by Zoe York
“I was.” He nodded.
“Good to see you around.” Casey glanced at the others. “Can I stop being the new guy now that he’s moved here?”
“You don’t get to stop being the new guy for at least ten years, dude. That’s how it is.” Trevor spread his hands and backed toward the dart board.
“Oh, come on.” Casey groaned then looked at Cole. “Have they started in on this Founding Family business with you, too?”
“Founding Family?” Cole glanced at her.
“Oh geeze.” Scarlett sighed. “In the eighties, I think, some historical society decided that Ransom was the most unchanged town in Texas. There was a ceremony and a plaque and probably a parade. They then made these kind of gaudy, awful rings for each family who could trace their roots back to the days when Ransom was first incorporated. The rings are kind of ugly.”
“My girlfriend likes it.” Trevor shrugged.
“If you say so.”
“Is your family one?” Cole asked.
“Yup.” Scarlett nodded. “There has been a Lively living on the land at the bottom of the hill since Ransom was first a town.”
“And then they stole the barn out from under everyone.” Liam wagged a finger at her.
“That story isn’t true.” Scarlett glared at the man.
“That’s the story I heard.” Liam held up his hands.
“Well it’s wrong.” She’d heard all the stories about how the barn had come to be in the Lively family, and she didn’t believe any of them. Her story was the true one.
“You lot going to keep yapping or are we playing?” Trevor drank deeply from his pint glass. “Cole, Scarlett, one of you going to be our fourth?”
“Go ahead.” Scarlett nodded at Cole. She knew this group well enough, but he could use with making a few friends.
As the game progressed the guys egged each other on, drinking their beers down fast. The bar was busy and the two waitresses had a lot of people to serve, so she took the guy’s requests and went to the bar where Jessica North reigned supreme. The bar was said to sit on the foundations of the first saloon and it had always been run by a North. Jessica’s father had retired a number of years back, and just like he’d promised, hardly a soul saw him.
“Be right with you,” Jessica said as she breezed from of the bar to the other. Like most nights, she wore jean shorts and a T-shirt. Jessica’s style was very casual. She didn’t flaunt anything to her patrons, probably because everyone knew that one inappropriate glance at Jessica would mean facing down her overly protective father. There wasn’t a soul who wanted to run that risk.
The bar sat in the middle of the room rather than up against a wall. It was an odd layout, but as Scarlett understood that was the way The Watering Hole had been set up for generations.
“You.” Jessica returned, leaned one arm on the polished surface of her bar and wagged a finger at Scarlett. Jessica pitched her voice lower. Bits of her red hair stuck to her cheek and her eyes were bright. “You have been holding out.”
“On what?” Scarlett scrambled to think of anything.
“Oh come on. He’s gorgeous.” Jessica glanced over Scarlett’s shoulder.
Cole.
Scarlett opened and closed her mouth. The muscles in her throat tightened, and she knew she had to be blushing.
“You are holding out,” Jessica whispered and leaned even closer.
“It’s…” Scarlett wanted to downplay the relationship now that someone was shining a light on it. But saying it was nothing was being unfair to the honesty they’d shared.
“I am so jealous. Please tell me the sex is good. Someone needs to be having good sex because it sure as hell isn’t me.” Jessica groaned. Come to think of it, Scarlett didn’t even know if she’d ever seen Jessica with a boyfriend since high school.
“It would be good, except we aren’t having any.” Scarlett’s cheeks heated. It had been a long time since she’d had girl talk about guys, sex or relationships.
“Why not?” Jessica asked.
“Because…” Scarlett shrugged. How much could she share?
“Oh, no. No, that’s not okay.” Jessica crossed to the register and spent a moment ringing someone up.
Scarlett glanced over her shoulder at the guys all intently focused on the dart board.
Cole looked like he fit.
Could this be something that lasted? Or was hoping for that setting herself up for the crash and burn?
She didn’t know, and it wasn’t like she was the kind of girl who could hold a piece of herself back. When she was in, she was all in. And with Cole it had gone faster than anyone else.
“Here.” Jessica slid a bulky napkin across the bar to her then glanced over Scarlett’s shoulder. A sly smile spread over her face. “Officer Smith.”
“Evening Jessie.” Casey leaned on the bar next to her.
“I’m pouring your drinks now,” she said.
“Boyfriend seems okay.” Casey glanced at her.
“He’s nice,” Scarlett countered.
“You want us to look into him?”
“No.” Scarlett knew his secrets. No one else needed to.
“Okay. You just say the word.” Casey drummed his fingers on the counter.
A cheer rose up from the dart board. She shared a look with Casey then together they carried the group’s drinks back.
“Thanks, babe.” Cole leaned in and kissed Scarlett, a lingering, toe curling kiss that made her want to suggest leaving the bar. But she didn’t.
He pulled away in time to watch Casey step up to the line.
Scarlett took that opportunity to investigate the napkin Jessica had slid her.
A tiny, square envelope was inside with the words Emergency Condom printed on the paper.
Scarlett’s head snapped up, and she glanced at the bar where Jessica was watching her. She gave Scarlett two thumbs up and a grin. She shook her head and drank deeply from her bottle hoping to cool the blush. It might have worked if Cole kept his distance, but he didn’t.
Each time he had a good throw he pivoted, kissed her, then went back.
For the next hour the four guys carried on their highly competitive and increasingly inebriated competition. Scarlett didn’t try to keep pace with them though she enjoyed a few more than her usual number of drinks. Toward the end the guy were lucky to even hit the cork board. Most of the darts went into the wall or the strip of carpet.
“Okay. Okay, I’m done.” Trevor held up his hands, his grin wide and his eyes more than a little dazed. “Dina’s picking me up any minute.”
“I’m at my limit, too.” Cole braced his hands on the table and glanced at her. His eyes danced, and she’d seen him happier tonight than in the whole time she’d known him. They’d smiled, laughed, had fun. She hoped he liked it here because she was beginning to really like him.
“Want to take a walk?” he asked.
“Go ahead, leave,” Liam grumbled.
“We’ll close down the bar without you.” Casey lifted his empty glass.
“Bye, guys.” Scarlett waved at them then took Cole’s hand. Hanging out had been fun, but she was ready to have Cole all to herself.
“Hey.” Casey snapped. “No driving.”
“We’re walking,” Cole said.
They settled their tab with Jessica, who wouldn’t stop grinning at Scarlett. Even Cole took notice, giving her a sideways look that said they would talk about this. And she hoped they did.
She’d been mildly disappointed Saturday night after dinner and hanging out with Benji that Cole left. Sleeping with him had soothed a part of her she hadn’t realized was aching. She knew why he’d done it, why forcing the brakes was a good idea, but she couldn’t forget Friday night.
They stepped out of the bar and into a chilly night. She shivered and blinked, caught off guard by the dip in temperature.
“Is fall here?” Cole slid his hand in hers.
“Technically, yes. This will pass. We don’t really g
et rid of the heat until late October. First freeze is in November.”
“What does that mean for your garden?”
“Oh, that was a lost cause as soon as that pig destroyed it.” She sighed. “Next year, I guess?”
Cole hummed his answer and threaded their fingers together.
“Where are we headed?” she asked.
“Don’t know. My place?” He glanced down at her.
“Sounds good to me.” Her Jeep was at his place, anyway.
“What was going on between you and the bartender? What’s her name?” Cole didn’t sound the least bit tipsy, but she’d drank enough that her whole body felt warm and she was prone to laughing too much.
“Jessica.” Scarlett ignored the first question.
“What were you and Jessica talking about?” Cole’s voice dropped a bit to a low, sexy pitch.
“Why is that any of your business?”
“Because you are my business.” He let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her waist, forcing her to walk closer to him.
She liked when he got possessive, held her close and showed affection in public. Those were things her ex hadn’t always wanted to do. Cole seemed to enjoy them as much as she did.
“What were you talking about?” he whispered. They were the only ones walking. There wasn’t anyone to hear, and yet she glanced around.
“You. Okay?” She gave him a little shove, but he didn’t let go of her.
“What about me?”
“That you’re sexy. That you were there with me—”
“Hey, I thought you went with me.”
Scarlett chuckled and shook her head.
“What else did you talk about?” He just wasn’t going to let her off easy.
“That we weren’t having sex.”
“I see.”
She wasn’t sure what reaction she’d been hoping for, but that cool tone wasn’t it. She’d wanted something more. Something else.
“Then she gave me an emergency condom,” Scarlett announced.
“Did she now?” Cole glanced down at her, but she didn’t look at him.
“Yup.”
“And you kept it?”
“Leaving it on the bar would have caused more of a stir.”
“I see. And what do you want to do with that condom?”
“Keep it around, I guess. It does say it’s an emergency condom.”
“You don’t want to use it?”
“Maybe someday. Not using it seems silly.”
“But not tonight?”
“I thought you decided we weren’t having sex.” Now she did turn her head and peer up at him.
Mistake.
He was staring down at her as though he’d like nothing more than to eat her up. She’d already experienced those talents a few times and knew just how powerful he was.
“I’m willing to revisit that decision. What do you think?” They passed into shadow and his face was shrouded in darkness for a moment.
“Well.” She took the opportunity to breathe deeply. “The point was to prove that there is more than great sex. Right?”
“Was that what we had? Great sex?”
“What would you call it?” Shit. Had it just been okay for him?
“Amazing sex.”
“Oh.”
“My point was to slow down. We have chemistry, but we have only started to get to know each other.” The light slowly revealed the thoughtful way he watched her as they walked. “I want to do this right. The last relationship we both had wasn’t healthy. I don’t want to repeat that.”
“Are you saying we’re in a relationship?” Scarlett didn’t want to admit how much the ambiguous status made her nervous.
“Are we?”
“That’s what I asked you.”
“If being in a relationship means you’re the person I think about, the one I want to hear from, spend time with, sleep with, then yeah. This is a relationship.” He lifted their hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Problem with that?”
“Nope.” She shivered. That didn’t sound bad at all. Even if it did mean they weren’t going to sleep together soon.
“Just because I wanted to spend time with you knowing we weren’t going to hook up then doesn’t mean we can’t now.” His hand slid down to her hip. “But that wasn’t why I wanted you to go out with me tonight.”
“If I say no?” She’d tried her vibrator, but it hadn’t eased her frustration.
“Then maybe we make out a little before you go home?” He bent his head and kissed her.
“And if I say yes?”
“Don’t tease me, babe. I’m doing my best to be a gentleman.” He steered them around a corner. His house was three streets down, make a right and third on the left.
Scarlett had put sex into a dark part of her memory, content to not think about it during her period of self improvement. Now that Cole had brought it to the forefront, she couldn’t deny that she wanted sex and him more than she had the nerve to say.
Cole was a man who knew what he wanted, and yet he didn’t let that get in the way of looking out for her. He was pulling back, trying to ease them into this relationship. Because that’s what he thought was best for them? Or what she needed?
It was hard to find reason to hold back when she looked at the package he presented.
Yes, there was risk. There was always risk. But if she was going to take a chance on someone, shouldn’t it be with a man who prioritized her wants and needs?
She slid her arm around his waist. They kept step with each other, his heat keeping the chill away.
They didn’t speak as they neared his house. The porch light was on, beckoning them.
He’d hung curtains. Yet another indication Cole was settling in.
Scarlett climbed the stairs, her decision settling firmly in her gut.
She wasn’t leaving Cole’s house for quite a while.
“Want something? Water, maybe? A snack?” He opened the door for her and gestured for her to enter.
“Hm.” She stepped inside, a hunger of a different kind driving her.
“A look like that will give a man ideas.” Cole braced his hand against the door and twisted the deadbolt.
“Ideas like…?”
“The hot and sweaty kind.” He leaned in, his gaze on her lips.
“What if I told you I like those ideas?” She slid her hands up over his shoulders.
“I’d be a very lucky man.”
Cole was right there. So close she could feel his breath. His lips brushed her skin as he spoke. She tugged on his shoulders, but he didn’t budge.
Did he have to hear her state her desire plainly?
She leaned toward him, but she didn’t kiss him.
Two could play the tease game.
“I want you, Cole,” she whispered in his ear.
He seemed to growl in response. The next moment her back was flat against the bit of wall between the door and windows. He pressed against her, his hands stroking her side. His mouth found hers, stealing her breath away. He grasped her wrists, prying them from around his neck and flattened them to the wall over her head.
She had no doubt whatever he had in mind was going to leave her mindless with pleasure.
“You have no idea how badly I want you,” he said, pressing his forehead against hers.
“Likewise.” She kicked off her shoe and wrapped her calf around his, urging him closer still.
“I didn’t like other men looking at you tonight in this short skirt.” He slid one hand down her thigh.
“It goes to my knees.” She chuckled.
“Doesn’t matter.” He finally found bare skin.
She meant to tell him she’d known most of the men in there since kindergarten and the rest were too old to be contenders, but the feel of his fingers tracing lines up her inner thigh short circuited her thought.
He went all the way up to the edge of her panties, then traced the edge, back and forth.
“Yo
u’re so beautiful they’d look at you wearing a garbage bag,” he said.
Scarlett smiled. She didn’t agree, but that didn’t matter. The important thing was that Cole wanted her to the point that he was a touch jealous.
“You like the idea of being looked at?” he asked.
“No. Not like that.”
“What are you smiling about?” His finger coasted over her lace covered mound. She’d broken out the pretty panties for him just in case.
“You being jealous.”
“That’s a good thing?”
“I can get a lot jealous. I like knowing this is a two-way street.”
“Another thing we have in common.” He slid his fingers back between her legs.
She widened her stance and let her eyes drift close, intoxicated by the feel of him, his touch.
“How wet are you?” he whispered.
“Very.”
His fingers delved past the elastic band and stroked her folds, skin on skin. She groaned at the feel of him against her. Each pass grew firmer, parting her lips until he was pressed to her entrance.
“Damn, Scarlett.”
She tugged at his hold on her arms, but he didn’t let go of her. Instead he leaned in and kissed her then thrust his fingers inside of her. She whimpered, but he kissed the sound away as he sank knuckles deep.
His fingers curled, massaging her insides. It felt good, but she wanted more. Him. As deep as he was last time, looking into his eyes, feeling him. And yet her body responded to his confident touch. She used her leg hooked around his for leverage, shifting her hips in time to his thrusts. She whimpered against his mouth, knowing she didn’t stand a chance in holding out.
Cole’s thumb massaged her, finding her clit as he thrust.
One press, that was all it took.
Her spine arched, and she stared at the ceiling, vision going blurry as the orgasm crested and broke over her. It was pure pleasure. There were no strings, nothing to account for or explain. Cole held her until her limbs stopped shaking, his lips pressing little kisses to her face. He’d let go of her hands at some point and she held onto him.
“Up,” he muttered. It was all the warning she had before he hoisted her up.
Somehow she managed to get her legs around his waist.
She cupped his face and kissed him as he staggered down the hall and into his bedroom.
