“Nico and Dane already knew one another. I didn’t really have any friends, preferred to stick to myself. My sister, Claire, was a fanatic about mefinding my tribe, or whatever, but I preferred to be alone. I was always like that.”
He pauses, types something into his computer, goes back to the panel and snips a wire, re-checking the laptop screen once more. For a second, I think he’s completely forgotten the conversation, but he goes on abruptly when the program starts running again.
“Dane’s father made him join the yachting club. Dane hated being on the boat, but he hated being bad at something more.” Cole speaks at a fast clip, but I’m enthralled, so I catch every word. “When he realized Nico was the best, he formed a team with him. Their team began winning competitions thanks to Nico’s natural talent and Dane’s leadership. Nico saw business potential in the partnership, but they needed one more. A tech guy. He and I had a computer class together. Guess he thought I was pretty smart.” Cole flashes me a smile that makes my heart stutter to a stop in my chest.
God—if the man is handsome frowning, he’s unreal when he smiles.
“Nico’s good at reading people,” I murmur, and Cole nods. In fact, both Dane and Nico are, but Dane’s is more calculating, creating distance. When Nico reads you, it makes you feel like you’re already best friends.
“He is,” Cole states. “I ignored him, at first. But he was the only guy in that class who didn’t constantly annoy me. And I needed the money—” Cole pauses, his throat catching, and I wait, watching something like grief flash over his features. As much as I want to push, I don’t let myself—forcing my lips shut, waiting for him to go on. After a beat, he does. “So, when he asked me to join in with them on a business opportunity, I did.”
“What was the opportunity?” It’s not what I really want to ask, but I’ve just met him. It’s not like I have the right to ask about the sadness I just caught in his expression. Cole switches between the wires and his computer again, then glances at me, a rogue curl falling over his forehead.
“It was the nineties. There was too much going on with tech, specifically the internet. We started one of the very first SaaS companies. Dane predicted the advantageous margins, Nico built the team, and I wrote the code.”
I bite my lip, “…SaaS?”
“Software as a service,” Cole says, “I programmed the whole thing in two afternoons. It was stupidly simple, but we got a ton of customers from Nico’s marketing ideas, and then Microsoft bought us. Big payday. Could have gone our separate ways then, but Nico already had another idea, and I thought I could do it, and Dane was hungry for more, so?—”
Cole cuts himself off when there’s a beep, and I hear, down the hallway, the click of the door to the stairwell opening.
“Oh!” I surprise myself by jumping up, relief coursing through me so fast I feel like a shaken bottle of champagne. “We’re free!”
But my leg knocks against my chair, and I stumble.
“Well—” Cole starts, but his words end with anoomphwhen I collide with him, knocking him to the ground and landing on top of him.
We slot together instantly, Cole falling back, one of my legs sliding between his, my chest pressing against him. For a dizzying, suspended moment, we just stare at each other, breathing hard.
Maybe it’s how good it felt to be with Dane. Maybe it’s how much I like Cole’s curls, or his quiet nature, or howsmarthe is. Maybe it’s even the exhaustion—the fact that it’s well past two in the morning, and my body was stressed from being trapped once more.
I don’t know why I do it, but I stare into his eyes for a beat—mapping the greens, golds, and faint, faint blue in his hazel irises—before leaning down and pressing my mouth to his.
His mouth is hot, and opens for me instantly, his hands coming to my back, firm but gentle. Present but not insisting on anything.
With Dane, the moment I initiated the touch, it was out of my hands. And I liked it—I liked that I didn’t have to think with him, only had to follow his instructions. Do what he wanted andreceive pleasure as a reward. There’s a certain thrill in handing over the reins.
But this—this is a different kind of thrill. Cole lets me kiss him, over and over, and this time, I’m the one leading the dance. I push my tongue into his mouth, and the noise he lets out from the back of his throat is enough to shatter any self-control I might have had.
I sink down into him, sighing and plunging my fingers into his hair. He slides the tips of his fingers up under my shirt—my Lancaster softball shirt from high school—and skims along the waistband of my sweats, his hands cool against my hot skin.
He kisses me back like he’s solving a problem, like making two sides of an equation balance. Still, there’s a certain hesitancy in him, like he’s not sure he should be doing this.
Maybe because heshouldn’t.
And I shouldn’t, either.
There’s a loud beep, and I jump as the light above us floods on, all that red, low light, gentle and practically romantic. I stare at Cole through it, breathing hard, watching as he pulls himself up to sitting.
“That,” he says, eyes a little unfocused, crewneck twisted from where I tugged on it, “would be the cameras coming back on.”
“I—” I try, but there’s nothing I can say. I can’t make sense of what I’ve just done.
First Dane, now Cole? Ijustmet him, and I’m already throwing myself at him.
So, instead of saying anything at all, I bolt to my feet, grab my things, and run all the way down the stairwell I thought I would never grace with my presence.
Chapter 17
