Why did I care? I was only there because I’d said I would be, and I was a man of my word. At least, that’s what I’d told myself.
The bride and groom kissed, and Laney shivered, goose bumps breaking out on her bare arms. She turned to me with a little smile on her lips. “See? They love each other.” Her tempting lips parted a tiny bit.
I had to taste them. The urge was so strong, I couldn’t help myself. Pressing a kiss to her soft lips, I ignored her gasp of shock and tasted her lips with my tongue before pulling back.
* * *
I stood to the side of the dance floor, drink in hand, as Amber and Laney danced, Amber leaning in to share a few words before Laney gave her a shy smile. The bride and groom squabbled while Laney’s father spoke to her mother. Red flags as far as the eye could see. But which would explode first?
Amber’s eyes met mine and she winked. I lifted my glass her way and took a drink, indicating that I’d appreciated whatever it was she was doing for me at that moment.
That must have been the spark, because Cadence glared at me, then gathered up her skirts and marched in my direction.
“Beautiful wedding.” I nodded at her, swishing the whiskey around in my glass before taking a drink.
“You have some nerve showing up here.”
Around us, conversations stopped at her words. All eyes stared at us, curious, and I steeled myself. I’d expected her father to say this to me, like he had all those years ago when Laney dared bring me home.
“I’m Laney’s plus one.” As I said the words, Laney stepped around her sister and took the place by my side, her fingers lacing with mine.
“Leave him alone.” We all glanced at Peter in stunned surprise as he then addressed the guests. “Please, everyone go back to enjoying yourselves.”
“No!” Cadence shook her skirts before dropping them and poking my chest with a fingertip. “You should never have come.”
“Hey, think of the baby.” Devon stepped up, winding an arm around her waist and rocking her toward him slightly. But she jerked away from him as everyone stared in shock. He scanned the group of guests, then threw up his hands. “Surprise! We’re expecting.”
Peter lowered his head in his hands and Laney’s mother, Deb, sighed.
Cadence ripped out of her new husband’s grasp and turned to glare at him. “How dare you announce it like that!” She turned to her father, tears shining in her eyes. “None of this went how I wanted it. I hate all of you. You all ruined my wedding!” She practically growled before stomping off, slinging sand at her heels.
Laney leaned into me as Peter leaped into motion. He stepped in front of Cadence, bringing her to a halt. “How dare you!”
Cadence’s eyes went wide and she glanced at her mother for help, but Deb’s arms were crossed and she looked as furious as her husband.
“You’re behaving like a spoiled rotten little brat,” Devon said, taking her arm and refusing to let go when Cadence tried to snatch her arm back.
“I don’t want to be married! I don’t want to have this baby. You raise it, since you want it so much.” She glared at Dev, then her dad.
Laney stiffened in my arms.
Peter shook his head. “We failed you. We spoiled you and turned you into a monster.”
“I wish you’d turned out to be a good person like Laney.” Deb’s words were slurred, but clear enough. The whole beach party went silent, the moment pierced only by the sound of a gull squawking as it flew by on a mission out to sea. “I wish you’d have done something with your life instead of party and quit everything you ever started.” Her voice broke and twin tears streaked down her face, marring her makeup further.
Cadence’s cheeks turned bright red as she launched into an ugly cry. Her makeup smudged and her nose turned scarlet, but the scene wasn’t done.
I squeezed Laney’s hand, hoping to keep her on her feet as she swayed.
“He’s only in it for the money and name,” a deep voice said from across the gathering. The father of the groom. “He’s as spoiled as she is. I should have told you, and I’m sorry.”
A buzz of voices broke out. I needed to get Laney out of there before a cat fight broke out or she got the bright idea to spill her own bad decisions.
Before I could move, Peter turned to me. “She sees something in you. She always has.” He nodded at Laney, who peeked up at her dad. “She’s a smart cookie, so even though I don’t know what she sees in you, I’ll respect that she sees something. I’m sorry for the way I treated you all those years ago. You don’t have to forgive me, but I hope you’ll consider it.”
All eyes of the wedding gathering had focused on me now.
I cleared my throat. “Done.”
I wouldn’t hold a grudge, but I sure as fuck wouldn’t forget.
19
Laney
“I didn’t know you were…rich.” My voice echoed off the cool concrete walls just inside the front door of Cole’s place. He seemed to tense right up, and I added the second thought that had popped into my head. “Not that I care.”
I honestly didn’t give a damn. His house was pretty awesome, but that had no impact on my feelings for the man standing in front of the great mahogany door he’d just closed behind us.
He didn’t say anything, and I couldn’t read his carefully neutral expression.
“We need to talk,” I said. My head still spun from the craziness that had just taken place at my sister’s wedding down on the beach. Talk about going from pleasant to dumpster fire in three point two seconds. I’d practically begged him to get me out of there, and he’d brought me up a beautiful backroad to this mansion that seemed magically suspended over the ocean.
There was something I needed to come clean about. Something that had been eating me up inside since I’d realized it at my sister’s wedding. Maybe I’d figured it out before, but keeping it to myself was killing me.
“I…” My throat closed up and I choked on the words. Clasping my fingers together in front of me, I twisted them together, nervous and suddenly shy. “I really like you. I mean—” Cole opened his mouth like he was about to interrupt me, but I held up a hand. “I know it was supposed to be fake. I know you told me not to fall in love with you. But I think we could really have something.” I meant every word, and as I peeked up at him, I hoped he felt the same.
His navy eyes darted back and forth between mine, like he was looking for the truth.
Sucking my lower lip into my mouth, I worried I’d said too much.
“Can I talk now?” His teasing tone didn’t alleviate my concerns, and I shifted my weight from foot to foot.
I nodded, biting down on my lip.
“Maybe…” His voice was thoughtful as he studied me. I leaned in closer to him, wondering what he had to say in response to my admission. “Maybe you’re not all that bad.”
“Not that bad? I’m not that bad?” I laughed and pushed at his chest.
His fingers wrapped around my wrists and he pulled me close, pinned my arms to my sides, and brought his lips down on mine, hard.
A stunned squeak escaped my lips even as my whole body melted into him. The rich flavor of whisky on his tongue excited me, and I could hardly breathe as he broke the kiss but didn’t bother to pull away. Instead, he growled against my lips. The tickle of it sent a shiver down my spine. “I need you.”
No one but Cole had ever said those words to me.
A delicious excitement dumped into my veins. “Right now?”
He pulled me closer, the hard length of him pressing into my belly, and I wanted him more than I could even express. “I need to be inside you. Right now.”
Those two words turned my body to goo and he scooped me up. I kissed him, winding my arms around his powerful shoulders as my heart slammed in my chest. He carried me into a massive bedroom and lowered me onto a dark bedspread. Natural light flooded through floor-to-ceiling windows separated by industrial steel beams that overlooked the ocean as far as the eye could se
e. It was beautiful, but I was more focused on the man who parted my thighs and lowered himself on top of me. His weight pushed me down into the bed and I moaned as my hips bucked. My whole body seemed desperate for friction, but he just gazed down at me, unmoving.
“Cole!” His name on my lips seemed to snap whatever fragile sense of control he had.
He nuzzled into my neck, the sting of his teeth sending a shiver through my body and an army of goose bumps rose all over my flesh. Under my dress, my nipples tightened.
Without warning, he grabbed a plump pillow and lifted my hips. Shoving it under me, he moved my skirts out of his way. The light in his eyes seemed almost feverish, and excitement filled me. He opened the front of his slacks and his cock sprang free, earning another gasp from me. Damn, he was so big.
There was the crinkle of a condom wrapper. Then, pulling my panties to the side, he plunged inside me, filling me, so hot and large and rough every molecule of oxygen was stolen right out of my lungs.
I must have cried out, because he froze and studied me as he withdrew. I wrapped my legs around his hips, refusing to let him go. I arched as he pulled the front of my dress down with impatient hands. I helped him, scrambling to undo buttons, until my breasts bounced as he plunged into me again. He cupped my breasts and I moaned, loving how hard my nipples grew against my palms.
Cole gripped my hip with one hand and placed his other between my legs. His thumb found the sensitive, throbbing bundle of nerves there and I inhaled with pleasure.
He moved, thrusting in hard and pulling back almost too much. “Touch yourself,” he commanded.
My eyes widened, but I obeyed, my hands finding my breast, my fingers squeezing my nipples. The resulting twin bolts of pleasure straight to my core stunned me as I locked eyes with Cole. He watched me through narrowed eyelids before ramming into me so hard that everything went white. His muscles strained against his button-down shirt and something about how he fucked me with our clothes just pushed out of the way turned me on even more. There was something so… naughty about it. Hurried. Like nothing else mattered. I liked it.
I pressed my head back into the bed and moaned, lost in the sensations of his thumb rubbing my clit. His cock stretching me with every thrust. My hands on my own breasts.
“Do you like it when I touch you like this?” His thick voice turned me on even more and I struggled to speak.
“Yes!” That wasn’t the truth. I didn’t like it; I freaking loved it.
As soon as the word left my lips, he doubled down, his thumb working harder until the friction of it made me flinch a little. Then he backed off, pulled almost all the way out of me, and plunged his thumb deep into my wet, welcoming body. A moment later, he pulled it out, slick with my juices, and began to work my clit with it again. This time, the pad of his thumb slid across my skin and I gasped with pleasure. He pushed his cock into me, his body demanding I yield, as if I had any choice. I’d never been so hot, so ready, so turned on in all my life.
“Please don’t stop.”
“Are you begging?”
I shivered at his rich, dangerous tone. Biting down on my lower lip again, as if I could hold back the noises leaving my mouth, I nodded. I would beg and not be at all ashamed. Maybe that would come later, but at the moment, I was lost in the sensations. His cock inside me. His thumb flicking over my clit. My fingers tugging my nipples. The wicked desperation of my body overwhelmed me.
“Please.” The word wrung out of my throat as I arched to meet his thrust. Little whimpers escaped my lips and my fingers rolled and pinched and tugged at my nipples while his thumb continued its punishing circles around my nub and his cock plunged into me as deep as possible. My hands left my chest to fist into in the perfect bedspread as the impending promise of pleasure roared through me.
The world imploded and little gasping breaths broke out of me as an avalanche of colors blinded me. As my body clenched, my inner muscles squeezed tight around his cock, and he growled as he pushed home inside me. Both of his hands gripped my hips as I rode out the orgasm and he rammed into me mercilessly.
“Cole!” Every nerve ending fired off, excitement releasing into my blood as he swelled up so big I cried out in shock.
He ripped the pillow from under my hips and pressed me deeper into the bed as he shoved deeply inside again and again, faster with every thrust.
Heat filled me as he came, and I wound my arms around his neck and kissed his jaw, his cheek, the corner of his lips. He turned his head and kissed me full on the mouth, slowing his thrusts as our tongues met in a sweet, exhausted kiss. His hips pressed me down into the bed and pinned me there while the scent of our joining settled around us.
“You’re perfect.” His softly spoken words sent a shockwave of tingling warmth through me and I squeezed my eyes shut.
I breathed a sigh of contentment and sheer happiness.
A moment later, he rolled off me, pulling me close and nuzzling into my neck, his breath warm on my skin.
I wanted to stay there, curled up with him, forever.
20
Cole
Laney kissed me again and smiled. “I really have to go this time.”
I wanted nothing more than for her to stay.
“You don’t have to go.” I’d said that already and she’d shot it down the first time.
She let out a soft laugh. “I know. I don’t want to.” Her hands squeezed mine as we stood before my front door. Her dress was mostly put to rights, but we were still hungry for one another. However, the sun was sinking lower and she didn’t want to drive home in the dark. “But I have to go.” Regret echoed in her voice and she kissed me again, a quick peck on my lips. Then another. And another, before I clamped my hand on the back of her head to keep her lips on mine. My hands tangled in her loose hair that had fallen free of the pretty feminine style she’d had it in for her sister’s wedding.
“I could take you to work tomorrow.” I didn’t know how to express it, but I needed her by my side, even if she could only promise me tonight.
She shook her head, rubbing the tip of her nose against mine. “I know you could. But I can’t go to work in this and I don’t want to rush home in the morning, shower, get dressed, and rush to work. That’s too much stress first thing in the morning.”
Her hands squeezed mine and I inhaled her sweet scent. “I can walk you down to your car.”
She shook her head again. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to show up with you there.”
I stiffened. It was true no one that we knew of had seen us disappear out of the wedding, and the last thing I wanted was a scene with any drunken stragglers. But since we’d left the bedroom, I’d noticed her approving gaze taking in my upscale decor. Maybe I was being paranoid or overly sensitive. But in my experience, women who wanted me actually wanted my money, not me.
She didn’t seem to notice my reaction and kissed me again. But a chill settled like ice water in my gut as I fought back all the things I didn’t want to consider. Finally, I pulled away.
Concern clouded her hazel eyes. “Did I do something wrong? You’re not upset that I won’t stay, are you?”
I shook my head, but hurt filled her eyes and I knew she didn’t believe me. Maybe it was better this way. If I didn’t let her in, if I didn’t get in deep, she couldn’t hurt me.
“I think it’s time for you to go.” I took a step back as she eyed me, stunned surprise and hurt welling up in her eyes.
She blinked, and twin tears fell down her cheeks like tiny falling stars, glittering before landing on the front of her dress. “I guess so.” Her husky tone gave away the ache in her throat.
She pulled open the door and closed it behind her without looking back, the click so final that it seemed to echo through me. Suddenly feeling lost, I sucked in a deep breath and stared at the door as the word gold digger and the way she’d silently appraised the contents of my house ran through my head.
Was she only in this for what she could get? That didn�
�t make sense. She didn’t know I was well off before coming to my house today. Or if she did, she was the world’s best actress and she’d surely fooled me.
I sank onto the hallway bench placed there for people to sit and remove their shoes when they arrived. When I built this place, I’d designed it to be inviting, but now the space hit me as cold and lonely.
A knock at the door brought me back to my feet.
It opened and Laney stepped back in, already talking. “Look, I don’t know what just happened there, but I don’t like it. If I made you mad by not staying the night, well, that’s not okay with me, but we can talk it out. If it’s because you have money and I’m not good enough for you, then just tell me. If it’s something else, we need to talk it out. We’re freaking adults. So let’s talk.” She put a hand on the doorframe and glared up at me.
But all I could think was that this looked like a salvage operation. That line about her not being good enough for me because I had money reeked of manipulation, and I didn’t like it one bit. I shook my head. “Just…go. I have things I need to do.” I could barely talk past the sickening knot in my gut that told me she wanted me for the same reason every other woman had ever wanted me—money, security. Not because of the person I was, just because I could give them the finer things in life.
She stared at me in stunned surprise
I stood there, struggling with how to fix this or if I even should. I was being an idiot. I knew that. But pride and insecurity galloped like wild horses through my mind, trampling everything I thought I knew or should do.
Another knock at the door caught me off guard and Laney jolted.
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