Tidewater Lover by Janet Dailey Page B

the rolled-up cuff of his white sleeve. His mouth thinned briefly before he bent over his papers again.
    "I'm almost done," he stated, then asked absently, "What are you doing up?"
    "I was thirsty," she retorted, and resumed her path to the kitchen, doubting that he had even heard her answer.
    As she passed by the sofa, Cole rubbed the back of his neck and arched his shoulders in a tired stretch. "Damn, but I'm tired," he murmured to no one in particular.
    "You could go to bed," she called back to him as she entered the kitchen, walked to the sink, and turned on the cold water tap. Perversely, she didn't feel any sympathy for him. If he was tired, the solution was simple. Since he didn't choose to make it, she wasn't going to waste words feeling sorry for him.
    "I have to get this done."
    Opening the cupboard door, she took out a glass. "Didn't you ever read Gone with the Wind? 'Tomorrow is another day.'"
    "I need to have this first thing in the morning," he answered curtly.
    "I suppose the world will come to an end if you don't," Lacey taunted.
    After filling the glass with water, she started to raise it to her lips and, turning slightly, discovered that Cole had followed her into the kitchen. The tiredly etched corners of his mouth twisted briefly into a smile at her gibe, but he made no reply to it.
    "Is there any coffee?" he asked instead.
    She glanced at the percolator, noticing the cord unplugged from the socket. "If there is, it's cold."
    "We have instant coffee, don't we?" Cole opened the cupboard door nearest him.
    "In here." She gestured to the cupboard above her head without offering to get it for him.
    Lacey did move to one side to avoid getting banged in the head when he opened it. Sipping at her water, she watched him take the jar down and spoon some dark crystals into a cup.
    She became fascinated by his hands, strong and tanned, and the scattering of bronze hair curling on the portion of his arm exposed by the rolled-up sleeve. Her pulse fluttered, faintly disturbed. She took a quick swallow of water in an effort to forget his unsettling nearness.
    "Aren't you going to heat some water?" she chided, certain he had overlooked it in his tiredness.
    "It would take too much time." He stepped around her to turn on the tap. "The hot water from the tap will be good enough."
    He let the water run until steam was rising from the sink, then ran it in his cup to fill it. He leaned a hip against the counter near Lacey as if too tired to support himself. Brushing a hand over his mouth and chin, he reached for a spoon to stir his coffee, but it slipped out of his fingers and clattered to the tiled floor.
    As she stooped quickly to retrieve it, Lacey's fingers touched the handle at the same time that Cole took hold of the curve of the spoon.
    They straightened together, each holding onto the spoon, an elemental tension coursing through Lacey. There was a velvet quality to the midnight blue of his eyes that did little to slow the sudden acceleration of her pulse.
    "That was clumsy of me," he chided himself, and Lacey released her hold on the spoon.
    "You're tired." She forced an evenness into her voice. "You should come to bed."
    "Is that an invitation?" Despite the husky amusement running through his voice, there was a thread of seriousness that rocketed Lacey's heart into her throat.
    "You know what I meant." She swirled the water in her glass and took a quick swallow.
    "Mmmm."
    She didn't know whether that meant yes or no, and glanced at Cole for a clearer answer. There was an unnerving darkness in the look he was giving her. It roamed over her face, touching the sleek fur-brown cap of her hair, the wing of an eyebrow, the finely chiseled bone of her cheek and the soft curve of her lips.
    His wandering gaze didn't stop there, but traveled leisurely down the slender column of her golden-tanned neck to dwell on the rounded curve of her breasts. They seemed to swell under the almost physical caress of his eyes, the rosy peaks