Sydney and Cole's mother spent the next hour looking at the garden. They were on their stomachs under a bush laughing when Cole found them to escort them back to the patio where he introduced Sydney to his father, who was precisely like Cole. All she had to do was look at him to know what Cole would be like in thirty years. He was pleasant, but distracted, as he asked Viola to join him in the study.

"Why don't you take Sydney around the house. We'll have lunch in about an hour," Maddie suggested as she picked up Viola's tray of lemonade and carried it through the door closest to the table.

After Cole and Sydney were alone, the silence was overwhelming.

"I like your family Cole," Sydney said, more because she felt the need to break the silence than because she thought he would care.

He just grunted as he took her arm and turned her towards the house.

"Where are we going?" she asked, confused.

"Mother said to show you the house, so I'll show you the house." He sounded put out.

Sydney could feel his hand gripping her bare arm as he pulled her into the house. "Stop!" she said as she dug her heels into nothing. "Please!"

He stopped and looked down at her flushed face.

"I can walk, and I will follow you, but please stop pulling me around as if I'm a child you're trying to drag to the dentist. I promise, I won't kick or scream."

She saw his lip twitch as he held up his hands. "I apologize."

Sydney nodded as she rubbed her arm, not because he had hurt her, but to try and erase his touch.

They spent the next hour going through the house which was massive and almost like a time capsule. It was beautiful and well-loved, and she said as much to Cole as he led her into a smaller bedroom that had trophies everywhere.

"This was my room when I was a kid," he said, looking around as if he hadn't seen it in a while.

Sydney walked around slowly, looking at all of the photos and awards. She noticed a framed picture of him holding a high school diploma and noted how young he looked. She read the blurb below it and it said he was sixteen.

"How old are you in this photo?" she asked as she picked it up and showed it to him.

"Sixteen, I had just graduated high school, I got my undergrad when I was nineteen and my doctorate when I was twenty-four." He took the photo from her and sat it back in its place.

"Impressive." She moved on to a few other photos, and after a few minutes more of his silence she turned to find him watching her, and she gave a heavy sigh, "What did I do now?"

"Why, why did you act the way you did that night of your parent's anniversary party?"

Sydney shrugged. "I told you, I was young, I thought it would be fun to test my boundaries. I apologized, what more do you want?"

"I want to know the real reason why. It's not like you, at least I don't think it is. I'm having a hard time figuring you out. There are times when I think I've got you pegged, and then you turn around and do something that completely changes my opinion." Cole frowned.

She nodded. "And it makes you mad."

"Yes, and frustrated," he agreed.

"Does it matter though? It's just a job, I'm only an employee, and I'll be gone shortly." Sydney turned away from him, sad at the thought that there would be no more chances of seeing him, even from afar. The thought made her panic and before she knew it, she was explaining. "I froze in fright, then I saw you were undressing and I was...mesmerized, then by the time you had jumped in the water it was too late, or so I thought. I said before, I hadn't planned it. I had wanted to be alone and that was the truth."

"You're saying that you couldn't look away?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yes, that's what I'm saying. Hasn't there ever been a woman that you couldn't look away from, Cole?" She watched him, and he frowned. "If you gave a repeat performance right now I still, probably, wouldn't be able to look away."

His eyes jumped to hers, narrowing. "Comments like that are what confuse me. That is not something that an innocent college girl should be saying to her professor."

"I'm far from innocent, that ship sailed a long time ago, and you're not my professor." Sydney held back a shudder as she remembered the choices she had made, and the lies she had fallen for. What she wouldn't give to be able to do it all again. She turned back to look at the photos and missed his frown.

There was a tense silence before he spoke. "I wanted to apologize." His voice was gruff as if he was pulling the words from an intense place.

"What for?" Sydney asked, confused.

She watched as he opened and closed his mouth a few times without saying anything. "Don't hurt yourself." She couldn't hide a smile as he turned red in frustration. She should be smart enough to leave it alone, her sane self-was telling her to do that very thing, but she couldn't, "I'm sure your mother was right, and you were a very fussy baby."

He let out a growl as he charged her, grabbing her arms and kissing her hard. Sydney once again found herself breathless as her knees gave way. He was throwing all of his frustration into the kiss, and she answered it with all of the frustration that she felt.

Just as quickly as Cole had grabbed her, he pushed her away. "Dammit!" he backed away from her and started pacing. Sydney's knees were weak, so she sank to the bed, pressing her fingers against her swollen lips.

"Don't sit there!" he roared, and Sydney jumped up looking behind her as if she had sat on the family pet. "Please, go over there, away from the bed." He motioned to the chair by the window.

Sydney bit back a smile but did as he asked, sitting and watching him continue to pace.

"Why do you keep kissing me if you dislike it so much, Dr. Easton?" she asked.

"I wanted to see if last night was a one-off; if it was years of frustration pushed into one stress relieving moment." His pacing increased speed.

"Years of frustration?" This time it was Sydney's turn to frown, and he turned to look at her.

"You say that you're not innocent, but then you make a comment like that. If you knew what was going on all those years ago, you would have known that I was very interested in what you were offering." Cole shook his head.

"Sure, physically, most men would have, but you weren't interested in me. Your man parts were interested in my woman parts, and if I remember correctly, the rest of you said that I wasn't worth it." Sydney was pleased her voice didn't wobble as she said the words that had haunted her.

"That's what I want to apologize for. I didn't mean that when I said it. I was angry and frustrated, and it was the first thing that popped into my head, and I'm sorry for it. Although, I will say that my...man parts," he looked as if it pained him to say the words, "are still very much interested in your woman parts, even when they are fully covered."

This floored Sydney. "Why?"

He looked at her with disbelief.

"No, seriously, why? Clothed, I'm not much to look at."

"Who told you that?" He sounded amused.

Sydney held her tongue not wanting to answer that question, ashamed of the answer.

"Obviously, if you claim to no longer be innocent, someone got far enough to get your clothes off so they must have seen something in you beyond your naked body." He pointed out after a moment of empty silence.

"They saw an easy mark, and they were surprised at the package that laid beneath all the clothes." Suddenly, uncomfortable with the conversation and her need to be honest, she rose from her chair and started for the door to the room, pausing when she got there. "So where does this leave us, are we friends now?"

"Hell no! That just might kill me. We go back to avoiding each other." He reached around her, placing his hand on the doorknob, but before he opened the door, he looked down at her amused reaction to his outburst.

"Why are you on my dig, Sydney?" That was really what it all boiled down to; he could believe the rest if her answer to that one question was adequate.

"To seduce you and steal all of your money, Dr. Easton." She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard. "How's that? Is it working?"

They stood there staring at each other, and when his eyes fell to her lips, her breathing grew erratic at the heat that she saw there. He wrenched open the door and pushed her through it with a curse, surprising her and breaking the moment.

Avoiding each other was probably best.