“Don’t push your luck, city boy. Darci is now my wife, and I’d suggest you leave her alone.” Cole’s hands tightened into fists.

Darci quickly stepped beside him and wrapped his hand in hers, trying to keep him from doing any further damage.

When Jeffrey saw her, he eased himself off the floor, dusting his suit off. “I can’t imagine what you see in this hick, Darci. When you decide you want a bit more polish in your life, give me a call. There’s still time for me to fix everything for you.” He turned away, then called over his shoulder, “But don’t wait too long, or it might be too late.”

Jeffrey stabbed at the elevator button, and Darci couldn’t stop her sigh of relief when the doors popped open right away. When Jeffrey had disappeared from their view, she turned to Cole. “What happened?”

Cole’s hands flexed, clenched, then relaxed. All signs of violence were gone when he turned to face her. Except for the banked anger lurking in his eyes.

“Don’t ask,” he ordered.

She opened her mouth to do just that, then thought better of it. There would be time later for questions. For now, she just wanted to get away—from the office problems, from Jeffrey…from the memory of Cole’s kiss. Silently, she led the way to the car.

The streetlights flashed on his clenched jaw as she drove to the hotel. The route was familiar; one of her favorite restaurants was in this area, but Darci went slowly, taking each turn with care. She wasn’t ready to have him move in yet, wasn’t prepared for the intimacy of living in the same house as Cole Blackmore.

She needed more time, time to shore up her defenses, time to build a wall around her heart. Cole’s kiss had proven to her just how vulnerable she was to him, how dangerous he was to her.

“Do you really love him?”

She jumped at his words, so absorbed in her own thoughts she’d forgotten he was in the car with her for a moment. “Jeffrey? I thought I did. But that was months ago—before I found out what he was really like.” The admission was difficult to make, but she knew it was true. “Maybe I just wanted to be in love so badly that I forced it to happen.”

“Does that mean you’re one of those fickle women, one who changes her mind with every shift of the wind?”

She started to bristle at his words, then recognized the gentle teasing in his tone. Slowly, she forced her hands to relax on the steering wheel. “Not fickle, just a whole lot smarter now than I was.”

She let the silence stretch between them. “Why did you hit him?”

“Do you care?”