Hailey's Game

by Hailey's Game (lit)

  It would be nice to be fed and have a clean house, have things smelling nice and not having to worry over the small print in insurance policies. Cole could get behind having a good, dutiful woman at home if that’s really what Kyle wanted. A sweet, quiet woman who took care of the house and performed as needed at night.

  A well-trained one and Cole figured Hailey would be that when she died because he couldn’t honestly see her in a kitchen making cookies with the kids. Kyle’s head must have been overruled by his heart if he saw that in his future.

  Cole wouldn’t have laughed if Kyle said he did because that’s the kind of fool love made of people. That’s just why Cole could see Hailey doing some major damage to Kyle. That’s if he didn’t get this situation under control and quick.

  All Hailey had to do was help him out with showing up. Tilting his head to glance at the clock on the mantle, Cole could see clearly an hour had passed thanks to the streetlight coming in through the windows. A whole fricken hour and Cole hated waiting.

  It made him itchy, especially because by now Killian would have let Kyle out of the cell. Cole had bribed the deputy to hold Kyle back for an hour, but by now his friend should be looking for him. Eventually, he’d show up here, and Cole really didn’t want to have that conversation in front of Hailey.

  It had been bad enough there in station house. All that arguing had gotten them nowhere. Cole even offered to be a good, dutiful gentleman and assist Kyle with Hailey’s seduction. Given that what he really wanted to do was tie her ass to his bed and ravage her for a several days in a row, Cole considered his offer quite a compromise

  That had been gracious in Cole’s mind, but Kyle wouldn’t agree to anything until Cole agreed that he cared about the woman. Why Kyle had to harp on that, Cole didn’t know. The only thing worse than caring about a spitfire like Hailey was admitting to actually caring about her. Give a woman like that a weapon of that size and a man might as well just volunteer for prison because that’s how much of his life he was going to spend being bent over.

  Cole wouldn’t go out like that, and he wouldn’t watch Kyle fall into that fate, either. He’d figure something out, just once the damn woman got home. Unable to resist, he glanced at the clock again. Thankfully, this time a flash of headlights pulling into Hailey’s drive illuminated just what time it was.

  Swallowing down the last of his tea, Cole’s boots plunked onto the floor as he rose to meet the moment. No longer the time for threats, the time had come to deliver.

  * * * *

  Hailey grinned her way up the drive. They had a plan. It might be as confusing as Patton complained and likely to fail as Rachel ominously predicted, but at least they had one. Even if her role in it consisted of next to nothing, Hailey would still get all the glory when the crap storm rained down on Cole.

  Ah, but she already savored the coming moment of glory when Cole figured out she’d been the one to set him up. Hailey grinned as her key slid into the slot. It would just be a shame to put any real distance between her and Cole and Kyle. Then she’d miss out on all the fireworks as they happened.

  Besides, Hailey could see the advantage of a second game. One she hadn’t actually shared with Patton or Rachel because they’d have nagged her. The last thing she wanted was to have to justify her completely irrational need to put herself in the middle of the action.

  In the middle is exactly where she intended to go because Kyle would be back in her bed within a day. It ground on Cole’s nerves that she’d sleep with his best friend. Given just how much she enjoyed sweating up the sheets with Kyle, it seemed a waste not to eat her cake and flaunt it in Cole’s face.

  It would only make the burn of his humiliation more scorching. A fact she laughed over as she pushed the door in, following as she turned around its edge to shut it.

  “About time you got home, darlin’.”

  Hailey shrieked at that soft drawl. Whirling with the door as it slammed closed, she found herself pinned against it as Cole came out of the shadows. Blue jeans, black T-shirt, and the smell of the shop on him, everything about the man turned her on. Her heart pounded through her shirt to thump against the hard wall of his chest, betraying just how bad she had it.

  “What’s wrong, Hailey?” Cole’s whisper brushed over her cheek as he scrapped his jaw against hers to murmur in her ear. “You didn’t think we’d finished our conversation, did you?”

  Every breath he drew rubbed his hard muscles into her tender tips, making them swell with lust. Unable to control or hide the need boiling in her, Hailey panicked. All her grand plans, all her strategies, they didn’t save her from the urge to grind back into the subtle rubbing motion he used to tease her.

  “What do you want?” As if she didn’t know. Hailey just wanted, needed to hear him say it. The answer would remind her why hers had to be no.

  “Aren’t you listening, darlin’. I want to talk.”

  By the mere strength of the last fiber of her dignity, Hailey managed to focus on his words and not the heated hands settling in to grip her waist.

  “Then say what you got to say and be done with it.”

  “You got it backward, darlin’.” Cole scraped that retort out along her neck as he sent spasms straight down toward her fluttering heart, making it that much harder to breathe. Then with a tiny bite he took that capacity away from her for a hot, splintering second.

  “You’re the one who has some talking to do because I’m really interested to hear how you ended up in bed with my best friend.”

  That hadn’t been what she expected to come out of those beautiful lips. Curling her head to the side, she offered up more of her neck for his tasting. “What’s wrong, Cole? Jealous?”

  The last word gasped out as he bit her again. “Try pissed, little lady.”

  That deserved a look because even if he had her wet enough to forget all reason, Hailey couldn’t hold back the shock of that. “What gives you that right?”

  “How about the fact that you almost got me pulverized by the Davis brothers and then immediately turn around and seduce my best friend behind my back?” Cold, clear, blue eyes met hers. “Tell me honestly now, Hailey, are you screwing with Kyle to get revenge on me? ’Cause that ain’t right.”

  “You really know how to ruin a moment. You know that?” Hailey snapped, stiffening up to meet his hard look with her own. “First off, you almost got your own ass beat messing around with Patton. Second off, I didn’t go behind your back because it isn’t any concern of yours who I sleep with. And third, Kyle seduced me.”

  “But you were willing every inch of the way. Weren’t you, darlin’?”

  “So what if I was,” Hailey demanded. “It’s still none of your damn business.”

  “It is.” Cole pressed in that claim, bringing his nose to rest almost on hers. “Everything you do is my business, Hailey, because you belong to me, darlin’.”

  “I belong to no man.”

  It was like she hadn’t even spoken. “I’ve looked the other way while you dicked around with all those little wimps you like to control, but you stepped over a line this time, Hailey.”

  “And I’m going to keep on stepping over it because you ain’t the boss of me.”

  Cole growled at that, a warning blast that barely gave her a second to react before his head dipped.

  Don’t let him kiss you.

  “No, Cole.”

  Barely audible, the heat of her whisper washed back against her chin as it crashed into his mouth not even an inch away. She could almost feel the violence clenching his muscles as he held back at the last second. Not daring to tempt his control even a hair further, Hailey held herself as flat against the door and as far from his heat as she could.

  Not deterred, Cole lips settled on to the very tip of her chin to brush down its tensed slope with the gentlest of butterfly kisses. Barely holding on to the gasp of air that ached to be freed, Hailey clenched her jaw. Her eyes closed as she fortified her will.

  He didn’t make i
t easy, nibbling on the sensitive skin just below her ear as he growled. “Give me one good reason why not, Hailey.”

  “Because I said so.” She didn’t need a reason beyond that, which was a good thing because then she didn’t have one.

  “You say it, but you don’t mean it.” Cole drew his head back and gave her that little curl of a smile that made her heart do that double beat thing she hated him for. “You standing there dripping wet, and we both know all it would take is one kiss, and I’ll have you coming before it’s done.”

  He was daring her. Daring her because he knew that her pride would always foul her up. It always had. Tonight, though, she had blind fear to fortify her dignity. “I won’t be tricked into giving you what you want.”

  “What about what you need? And if that isn’t the truth what harm would a kiss cause?”

  Lips gone dry from the steady beat of ragged breaths, Hailey’s tongue peaked out to wet them down, drawing Cole’s darkened gaze like a beacon. The predatory gleam in those jeweled eyes flared with unbridled intent, making her cunt clench with anticipation.

  There would no stopping him now. Isn’t that just why she pushed him? Because it would be as glorious in the moment as it would be devastating in the aftermath.

  “I don’t even like you.”

  Cole’s tongue tickled over her lips, wetting them for her and making her sigh slightly when he withdrew to whisper. “Now that, darlin’, that’s a lie I’m going to make you pay for.”

  “Cole.”

  “I dare you to say no again.”

  She couldn’t. Not with his lips brushing against hers, rubbing, teasing, luring hers apart. Hailey had never stood a chance. When the warmth of his big hand folded around her neck and pull her from the door, she went willingly. Trapped in the heat of his body, she could not ignore the eruption of lust fueling through her body, and her lips parted with a sigh.

  Instantly, his tongue invaded. No longer a soft, sensual lure, it ravished the inside of her mouth, mingling his taste with the sultry scent of musk that had already intoxicated her. He possessed her mouth with a hunger that ate at her restraint until her own feral need overwhelmed the last of her reservations.

  No longer the timid captive, Hailey became the aggressor, losing herself in the primitive wildness of raw lust. He tasted so good, so much better than she ever imagined. Darker, more male, and she couldn’t get enough. Spearing her nails into the soft strands of hair clinging to his neck, Hailey refused him any retreat as she sucked down on his tongue and made him growl.

  The thick vibrations crashed against her breasts as he flattened her along the hard wall of chest. Ruthlessly, his hand plunged beneath the waistband of her jeans, branding her ass with the rough scrape of his flesh as he lifted her into his hardness.

  Gasping for air as her world ignited, Hailey released his lips. The oxygen seared through her lungs, fanning the flames of the inferno burning in her cunt as his hand slid on down to curve between her legs and boldly lay claim to the pussy weeping for his possession.

  “Cole.”

  “Just as wet as I knew you’d be,” Cole growled before splitting her legs wide with one single thigh. Hailey gave a strangled shriek as he dragged her up the stretch of bulged muscle, making her hips grind down and capture those wicked fingers in the creaming folds of her cunt.

  “That’s my pussy you’re pawing, and you didn’t ask permission.” Kyle’s snarl broke the sensual snare Cole had wrapped her in.

  Chapter 15

  Just like that Cole dropped her back down onto her wobbling legs. With the speed of a predator Hailey often likened him to, he turned to confront the man who cast their forbidden world back into the cold light of reality just by clicking on a lamp.

  Kyle squared off against Cole as she slid down, down, until her ass plunked onto the floor as her legs refused to perform any useful service. Panting, confused, and collapsed, she stayed sprawled there, the puppet watching her two masters square off.

  “Permission?” Cole growled like a junkyard dog as he moved in steadily on Kyle. “I don’t believe I need your permission. I had Hailey’s agreement and as far as I see, she ain’t wearing your collar.”

  “Hailey’s permission isn’t that hard to get,” Kyle snorted. His next pearls of wisdom had her ears starting to heat up as indignant brain cells started to fire, rallying to the insult. “It doesn’t really take much more than a kiss, does it?”

  “Maybe it takes you that much,” Cole smirked. “But that girl gets wet enough for me without even a touch.”

  Indignation flared to outrage and put the steel back into her legs. Not that either one of them noticed her as she struggled back to her feet. Hailey could have interrupted, but the pissed she had brewing wanted to be fueled. It held back, letting the dumbasses before her build the bonfire of her temper upward toward a massive explosion.

  “Is that a challenge?”

  “Ain’t much of a challenge if that’s all you’re bringing to the table is a fricken kiss.”

  “It’s all a matter of where you kiss,” Kyle retorted with smooth confidence that had Hailey clenching with the need to hit him. Men. Hailey breathed deep as she found her footing.

  “Trust me, Kyle, when I’m done with Hailey, she wouldn’t even remember your name much less what it feels like to have that twig you call a dick inside her.”

  Hailey blinked as the cold revelation of just what kind of challenge they were building toward. There’s only one way they end that argument. With her naked, probably tied up and begging for mercy. The very idea made her muscles contract with just little a pop of pleasure, promising the explosion for the real thing would be well worth a try.

  What sane woman volunteered to be stuck between two Cattlemen warring over which one could give it to her the best? What sane woman let two men argue over her like she was a piece of meat? Hailey might want them, both of them, at the same time, but that didn’t mean she’d bow over her pride.

  “Why don’t we just let Hailey decide?” Kyle’s sharp retort had her stiffening up.

  As if that half measure would save him. It did twist her budding anger back into the heated measure of her refueling need for revenge. Especially when it came to Cole and that smile. He wore his special one, the one that made just about any woman act the fool.

  “You gonna have to choose, darlin’.” Cole came on all smooth, closing the distance he opened up between them. If he thought pressing that hard body into her still tingling one would persuade her…well, he almost had it right, but this time she had the sanity of light to keep her focused. “Who’s your master? Me? Kyle?”

  Hailey already knew her choice, but she enjoyed making both men squirm. “How about none?”

  “Sorry, darlin’.” Her hardened tone must have worried Cole. Even if it didn’t show in the silky purr of his drawl, his hand coming to cup her breast told a different story. “That ain’t a choice you get to make.”

  Warm, strong and way too nimble, his fingers tried to persuade her to see things his way. Hailey knew she only had moments before that hardening nipple led her forward into his touch. Meeting his gaze straight on, she gave Cole what he probably never had in his life, a rejection.

  “I say it is.” Shoving him back, she broke his hold on her tender flesh. “I ain’t sleeping with you, Cole Jackson. Not tonight, not any night, not ever.”

  “You gonna eat those words, darlin’, and I’m going to enjoy feeding them to you.”

  “You might be that good,” Hailey conceded. Stepping up into him, she backed her next statement. “But I don’t sleep with every woman’s whore.”

  Shoving past him while he still reeled from that blow was a mistake. Even as she cleared his shoulder, his arm latched on to her wrist, making her turn back around to face the livid heat of his gaze.

  “What did you say?”

  “I said you’re every woman’s whore,” Hailey repeated slowly and distinctly before yanking her arm free. “And don’t look so insulted. There
ain’t nobody in this town that doesn’t know that you ain’t nothing but a two-legged dog with a boner free to any cheap pussy that willing to demean herself and spread her legs for you. You’re a joke, Cole, and you always will be.”

  A second hung in the air, expiring slowly only to give over in a rush as Kyle suddenly appeared between them. He ran into Cole and his attempt to get to Hailey. Hailey didn’t really know what she said that triggered that dark expression in Cole’s eyes, but she knew danger when they narrowed on her. That insult apparently hit the sweet spot.

  “I told you not to come here, Cole.” Kyle shook his head at Cole.

  “You don’t want to stand between us, Kyle.”

  It stood against the tradition of the Cattlemen that Kyle didn’t give over and side with his partner. A good omen for Hailey because she had plans for Kyle. Plans that involved using him to torture Cole the same way Cole used Patton to rub her raw.

  “I’m not going to let you get your revenge for that one.”

  “She earned it,” Cole snarled.

  “But you ain’t earned the right to give it to her.”

  Hailey didn’t have to wonder at what that meant. She had a two hour tutorial on just how Cole defined punishment. Revenge just took it up a few notches. What it did leave her wondering was how long it would take Cole to respond to her challenge. He didn’t do it then. Instead of giving into the fury in his gaze, Cole relaxed suddenly. “Then why don’t we ask the darlin’ just what it is that I need to do to earn it.”

  Both men turned to look at her as if they actually had the respect to be talking to her instead of about her.

  “Earn what?” Hailey snorted. “The right to crawl into my bed?”

  “Yes.” Cole’s answer was as unapologetically blunt as that.

  “There ain’t nothing.” Hailey delighted in lying.