Darci suddenly knew she was in very deep water without a hope of swimming to safety. She wanted Cole with all her being, but didn’t know how to ask for him. But most of all, she wanted to be loved, cherished and needed. She wanted to build a family with Cole and make a happy home.

She wanted the impossible.

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

The whiskey burned a trail down his throat and settled in his stomach, joining another heat that wouldn’t be assuaged by anything other than a long, hot night of loving his new wife. Cole stared out his hotel room window into the darkness, wondering just how badly he’d managed to screw things up this time.

Guilt gnawed at the edges of his thoughts. He’d run roughshod over Darci, had forced her to make decisions without time to think of the consequences. He’d bullied her into agreeing to what he wanted, then walked away.

And he hadn’t told her about Mandy.

Now he wasn’t certain he could handle the reins of the new life he’d mapped out for them.

Memories of their wedding day drifted through his mind—the family tensions, his own buried secrets, the trust he’d seen in Darci’s eyes as they said their vows. He was going to have to be very, very careful with her. Because there were still remnants of that lost little girl lingering in her eyes. And that little girl could still get to places he’d thought he’d locked away forever.

The innocent eagerness that colored everything Darci did, her beauty…her response to his kiss. All three would haunt him for a long time. But he had to remember he had a job to do. He had to remember he was doing it all for Mandy.

Rolling the glass between his palms, he tried to cool his wayward thoughts. This afternoon, when he’d kissed Darci for the first time as his wife, he’d suddenly found himself wishing it were all for real. But if it were, then he’d be breaking a vow he’d made years ago, a vow that wouldn’t allow him to love again. Love in any form was too painful, too consuming. Love ate a man alive, then threw him away without a second thought.

Except for Mandy. Mandy was different. She loved him no matter what he did. Ail he had to do was love her back—something he’d been terrified he wasn’t capable of until he’d looked into her newborn eyes and let her hold his finger. From that moment on, he knew he’d do anything for her.

Including marry a woman who held the power to destroy what little was left of the man Cole had become.