That comment triggered some thought, something Cole must have said or done because she flushed and stepped back. “I’ve gathered that, too.”
“You really ready for that, Hailey?” Kyle straightened off the edge of the desk and giving his Johnson a little room to breathe. “Because I don’t think you are. In fact, that’s why I sold Cole the car. You can try to pretend to be as detached as you want, but what Cole’s going to ask of you will require trust. That he’s going to have to earn for the next four weeks.”
“And what about you?” Hailey gaze came back to his. “Don’t you think you have to earn it, too?”
“I know I do, princess. Trust me, I got my plans.”
Hailey just stared at him for a long moment, and he could see she couldn’t tell which way to read that statement. Punking out, she decided to just ignore that comment all together.
“The two of you are going to drive me insane.”
Kyle nodded at that. “Probably.”
“I’m not totally convinced in Cole’s sudden reformation.”
“I wouldn’t be, either.”
“Or that you aren’t up to no good.”
He should have expected that. “I gotta rank a little higher than Cole, right?”
“Just a little.” They shared a laugh that got cut off as Cole swaggered back into the room.
“You two playing nice now?” That question went to Hailey, who shrugged with her normal lack of enthusiasm.
“Apparently.”
“Good, ’cause I’m hungry and it’s lunch time. Let’s say you make us a sandwich, huh? Sweetness?”
Chapter 19
Wednesday, May 14th
Cole watched Hailey pull her mask off and arch her back. His gaze tracked the graceful lift of breasts, giving the Mr. Man reason to growl for about the millionth time that morning. The little beast had become obsessive in its demands for a taste of that pretty, little red head.
It didn’t understand these games they played, and his cock really didn’t care. The only thing it worried over was the six day dry spell it suffered through. Going solo for six days wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if he didn’t have to be constantly tormented by so much lush and readily available flesh.
Cole cleared his throat as he adjusted himself. This was the best moment, when Hailey shrugged her paint suit off and bent over to pull it all the way down. The woman just had to know what kind of invitation she sent out by waving that plump ass in the paint booth’s window.
Just three more weeks, Cole whispered back to the Mr. Man. Three more weeks and he’d have his revenge. The more Hailey teased and tormented him, the deeper he dug into his imagination as he fantasized just what he’d be doing to the little princess in three weeks.
“She does know how to slop on paint, huh?” Kyle’s slow drawl drew Cole’s gaze from the window to his best friend’s knowing look. “We already got three calls for custom work asking just for Hailey. We better hope she doesn’t decide to set up a paint booth and cut out on her own.”
“Hailey isn’t going anywhere.” Cole shrugged past Kyle, giving up his gawking for the moment. Hailey better not even think of skipping out until they settled up on their bet.
“I don’t know.” Kyle waded in Cole’s wake, hounding him back into the office. “I mean it isn’t like we got a real contract with her.”
“What?” Cole rounded the desk with a snort. “You want to make everything legal now? You think that’s going to bind the girl to you even when she decides to split.”
“It’s not like that. I’m just suggesting we handle Hailey like we would any outside contractor. What? Why you looking at me that way?”
“Because you’re crazy,” Cole snickered. “She’s been working here for a week now, every morning, no problems, so what is this suddenly treat-her-like-any-other-contractor crap really about?”
“Man, you are about as grumpy this morning.” Kyle shook his head as he dumped the work orders he’d been holding onto the desk. “But I ain’t your bitch, Cole, so you got attitude take it elsewhere.”
“Well, it’s not like I can do that,” Cole grumbled, causing Kyle to pause on his way out the door. Instead of clearing over the threshold, he gripped the knob and slowly closed the door before turning back around.
“You’re horny.”
That hadn’t been the accusation Cole expected. It took him a moment to finally shrug in agreement. “Well, duh. It’s been six days.”
“Six days of staring at Hailey,” Kyle nodded.
“Six nights working with her side by side.”
“Lunches.”
“Dinners.”
“And she likes to bend over a lot, don’t she?” Kyle grinned that question out.
“About enough to make a man mad with need.” Cole didn’t grin. He didn’t find it the least bit funny. He’d known Hailey would try to drive him nuts, but this went beyond the pale. “I’m telling you, man, it’s like my balls are on fire, and I don’t even think any other pussy would do at this point.”
That had Kyle’s smile evening out. “And you thought about it?”
“No.” That had been the first time he ever outright lied to Kyle. Sure he thought about it. Of course he thought about it. What man wouldn’t? Especially given Bavis’s soon to be niece-in-law.
The picture the old man had given him. Kitty Anne, Cole sighed as his mind went over the image of the blonde goddess in his mind. The woman even sizzled in two dimensions, so why the hell hadn’t he made his play?
All he had to do was seduce Kitty Anne, prove that he had to her fiancé, write a check, and then, finally, after all these years, the Fastback would be his. All he had to do was say yes and betray his agreement with Hailey. He could do it. Hailey would never need to find out.
Cole collapsed into his chair feeling about as defeated as he ever had. “I’m just saying, working every morning and then spending damn near the whole night cramped in this shop with that girl is too much. I ain’t going to make it three more weeks.”
There. He said it. Hailey won because he couldn’t take anymore. The bend in his pride didn’t hurt so much as the idea of losing all the fantasies he’d been dreaming up. If he wanted to save them he could always wear himself out on Kitty’s blonde cunt.
Cole scowled at the very idea. It didn’t feel right, but God, how he wanted his one night with Hailey, one night of her submission. The Mr. Man, on the other hand, only wanted the pussy. All the ceremony didn’t mean much to him.
“What if you didn’t have to?”
Kyle suggestive question had Cole glancing up. “What you mean?”
“Well,” Kyle settled into his seat on the other side of the desk. “I’m just taking note that the circles under Hailey’s eyes have gotten kind of dark and her mood more than a little bitchy at moments, and she certainly likes to stare when she thinks nobody’s looking.”
“So she’s horny, too,” Cole scoffed. “That’s not exactly a news flash.”
“Nope, but that doesn’t make it irrelevant. It seems to me what we have here is a mutual coincidence of desires that could be resolved with a well defined, short term treaty.”
Cole blinked all that in. Typical Kyle, he didn’t make any sense. “What?”
“I’m talking porno date night.”
“Now that, I get.” And so did the Mr. Man. Already stiff, the damn tyrant just had to swell that little bit more to make Cole’s entire day even more painful. “You think you can get Hailey to agree? She’s been lobbying you pretty hard these past few days, and this is just going to be an open door in her mind.”
“As they say, there isn’t any ‘I’ in team. Hailey’s lobbied, and I’ve made it clear we’re a package deal from now on.”
“Hmm.” Kyle’s impressive stance only drew more doubt from Cole. “She won’t bite. She’s intent on driving me insane and winning this damn race. Trust me, Kyle, Hailey won’t call it quits.”
“She doesn’t have to. The war can go on. I’
m just talking about a temporary cease fire, so we can all regroup and rejuvenate—”
“With a night of sex?”
“Kinky-free sex,” Kyle corrected him immediately.
“What? You going to go negotiate missionary only position now?” Cole smirked.
“I doubt it will go that far,” Kyle snorted. “Though I’m pretty sure Hailey will come up with some list.”
“I can see it now,” Cole muttered and the sad thing was, he could. Hailey who be that type. “What’s the point? She wouldn’t let us have any real fun.”
“The point? The point is that none of her rules will matter,” Kyle retorted. “Seriously if we can’t find away around, over or under whatever obstacles she thinks up then we should just be ashamed of ourselves.”
“Whatever, man.” Cole didn’t expect this would go well, but it might be entertaining. Reaching for the phone as it rang, he gave Kyle a hard look. “You better make sure the little princess doesn’t take sandwiches off the list. Hello?”
“Cole Jackson.”
“Bavis.” Cole knew that scratchy voice anywhere. The devil had called for his due.
* * * *
Hailey snapped her cell phone closed and just stared at it. Bavis’s chuckle still crept down her spine, making her jerk sharply after a moment as she tried to throw off the sensation.
“Everything all right?” Kyle’s question, coming around a mouthful of food, had her glancing back up to where he settled in at her kitchen table.
“Fine.”
Her smile felt forced, and from the deliberate way he finished chewing, she didn’t think Kyle bought it. That didn’t make her answer a lie. Everything was fine because everything was going just like she knew it would. No unexpected surprises in life today.
In fact, today just went to prove how right she’d been. A reminder she needed after spending the last six days nearly tied to Cole and Kyle’s hips. The constant contact started to wear down her defenses and her doubts, giving a little bloom to a thing called hope. Also known as stupidity because Cole hadn’t changed.
Kyle wiped his hands on his jeans before seeming to remember she’d given him a napkin. The small, masculine slip made the moment that much more depressing. When he just shrugged it off and finished wiping his hands on his jeans, she could almost see her future with him sitting there through the years. A fantasy, that’s all that was.
It had been a long time since Hailey had to feed a man, and every day that Cole and Kyle labored up to her kitchen table to eat, she felt that tug. The sort of homey feeling that brought a strange glow back in her life. Maybe that’s why it seemed so dim today because without Cole there she could see the fractures forming in her fantasies. She’d been a real fool to ever start to put him in there in the first place.
The clink of Kyle’s plate going down in the sink had her snapping back to the moment. Her chin led the turn toward the sound, and she found herself nearly snuggled into Kyle’s chest with the motion. He completed it for her, stepping up to wrap one arm around her waist to pull her the rest of the way in.
She probably should have fought it, but he just felt so good and smelled so comforting. If she could just convince him to lie down for a moment, she probably wouldn’t even need the sex to get to sleep. Boy, but she missed sleeping.
“You know you don’t look fine,” Kyle commented as if he could see anything with her face tucked into his shoulder.
Hailey didn’t offer up that argument but deflected his concern with an easy excuse. “It’s just business. You know I got other jobs to get done.”
She tried to interject a bit of lightness into her tone, but the attempt didn’t distract Kyle. It might have explained, though, why he wrapped one of those big hands around her neck and tipped her chin back.
“No. That ain’t it.” Branding her skin with the rough, callused feel of his own, Kyle slid his hand up, over her neck to cradle her jaw. One lone finger stretched out to rub her cheek. “You’re not sleeping, Hailey.”
“I sleep just fine, Kyle.”
“Liar.”
That had her hands coming off their rest at his hips to try and push off his chest. It was like trying to move a mountain. He didn’t even have to flex a muscle to keep her in place.
“Kyle—”
“We both know what’s keeping you up, so why don’t you just own up to it.”
“Don’t you have work to get back to because I certainly do.”
There came that slow-crawling smile again. She really hated when he did that. Normally because it followed with an entirely too reasonable and utterly annoying response, which it did.
“And don’t you think that maybe this problem,” his finger smoothed back over her cheek, “is going to get a whole lot worse in the coming weeks?”
She should have known. A man with a boner wasn’t much different than a dog looking for its bone. Maybe she should consider that, Hailey thought as she began to reverse her attitude. Slipping her arms back around his solid sides, she let hers rest on his rump.
Like a man, she used her hold to jerk him into the cradle of her thighs. She even added a little rub with her purr as she tried to tease him into folding.
“Well, you know, Kyle, there is something you could do to help me with that.”
“Is that so?” Kyle growled, pressing a big palm against her ass to hold her still while he did a little of his own grinding.
Hailey couldn’t stop the need driving her body’s subtle motions, and that just made the moment all the more painful. Under the weight of her own misery, her eyelids closed out the world, letting her live only in the pleasurable sensation.
“Now see, princess, just think how much better all that grinding would feel without no clothes on.”
“The bedroom’s down the hall.” Hailey groaned out that encouragement.
“I don’t need a bedroom, princess. I just need to call Cole.”
“Ah!” Hailey shoved back as hard as she could, breaking his damn spell before she said something stupid. “Why you got to be like that, Kyle? Ruin my moment?”
“Because I have a compromise to offer you.” The little bastard made her feel like the mouse in a cat’s house with that smile. Hailey didn’t trust that smile.
“An offer?”
“Something to help with them bags, princess, because, honestly, they ain’t attractive.”
She should have known. “Kyle, do you want to die today?”
“Okay, okay.” He held up his hands in defense but didn’t slink back out her door. “I was just going to suggest a porno-date night, but—”
“A porno what?” Despite her best efforts not take him seriously, that caught her off guard on the preposterous scale. Kyle proved his willingness to go extreme as he stepped back into her and growled out in that husky way he knew made her knees wobble.
“You know, a porno-date night. You dress a little slutty, come on over to the house, and Cole and I will show you what ‘just sex’ is all about.”
Just the mere idea had her heart racing, and blood flushed through her veins, warming her up for the melt down. “You’re serious.”
“Like a pitbull after his bone, princess. See, I’ve been thinking, and it isn’t right to use sex as a weapon. That’s what we’re all kind of doing and it’s hurting us all, so I say we wise up and call a temporary truce.”
“Truce?”
“A porno-date night,” Kyle repeated.
He meant a three-way, porno-date night, but he couldn’t understand why she had to say no to his offer. Only a fool would sleep with a man she’d already set up to seduce by another woman. Right? It had almost happened a week ago, but a week ago she hadn’t liked Cole, but now she kind of feared what she’d done. Worried that she might end up hurting herself.
“What do you say, princess?”
Hailey’s jaw clenched because she couldn’t tell him no, even knowing Cole was setting up to betray her. “If I said yes, it would be a no-thrills kind of deal. Straight sex.
None of your deviant games.”
Almost immediately his head tilted as his eyes glanced down over her shoulder. “Well, we probably should start stretching that ass. You’ll be thankful for it when Cole’s leash comes off.”
Hailey shivered at that blunt comment, but she refused to let that distract her. “I’m not just talking about that. I’m talking no ropes, no ties, no binds, no toys—”
“No toys?”
“Nothing that I don’t own.”
There came that wicked grin. “You gonna bring your collection with you?”
“Nothing beyond a dildo and lube.”
“Boy, your collection sucks.”
“I’m serious, Kyle.”
“I know and that’s what’s so depressing. You gonna tack on no form of bondage and domination of any kind and really suck the joy out of my day?”
Kyle’s laughter didn’t infect her. Hailey’s mind still stared down the realization of what she’d just agreed to. And why not? Cole might be a bastard, but that didn’t change the fact that she wanted him. What it would change was the level of his humiliation.
Hailey’s mind latched back onto the argument she sold herself on in her garage a week back. Sleeping with Cole would only add to his shame, not hers, so she might as well enjoy the ride. Especially given that Kyle had just negotiated away all the bells and whistles Cole liked to threaten her with, though one rule remained to be stated.
“And no means no.”
“Doesn’t it always?”
“There will be no more of this just kiss her and she’ll forget about that stupid objection. No means no. Got it.”
“You know, Hailey, you’re really taking all the fun out of porno-date night.”
“Kyle.”
“Fine. No means no. No bondage. No domination. Can I at least still get a blow job?”
“Sure. I can spare the five minutes. You want it now?”
The second the words broke the air, Hailey knew she’d regret them in the very near future. At least they took the smirk off Kyle’s face. Still, that comfort seemed a little hollow as he leaned in to issue only one challenge.
Hailey's Game Page 20
