Kiss Me Like You Missed Me

by Taylor Holloway

  “Yeah, me either,” Ward agreed. He ran a hand through his hair in apparent confusion. “But I guess it’s true what they say. We don’t get to choose who we love, do we?”

  “No. I guess we don’t.”

  His words struck me to the core. Lucas still had it bad for Victoria and although I sympathized, I also found myself bizarrely jealous and frustrated. Lucas wasn’t hiding or skulking around when it came to his feelings for Victoria. She might be an awful human being, but he loved her, and it was definitely no secret. And why should it be? There’s no shame in loving someone. Ward was right, Lucas didn’t choose to love Victoria, or to keep loving her—it just happened.

  There was no choice for me either. Kate and I were as inevitable as the rising sun. So, I nodded at Ward, hoped I had him fooled, and went looking for his sister.

  24

  Kate

  The door to the office swung open unexpectedly for the second time in ten minutes and I raised my forehead up from the desk with reluctance. Cole walked in purposefully, leaning the chair against the door to ‘lock’ it. I’d been about to start leaking tears and I’m sure I looked freaking terrible. He didn’t look like he cared.

  I think we need to stop seeing each other. I was about to say it, but before I could, he had grasped my shoulders and kissed me. The words dissolved. Doubts dissolved. My need to protect myself dissolved. Meaning dissolved. All I could think about was him. The tears I’d been considering crying vanished along with all my inhibitions.

  His tongue sought mine insistently, far more insistently than our other kisses. After an initial, surprised clash of teeth, I yielded to him and he took and took until I was breathless. It was a fierce, I-own-you type of kiss. When we drew apart, panting, my heart was pounding, and I wasn’t even thinking about where this would go.

  But he was. And what was on his mind was not a mystery. His hands gripped my hips, pulling me up out of the chair and onto the desk like I was weightless. He sat me down again, facing him on the desk, and drew my legs apart to scoot me closer to him. His amber eyes never broke their gaze from mine. My heart was hammering in my rib cage. I’d never been with a guy so much taller than me that I could be manhandled in such a way, and I found myself absolutely loving feeling small and delicate by comparison.

  “What are you—” I managed to stutter, and then he was kissing me again. Anything that I wanted to say was lost in the promise of his warm arms, soft mouth, and insistent tongue.

  “I’m done with slow,” he murmured into my mouth. His hands left my hips and found the hem of my skirt. I was wearing a knee-length, black circle skirt and a prim white blouse with a Peter Pan collar. The feeling of his searching fingers on my thighs had me spreading my legs wider in an instant.

  “I’m going to fuck you right here, right now,” he promised in my ear. “Tell me you want it too.”

  I kissed him back in answer, but after a moment he pulled back. “Tell me,” he insisted, running his fingers up and down my spine until I shivered.

  “I want it,” I whispered back. I was unable to do anything but admit the truth. With him like this—sexy, confident, and demanding—I didn’t have a chance. So much for breaking up. I was now about to let him fuck me right here on the desk.

  What are we doing? My brain chimed in belatedly as I felt his erection pressing hot and hard against my cotton panties. My fingers found the buttons on his jeans an instant later. We’re in the bar! I’m supposed to be working. Someone could come looking for me any second…

  “Cole… the door,” I moaned, rocking my hips forward against him without conscious thought. The thought of stopping was unbearable. My body was aching.

  “It’s blocked,” he whispered back. His voice was a low, husky rumble against my ear. “It’s busy out there. Loud. No one will know.” He sounded sure, but I trembled under his touch.

  “Promise?” I begged, working the button free and running my hands below the hem of his boxers to grip him with two eager hands. He arched into my touch with a low groan. His skin felt like molten silk under my fingers.

  “Yes. I promise.” The way I was touching his cock, he’d likely promise me anything at that moment, but neither one of us were able to care. This was eight years in the making and it was going to happen right here on Ward’s desk. In that moment, I was fine with that. In that moment, I’d have been fine with the floor.

  Cole sensed when my body relaxed completely against his, and he buried one of his huge hands in my hair and kissed me. The other hand tugged my panties off with enough roughness that anticipation made me clench deep inside. I was still wearing my skirt, but at some point, my shirt had been unbuttoned and Cole had lost his entirely. I ran my appreciative hands up along the smooth ridges of his abs. His body was perfection.

  I leaned back on the desk, both to better admire him and to sort through the sensations of his hands on my body and the pressure where we touched. I felt myself smiling at my own irrational behavior. I’d wanted to protect myself from this? To drive Cole away? Why? All I could think about was getting more of the feeling of him against me.

  And Cole looked similarly overwhelmed. He pulled my bra down with eager hands, and his eyes widened at the sight of me spilling free over the folded, satin edge of the demi cups. The look on his face was simple awe. When his hands cupped me, I felt safe, warm, and admired.

  He touched me reverently, stooping down to kiss my chest and lavishing attention on one hardened nipple and then the other. I arched under him, soaking in the feeling of being worshipped like this. It felt incredible, but the ache between my legs was starting to become unbearable. I tipped my hips forward again, searching for friction and finding it against his hard body.

  But Cole wasn’t going to rush this. He’d said that he was done with slow, but that apparently did not apply to foreplay. He left my chest and petted between my legs, learning and exploring me with long, thick fingers. I stared up at the ceiling when he dipped one inside me, rubbing his thumb over my clit as he pumped his forefinger in and out in a slow, teasing rhythm.

  At this point, I was in no mood to be teased. I wanted him. Now. I leaned further forward, grasping him and giving him with my hands what he wasn’t letting me give him with my pussy. I pumped my hands down his length. He didn’t take long to get the hint.

  Cole produced a condom out of his pocket and rolled it on, giving me a look that could melt ice from across a crowded room. I leaned into him, gripping his shoulders and yielding openmouthed into the feeling of fullness and possession as he penetrated me. My head tipped back, and he cradled it with one hand, wrapping the other around my waist to draw me closer. I wrapped my legs tightly around his waist.

  I wanted this. I needed this. We both did.

  We stared into each other’s eyes in a slow, shared exhalation once we were fully joined. I’d never felt so impossibly complete, but I still needed more. We moved together gently and then eagerly. Each stroke hit the ache inside me head on, not relieving it, but stoking it higher. I whispered his name instead of screaming it, but it took every iota of my control to stay quiet. The tightness and pressure inside me ratcheted higher and higher. My breathing grew labored and I leaned farther back until my back was parallel to the desk.

  Desperation took over. I wasn’t being quiet anymore. My control was gone and pleasure was overwhelming my senses.

  “Please Cole,” I moaned, much too loudly, and Cole’s eyes became huge. He shushed me, but I was having trouble keeping it down. He covered my mouth with his palm and grinned in obvious pride when I still couldn’t stop my noises. I was no longer in command of my body’s reactions. Having him forcibly keep me quiet to prevent us from being discovered was a dark, exciting thrill. The fear of being found out was more sexy than scary.

  Cole pounded into me relentlessly, gripping my hips with his free hand and looking as lost and overwhelmed as I felt. When my climax hit—so sudden and explosive that I worried it rocked the bar’s foundations—I saw stars and made a
noise so loud that I doubted his heavy hand could muffle it. He came almost immediately after, collapsing on top of me and then pulling us both down onto the ground behind the desk.

  25

  Cole

  The office smelled like sex, but it was nothing a little Febreeze couldn’t fix. The bigger problem was the look that Kate leveled at me when she woke up after her fifteen-minute nap against my chest. She looked disoriented and her blue eyes went from drowsy to alarmed in the time it took them to blink them once.

  “Oh my god,” she whispered, suddenly becoming aware of her surroundings. “What the fuck did we just do?” Her tone had an edge of hysteria, and I wasn’t sure if it was joy, fear, or shock that had a monopoly on her expression.

  I arched an eyebrow at her and grinned. I was not about to let her spoil the afterglow with doubt or unhappiness. “Was I really so forgettable? Gosh, you know, that hurts my pride.” I wasn’t even willing to entertain the idea that she hadn’t enjoyed herself. She could lie to herself, but her body couldn’t lie to me. Those noises had definitely not been faked, and she’d clenched so tight around my cock when she came that I’d been pulled overboard right with her

  But none of that seemed to matter to her now. Kate got to her feet and righted her clothing in a hurry before looking down at me and pointing with wide eyes. I followed her gaze and shrugged.

  I still wasn’t wearing pants. No one had knocked on the door in all this time, so I saw no reason. Pants were overrated in general. Plus, I didn’t want to wake up Kate. She’d conked almost as soon as we finished. I’d always heard that was what the man did after sex, not the woman. I’d never seen a woman do it before, but I found it absolutely adorable. She just switched off like a little light. Apparently, she could switch back on just as quickly. Reluctantly, I got up and dressed.

  “Are you ok?” I asked Kate, reaching out to touch her hand and feeling better when she came and leaned against me affectionately. She was hot and cold tonight, but she was so, so worth it.

  “I was going to dump you when you came in,” she told me. Her voice was muffled against my chest. She looked up at me sheepishly.

  “I really hope I fucked that terrible idea right out of you.” That comment earned me a rare blush and a little giggle, both of which pleased my ego. Her grin, however, didn’t last.

  “I’m scared,” she said softly, “and I just think you should know. This could all go so horribly wrong.” She’d buried her face back into my chest, but her body trembled slightly against mine. I wrapped my arms tighter around her.

  “It’s not going to go wrong,” I told her, squeezing her as if I could make her believe it through hug strength alone. Kate might have her doubts, but I’d never been surer of anything in my entire life than I was about her. This was meant to be. It maybe would have been six years ago if I just hadn’t been an idiot.

  “I really want to believe you,” she whispered. There was still distrust in her eyes, but it was mixed with more optimism than before.

  “I’m telling you the truth.” The fact that she still doubted me hurt, but I knew I deserved it. I was damn lucky she’d given us any kind of second chance, even if it was a halfhearted one.

  “You don’t think anyone heard us, do you?” Kate asked, pulling away and pressing her ear flush against the door

  “I really don’t think so.” I also really didn’t care, but that would definitely not have been the correct thing to say. Still, even from where I was standing, the music of the live band in the main room was loud enough to vibrate in my sternum. Despite her enthusiastic vocalizations, it would take some superhuman hearing to have overheard us unless someone was standing right outside.

  Kate looked at the door with a worried little line between her eyebrows, but nodded solemnly after a moment, apparently accepting that I was correct. “I had better get back out there,” she eventually said. “I don’t want anyone to come looking for me.” She pulled the chair away from the door and was going for the handle when I pulled her back into my arms.

  “Who would know if you just disappeared for a little while more?” I asked, kissing her again because I could, and because her plump, cherry colored lips were irresistible. She let me have a few seconds of her, enough to make me hard again. “Couldn’t we just… go?” I’d go anywhere with her. Anywhere we could be alone would do.

  She shook her head wistfully. “I wish we could, but I do actually work here you know. I have to get back to work.”

  I sighed heavily in defeat. I knew when I was beat. Kate was too stubborn to convince, and although my cock disagreed, I knew trying to get her to bail on her job was neither nice nor cool. “You might want to brush your hair at least,” I suggested, running one hand over her poufy locks. “Although the thoroughly just-fucked look really does suit you.”

  Kate rounded the desk and pulled her compact out, grimaced at her reflection, and then went to work with a comb. “You did this,” she grumbled. “My hair looked nice before.”

  “We did this,” I countered, coming up behind her and swatting her round, lovely rear end playfully. “And I really do think it looks nice that way.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You have no idea how long it takes to set pin curls in my hair.”

  “I know about how long it takes to destroy them now, though.”

  “You’re way too happy about nearly getting me fired.” Her attempt to look stern was weak. She was happy. Even if she hadn’t been smiling from ear to ear, I could hear it in her voice and see it in every single movement she made. Just like me, she’d needed what we just did.

  “Please. Ward wouldn’t fire you over a little coffee-break sex in the office. Although he might murder me…” The thought of Ward was unwelcome, although Kate just rolled her eyes again. She was just full of sass tonight. “Can we tell him we’re dating now?” I asked hopefully.

  Her expression froze. “No.”

  “But—” I started to argue, going mute when a knock at the door caused us both to freeze.

  Emma poked her head in. “Oh!” she exclaimed when she saw us both standing there with guilty looks on our faces. Her eyes narrowed knowingly, her little upturned nose twitched, and her smile was smug. “I’m sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to tell Kate that Ward and I are going to call it a night early because we’re driving up early tomorrow. Bye!” Her words came out as one continuous rush. She slammed the door shut again as soon as she finished talking.

  “Great,” Kate said sarcastically, slumping down into the desk chair. “Well now Emma knows.”

  I shrugged. I didn’t see that as a bad thing at all. “So, does that mean can we tell Ward now?”

  Kate looked at me like I’d grown two heads. “Why do you want him to know so badly?”

  “Because he’s my friend and I don’t like lying to him.” That much was true, of course, but it wasn’t just that. “And because I want the whole world to know. I’m happy to be with you. I want to shout it from the rooftops. I hate skulking around like we’ve got some dirty secret.”

  A tiny smile tugged the corners of Kate’s lips upwards. She nodded. “Ok. You win. I’ll tell him, ok? Just let me do it my way.”

  Victory coursed through me. Finally. “When will you tell him?”

  She thought about it for a moment. “Next Sunday.”

  More than an entire week from now? That seemed like a truly ridiculous amount of time to wait. I tried not to pout. “Why not tomorrow?”

  Kate smirked at me. She shook her head at me like I was unreasonable. “Because Ward and Emma aren’t going to be here tomorrow, or for the rest of the week. They’re going to visit my mom in Plano.”

  I bit back a sigh. “I guess that’s ok then.” I could wait a week. If I tried really hard.

  Kate threw her purse back in the file cabinet she’d fished it out of, locked it, and laughed at me. “You’re so impatient,” she teased. I could tell she liked it though.

  I’d waited years for this. Of course, I was impatient. “I jus
t want everyone to know how hot my new girlfriend is,” I told her. The g-word produced a wide-eyed, openmouthed expression on her face. She hid it a moment later behind a smug smile.

  “I never said I’d be your girlfriend.”

  I paused, suddenly confused until I realized I’d forgotten to ask. “Oh. Will you be my girlfriend?”

  She nodded, unexpectedly shy again. Only Kate could go from bold sex goddess to shy retiring flower and back again. She was a kaleidoscope of emotion, and I wanted to see every pattern, design, and configuration of her feelings, even if they were infinite. Especially if they were infinite. She was like a puzzle I’d never solve, but also never tire from.

  I knew there was still doubt in Kate’s mind about me. I knew that I should have told her about the pictures that Eddie had. I knew I should have told her that I’d been in love with her for years. But I was still afraid of blowing it, and I figured if I could just keep her interested in me a little longer, the time for total honesty would come soon enough.

  26

  Cole

  My new realtor, Jolene Fairway, reminded me of my third-grade teacher Mrs. Lockhart. Just like Mrs. Lockhart, Jolene was in that ambiguous range between forty-five and sixty where attempting to guess a number was asking for a slap. Just like Mrs. Lockhart, Jolene had that platinum blonde chin-length bob that used to be so popular among newscasters. And just like Mrs. Lockhart, Jolene wore sweater sets in pastel colors and sensible shoes. Thankfully, unlike Mrs. Lockhart, Jolene actually seemed to like me and had not yet suggested that I might be hyperactive (I was just a nine-year-old boy!).