“Shit, dude. I thought you left without saying goodbye.”
Cole glanced up at Jake, who was standing in the open doorway of Cole’s work shack, his hair appearing extra unruly without his usual ball cap. The green cotton t-shirt beneath his jacket bore a fresh grease stain, indicating he had popped into the repair shop even though today was his day off.
“What the hell are you still doing here?” Jake continued, finishing off the bottle of water in his hands before tossing it into the wicker wastebasket free-throw style. He made a swish noise.
The clock above the unlit wood stove read eight p.m. Cole should’ve been on a bus back to Mason hours ago. But now there was no chance of him making it to Shaun’s while she was still awake. Would she have left a message with the doorman if he dared try? Cole couldn’t afford to test that line of thinking. These pieces for her needed to be perfect and he’d stay until they were, even if it meant taking the first bus out in the morning.
“Instead of busting my balls, get over here and help me. I need to get all these boards nailed down.” Cole was relieved to see his best friend, needing the extra hand and needing to get a grip on his scattered emotions. Jake peeled off his fleece jacket and rested it over an empty sawhorse.
“What the fuck is all this stuff for anyway? Did you sell your shit at the festival and not have the common decency to give me first dibs?” Jake grabbed a hammer off the tool wall while scanning the furniture that filled the modest space.
“No. Just get over here.” Cole pointed down at the pattern of reclaimed wood he had on the shack floor. “Start securing these to the frame of the headboard the same way they are laid out.” Cole showed Jake which end was the top. “Work your way row by row.”
“Got it. Where’s boss lady?” Jake asked, selecting the first piece without needing further instructions. “I know I’m the prettier one of the both of us, but damn, dude, you didn’t have to hide her from me.”
Jake grinned when Cole glared up at him while inspecting the last couple of slats for any snags. They’d never fought over girls in the whole of their friendship, having completely different tastes when it came to the opposite sex. Not to mention that Cole had spent most of his high school years attached to Christine, while Jake ran through the Sweetwater High cheerleading squad.
“I didn’t hide her. I just didn’t want to share any more of our time. Lacey did enough cock blocking the first two days. I thought I’d lose my mind if I let one more person interrupt us.”
“You didn’t seem all that affected by an audience yesterday. Or don’t you remember?” Jake smirked, scratching his back with the head of the hammer in his hand.
Cole laughed. “How did Christine react?”
“She stormed off, which I’m guessing was the point.”
“She tried to fucking kiss me, Jake. Right there in front of Shaun.” Cole stood up and curled his fingers in frustration. “I was so pissed. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You know she’ll forever hold a torch for you, regardless of what that asshole Cooper says. You two got history.”
Jake was right. When Cole’s father died, Cole had snuck out to Christine’s house every night for a month once he knew his mother and sister were asleep. Christine would hold him while they both laid in her bed in complete silence. He didn’t speak or cry, and she didn’t force him to do either. A side of himself he couldn’t share with his mom, deciding to remain strong for her and Lacey. He’d shielded his true feelings from them, stepping in to be the man of the house even though inside he felt like a complete fraud.
“Anyway, tell me more about boss lady. She was definitely pretty, but she seemed too high class for us small-town folk.” Jake changed the direction of the conversation, which had seemed headed in a disastrous turn toward somber.
“Yeah, she is, but she’s so much more than that.”
“So tell me, asshole.” Having finished with nailing down the first half of the headboard, Jake moved onto the second without pause. Cole didn’t usually allow anyone to help him with custom pieces, but he trusted Jake enough to know his best friend would only did as he asked.
“She’s so driven and focused. She knows exactly what she wants and doesn’t let people’s perceptions of her get in the way. Don’t get me wrong; everyone at works respects her because, hell, she demands it.” Cole realized he’d stopped working and was staring up at a gas lantern hanging from the ceiling. The flame flickered from the gentle breeze that was allowed entry through the open doorway. “Well, everyone except my uncle Rob, of course.”
“Yeah, what’s with that? You started to mention something at Charlie’s the other night, but then Cooper showed up.”
Cole inhaled a deep breath. “Turns out that he hired me to fuck her. Both in body and business.”
“No way! I thought that shit only happened in movies.”
“Yeah, you and me both.” Cole walked over to the beer fridge in the corner of the room and pulled out two frosty bottles. He popped the tops on both and handed one to Jake.
“So, you decided to go through with it? I mean, that was why she was here, right?”
Cole took a pull from the bottle and shook his head. “No. I planned on telling her everything, coming clean. But then every time we were together, I just couldn’t. My balls basically shriveled up in retreat. The thought of losing her because of my uncle’s scheming… It just doesn’t seem fair.”
“Maybe, but don’t you think she deserves the truth? I mean, especially if you want something with her. You must, if you’re building her furniture and shit.”
Cole knew Jake was right. He should’ve manned up and told Shaun about his uncle, the plan, the drawings. He should’ve never let her get back on that plane without knowing what waited for her when she returned to Mason.
“Way to make me feel worse, jerk.”
Jake lifted his shoulders. “I’m not trying to make you feel worse, but I haven’t seen you care about a girl like this in a long-ass time. You got it bad, bud. Remember, you do, and I watch from the sidelines, jealous as shit. Don’t go screwing up my endgame now.” He grinned, walking over and slapping Cole on the back hard.
“Quit flapping your gums and help me finish this, then. Pete will be here any minute.”
“You got it,” Jake replied, dropping his beer and returning to his station while Cole took a quick inventory of everything that would soon be making the surprise trip to Mason.
CHAPTER 26
Keeping a close eye on his phone, Cole pretended to sand a bar stool in what would be the main dining area of Ciao Belleza. The majority of his team remained in the kitchen, installing the appliances that had arrived at the beginning of the long weekend. Cole had retreated to his current location, leaving Justin at the helm, in favor of privacy for the call he hoped would soon come. He still couldn’t believe he had sacrificed the chance to fly with his boss on her private plane. Instead, he’d endured the four-hour bus trip back to Mason with a skeleton crew of passengers who all collectively prayed the driver wouldn’t fall asleep at the wheel. The sun hadn’t even reported into work until they were a half hour from the big city. The big city that he didn’t hate so much anymore.
Mind on everything but the stool in front of him, Cole jumped when his phone finally rang. He toyed with the notion of allowing the call to go to voicemail. Play relaxed even though he was everything but. He needed to know what Shaun thought of the surprise delivery. So far he’d only heard Pete and Carlos’s version, and they hadn’t elaborated too much, tired from the drive. Unable to hold out a second longer, Cole answered soon after the second ring.
“Hello, Ms. Wright,” he said, grinning wide, pretty damn sure he deserved an award for his calculated feat.
“Hello, Cole,” she replied. He could hear the matching smile in her voice, but she didn’t continue. Apparently she wanted him to work a little for his compliment. Damn, she was a formidable adversary. Too bad for him, he craved her approval more than he’d admit out l
oud.
Caving first, he fished like a pro bass angler. “Is there something you needed?” he asked, suspense eating away at him.
“I don’t know what to say,” she replied with a slight hesitation that alarmed him more than anything. Had he made a mistake, again pushing her farther than she really wanted to go?
He dropped the sandpaper he still held in his other hand and paced the short length of the dining room. “Be honest and say what you feel.” He waited a few excruciatingly silent moments more.
“Honestly, I don’t know what to say. The delivery was completely unexpected. The pieces are brilliant. Provocative. And then they brought in the bed.”
Cole perked up, his grip tightening on his phone. “And?”
“I think it’s the most magnificent thing I’ve ever seen.”
He released the breath he’d been holding waiting for her reaction. The one piece he’d felt the most unsure of had been the bed, the design completely his own and nothing like anything he’d done before. The headboard was made up of oak boards from his father’s original work shed that he’d been holding onto, waiting for the perfect reincarnation. The wood held sentimental value. Recalling how much Shaun had liked the idea of reclaimed wood for the restaurant bar, the fate of the oak boards had been determined.
“Where are you?” she asked.
Cole sat down, unable to remove the smile from his face, so wide his cheeks were starting to hurt. “I’m at the restaurant, of course. No time for slacking.”
“Oh,” she replied. The soft lilt of regret in her voice made him wish he were next to her instead.
“Where are you?” he asked, even though he suspected she was in her loft, surrounded by her new furniture. Hoped, more like it.
“Home. I couldn’t bear to leave.” She paused. “Can you get away for a bit?”
His heart sank as he took a mental inventory of everything that needed to be done before the private investor dinner Myles had decided to throw as a push to gain monetary interest. He had only four days and had already lost valuable time with the long weekend. “No, but…”
“But?” she repeated with a curious drawl.
“Wait one sec.” Cole told the other guy working around him that he’d be just a few minutes and then hauled ass to the one place he’d get the privacy he needed – the storage closet. Shutting himself inside, he switched on only one of the lamps suspended from the ceiling. He sat down on a mound of bags that held rice or something – hard to be sure in the dim light.
“The bed, are you near it?”
“Uh, yeah.” Shaun stammered her puzzlement.
“What are you wearing?”
She laughed, catching onto the direction the conversation was heading. “My navy blue pinstripe skirt and a cream button-down. You?”
“A fucking hard-on,” he replied, knowing the very skirt that hugged her ass so tightly. “God, I love you in those damn skirts. Now lie back on the bed for me,” he said, voice low and almost a growl.
“Cole, I really don’t think–”
“Shaun, my back is against the wall with the investor dinner on Friday. I’ll probably be sleeping here until then.”
“Do you need more workers? I can arrange for more right away.” She sounded as desperate to have him in front of her as he felt.
“No. What I need is for you to lie back on the goddamn bed and put your phone on speaker.” He flinched at his commanding tone and wondered if she’d hang up on him.
A rustle moved over the receiver, and Shaun’s voice returned, slightly distant now that it was on speaker. “I’m lying on the bed.” Her tone slightly clipped. She wasn’t used to taking orders, but the fact that she conceded made Cole’s heart stir in his chest.
He groaned, remembering how good she’d looked in his bed, tangled in the sheets, hair wild and begging to be pulled. “Pretend I’m there with you. Unbutton your blouse and open it for me.” He listened intently to the soft slip of fabric, envisioning his fingers doing the unbuttoning. One by one, revealing a smooth strip of light brown skin from nape to navel. The mental exercise in restraint was a pleasurable torture for himself as much as for her. “What color bra am I looking at?” he asked, not recognizing the huskiness of his own voice, knowing she hadn’t finished with his request since the movement was still a low rustle in his ear.
“Cream,” she whispered.
“Are you wearing stockings?” He already knew the answer and wished he were there to peel the silk off with his teeth. For now, he’d let her keep them on.
“Yes. Cream too.”
“Christ,” he muttered. His hand moved to the crotch of his jeans, and he propped a foot up on a crate of potatoes. He probably should have picked a more appropriate location, something away from food, but it was too late now. He refused to stop, short of someone kicking in the damn door.
“Hike your skirt up around your waist and remove your panties.”
“I don’t know if I can do this, Cole,” she replied, her voice guarded.
“Please, don’t make me beg, Shaun. But I will if I have to.” His desperation was a solid presence in the dark closet. He craved her in a way he didn’t understand, never having desired a woman as much as he desired Shaun. Everything about her a potent aphrodisiac.
“I just might make you.” She laughed softly, loosening the tension. Several moments of silence followed.
Sure he’d made a mistake, Cole readied himself for embarrassing disappointment. God, he sucked at seduction, unable to tempt a woman like Shaun, who had exhibited limited inhibitions with Olivia. He wanted to be the one coaxing the wild tigress free from her cage.
“What now?” Cole’s heart leapt with satisfaction, pumping more blood south toward his cock now painfully wedged against his zipper, wanting to reach out and touch someone.
“Part your legs wide and hold yourself open for me.” Cole lowered his zipper, tick by agonizing tick, and freed himself from his boxer briefs, his cock rock hard from the picture he had of Shaun in his mind. She swallowed loud enough for him to hear. The phone had to be right next to her ear on the bed, he realized, beginning to stroke himself.
“Imagine your middle finger is my tongue,” he continued, straining to remain patient when his mind made him anything but. “Slide my tongue inside you; make it nice and wet.” Her breathing grew uneven, but she didn’t say a word. “Move my tongue to your clit and make small, tight circles.” She moaned, and the pace with which his hand slid up and down his erection quickened. “Tell me how that feels.”
“Good,” she breathed.
“What else?” he rasped. “How wet are you?”
“Dripping wet.” Cole bit his lip, holding back his curse this time.
“Tell me what my tongue is doing to you every time it enters your sweet little pussy.”
Shaun gasped on the other end, not expecting him to be so explicit, Cole imagined. However, he needed to use all the tools in his toolbox in order to make this arrangement work for both of them.
“It moves nice and deep and makes my body tight and greedy for more.”
“Yes. That’s it.” He gritted his teeth, slowing the hurried tempo of his palm.
“Now tell me about you.”
“What about me?” Cole smirked, knowing exactly what she wanted from him.
“What are you doing?” she asked, voice growing more hoarse from her delicious exertion.
“Stroking my cock, imagining myself buried between your thighs. My mouth splitting its time between suckling your tight nipples and swallowing your cries for more.” His hand moved down to cups his balls, giving his cock a small respite before he finished too prematurely. “Enough about me. I want to lick you lower again. Test how wet you are. Wear your need for my cock all over my lips.” God, he wished he was there to watch, knowing how beautiful she must look. So vulnerable and open for him on the bed he’d made with the very hand that was driving him closer to orgasm. “Slide my tongue in and out. In and out, again.”
; “Oh, fuck,” she murmured, making him smile with satisfaction. Shaun didn’t curse very often, but when she did, the words were so damn sexy.
“You like that?”
“Yes,” she replied, barely audible over his own pounding pulse.
“I can’t hear you.”
“Yes,” she repeated. Louder. Desperate.
“You like the way my tongue fucks you?” The knuckles of his fist whitened, the grip he had on his hard shaft tight, almost painful.
“Yes,” she cried out. Cole could sense she was close.
“Move my tongue back to your clit, pinch yourself like I’m sucking hard. Not stopping until you come all over my face and beg me to replace my tongue with my cock.”
“Cole,” she pleaded.
“Right here, baby. Not stopping for any fucking thing.”
“Cole!” she cried again, more urgent and out of breath.
“Yes?” he asked, feeling the tingle of his own climax. “Fuck, baby! I’m almost there. Don’t let up.”
She cursed again, and soon his name left her lips with a strangled whimper, the signal of her release. Hot, wet ribbons doused his hand when he was unable to hold himself a moment longer.
Cole shot up with a start at the sound of someone banging on the door.
“Cole, are you in there?”
He cursed at the strained sound of Myles’s voice, while Shaun laughed in his ear. “Just one minute,” he yelled back, scrambling to grab a bar towel from the shelf behind him.
“Where are you exactly?” Shaun asked on the trail of a contented sigh.
“The storage closet,” he confessed, and she laughed harder. “Laugh it up, Ms. Wright. Look, I better go before Myles knocks the door off its hinges.”
“Okay.” The tone of her voice echoed his feelings: as good as what had just happened felt, it wasn’t enough for either of them. “Goodbye, Mr. Jacobson.”
“Goodbye, Ms. Wright.” Ending the call, Cole cleaned himself up and unlocked the closet door. Myles’s mottled appearance couldn’t be a good sign.
Drawn Through You Page 22
