The Secret Child

A slow smile lit her face. “Football and classic movies. That‘s me.”

Cole couldn‘t help laughing. “You‘re the only woman I know who understands the offensive patterns of the Chiefs, then cries no matter how many times she sees Old Yeller.”

He enjoyed the sparkle in her eyes. The yellow flecks appeared to shimmer with a blend of humor and indignation. She lifted a delicate brow. “One has nothing to do with the other. Besides, I thought it terribly unjust when they had to shoot the poor dog.”

“If I remember correctly, you even cried during the chariot races in that Heston movie.”

“I did not.” Her voice lacked conviction.

“Still a sucker for animals.” He shook his head. “You‘ll never change, Marni.”

“Oh, I‘ve changed.”

The laughter left her voice, and he wondered what had changed her. Had she met someone after leaving Elk Falls? No matter how painful, Cole had to know the truth. Things should have been so different for them. “Why did you leave Kansas so abruptly?”

“Let‘s not get into this. It was a long time ago. We were a long time ago.” She kept her eyes on the waitresses gliding back and forth, toting trays above their heads.

Cole drew his brows together. “Just answer my question.”

“What does it matter? I left town and you married Elizabeth.”

Cole froze at the coldness in her tone. He didn‘t know what to say, but he had to know the truth. “I only want to know why. I thought we had something special.”

Marni sighed and turned to face him. She noted the stubborn lift of his chin but couldn‘t understand why he didn‘t just drop the subject. The past was behind them. “It‘s not important.”

His tenacious expression was replaced by a brief flash of anger. “I think it‘s damned important.” His voice was hard. “One day we were planning our future together, and the next, you were gone.”

The harshness of his tone surprised her. Marni rested her head against the seat and closed her eyes. “Oh, God.” Maybe, just maybe, she had meant something to Cole. She wanted to weep for the years she‘d been cheated out of sharing his life, of the years Jenna had been cheated. At the time, she‘d thought she was doing the right thing by ending their relationship. Now she wasn‘t so sure. Perhaps they had both suffered needlessly. “I thought you would lose interest in me because I didn‘t fit into your world.” Tears blinded her eyes and choked her voice.

Cole reached across the front seat and gathered her into his arms. “Ah, Marni.”

She slid easily into his embrace and enjoyed the strength of his strong hands massaging her back in a slow, sensual caress. Laying her head against his chest, she drew comfort from the even, steady rhythm of his heart.

He tilted her head back until she was looking into his eyes, and her heartbeat skyrocketed. Slowly he lowered his lips, brushing them gently against hers in a feather-light touch. A dam had broken, destroying every ounce of sanity she possessed. He teased her mouth open and Marni welcomed the sensual invasion. Her senses came alive, spiraling in a wave of heat, and she returned his kiss, not at all shocked at her own eager response to his slow, drugging seduction.

When he pulled away to look at her, the emerald fire of his eyes matched the inferno inside her. Then his mouth slanted over hers and she fully understood the hunger they shared. A need denied to them for too many years.

Cole demanded and Marni responded. He took and she gave. Gave herself up to the passion enveloping them. She clung to Cole as if to a lifeline. Blood pounded in her ears as jolt after jolt of wild sensation rocketed through her.

An eternity later, he pulled his mouth from hers and slid his lips along her cheek, kissing her jaw, nibbling on the lobe of her ear, then moving on to her temple. Sanity slowly returned, and with it the realization of what she was doing–succumbing to a man who would break her heart when he learned the truth. That Carson had paid her off. She pushed against Cole in an attempt to right herself, but he held her tight.

She pulled back and looked into his eyes. Emotion choked her at the tenderness in his gaze.

He brought his hand up and cupped her cheek. “I‘ve missed you, Marni.”

“Don‘t.” She couldn‘t bear the gentleness of his voice, the way he held her in his arms. Pulling out of his embrace, she returned to her side of the car.

“Marni?” Cole‘s soft voice drifted over her. He reached out and caressed her cheek.

Marni closed her eyes to ward off the pain in her chest. “What good will it do? Too much time has passed, Cole.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. She opened her eyes and moved further away from him. She couldn‘t think when he was so near.

Their waitress rolled toward them, a tray laden with their order balanced against her shoulder. Cole paid her after she placed the tray on the driver‘s-side window. The carhop skated away, and Cole stared straight ahead.

Marni took the opportunity to examine him closely. His finely chiseled profile spoke of power and strength; firm and sensual lips set below a straight, aristocratic nose. She thought again of how much he affected her. Deep in thought, his left arm slung over the steering wheel, he chewed absently on the inside of his lower lip–a habit he hadn‘t lost over the years.

“I never heard from you after you broke things off between us. I‘d hoped you‘d change your mind, but then you left town without even so much as a goodbye.” His low voice startled her and Marni had trouble hearing him. She leaned over and snapped off the radio, silence settling over them like a thick fog rolling in off the sea.

“I went a little crazy after you left. No one knew where to find you. It was as if you‘d disappeared off the face of the earth. Almost as if you‘d never existed to begin with.”

Marni chose her words carefully. “I never knew.”

Cole emitted a short bark of laughter. He scrubbed his hand over his face and sighed heavily. “At first I worried, then I got mad. I thought you‘d met someone else and didn‘t have the decency to tell me about it.”

“There was no one.” Marni couldn‘t help the pleading note in her voice. She‘d never have hurt him that way. Never. When she‘d told him she loved him, she‘d meant it.

“Not long afterward I went to a party with some friends and proceeded to get smashed. I was going to track you down and find out what was going on. I don‘t remember a whole lot except the next morning Elizabeth was in bed with me.” Cole shook his head as if to clear away a few remaining cobwebs. “I was sick over what I‘d done at first. To my mind, I‘d cheated on you, but then I figured you dumped me, so what the hell.

“Three weeks later, Elizabeth told me she was pregnant and it was mine. I slept with her, so I took responsibility for my actions. She said she didn‘t want to get an abortion. Claimed she didn‘t believe in them.”

Marni didn‘t understand the derision in his voice but kept silent, not wanting to interrupt him.

“When I told my father I‘d gotten her pregnant, he insisted I do the right thing and marry her. Two months after we married, Elizabeth ‘lost’ the baby.”

Something in Cole‘s eyes told Marni a different story. “You don‘t think she was pregnant?” she asked.

“Sweetheart, I know she wasn‘t pregnant.”

Pain twisted Marni‘s heart. Elizabeth had tricked him into marriage by claiming she was pregnant with his child. The irony of the situation hit her full force. Elizabeth‘s lies were Marni‘s truth. She even had a beautiful twelve-year-old daughter to prove her claim. “How did you know?”

“She told me when we divorced.” Cole took a deep breath. “Elizabeth did get pregnant two years later, but she had an abortion. She did it to get back at me.”

“I don‘t understand.” Marni‘s throat ached with unshed tears. She didn‘t understand how anyone could do such a thing.

“Our marriage was not an easy one. We fought constantly. After she supposedly lost the baby, I slept in the guest room and we rarely talked. I was angry. I blamed Elizabeth because I was so miserable. I admit, I was a real jerk, and I did sleep with her occasionally. The last time I shared her bed, she accused me of not loving her and I couldn‘t deny it. She never forgave me. When she discovered she was pregnant, she got rid of it, then bragged to me about what she‘d done. God, she took so much pleasure in robbing me of my child.”

Marni didn‘t want to feel sorry for him but she couldn‘t help herself. Tears of pain rolled down her cheeks, not only for Cole, but for herself and Jenna and for the child he‘d lost because of his ex-wife‘s vengeance. Cole‘s father and Elizabeth Wakefield had made sure that they‘d all suffered.

Cole smacked the steering wheel. “Dammit, I might not have loved Elizabeth, but I wanted my child. Elizabeth denied me the chance to be a father.”

Marni eyed him cautiously. She‘d seen Cole angry the night she ended their relationship, but his reaction to his ex-wife‘s betrayal frightened her. “What if Elizabeth had had the baby? Would you still have divorced her?”

“I‘m sure we would have divorced eventually. We didn‘t love each other, Marni. We were completely unsuitable. We both wanted different things out of life. Elizabeth‘s idea of family night was an evening of dining and dancing at the country club. For me it would be spending a quiet evening at home with my wife and kids.”

Marni‘s heart twisted painfully and dread climbed up her spine. “But what would you have done about the child?”

“Taken responsibility for it. What else?”

He spoke with such conviction Marni nearly shivered. What was he trying to say? She had to know. “Do you mean financially?” Marni held her breath waiting for Cole to answer.