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CHAPTER ONE

"Tess, you co machine that finally roused her fro away You call hed as she opened her eyes She would have preferred the dream to the stark loneliness that awaited her when she opened her eyes At least there, even in the dark, frightening abyss of desires too dark to name, she had a purpose, rather than her fears

She stared down at the large stuffed gorilla she clutched to her chest in her sleep A present fro to keep the bad dreah she had been an adult Tess often had bad dreams

Perhaps she shouldn’t have left as well, Tess often thought She was just entering college at the time, and could have made her own choice But her ht she did Now she wasn’t certain if her mother needed her, or merely needed to control her

"Tess, you awake now?" Her mother, Ella James called from the botto the distance

Tess had installed her own phone line straight out of college and moved her bedroom to the upper floor where her mother rarely ventured She needed her privacy, and her mother was prone to butt in wherever she could The stairs kept her fro into Tess’s privacy very often

"Yeah, Mo her mother’s moue of distaste It was Saturday, for God’s sake She was entitled to sleep in She could just iine her mother’s expression if she kneas her father’s call that woke her

Resigned, Tess got of bed and headed for the shower

Tess ell aware of her ust for her father’s lifestyle Jason Delacourte didn’t stay hoame He owned a national electronics corporation and lived the lifestyle he chose He gave dinners, attended charities and threw yearly parties Ella preferred her books and her quiet and anything that didn’t involve a hter the same way

Tess did hate parties She always had and she knew she alould She invariably ended up going alone Always ended up leaving alone Parties jinxed her Men jinxed her, they had for years But she was committed to this party She had proo?

She grimaced, confused as she pondered her lack of a love life Or perhaps sex life She wasn’t a great believer in love or the happily ever after stuff She had rarely seen it work, her own parents were an exae seemed more rocky than solid

She frowned as she usually did when she thought of her father’s neife Well, perhaps not new Jason Delacourte, her father, had been married for nearly three years now to Melissa The woh she were still a teenager Tess snarled with distaste Of course, the woer than her father, and nearly ten years older then Tess The least he could have done, she sniped silently, was e

She could barely tolerate being in the sa How she enius, Tess had no idea But she was Cole Andreas Missy’s brother, and Tess’s father swore Cole had moved Delacourte Electronics into the financial sphere it now enjoyed as one of the leading electronic ht of hih

Cole was six feet three inches of hard packedattitude that drove her crazy His kisses were the stuff dreaers icked instru her into a hypnotic trance when they touched her

She suppressed a sigh No ood as Cole Andrews It should be a crime that one man should ooze so much sex appeal, and be such an asshole to boot And it was really a crih to enjoy any others

After showering, she quickly blow dried her hair, sighing as she swiped the brush through her shoulder-length black hair one last tie closet She had enough clothes One thing her father had always done was made certain she ell provided for

Elementary school teachers didn’t lahter should hold, but it hat she wanted to do Besides, it kept her out of the social sphere her steph plus to keep her there

But, she had promised her father she would stay with him for this one week That she would take the tirown up in before his divorce frohter

It wasn’t that she didn’t love hiht as she packed her suitcase She did She loved her father terribly, but Cole was at the house He stayed there often, and it was Cole she needed to avoid

After packing the more casual clothes she would need and her treasured, hidden vibrator, Tess moved back to her closet to choose what she would wear for the yearly Valentine’s Day party her father gave It was also the third year anniversary of his e to Missy Yeah, she really wanted to celebrate that one

She pulled a short, black, silk sheath fro it on the doorknob Fro bra, and ss The dark colors suited her mood Valentine’s Day was for lovers, and Tess didn’t have one She still didn’t understand why she was going to this stupid party