by Sonya Weiss
He didn’t even hesitate. “Started the software security business with Mason and Jake.”
“Dumbest thing you’ve ever done?” Maddie looked up, waiting for his response.
“Getting drunk in college and thinking I could jump from the third story apartment balcony onto the tree next to the building.”
“Ooh.” Maddie sucked in a breath. “Didn’t end well?”
Cole winced from the memory. “Broke my collarbone. Painful as hell.”
“Next on the list… Do you think money can buy happiness?”
Cole thought for a few minutes. “No.”
“No?” Maddie held his gaze.
“It can buy things to make people more comfortable, but I know more than a handful of wealthy people who are miserable.”
“Hmmm.” She trailed her finger down the page. “What one thing do you absolutely hate in a relationship?”
“Lies,” he said without hesitation. He could put up with a lot of idiosyncrasies, but he couldn’t tolerate being lied to, especially if it was about an important issue.
Maddie put the pamphlet down. “Sounds like there’s some history there.”
“I dated a woman a few years back, and I don’t think she had more than a passing acquaintance with the truth.” Not wanting to look back at that history, he reached over and picked up the pamphlet. “Your turn. What do you love most about a man?” He shook his head. “I already know your answer to that one. Intelligence, right?”
“Absolutely.” Maddie laughed and winked.
“Seriously.”
“I like a man’s fearlessness.”
“Fearlessness?”
“Men just seem to be fearless. Like leaping from balconies.”
Cole laughed. “That wasn’t fearlessness. It was bravado and liquid courage.”
“Okay then, what about the way men drive?”
He gave her a look. “I’ve never been ticketed for my driving. Do you want to know why?”
“Because you didn’t get caught?”
“Because I’m the best at everything I do.”
Maddie made a face. “I guess I’ll just have to take your word for it.”
The teasing tone of her voice told him exactly what she was thinking. Erotic thoughts paraded through his mind, tormenting him. He was relieved when the waitress returned with their food.
“Is Delilah here?” Maddie asked.
The waitress nodded. “She’s in her office. I’ll let her know you’re asking about her. Might take her a few minutes to see you. She’s on a call.”
Cole started eating and was surprised at how delicious the food was. “This place has to be the best-kept secret in Chicago.”
Maddie nodded. “Delilah doesn’t advertise. She didn’t create the place to make a profit. Every penny she gets goes right back into the community. Every third weekend, she closes to everyone except families who are struggling to put food on the table. She feeds them and sends them home with leftovers.”
“I hadn’t heard that.”
“She keeps her giving on the down low. She doesn’t do it for the recognition any more than you do.”
Cole could feel the heavy weight of her admiration, and it made his drive for revenge taste a little bitter. He blew off her compliment with a smile and concentrated on eating. When they were done, as he was paying the bill, Delilah joined them at the register.
The other woman was tall, with black hair and skin so pale it looked almost porcelain. In comparison, it made the blood red of her lipstick stand out in stark contrast.
“Sorry, I couldn’t get to you sooner. I was handling some stuff.” She put out her hand toward Cole and shook his hand. “I’ve been meaning to return your company’s calls, but it’s hard for me to pin anything down on the phone. Why don’t I shoot you an email with what I’m looking for and we can go from there?”
“That’ll work.” Cole thanked her as his phone rang. When he saw it was Pierce, he excused himself to step outside and take it. He glanced back at the restaurant’s door and lowered his voice. “Tell me you have a lead on the rest of the assets.”
“I should have something within the next few days, but I’m calling because I need a favor.”
As his friend talked, Cole heard Maddie’s laughter ringing through the door. It surprised and dismayed him to realize that he felt a stronger twinge of guilt for continuing his quest to go after her grandfather. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he didn’t want to disappoint Adam’s memory, either. He didn’t like the stirrings of unease in his gut. The ones telling him that if he wasn’t careful, everything was going to fall down around him like a house of cards.
Chapter Eleven
“What’s with you and handsome? Picking up more friends at bars?”
Maddie smiled at the reminder. Not long after moving to Chicago, she’d been out with Joy, and they’d met Delilah at a bar. She’d been discreetly trying to extricate herself from a drunken, wouldn’t-take-no-for-an-answer guy. Maddie had deliberately bumped into him, dumping her drink on his shirt. When the guy had stumbled to the bathroom, Delilah had thanked her and introduced herself. Then the three of them had moved on to a different bar.
When Delilah arched her eyebrows, Maddie admitted, “Actually, I’m sleeping with him. Supposedly. Hasn’t happened yet, even though it’s in the contract.”
Delilah blinked. “I am so not following.”
In a rush of words, Maddie told her everything, including what was going on with her grandfather.
“Wow.” Delilah glanced at the door for a second. “I can tell you that while I have heard rumors about Cole’s ruthlessness, I’ve heard just as much about all he’s done for others.”
“I know. It’s like he’s a good guy deep down, but he refuses to believe that or even acknowledge it.”
Delilah narrowed her eyes. “You like him.”
“What? No! I mean, I do, but not in the way you’re insinuating. I’m only here for the sex.” She grinned impishly.
Her friend laughed. “Then more power to you. I can’t remember the last time I went to the boneyard.”
“That bad?”
Delilah sighed. “I’m so busy that my sisters threatened to find me a pity boink.”
“Dating isn’t easy, that’s for sure.”
Pushing back her hair, Delilah said, “I don’t have time to date. I just want one good, hot night with a gorgeous guy whose mission it is to worship me in bed. Is that so wrong?”
“Then maybe you should take your sisters up on the pity boink,” Maddie said as she headed to the door.
“I’ll have to wait until I’m desperate enough. They set me up on that blind date last year.”
“Oh yeah. The guy who said he had equipment to prevent his brain from being sucked out by aliens. He thought dollar bills contained hidden messages from a galaxy far, far away.”
“I get all the winners.” Delilah laughed and shook her head. “Call me later.”
Maddie promised she would and walked outside.
Cole ended his phone conversation as soon as he saw her. “I have to get over to Pierce’s place. It won’t take long, but if you want me to drop you back at the house first, I will.”
“I don’t mind going.”
A comfortable silence filled the car for the time it took for Cole to drive to an upscale apartment building. He got out and waited for Maddie, then explained as they headed into the lobby. “Pierce fosters dogs, and he was supposed to be home for a dog’s arrival today, but he’s running late. His housekeeper had an emergency and had to leave the dog there alone.”
“So you’re on doggy daycare duty.”
They stepped into the elevator. “Exactly.”
“Never would have guessed you’d be involved with helping animals.”
“I’ve fostered when I’ve had time. Mostly strays.”
He glanced at her, and Maddie couldn’t breathe right. “You are a man of surprises.”
“In and out of the bedroom,” he teased.
>
“If I can ever get you to put out, maybe I’ll see that for myself.”
Cole laughed.
“Why’d you get involved with caring for strays?”
The elevator doors slid open, and he stepped out into a wide hallway. “Because I know what it’s like to be one.”
That made Maddie’s heart clench so hard it felt like it was folding in on itself. She could see him in her mind’s eye as the unloved, unwanted kid, and she wanted to throw her arms around Cole and hug him until she didn’t have any more strength left.
He punched in a security code, and they were instantly greeted by the sound of a high-pitched bark. A little dog of questionable parentage skidded into view, its pointy teeth clamped securely around what appeared to be the brown root of something.
Maddie followed the dog through the foyer into the living room and was greeted by a mess. A ceramic pot that had once housed what was left of a houseplant was on its side with soil scattered from one end of the room to the other. A pile of soggy, shredded paper was in a heap on the sofa with muddy little footprints trekked around it.
A terrible odor reached her, and Maddie wrinkled her nose. “Do you—”
“Smell that?” he asked in unison.
They both looked at the dog, who jumped back, lowered his front paws, yapped, and then ran down the hallway to disappear into a bedroom.
“I’ll grab him,” Cole said as they rushed into the room and cornered the dog.
Maddie managed to latch onto the small animal and headed into the bathroom with him wiggling against her. “Better dogs have tried and failed to escape their bath,” she warned him as she tucked him more securely in her arms and Cole ran bath water. “I’ve got this if you can get started on cleaning up,” she told him.
Discovering that Cole had a tender spot for animals had made him leap up a notch or two in what she thought of him. “Just like I thought. He’s iron on the outside but a marshmallow on the inside,” she said as she rubbed under the dog’s chin and lowered him into the water. She rested on her haunches and looked the dog in the eyes.
“Who knows? Maybe his tender spot will be strong enough to break through the him against the world attitude that he has.” She thought about her conversation with Delilah. Okay, so she did like Cole. But that was because she could see beneath the mask he clung so tightly to. If not for his determination to ruin her grandfather, he’d be…
The dog barked, and Maddie said, “Exactly. He’d be perfect.”
…
Cole finished sweeping up the last bit of soil as Maddie walked into the living room with the dog wrapped in a fluffy towel. Judging by how wet her dress was, she’d taken more of a bath than the dog had. He straightened and looked closer at her.
Laughter danced in her eyes, and she didn’t wear the expression of a spoiled heiress. Come to think of it, she never had, not even the day at her pool when she’d told him to keep his hands off her.
“Why did you want the money that I gave you?”
Her smile faltered, and she returned his stare, obviously debating on what to say. Finally, she sighed and said, “Personal reasons.”
“And the mistress deal?”
Maddie laughed and admitted, “That was personal, too. I was attracted to you years ago and just as strongly again when I met you at the hotel and didn’t know who you were. You were sexy as hell and…” She lifted her shoulders in a shrug.
He emptied the dustpan with a frustrated move. “I don’t know what to make of you.” He put the broom back into the closet. “When we met again, part of me thought that you were one hell of an actress or equally as good at conning people as your grandfather is. But now, the other half of me thinks that…” …you’re so beautiful I can’t stop thinking about you. That I want you more than I’ve ever wanted a woman.
“Thinks what?” she prompted.
Struggling with the fear of giving her something to use against him, he wasn’t about to share what was really on his mind, so he settled for saying, “I don’t know.”
The front door opened, saving Cole from any further explanation as Pierce walked in and took in the scene in one quick glance. “My flight was late.” He set his briefcase down. “You must be Maddie.”
“The gold-digging mistress in the flesh,” Maddie said with a theatrical bow.
The tips of Pierce’s ears reddened. “I never said—”
“She’s messing with you,” Cole said, not liking the long, appreciative look his friend was giving her. He took the dog from Maddie’s arms and passed it to Pierce. “I’ll see you later at the party.”
Pierce nodded and thanked them as they left.
On the way back to the car, Maddie asked, “How’d you meet Pierce? You two seem more like friends than attorney and client.”
“We are. I met Pierce years ago as he was leaving an event he organized to help elderly people who needed an attorney but couldn’t afford one. An old woman had missed the bus and ran out in front of my car to stop him. I braked and saw him sit down on a dirty stoop to talk to her.” Cole could still picture the rain growing steadily worse and how oblivious Pierce was as he focused his attention on the woman.
“After that, you hired him to work for you?”
“Not exactly. I fund his pro bono endeavors, which is where his heart is, and in exchange, he handles whatever legal issues I have.”
“You are an amazing man,” Maddie said as she ducked inside the car.
“You’re only trying to flatter me because you want my body,” he returned with a grin as he drove them to his house.
Maddie twirled an imaginary mustache. “Is it working?”
“I’m not sure. Keep talking.”
“Like we discussed at Love Bites, more than a hot body, I love a man’s intelligence the most. The fact that you have all those deeply cut angles on your abdomen doesn’t mean as much to me as your mind does.”
“I’d believe you except for the way you keep looking at me.” He pulled through the gate leading up to his house and parked.
“It’s your imagination.”
“Obviously,” he said drily, then added, “I’m going to shower.”
“Me, too,” Maddie said as she hopped out of the car. When Cole looked at her, she said, “I meant alone. Obviously.”
He followed behind her and took a kick to the gut when he saw her dress bounce as she bounded up the stairs in front of him. She was beautiful, funny, and kind. Nothing about Maddie fit the labels he’d assigned her. He didn’t like innocent people getting caught in the middle of his plans. With that still bothering him, he grabbed a towel and jumped into the shower. When he finished and was about to turn off the water, he thought he heard something and opened the door to check.
Maddie was in front of the linen closet, her hand outstretched as she reached for a towel. She was wearing a thin, see-through—God help him—robe that clung to her thanks to the dampness of her skin.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t shut the shower door correctly and got water on the floor. I was looking for something to dry it up with.” Her gaze dropped, then she swallowed as he stepped from the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist.
He wanted to forget the sight of her nipples taut beneath her robe and the hint of womanly curves he’d seen, but his brain wouldn’t listen to him. Moving past her, he reached for a set of towels. “These should do the job. They’re thicker.” He went to hand them to her, and the back of his hand grazed the heavy fullness of her breast.
She sucked in a breath, and Cole couldn’t move. Couldn’t look away from the depths of her eyes. Couldn’t run from the heat rising between them. The way that she looked at him like she’d die if she couldn’t have him made his last thread of control snap.
With a soft groan of surrender, he put his hands on her hips and pulled her against him. He lowered his head, and his lips found hers. She tasted as sweet and willing as she’d been the first time he kissed her. She opened her mouth beneath his demanding one and kiss
ed him as if she’d been waiting for him all her life.
Needing to see her, he undid the sash on her robe and tugged at it until she stood naked in front of him. “Perfection,” he said with a voice that sounded too heavy and thick to belong to him.
Maddie smiled her siren’s smile. “You like what you see?”
In response, he swung her around, pinning her against the wall with his body. Everywhere that her voluptuous curves made contact with his body set him on fire. His hunger to take her grew to ravenous proportions as he thrust his tongue into her willing mouth, and she met him taste for taste, urging him on.
He tightened his hold on her hips and lifted her up to push his aching length against her. Maddie let out a groan against his lips and linked her hands around his neck.
Cole didn’t give a damn about the past or the future. The only thing that mattered was the woman his body begged him to take hard and fast, then again with slow sweetness.
Holding her with one hand, he used the other to cup her breast, intending to replace his fingers with his mouth, but before he could, Maddie’s hand closed around him. His body tightened, and it took every ounce of his willpower not to lower her to the floor and drive into her that second, but he knew she needed him in a way that went beyond a fast slaking of their desire.
She stroked him, and he had to reach between them and put his hand on hers, clamping down until she stilled. Breathing hard and fast, he raised his head and drank in her face. The heavy desire in her eyes, her kiss-swollen lips, the flush of her cheeks. He could read it in her eyes that she needed an emotional connection.
He didn’t do connections, emotional or otherwise, but the wary emotion in her eyes that wasn’t quite hidden by the desire got to him. Realization hit him like a line drive from a baseball bat. Maddie was a lot more vulnerable than she let on, and she hid it behind her humor, behind her desire.
“I’m going to amaze you with my…intellect.” He lifted her up, tossed her over his shoulder, and walked into his bedroom.
Maddie laughed and hit his shoulder.
He slapped her firmly rounded bottom lightly and then lowered her slowly down the length of his body. Whipping off his towel, he dropped it onto the floor in one swift move, then pushed it aside.
