I stood silently for a few momentsafter he shut the door behind him, a bit shocked and overwhelmed.
“Babe,” Cole said gently after a fewminutes.
“Hmm?” I asked absently.
“Come on, let’s go to bed,” he coaxed,holding a hand out to me. I took it without thought and followed him to myroom. He tucked me in and soon joined me, pulling me into his side “It’sgonnabe okay,” he said softly.
I didn’t reply. I had nothing to say. Hedidn’t know that, he couldn’t.
I woke up earlier than I would haveliked and heard Cole’s deep voice on the phone out in the living room. I lookedat my phone to make sure Kat had texted me back. She’d never come home and Ihad reached out to make sure she was okay. Sure enough, there was a text sayingshe’d stayed with Sal. There was definitely a story to be told there and I waslooking forward to the distraction.
I lay in bed trying to collect myselffor a few minutes when Cole returned, already showered and dressed. He leanedover me with a hand on either side of me, kissing me soundly. He smelled likesoap and Cole. I breathed him in.
“Igottagobabe, shit to do,” he explained.
“Okay, I’ll call you after work,” Isaid sleepily.
His brow wrinkled for a moment andsomething flashed in his eyes before he sighed. “Call your boss, take some timeoff,” he directed in that bossy way of his that drove me crazy.
“What? No,” I said as I shook my head,suddenly more awake.
“Were you not here last night?” hedemanded. “Until this fucker is dealt with you’re not going to give him an invitationto get near you,” he said, his voice low and intense.
“Well I couldn’t be around many morepeople than when I’m at work,” I retorted. We stared at each other for a fewminutes and I softened when I saw how worried he was. “I have bills to pay,honey,” I explained. “I’m not going to hide away for God knows how long. Ipromise to be careful, but I still have to live my life,” I said, putting ahand on his cheek and grazing it gently down to his neck where I could feel hispulse. “I’m going to go to the gym, too. I’ll go stir crazy otherwise,” Iexplained.
“If I can’t take you home, promise meyou’ll wait until somebody from the club collects you,” he ordered. “From anywhereyou go,” he added.
I was tempted to quip that I reallycouldn’t picture Wes or Sal jogging next to me on a treadmill, but I decided tobite my tongue.
“Cole!” I protested.
“No,darlin’.”He shook his head. “Even that’s less than I’m comfortable with. You agree tothat or you get chained to the bed.”
Something about those words sent anunexpected thrill through me. “Chained to the bed?” I smiled seductively. “Thatsounds fun,” I said, biting my lower lip.
His eyes dilated in response and hegroaned. “Shit, I really have to go. Otherwise I’d stay and play, baby.”
“Damn,” I muttered.
He leaned in and kissed me, closedmouth. If he let it become more we both knew he’d never leave. And with that,he shoved off the bed and stalked from the room. I heard him set the alarm andsoon after his bike roared off.
Kat came home as I was finishing up inthe shower.
“Spill!” I exclaimed after I’d thrownsome clothes on and she was flopped on my bed.
“Oh God, Scar, I am in trouble,” shegroaned.
I laughed knowing the feeling all toowell.
“I take it you had fun?” I asked andcocked a brow at her.
“He’s so fucking hot,” she sighed. “Ididn’t plan on spending the night at his place, but Cole called and said itprobably wasn’t a good idea for me to come home. Which I want to hear about, bythe way,” she noted.
“Later,” I said dismissively. I was sotired of my shit. I wanted to talk about someone else. “So what happened?”
“We stayed at the bar for anotherdrink and we just hit it off,” she sighed dreamily. “Then after he talked toCole he took me to his place and we watched movies and made out,” she said asshe giggled.
I smiled, happy for her.
