Chapter 9

Phoebe spent the rest of the week working like a fiend at the office. At home, Paige occasionally teases her about Keith and her a s a couple, but instead of thinking of Keith, Cole's face usually comes up.

Last Thursday afternoon, Janice stopped her in the public relations department. "Keith's birthday is next week, on Tuesday," she told Phoebe. "It's sort of a custom here to bring a cake for your boss." With an irrepressible grin she added, "Cake and coffee is a terrific excuse to quit working fifteen minutes early."

"I'll bring a cake," Phoebe quickly assured her and then smiled. Why can't her co-workers working in Cole's department be as nice a Keith's?.

***

Phoebe glanced at thermometer outside the window of her bedroom as she pulled on a buttercup yellow sweater and slacks. Piper and Paige are out for the evening. They wanted her to come along, but she just didn't have the mood to go out. Now, she was bored and alone. Shopping for Keith's birthday present would give her something to do, she decided. She was debating what to buy him when the sudden ring of the doorbell interrupted her thoughts.

When she opened the door she stared in amazement at the man whose tall frame seemed to fill the doorway. Dressed in an open-collared cream shirt with a rust-colored suede jacket hooked negligently over his shoulder, Cole looked unbearably handsome that Phoebe could have cried. She forced herself to sound composed and only mildly curious. "Hi. What are you doing here?"

He frowned. "Damned if I know."

Unable to suppress her smile she said, "The usual excuse is that you happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to drop by."

"Now why didn't I think of that?," Cole mocked dryly. "Well, are you going to invite me in?"

"I don't know," she said honestly. "Should I?"

His gaze traveled down the entire length of her body, lifted to her lips and finally her eyes. "I wouldn't if I were you."

Breathless from his frankly sensual glance, Phoebe was nevertheless determined to abide by her decision to avoid all personal involvement with him. And judging from the way he had just looked at her, his reasons for being here was very, very personal. Reluctantly she made her decision. "In that case, I'll follow your advice. Goodbye, Cole," she said, starting to close the door. "And thank you for stopping by."

He accepted her decision with a slight inclination of his head, and Phoebe made herself finish closing the door. She forced herself to walk away on legs that felt like lead, reminding herself at the same time how insane it would be to let him near her. But halfway across the living room she lost the internal battle. Pivoting on her heel, she raced for the door, but before she could open the door, the doorbell rang. Composing herself, she open the door and saw him lounging with one hand braced high against the doorframe, gazing down at her flushed face.

"Hello, Phoebe. I happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to drop by."

"What do you want, Cole?," she sighed, her eyes searching his.

"You."

Resolutely she started to close the door again, but his hand shot out to stop her. "Do you really want me to go?"

"I told you on Thursday that I want has nothing to do with it. What matters is what's best for me, and-"

He interrupted her with a boyish grin. "I promise I won't bite you."

She stepped aside and let him in, then took his jacket and hung it in the closet. When she turned, Cole was leaning against the closed front door, his arms crossed over his chest. "On second thoughts," he grinned, I take that back. I'd love to bite you."

"Pervert!," she returned teasingly, her heart thumping so much with excitement that she hardly knew what she was saying.

"Come here and I'll show you just how perverted I can be," he invited smoothly.

Phoebe took a cautious step backward. "Absolutely not. Would you like some coffee or a Cole?"

"Either would be fine."

"I'll make you some coffee."

As she made the coffee, she was acutely conscious that he was standing in the kitchen doorway, watching her.

"Is Paige and Piper home?," he asked casually.

"No".

"So, it's like.. both of us are alone right now?"

"Yes". She heard him start toward her, and she hastily turned to the table and put out cups and saucers. When she straightened, she knew he was standing right behind her, but she had no choice except to turn around and face him.

"Have you missed me?," he asked.

"What do you think?," she evaded smoothly-but not smoothly enough, because he chuckled.

"Good. How much?"

"Is your ego in need of bolstering today?," she continued lightly.

"Yep"

"Really, why?"

"Because I got shot shot down by a beautiful brunette, and I can't seem to get her out of my mind."

"That's too bad," Phoebe said, trying unsuccessfully to hide the joy in her voice.

"Isn't it," he mocked. "She's like a thorn in my side, a blister on my heel. She has the eyes of an angel, a body that drugs my mind, the vocabulary of n English professor and a tongue like a scalpel."

"Thanks, I think."

His hands glided up her arms, then curved around her shoulders, tightening as he drew her to within a few inches of his chest. "And," he added, "I like her."

His mouth making a deliberately slow descent, and Phoebe waited helplessly for the physical impact of his lips covering hers. Instead he bypassed her lips and began o explore the creamy skin of her neck and shoulder, his warm mouth nuzzling the sensitive area, then slowly wandering upward along her neck toward her ear. With the kitchen table behind her and Cole's body in front, Phoebe was incapable of doing anything except standing there, a mass of quivering sensations. His mouth left a burning trail of trail of kisses up to her temple, then slowly began to drift toward her lips. A fraction of an inch above hers he stopped. "Kiss me, Phoebe."

"No," she whispered shakily.

He shrugged and began leisurely kissing her other cheek, stopping to linger sensuously at her ear, his tonuge tracing every curve and hollow. He nipped her earlobe, and Phoebe lurched forward in a startled movement that jolted their bodies together. "God!," Cole muttered under his breath, and his lips began to trail down her neck to her shoulder.

"Cole, please," Phoebe whispered weakly.

"Please what?," he murmured against her throat. "Please put us both out of this misery?"

"No!"

"No?, "he repeated silkily, raising his head. "You don't want me to kiss you, and undress you, and make love to you?". His lips were tantalizingly close, and Phoebe was almost faint with the desire to feel them crushing down on hers. Instead he bent over hers, first in one direction, then the other. "Please kiss me," he coaxed huskily. "I dream about the way you kissed me all the time, about how sweet and warm you felt in my arms..."

With a silent moan of surrender, Phoebe slid her hands up his muscular chest and kissed him. She felt the tremor that ran through his body, the gap of his breath against her lips in the instant before his arms closed around her, and his mouth opened passionately over hers.

Desire was raising through her like a wild fury by the time he finally dragged his mouth opened passionately over hers. "Let's go to your room," he whispered hoarsely.

Phoebe pulled back in his arms and lifted eyes to his. His face was dark with passion, and demand was blazing in his eyes. He wanted her more now than ever. She could feel it. She was also half convinced that he felt more for her than just desire, but then she'd foolishly believed that when they're married too. This time she wanted it to be certain. her pride would not permit her to let him use her again.

"Cole," she said nervously, "I think it would be better if we got to know each other first."

"We already know each other," he reminded her. "Intimately."

"But I mean...I would like us to know each other better before we...before we start anything."

"We've already started something, Phoebe," he said with a hint of impatience in his voice. "And I want to finish it. So do you. What else matters?"

"What else matters?," Phoebe hissed, pulling free of his arms. "How can you ask me that? I told you I couldn't handle a casual, unemotional affair with you. What are you trying to do to me?"

Cole's jaw tightened. "I'm trying to get you into that bedroom so that we can ease the ache that's been building inside us for weeks. I want to make love to you all day until we're both too weak to move. Or, if you prefer it more blunt than that, I want to-"

"And then what?," Phoebe demanded hotly. "I want to know the rules, dammit! Today we make love, but tomorrow we're no more than casual acquaintances, is that it? Tomorrow you can make love to Patricia if you want to, and I'm not supposed to care-right? And tomorrow I can let another man make love to me, and you won't care-is that right?"

"Yes," he snapped.

Phoebe had her answer-he didn't care about her any more than he had before. He merely wanted her more. Tiredly she said, "Coffee is ready."

"I'm ready," he said crudely.

"Well, I'm not!," Phoebe stormed in mounting fury. "I'm not ready to be your Sunday-afternoon playmate. if you're bored, go play your games with someone who can handle a casual romp in bed with you. Try Patricia."

"Patricia has nothing to do with me and you, and why do you keep involving her when we're talking about our marriage? She has absolutely nothing to do with it! You're the one who ended it, remember?," he snaps.

"Unbelievable, until now, you don't even bother to admit it! You were cheating with her behind my back!"

"I was not! You simply jump into conclusions yourself!"

"I cannot believe I'm hearing this! I have pictures with you and Patricia kissing"

"Oh really, where?," he asks angrily. "Because during the time we were married, the only women I remember kissing, is you!"

"I'll show you then!," she storms up into her bedroom and starting rummaging around for the pictures she has been keeping for a long time. When she turn around, he was right behind her snatching the photographs from her hands.

He started flipping through the pictures. Disbelief came into his eyes. He looks at her, then back at the pictures, then after a while, to her again. "Do you even realize what is going on here?"

Phoebe narrowed her eyes. "It's a picture of both of you kissing"

He threw those pictures on the table with a snap. "And you didn't bother to come to me, demanding explanation?"

"What is there to ask? The answer are in those pictures!," Phoebe shouts.

"If you have demand some explanation from me" he said icily. "Or, believe in me at all, we wouldn't be in this situation!"

"These pictures of me and Patricia kissing, as you can see in this picture, I was aiming for her cheeks to greet her, and she purposely turned her face, so it would look as if I was kissing her. We were at the Conner's birthday bash in Mexico, which you said you were too ill to attend, which I attend alone, I didn't know Patricia was there, but I left after a few minutes, because I missed you so badly, I was rushing to the airport, to get back to you, our house was so empty without you there. Thinking you were staying over at your sister's house for a visit, I didn't say anything, when I heard the doorbell ring, boy, was I excited to greet you, but instead of you, your lawyer slap me with divorce papers from you..."

Phoebe felt as if he had slapped her. She was too shocked to say anything.

"I'm glad we had the divorce because I've finally realize after all this years the reason we had this divorce!," he said, already striding out of the kitchen.

Phoebe heard the front door slam behind him. She was struck speechless. Oh my god! It was all a mistake! Cole never cheated on me! I simply jump into conclusion! And I believe all the lies Patricia told me! What a fool I have been! Cole, will never forgive me for what I've done..I have to go on. But I'll continue to work for Cole, and try to find a way for him to forgive her..

She didn't feel like shopping for Keith's birthday gift anymore. She notice the sweater she knitted for Cole. Phoebe removed it from the drawer. Keith was almost exactly Cole's size, and he would probably like it very much. She would give it to him, she decided, ignoring the sharp stab of anguish that shot through her.