Chapter 13

Phoebe carried another armload of her belongings out to her car. Piper and Paige follow meekly behind.

"I can't believe you're doing this, are you gonna give up so easily?," Paige ask angrily.

Phoebe looks at her and smile. "Yes, I'm sorry to disappoint you as your sister, okay. Look, I'm just going for a while, I'll be back. It's not as if we won't be seeing each other anymore"

"But..."

"There is no buts anymore. I've had it with buts controlling my life. I'm going up to tale my clothes down," Phoebe said. Upstairs, she put on another pair of shoes and closed the last suitcase. All she had to do now is say goodbye to her sisters. Tears burned her eyes, and she brushed them away with impatient fingertips. Picking up her suit-case, she carried it downstairs.

Halfway across the living room she heard footsteps coming from the kitchen behind her. "Perfect timing you guys, coming to take my luggage when I've brought it down already." She turns around and then froze as Cole stalked out of the kitchen. She saw the reckless glitter in his eyes as he come toward her, and her mind screamed in her head; what is Cole Turner doing here?

Panicked, she dropped the suitcase and started edging away. In her haste she caught the backs of her knees on the arm of the sofa, lost her balance and landed flat on her on the cushions.

His eyes gleaming with amusement, Cole looked at the delectable beauty sprawled invitingly across the sofa. "I'm flattered, honey, but I'd like something to eat first. What are you serving-besides baked shoes?"

Warily Phoebe scrambled to her feet. Despite his humorous tone, there was an iron grimness in the set of his jaw, and every powerful muscle of his body was tensed. She took a cautious step out of his reach.

"Stand still," he ordered softly.

Phoebe froze again. "What..why aren't you at the international trade meeting?,"she looks around him, trying to find Paige and Piper.

"Looking for Paige and Piper, I ask them if I could spend some time alone with you"

Phoebe said with aghast, "And they let you?"

"Paige didn't, but Piper calmed her down," Cole said in a non-committed voice.

"Why aren't you at the international trade meeting?," she repeated.

"As a matter of fact," he drawled, "I've asked myself that same question several times this morning. I asked myself that question when I walked out on seven men who require my vote on vitally important issues. I asked myself that question on the way here, when the woman in the seat beside me on the plane threw up in a bag."

Phoebe choked back a nervous giggle. He was tense, he was angry, but he wasn't furious.

"I asked myself that question," he continued, advancing a step, "when I practically jerked an old man out of the back seat of a taxi and took it myself, because I was afraid I'd get here too late."

Phoebe tried desperately to decipher his mood and couldn't. "Now that you're here," she said shakily, "what do you want?"

"I want you."

"I told you-"

"I know what you told me," Cole interrupted impatiently. You told me I'm arrogant, egotistical. And I remember you saying I was too old for you did I remember correctly?"

She nodded.

"Phoebe, I am only three years older that I was when we were married. Even though I feel a hell of a lot older than I did then. But the fact is you didn't think I was too old for you then, and you don't really think so today. Now, I'll unload your car and you can start unpacking your things."

"I'm going, Cole," Phoebe said with quiet determination.

"No, you're not," he said implacably. "You belong to me, and if you force me to. I'll carry you up to bed and make you admit it there."

Phoebe knew he could do exactly that. She backed away another step. "All you would prove is that you can physically overpower me. Nothing I admitted there would count. What does matter is that I don't want to belong to you in an way!"

Cole smiled somberly. "I want to belong to you...in every way."

Phoebe's heart flung itself against her ribs. What did he mean, belong? She knew instinctively he wasn't offering marriage, but at least he was offering himself.

Cole spoke, his coaxing voice tinged with desperation. "Consider what an amoral, unprincipled cynic I am-think of all the improvements you could make to my character."

The simultaneous urge to laugh and weep snapped Phoebe's control. Her hair tumbled forward in a heavy curtain as she bent her head and fought back tears. She was going to do it; she was going to let herself become that sordid cliché-the secretary in love with her boss, having a secret affair with him. She was going to gamble her pride and self-respect on the chance that she could make him love her.

"Phoebe," Cole said hoarsely, "I love you."

Her head shot up. Unable to believe her ears, she stared at him through tear-glazed eyes.

Cole saw her tears and his heart sank with bitter defeat. "Don't you dare cry," he warned tersely, "I'm sorry for what I said and done...". His words trailed off as Phoebe unexpectedly flung herself into his arms, her shoulders shaking. Uncertainly, he tipped her chin up and gazed at her face. Her thick lashes were spiky with tears, and her blue eyes were drenched with them. She tried to speak and Cole tensed, braced for the rejection he had dreaded all the way from Singapore.

"I think you are so beautiful," she whispered brokenly. "I think you are the most beautiful-"

A low groan tore from Cole's chest, and he smothered her mouth with his. Devouring her lips with the insatiable hunger that had been torturing him for weeks, he crushed her melting, pliant body to the rigid, starved contours of his own. He kissed her fiercely, tempestuously, tenderly, and still he could not get enough of her. At last he dragged his mouth from hers, fighting down the rampaging demands of his body, and held her in his arms, pressed against his pounding heart.

When he didn't move for several minutes, Phoebe leaned back in his arms and raised her face to his. He saw the question in her eyes and the willing acceptance of his decision. She would lie beside him here, or anywhere else he chose.

"No," he murmured tenderly. "Not like this. I'm not going to walk in here and rush you into bed."

The impudent beauty in his arms smiled one of her bewitching smiles. "Are you really hungry? I could fix you some sautéed stockings to go with the shoes. Or would you prefer something more conventional, like an omelette?"

Cole chuckled and brushed a kiss over her smooth forehead. "I'll have my housekeeper to fix something for me while I shower. Then I'm going to get some sleep. I didn't get any last night," he added meaningfully.

Phoebe gave him a look of sham sympathy, which earned her another kiss.

"I suggest you sleep too, because when we come back from the party tonight, we're going to bed, and I intend to keep you awake until morning."

In fifteen minutes he had unloaded her car. "I'll pick you up at nine," he said when he was ready to leave. "It's black tie; do you have something formal to wear?"

"Where are we going?"

"To the Children's Hospital Benefit Ball at the Notch Hotel. I'm one of the sponsors, so I have tickets every year."

"That doesn't sound very discreet," Phoebe said uneasily. "Someone may see us together there."

"Everyone will see us together. It's one of the social highlights of the year, which is why I want to take you. I want everyone to know that I'm together with you now"

***

"Cooole?," Patricia sang into his office dressed as his date to the Children Hospital Benefit Ball. So what if he doesn't know? He's going to take me anyway.

"Hmm, Ms. Callahan?," Curtis asked uncertainly. "I think you better look at this". She pointed at the television.

"We're live outside Notch Hotel where they're hosting the Children's Hospital Benefit Ball. We're waiting for a glimpsed of Cole Turner and wondering who might his lovely companion would be.. Oh, there he is, he has just reach the premises, wait, is he alone? No, by his smiling face, he's helping his companion out of his limo, and would you take a look at that? It's his ex-wife, Phoebe Haliwell...."

Patricia's eyes burned with jealousy and raged. "What the hell is she doing with Cole? Didn't they just had an argument and quit her job? What the hell is she doing with him!," she hissed. She swung towards Curtis. "I thought you said you were handling this!". She stab a finger at Phoebe's smiling face on the TV.

"I..I've thought of a plan, but I didn't know you wanted me to act it out so soon-"

"Do it now! Do anything, as long as you can get rid of Phoebe Haliwell out of Cole's life!"