“Kiss me.” The little minx tried to bring his face down tohers.
If Cole hadn’t been on the verge of ripping the seam in his jeans, he would’ve chuckled at her demand. But he wasn’t in a laughing mood. As soon as she gave him the information, he was going to take her until neither of them could think or breathe, and then maybe, just maybe, he’d have enough of her to satisfy a little edge of the need clawing hisinsides.
“Tell me, tell me you’ll give yourself tome.”
She tried to kiss him again, and he pulled back, locking his arms out in front of him so he could keep her where he wanted her. Pinned against the door and unable to make a move. It was a subtle power play that was driving herwild.
Tomi gave a frustrated groan and opened her eyes, her gaze spitting fire at him. “Why? Why is it so important that I give you mypermission?”
“Because, I told you, I won’t take what you don’t willingly give. I’m only asking for a few days.” There was a rough edge of desperation in his voice, but damned if he wasn’tdesperate.
“What’s the big deal about three days? We both know it doesn’t mean anything if I give you permission. You bought me. You own me. If you really wanted my permission, you’d let me walk out the door rightnow.”
Fuck all if he could argue with such a logical statement. At that moment, Cole hated Agent Stahl for tying his hands. How the hell was he supposed to convince Tomi to trust him, when he couldn’t tell her thetruth?
He felt the resistance go out of her body, but it wasn’t the way he wanted. She stopped fighting for him—and against him all in the same breath. “You and I both know this isn’t mychoice.”
He should’ve kept his mouth shut, but he’d never had an easy time controlling himself around her. “Dammit, Tomi, that’s not true. I meant what I said…I won’t do anything you don’t want meto.”
“Then let me go,” she said so softly he had to strain to hearher.
“I can’t,” he answeredhonestly.
Her shoulders slumped and some of the fire in her eyes died. “Then I can’t give you three days. I can’t give youanything.”
With a snarl of disgust at himself for putting her in this position, Cole flung himself away from her and stalked to the refrigerator, yanked a beer from the door, and ripped off the bottle cap. “Go to your room. Justgo.”
He could hear Tomi’s sharp intake of breath from across the room, followed by the quick slaps of her footsteps as she all but ran from the kitchen. She slammed her bedroom door and Cole winced. God, he was an asshole. He took a swig of beer and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, attempting the impossible—to erase the burning sensation left where her lips had been melded with his only moments before. His cock strained against his pants so painfully, he had to reach down and readjust himself. Why couldn’t he just take her? He knew he could make her orgasm. Hell, they’d both been pretty damn close just a few momentsago.
And then he heard her muffled sobs through her closed bedroom door. Cole closed his eyes and braced his hands on the counter. He hated that he was the reason she was crying. This was why he couldn’t take her, because the thought of hurting her in any way that didn’t bring her pleasure made nausea roll in his gut. How could he have ever thought she would agree to such insane terms? She thought he was one of them, that he’d bought her, and he’d neither done nor said nothing to convince her otherwise. No wonder she wasconfused.
What did Stahl expect him to do? If he forced her, she’d never trust him enough to tell him the truth. And he wouldn’t be able to live withhimself.
He couldn’t reveal that he was working with the FBI on this case; that option was off the table. Fuck, it was off the entire planet. But Tomi needed a reason to trust him. She needed to know that he wasn’t like those other men at theauction.
Cole left his beer, half drunk, sitting on the counter and straightened. He scrubbed his hand down his face, praying for an answer. And an answer finallycame.
11
Tomi crieduntil she couldn’t cry anymore. She cried tears she’d held in since the day she’d broken it off with Cole, and then she cried some more because of all the messed-up crap that had happened to her over the past week. Over the fact that she’d never see little Rafael again…that he would be raised by a monster to become a monster. And when she was done crying about that, she cried over losing Cole all overagain.
When he’d kissed her, the past had come rushing in with such force she hadn’t had a hope or prayer of stopping it. Somehow his kiss was more intense than she remembered. He’d matured, grown more confident in his touch. She knew instinctively he could give her exactly what she needed; he’d seemed to read her every thought right there against the door. He’d been gentle at the moments she’d felt close to breaking, and he’d pushed precisely when and how much she’d wanted him to. Hell, he’d done such a masterful job, she’d nearly given in to hisdemands.
She’d had to run from the room before she could change her mind, and what did that say about her? Suspecting what she did about him, she still wanted to give herself tohim.
And yet…he couldn’t silence the little voice in her head, the one that was still marveling over what he’d said to her. All these years, she’d told herself that he’d moved on, that she was the only one still thinking of their relationship. Tomi blew out a long breath and wiped the tears from her cheeks. She should’ve known better after the intense and wild relationship they’d shared. She’d been foolish to think he’d easily get over her. But this wasn’t theanswer.
Surely, Cole could see that. Surely, he wasn’t really into humantrafficking.
Despite everything she’d seen and Cole’s failure to explain the situation to her, she just didn’t believe he had anything to do with Luis’s enterprise. Maybe she was naïve, or maybe she was that stupid, but there was no way a man as honorable as Cole Fury had stooped to thislevel.
Integrity ran in his family. His mom was a legendary American housewife of Boone County, Louisiana. No one could bake a pecan pie like that woman. And Tomi had tasted many pecan pies after she’d left their hometown. Mrs. Catherine Fury’s pies still ranked as the verybest.
Besides that, Cole and his brothers had joined the military out of a sense of duty. No one had coerced them. They’d done it because they’d thought it the right thing to do, just like their daddy before them. Speaking of whom, Cole’s father was a living, breathing war hero and a damn good man. She’d never forget how he’d sat her down on the couch in their living room and told her how damn proud he was that Cole had fallen in love with someone likeher.
That memory almost triggered another one, one that was too painful for her to contemplate, especially now, after she’d worked so many years at burying it at the back of her mind. She’d been woken by a loud bang in the middle of the night. She’d seen her father struggling with the man in their living room…No, she wouldn’t think about it right now, or ever. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but Cole wasn’t a sex slave trafficker. He could’ve forced her at any moment on this journey and hehadn’t.
Hell, he hadn’t done more than kiss her, and then she’d tried to kiss him… And he’d still insisted on having her permission. The memory of the horrible men at the auction and that awful party couldn’t be more different from Cole. Those men hadn’t cared that they were hurting women; they’d taken their bodies and moved on without batting an eyelid. Cole wouldn’t even kiss her again before she told him he could. There was more going on here than met the eye, and she couldn’t begin to fathom why he wouldn’t explain himself, but she had every intention of finding out. She’d never been the type to sit idly by and wait for the answer to come to her. She’d always run after answers as fast as her legs would take her. And before she knew what she was doing, her feet were carrying her to the door. She grabbed the handle, intending to march back into that kitchen and demand that Cole explain himself, but she stopped short the second she openedit.
