Free Tidewater Lover by Janet Dailey Page B

pushing her an arm's length away. Dazed by the unexpected rejection, Lacey looked at him with inviting, luminously brown eyes. She could hear his ragged breathing and quivered at the sound.
    A pained yet wry smile crooked his mouth. "You'll have to forgive me for that, Lacey." His voice was low and roughly controlled.
    "Yes…" But it was more of a question than it was an answer.
    "You're a potent little package and more vulnerable than I realized," he added, exhaling a long breath.
    "So are you," she admitted shakily, still confused. "But I don't see why you should apologize for kissing me. I may have said I was old-fashioned, but I'm not a prude."
    "I wish you were." Cole smiled ruefully.
    "That's an odd thing to say," Lacey murmured. He wasn't making any sense to her.
    "'Is it?" He let go of her arms and she had to stand without his support. Her knees trembled for an instant before they found the necessary strength.
    "I think it is," she insisted.
    "Our agreement isn't even twenty-four hours old and I was on the verge of breaking one of our first ground rules," Cole stated in a mocking tone. "No sex."
    Crimson flamed through her cheeks and just as quickly burned itself out, leaving her complexion unnaturally pale as she acknowledged the truth of his observation. She had lost control of herself for a moment.
    There was no telling for certain just how far she might have let Cole go before she came to her senses. It was a sobering discovery.
    He watched her changing color for a silent minute before he smiled gently. "Good night, Lacey." Turning on his heel, he walked into the house.
    "Good night," Lacey echoed him faintly, and doubted if her voice had been strong enough to carry into the house to him.
    She pivoted back to the ocean view, shivering at the sudden chill that danced over her arms. The fires inside of her were slowly being brought under control.
    She remembered Cole's saying that the situation between them wouldn't get out of hand unless they permitted it. They had both come dangerously close to it. Cole had been the first to realize it, but it was just hitting Lacey now.
     

 
    Chapter Five
     
    THE BUZZ of the alarm clock hammered at her eardrums, and with a groan, Lacey rolled onto her side. She must have set the clock last night out of habit.
    Her fumbling hand reached out for the knob to switch it off, only to discover the alarm wasn't turned on. Still the buzzing sound continued to drone its wake-up call.
    Frowning, Lacey forced her eyes open. It was several seconds before she realized that the sound was coming from Cole's bedroom. It was his alarm clock she was hearing. She grabbed the second pillow and crushed it over her ears, trying to drown out the sound, but it continued with monotonous persistence.
    "Oh, why don't you wake up and turn that darn thing off?" she moaned into the pillow. But the buzzing didn't stop. "I'll never get back to sleep!"
    Angrily she tossed the pillow away and stumbled out of bed. She walked over to pound on the bedroom wall, remembering too late that the bathroom was between the two guest rooms. Grabbing her housecoat, she shrugged into it as she stalked into the hallway to Cole's door.
    She hammered on it with her fist. "Shut that alarm off!" It kept right on buzzing. "Cole!"
    There was an answering squeak of the bedsprings, then blissful silence. Sighing, Lacey hurried back into her own room and crawled under the covers, housecoat and all. As she closed her eyes, she heard his door open and the firm padding of his bare feet in the hall.
    The bathroom door opened and closed. A few seconds later the shower was turned on full force, the hammering of its spray sounding as loud and as nerve-racking as the alarm clock.
    "I want to go to sleep," Lacey moaned in self-pity.
    Within a few short minutes, another sound joined that of the rushing water in the shower. "Oh, no," she groaned, "he isn't!" She listened. "He is. He's singing in the shower. That does it!"
    The bedclothes were