidded eyes as she buttoned her blouse—she had almost cried with frustration.

Eva returned his heated kiss, excited by the rawness of his response. It wasn’t what she expected from him—pushing a girl against the kitchen stove wasn’t what one imagines the cool, urbane Cole Reed Hammond doing—but Eva delighted in it. His movements seemed honest, not practiced or skillful or adept. He trailed hot kisses down her throat and she moaned as her legs turned to jelly.

As if suddenly realizing that the stove dial was digging into her back, Cole picked her up. He carried her through the living room and into the bedroom. He deposited her on the bed, his lips never once breaking contact with her highly sensitized skin. Then he lay down beside her.

Although he was right there in the bed next to her, Eva thought he was too far away. With both of them in formal business attire—in their dress shirts and jackets—there were layers and layers of fabric between. She slipped his jacket over his shoulders and tossed it on the floor, unconcerned of its Italian pedigree and her dust bunnies. Then she turned her attention to his buttons, carefully undoing each with fingers almost jointless from desire.

Cole was similarly occupied, although once he’d removed her jacket he didn’t bother himself with anything so well mannered as undoing buttons. He tore the silk blouse down the middle, exposing her ivory flesh to his hot gaze. He stared at her for a moment, his impatient desire temporarily leashed. He ran a hand over her stomach, her shoulders, her breasts partially hidden from view behind black lace. He lifted her forward and undid the clasp. Now he took care, as if having torn the wrapping paper off a present, he was willing to gently remove the crêpe paper.

Done—at last!—with the buttons on his shirt, Eva shifted to the side so that Cole could remove the bra completely. She wanted nothing between them. She wanted to feel skin against skin and she pressed herself against his muscled chest. Cole groaned from somewhere deep inside him and captured her lips again with a force that took her by surprise. Eva molded her hands to his biceps and triceps and the wonderful washboard stomach that was half hidden by his pants. That was unacceptable. Nothing about him should be hidden from her.

With great effort, she pulled her mouth away from his. His kisses were too distracting, too engrossing to let her do anything save return them, but she had more on her mind. She lay soft kisses on his stomach while fumblingly removing his trousers. There was now a thin piece of cotton separating her from her heart’s desire—and his desire as well—and she took off his boxers quickly and efficiently.

Cole shuddered as she took him into her hands, and feeling bold and powerful, she kissed him. He dug his hands into her hair. Unable to withstand the glorious sensations, he pulled her up, reclaimed her mouth and flipped them so that she was now under him. Eva ran her hands over his smooth muscled back as Cole made short work of her skirt and panties. When she felt his hand cup the center of her desire, she moaned luxuriously and arched back. His touch was almost unbearably soft.

Cole felt her moan and reacted instinctively, driving himself into her quick and hard. Eva wrapped her legs around him and gloried in his power. She had never felt so full before. The waves of desire had never been so intense before. She didn’t know how much longer she could hold on. She didn’t want to hold on—she wanted to give in to the remarkable feelings he was creating within her—but she also didn’t want this closeness to end. She loved the feel of Cole, every inch of him.

But some things were too powerful to fight, and before she knew it, she was feeling wave after wave of dizzying sensation. She didn’t know how long it went on—it could have been one minute, it could have been ten—but it felt heavenly and she let Cole know it.

She knew he was close to reaching his peak and she clenched her muscles.

“Oh, God,” he said, his voice a guttural moan, before he went over the edge. “Oh, God, Eva.”

She smiled dreamily as she watched pleasure overtake his expression. His sapphire eyes were glittering and the skin was tight over his cheekbones. He was unspeakably beautiful.

There were no sounds to be heard in the room for a long while except their heavy breathing. Eva was too content and relaxed to do anything other than enjoy the weight of him. Although she knew he couldn’t stay there forever, she wanted to savor the moment for as long as possible. She wasn’t quite sure what all this meant—other than that they were fantastically compatible—but she refused to start questioning it yet. This was a gift horse into whose mouth she certainly would not be looking.

Cole felt Eva’s arms slacken and he wondered what would happen next. He had never done that to a woman before—assault her with kisses and drive into her fast and furiously like a animal. Control was something he valued very highly and something he’d never before lost while making love. For him sex was unhurried, with him constantly aware of what his partner was feeling. Cole always made sure that a woman had her pleasure before he had his, but this time it was different. He had been hanging on by a thread when Eva had her orgasm. It could have very easily have gone the other way.

Having never before been in this situation, Cole wasn’t sure how to behave. Should he apologize?

Eva felt him withdraw, even before he rolled off her mumbling something about being sorry.

Sorry? she thought, baffled and bereft, what was he sorry for?

When Eva didn’t respond, Cole said, “That was a mistake.”

Eva tensed at his words. That was a mistake.
She
was a mistake. “All right,” she agreed, determined not to show any more emotion than he. She wouldn’t cling or cry or do anything that might embarrass her. Not while he was here. She’d wait until he had gon
e-
it wouldn’t be long now—before falling apart.

“I was rough,” he added. “Our first time should have been gentle.”

Eva froze, afraid that she’d heard wrong. But her ears had not deceived her: He’d said first time. First time, as in other times. “The only reason you have to apologize is if you don’t do it again,” she said, amazed at how calm her voice was. Her heart was beating erratically and her limbs were still vibrating from pleasure.

Cole raised himself up on a bent elbow and looked at her to verify the truth of her statement. Her cheeks were flushed and her hair wild and there was a smile on her lips. Eva Butler looked happy and satisfied and as smug as the cat who ate the canary. He could scarcely believe it. “I hope there’s no time limit on that request because despite the press releases my office sends out, I’m not Superman.”