A dark look swallowed his face and he took a step forward. “I want to take you on date, Julia, because I want to spend time with you. Not because I fucked you”—he reached out and brushed his finger along my chin—“or because I want to fuck you again.” His words sent shivers down my spine. “But because you’re a beautiful woman.”
My heart clenched in my chest. Men called me sexy all the time, fuckable at best. Beautiful wasn’t something I was associated with. Beautiful was something I could never be, but as I stared up into that dark blue gaze, captivated by the stormy color with his words floating there between us, I knew there was nothing that could keep me from going.
“Not a date. Just friends.” I meant to sound firm, but failed miserably.
“Okay.” A smile spread across his face illuminating his lips and brightening his eyes and I discovered I was right, his eyes did crinkle in the corners.
Six.
“Wear something…simple.”
Cole’s words just before we departed earlier in the day rang through my ears. Simple? What did that even mean? He’d left before I could ask. Leaving me there pressed against Creamy Café with what was certainly a dumb expression on my face. Surely he didn’t mean the simple unstylish yoga pants and disastrous bun that I had been sporting.
Now I stood in front of the floor-length mirror wearing dark skinny jeans, brown-fringed cowboy boots, and a sleeveless white button up shirt that dipped low in the front. My hair fell loose in its natural waves. I smiled at myself, revealing my straight white teeth.
“Why did I agree to this date?” I asked my reflection.
He called you beautiful, remember?
I sighed. When had I become a sap?
You’ve always been a sap, you just got good at pretending you weren’t.
If my mind was a physical person, I would have slapped her. She was right after all. I couldn’t help the excitement that coursed through me and it wasn’t just about Cole and the fact that he thought I was beautiful. I’d checked my bank account when I got back from Creamy Café. It usually took a little over a week for the payment for Rapture X to be directly deposited. I spent a portion of the ten grand on the care for my grandmother each month, and payment time was coming up. I received the shock of my life when the automated voice read my account balance. Fifteen thousand dollars had been deposited the day before.
Fifteen thousand dollars!
A soft knock on the door made my pussy clench. I gave myself a final once over. The knob was cool under my fingers as I turned it. He stood on the other side looking the epitome of all that was man. He leaned casually against the side of the doorframe, more casual than I had ever seen him, as if being here wasn’t any such thing. I wished I could return his nonchalance, but how could I when the very sight of him enflamed all my senses? He wore brown loafers with black jeans. A long sleeve blue dress shirt fitted tightly to his muscular torso, with a black argyle sweater vest on top of it. His hair was loose about his shoulders, making him appear like some sort of twenty-first century Beowulf, there to sweep me away with a massive sword and gallant intellect. Well, his sword is pretty massive. I suppressed a giggle and let my eyes fall to his crotch.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head, my smile fading at the sound of his rough voice. “You wanna come in? I just need to grab my purse and coat.”
“I’ll wait here.” His gaze traced all over my body while he spoke.
Heat pooled in my core. I turned and hurried away before he could notice the arousal that was surely painted all over my face.
“Ready?”
“Yes,” I said once I was out the door. I locked up, and followed him to the elevator. It opened revealing Randy, the elevator operator. He was tall and brawny, his dark skin stretched over killer muscles.
“Good evening, Miss Collette,” he said once the doors were closed and we’d begun our descent.
I smiled at him. “Hey, Randy. I thought I told you to quit calling me that.”
“You did.” The door dinged and opened on the bottom floor. “Have a nice night.” He winked at me.
I almost expected Cole to say something about the exchange. My ex-boyfriend, Kevin, would have. He didn’t though, and we walked to the parking garage in silence, though his gaze was on me the whole time, never straying from my body. I wasn’t usually nervous about men, hell, I took my clothes off for hundreds of them every week, but this was different. Cole’s lingering eyes made me want to fidget and smooth my hair. Made me feel a little desperate, like I should pull out my compact and double check that my mascara hadn’t smeared. I didn’t do any of those things though. I kept quiet, nervous about breaking the silence.
“I’m parked right over there,” Cole said. I glanced to my right in the dimly lit garage and spotted a large pickup truck.
“That one?” I motioned toward it.
“Yup.”
I stared at the gleaming black paint and shiny rims. I hadn’t been in a truck in years. “What kind of truck is it?”
“A Dodge Ram.”
“Looks new.”
“It is.” He opened the passenger side door and helped me in. His warm hand slid against mine and I had the urge to jerk him to me. He pulled away before I could act on the impulse. He climbed in the driver’s seat. “Just bought her about a month ago.”
“Wow.” I glanced around at the black leather interior. “Still smells new.” I sucked in a deep breath. “You live on a farm or something?”
He chuckled and started up the engine. “No. Why do you ask that?”
“Well, where I’m from everyone who owns a truck uses it on their farm, like pulling horse trailers, hauling old junk to the back of the pasture. Stuff like that.”
He laughed loudly, a full blast of sound that resonated in the air between us. “No, Julia. I don’t live on a farm.” He continued chuckling.
“You’re laughing at me.” The urge to laugh pressed against my cheeks and I felt my lips turning up into a smile.
“I’m not laughing at you.” Cole pulled out onto the street. “I’m just enjoying learning about farm life.” He shot me a wicked smile. “Don’t tell me you’re the farmer’s daughter.”
“Once upon a time, yes, I was.”
“You act like it was a long time ago.”
“Seems like it.” The image of my dad jumped in my head. Leaving home seemed like a hundred years ago.
“Why do you say that?” Cole made a left at the light and I watched the muscles bunch under his shirt.
“Uhh, well.” I looked away from him. “A lot has happened to me since I moved away from Sunder. It’s a real small town, you see, about an hour north of here. It was a big change when I moved.”
That was an understatement. I went from living in a town with a tiny population where everyone knew my business to the city where I was just a face in a crowd. At home I couldn’t take a shit without the whole town knowing about it.
“So, you’re a small town girl? I didn’t expect that.”
“No one ever does. It’s the blue hair, I guess.” I twirled a piece around my finger and stared out the window. The bright lights of the city glittered around us. The dark night sky was illuminated with them, and Reunion Tower, the massive ball in the sky that characterized Dallas, seemed to sparkle. I always loved looking out at it. I could see it from my loft window, such a beautiful piece of architecture.
“Where are you from?” I asked after a beat of silence.
“I was born in New Orleans, but I grew up in New York City.”
My jaw dropped. “Really?” He nodded and looked at me. I snapped my mouth shut before he could notice.
“Well, yeah. Why?”
“I guess I am just the sheltered farm girl who thought you were from somewhere around here.” I’d traveled with my mom and dad a couple of times as a kid before they split up, but that had been a long time ago, and I hadn’t been out of Texas to anywhere that wasn’t Oklahoma for at least a decad
e.
“You are far from sheltered.” The easy going Cole who had been chatting with me, teasing me, only moments before disappeared. His nonchalant hold on the steering wheel became a furious grip. He didn’t look at me, but stared out at the road as if he couldn’t stand the sight of me.
“Wait, where are we going?” He took the ramp onto the interstate that led out of town.
“It’s a surprise.” His grip relaxed a bit.
“A surprise?”
“Yes.” Cole looked at me again. The coldness I thought I’d seen in his eyes wasn’t there at all, but a look of sadness I didn’t understand. It called to something inside me that wasn’t at all sexual.
“Trust me?” he spoke the last words quietly, almost as if he didn’t want me to hear him.
Trust him?
He was joking right? But he wasn’t, I could tell. He seemed to yearn for my answer and yet fear it all at once. A car honked and Cole jerked his head to stare back at the road.
“Forget it. I can just take you home,” he muttered and put on his blinker.
“I trust you.” The words tripped out of my mouth, stumbling over my tongue until they were hanging there between us. Where this newfound faith came from I didn’t know. I wasn’t the girl who trusted men. I had learned my lesson a long time ago. The only man I had fully trusted since I left home was Vic and even he had ultimately left me—friendship or not, he was still gone. But I meant what I said to Cole in that moment. I did trust him. I don’t know how I managed it, or how he had earned it, but nonetheless it was there.
Cole turned his blinker off.
“Oh my gosh, are you serious?” I gasped as Cole pulled into the big parking lot of the Stars Center, a hockey arena where the professional hockey team, the Dallas Stars, practiced, and the junior league team played all of their games.
“Wait, are the Whirlwind playing tonight?” I bounced up and down in my seat. I was a die-hard hockey fan. There was no getting around it. It was the only sport I was educated in and I loved it.
“You’ve been here before?” He pulled open my door.
“Been here? Are you kidding? I’ve been coming here since I was kid! I haven’t been in a few years though. How did you know?”
“Your sweatshirt.”
“Sweatshirt?” I hopped down from the truck.
“The one you wore earlier. This isn’t a Stars game, but I thought you might still like it.”
He appeared almost sheepish with his hands in his pockets, eyeing me as if uncertain whether or not I was being serious.
“Heck yeah! My cousin used to play for the Whirlwind. At the time they were the best junior hockey team in the nation.”
“He played in 2007?” Disbelief laced his voice as we approached the big building. “What’s his name?”
“Wait, you follow junior league hockey?”
He laughed. “Yeah, I’m a big fan. I follow the whole league. Have for about seven years.”
My mouth gaped open again. “You’re kidding!”
“Nope. Who was your cousin?”
“Ryan McIntosh.”
“No way!” Cole jumped back. “Gerald Raymond’s goon? The one who plays for the Red Wings now?”
I smirked. “That’s the one.”
It was Ryan’s connection to the sport that made me love hockey. I never missed a game that season, and my dad didn’t either, even though Ryan got kicked out of most games on account of fighting too much. He’d become a legend in the junior leagues, taking care of the Whirlwind’s best center, and when Gerald went pro, he wouldn’t go unless Ryan came too.
“That’s crazy. I had no idea.”
“Well, why would you?” I chuckled.
He didn’t respond, but pulled out his wallet as we approached the ticket window. He grabbed a hundred and handed it to the lady on the other side of the counter. “Hey Linda, how are you today?”
The older woman blushed, her cheeks turning the same shade as her short red hair. For a moment I wanted to reach through the little window and smack the dreamy expression off her face.
He’s mine! I shook my head. Where the hell did that come from? The guy says he likes hockey and I’m already making claims on him? And he fucked you into the next century. I bit down on my lips and tried not to focus on his long fingers, how they were tan and the tattoos on the top of his hands stood out against the blue of his shirt.
“Hey, did you get paid for the Rapture X party?” Memory of the extra money in my bank account popped into my head.
He took his change and the tickets and handed me one. “Hmm?”
“Rapture X, did you get paid for it?”
“Oh yeah, I did.” He averted his eyes.
“How much did they pay you?” I followed him toward the large glass doors.
He shrugged. “Fifteen grand.”
“Eeek! Me too!” I looped my arm through his, acting as though it was a natural reaction in my excitement, but it was far from anything that innocent. The last hour in the car with him had been too much. His hot body was too delectable and the reaction of the lady at the window was more than enough to make me want to stake my claim. I’m seriously losing it. If he was alarmed by my touch, he didn’t show it, but led me into the building, arm in arm like we’d done it a million times.
“That’s not what you usually get paid?”
“No way, I usually only make ten grand.” The spot where my hand brushed against his bicep seemed to heat to a thousand degrees. A shiver ran down my spine.
“Ten grand to fuck a stranger.” His voice took on that condescending tone again.
I huffed. “I never fucked a stranger until you came along.” I said it as a joke, but his face turned dark again. What’s with him? I wasn’t annoyed by his sudden turn to brooding attitude. If anything it made me more curious about him. Who was this guy? I wanted to know. In fact, I needed to.
“I don’t want you to be alarmed when we get in here,” I said.
“Alarmed?”
“Yes, I get very involved…and sometimes yell at the players and referees.”
And just like that Cole’s dark look was gone. A small smile spread across his firm lips, making me want to lean up on my tip-toes and press my own against them. I didn’t though, because we walked into the arena and the cool air of the hockey rink pressed against my skin, exhilarating me.
The rest of the game went on without error. He bought us both pretzels with mustard, a wheat beer for me, and a red bull for him. I wasn’t lying when I said I became involved in the game, as Cole soon found out, but I wasn’t the only one. When one of the Whirlwind players took a stick to the face without a high-sticking call from the ref we were both standing, cursing, and blaming the ref for all the ways the Whirlwind were sucking tonight.
I spilled my beer twice and he bought me new ones. By the time we left I was buzzing pretty good. I’d only managed to consume three beers, but I was a lightweight.
“I can’t believe they suck so bad now,” I said in the truck when we neared my apartment. We’d shared good-hearted conversation the whole drive about the game, picking apart each period.
“I know, right? Embarrassing. Ten to nothing. Just depressing.”
I nodded and eyed him from the passenger seat. Had any man ever looked so fucking hot? I was sure that no one had. He’d pushed his sleeves back over the course of the game, revealing his bulging, tattooed forearms. My eyes had been continuously drawn to the life-like portrait of a woman mixed in amongst the other designs on his right arm. She was alarmingly beautiful, even with the sad look that covered her face. A pang of jealousy wormed through me. Who was she? What made her so special besides her exotic beauty?
“Who is she?”
Cole glanced down at his arm and casually pushed his sleeve down to cover the piercing eyes of the woman. “Who?”
“The woman on your arm.”
“No one.”
I didn’t like that answer. And maybe it was the buzz I had going, but I unbuc
kled my seat belt and slid across the center seat until I was pressed against his side. He tensed. Attraction sparked in the air between us. I ran my hand down his arm and noticed, with satisfaction, that his breathing quickened. I pulled his sleeve back again, revealing the woman. I traced my fingers over her cherubic face.
“She’s beautiful,” I said more to myself than him.
“She used to be.”
His admission surprised me. “Not anymore?”
He laughed sadly. “Hard to be pretty when you’re dead.”
“Oh, Cole, I’m—” I started to pull my hand away, but he stopped me, placing his hand over mine.
“Don’t do that. Don’t say that you’re sorry. Nothing’s gonna change it. Whether you’re sorry or not.” The coldness of his tone made me tug at my hand. Jealousy stabbed at me this time. How could I compete with a dead chick? Wait, why do I even want to compete with her? I’m being ridiculous. He was still looking at the road. “Don’t move away, please…I like you here.”
“Who was she?” My tone was almost accusatory.
He sighed. “My sister. I don’t want to talk about it.”
Does it make me a bad person that I felt relief at this revelation? Jesus, what did they put in that beer? I’m losing my mind!
“Ask me a question,” he said quickly.
“Huh?”
“Ask me about anything, but not about her.”
I considered his words. “How did you know where I lived last week when you came to my apartment?”
“I think the better question would be, why did you let me in? You could have told your elderly neighbor you didn’t want me there.”
I bit down on my lips. “I didn’t want to scare her.”
“So you just let me in, even though you were scared of me?” His words were accusatory, as if he hadn’t been the man in question.
“I wasn’t afraid of you.” I didn’t have a good reason why, but that was the truth.
“You should be.” He glanced at me when he spoke. His dark blue eyes appeared black in the dark interior of the car.
Drowning in Rapture: Rapture, Book One Page 6
