“Yeah.” Kyle didn’t see that going over well with Cole, especially given that Cole’s business had been instigated by Hailey herself. “I tell you what, princess, why don’t we just swap the sheets?”
“Swap?” That idea intrigued Hailey enough to let him escort her back out of the bed. As if the question needed to be asked as he started to pull the sheets off, Hailey still seemed puzzled. “You’re going to put your dirty sheets on Cole’s bed?”
“Yep.” Kyle even snatched up the pillows.
“Isn’t that going to piss him off?”
With the bundle all wrapped in a ball and tucked under his arm, he paused to give her a curious look. “You care suddenly?”
“I just thought it was sort of the ‘united we stand’ kind of deal.”
“It is,” Kyle grunted. Before Hailey could question that, he pressed a quick, hard kiss into her lips and stormed off through the bathroom.
Let Hailey that reach the wrong conclusion. It would only help Kyle out. Changing out the sheets, he considered just how smoothly everything had gone that night. Hailey jumped to the bait and assumed the worst of Cole. It made her as vulnerable as Kyle predicted, and he’d easily been able to swoop in under her defenses.
Now, though, Hailey didn’t have the molten waves of lust ruling her mind or even the sharp spikes of betrayal distorting her thinking. The desperation to rebuild the fortress walls around her heart played out in her endless search for something else to complain about.
The time had come for him to level her with his best blow yet. Dumping the pile of dirty sheets on Cole’s bed, he glanced around the abandoned room. Time had run out on him and Cole. They’d been good boys, appeasing all of Hailey’s insecurities, and still it had come to this. So be it.
Braced with that determination, Kyle still got thrown off his intent when he stepped back into his bedroom. The overriding scent of his own cologne hit him before he even cleared back through the bathroom. Coming to a stop in the doorway, he stared in amazement as Hailey nearly emptied the bottle all over the sheets.
“What the hell are you doing?”
A dirty look over her shoulder, that’s what he got for asking a reasonable question. He guessed she figured the answer should have been obvious because she didn’t respond. Capping the bottle, she tried to storm back into the bathroom to return it to the counter.
Kyle held firm, refusing to let her pass. Another dirty look, but this time it was his turn to retort with just a raised brow.
“I’m getting rid of the stink. Okay?”
He let her shove past him with that, turning to watch. “Not clean enough?”
“No.” This time she intentionally bumped into him, muttering as she pouted past. “They smell like Cole.”
The small hint of sulking hurt made Kyle’s heart clench. All the instincts he had to cherish and protect urged him forward, but Kyle spared himself the effort. Hailey wouldn’t understand tenderness. The little hardhead would probably mistake it as sympathy, and she was crabby enough.
Crabby, but not terrified. Not yet, Kyle smirked to himself as he jerked open his sock drawer. It took him less than a second for him to find the old, black canister that had once held a roll of film, back from the time when people actually used film. He used it to store the one piece of jewelry he ever owned.
Given to him by his grandmother, he tucked the little gold chain and cross into the plastic holder over fifteen years ago. That’s where they stayed until tonight when he finally popped the lid open. Offering up his apologies to God, he let the cross slide all the way down the chain to drop back into the plastic canister.
Tucking Jesus safely back under his socks, he carried the cross over to his nightstand, aware of Hailey’s gaze tracking every motion. She tucked herself back in under the covers, and he knew as much as she bitched the last half hour, she waited for him.
His little princess didn’t sleep well unless he held her. A truth she’d never admit to, but Kyle figured it out. He figured out quite a number of the secrets she didn’t want revealed, like what she really feared.
“What are you doing?” Kyle cast her a quick smile as he settled onto the edge of the bed. Hailey didn’t smile back. “You got me a necklace?”
“No.” Kyle pulled open his nightstand drawer to extract the box he tucked in there earlier. “I picked this up from my mom this afternoon.”
“What—” Her voice choked off at the snap of the jewelry box’s lid opening. Kyle pulled the modest, but definitely sparkly, diamond ring free, knowing it held Hailey totally petrified by its significance.
“Kyle?”
Stringing the ring onto the chain, he turned to his princess. Shock, fear, and maybe even a little hope held her still as he latched the necklace around her throat.
“Now.” Settling back he stared into the wide eyes gazing at him in confusion. “The question’s been asked, Hailey. You take as long as you need, but there is only one answer. Only one answer I’m going to accept.”
Chapter 33
“Okay, Cole.” Riley pulled the glass out from under Cole’s nose. “I have washed, stocked, and tucked every last bottle and glass all into their beds. I wash this, and I go home. You know what that means?”
Cole grinned. “I got to go home.”
“No. You ain’t got to go home. You can go any damn place. Go nowhere and just sleep it off in the lot outside for all I care. There is just one place you can’t be.”
“Right here.”
“You got it.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Cole sighed as he turned on the bar stool. He got it all right, and finally for once, in time to save his ass. Sauntering toward the door, he considered whether he should bunk down in the bed of his truck and let Hailey assume he’d been dicking around all night.
It would serve the little spitfire right for playing this stupid game, but Cole had something else he wanted tonight. Tonight, tomorrow morning, he wanted to prove a point to her about love and fidelity.
“Oh, and Cole?” Pausing with his hand on the door, he gave Riley a look back over his shoulder. “You came in at midnight. I know, and if Hailey comes around asking, that’s what I’m going to tell her.”
Riley wouldn’t be covering for Cole, but he hadn’t asked him to. Nodding his head, he pushed on through the door. Riley was a good guy, but he wasn’t a Cattleman, and his loyalty belonged first to those he called friend. Hailey fell into that category, like she did with a lot of the fine citizens of Pittsview.
That had always been his problem. He’d been fighting a lone war against a well protected opponent. Those loyalties had shifted, though, and now Hailey had few allies left. Riley’s truth wouldn’t be able to stop the tide from crashing down on his princess.
Whistling as he spun his keys around his finger, Cole considered all the fun possibilities of how this game would end. He wanted his victory to be absolute, to be unprecedented and heralded in the legends of the Cattleman. Cole intended to make sure Hailey’s memory lived on forever just by virtue of what he’d done to her.
Peppered with all sorts of perverse musings, the drive home gave him an erection. He’d been good at the bar, keeping his thoughts on the tactical. Now with every inch of asphalt that slipped past, the Mr. Man grew until he swelled to a full-length pant. For all his anticipation of getting home, Cole savored every moment. This is what it would be like for the rest of his life.
That was a victory Cole didn’t waste time to savor when he pulled into the drive. Kicking open his door, his heart pounded with the thrill of battle. Inside that house awaited his savage princess. Kyle had it right with that endearment.
Savage, as in she’d probably rip him to shreds if he ever did cheat on her. Bad enough that tonight she probably thought he already had. It made him pause with his key in the lock to consider where he should go find a protective cup before daring to go in his own house.
Caution, not cowardice, had him opening the door slowly to peek in and ensure that he could ente
r without damage to his person. Nothing greeted him but the clink of weights being lifted and the muted murmur of music coming down the hall. Kyle was working out, which meant Hailey had to be passed out.
Either that or she left, Cole thought as he chunked his keys onto the console table and sauntered off to find out how Kyle had done that night. Snatching the milk from the fridge, he went to face the music.
It was AC/DC, set low, no doubt, to keep from disturbing the little princess. It left more than enough stillness in the air for Kyle to have heard him come in, but he didn’t even look Cole’s way when he sauntered into the room.
“Aren’t you supposed to bench press with a spotter?” Clicking off the stereo, Cole turned his grin on Kyle.
“Better to have no spotter than an unreliable one.” Straightening up, Kyle wiped the sweat from his face before dropping the hand towel back over his thigh.
“Mighty big words from the man working off his extra energy. What happened, Kyle? Couldn’t get the precious to give you the three little words you were after?”
Rising from the bench seat like a king from his throne, Kyle held his arms up in a dramatic splay of victory. “Who’s the king?”
“Oh, really?” Cole couldn’t help but laugh at the spectacle Kyle put on with that big grin. “So she coughed it up, huh? And how many orgasms did it take to wring that admission out of the princess?”
“Not even one.” Kyle’s hands folded down to let his hands rest on his hips as he gloated over that victory. “And that makes me the king. I got our princess, who is irrationally afraid of commitment, to say ‘love you.’”
Cole admitted it. He was impressed, but he kept the celebration to himself lest Kyle’s head swell up enough to float off the floor. Instead, he snickered and cast Kyle a look of disappointment. “Love you? That’s the best you could come up with?”
“The best?”
“Where’s the ‘I?’”
“Screw you, Cole,” Kyle snorted out over Cole’s laughter. “I’d like to see you do better.”
“And you will. Tomorrow. At lunch.” That’s when Cole’s turn came to deliver the killing blow before they crashed Hailey’s game down around her head.
“Yeah.” Kyle’s grin gave away to a scowl. Cole could guess where that lead just as easily as he could guess why Kyle had chosen weights over cuddling with the princess.
“Don’t start feeling guilty now, man.” Cole straightened off the wall with that stiff bit of advice.
“You weren’t here.” Kyle slouched back down onto his seat. “She got that call, and I could see it in her eyes. We broke her heart, Cole, and we just got started.”
This time Cole gave the drawn-out sigh. “This was your plan, man.”
“I know and if we confront her with the truth, all it would do is embarrass her a little, and it certainly wouldn’t make her any more inclined to giving in to the obvious. In the long run, her insecurities and trust issues will just result in another game.”
“Not another, man.” Cole couldn’t take another round. “I can live through this one, but I’m kind of looking forward to getting beyond it.”
“Bullshit,” Kyle snorted out over a chuckle. “You’re looking forward to getting to relish the end game.”
“Well, yeah, but, believe it or not, Kyle, I’m more looking forward to the after. Actually, I was thinking about that tonight at Riley’s. By the way, he’s not covering for us.”
“It doesn’t matter. I think the call Hailey got did the damage. Right now, I don’t think she cares about the details.” The guilt obviously weighed on Kyle’s shoulders, even as he tried to shrug it off. “You’ll be lucky to get to first base.”
“Luck doesn’t have anything to do with it, my friend. It’s called skill and inevitability, which brings me to the point I was making. We should be thinking about the after.”
“The after?”
“Yes, the after. We need to be negotiating the details now before we just run into them and Hailey takes the advantage.”
“Details? What details?”
“Okay. I’m just putting this out there.” Cole gestured to the entire room with his milk carton. “I ain’t changing no poopy diapers.”
“What?” Kyle gasped either from shock or indignation. Cole couldn’t tell which.
“I’ll mow the yard, do gutters, anything, but when it comes to biological waste, count me out.”
“You are seriously shitting me, right?”
“No, my friend.” Cole slid onto the bench seat of the Bowflex across from where Kyle sat. “Think about it. We both know Hailey is going to make one of us wipe ass, and I’m just saying we should start negotiating now.”
“Negotiating now over our children.” Kyle couldn’t keep the grin off his face. “That doesn’t seem, perhaps, a little premature?”
“It’s only nine months.”
“Nine months?”
“And you got to figure between the two of us, we’ll keep the princess pretty rounded for the next ten years.”
“Ten years?” No doubt. This time Kyle’s jaw unhinged. “How many fricken kids are you talking about here?”
“Well, I figured at least six.”
“Six? At least? What are you? Breeding an army?” Kyle shook his head in disgust, giving Cole that look he knew only too well. “I am not having six kids, Cole.”
“Well, point of fact, you ain’t having any. Hailey’s going to have them.” Cole tacked the last bit on as he took another swig of milk.
“Oh, yeah. I’d like to see you sell this load to her.”
“Don’t you worry about that.” Cole wiped the mustache he could feel on his lips away with his wrist. “I’ll be taking that issue up with the princess tomorrow.”
“Oh, I see. You’re going to perform some kind of miracle, is that it? You’re going to confess to an infidelity, then sweet talk her into saying she loves your sorry ass and agree to have six of your kids.”
“Our kids.”
“You’re delusional.”
Cole ignored Kyle’s smirk to offer a very reasonable retort. “Actually, I figure five will be mine and one will be yours.”
“Excuse me?”
“Well,” Cole stood, “I am the king.”
That seemed like a great exit line, and he really would rather be messing with Hailey than messing with Kyle. Kyle wouldn’t let it go, though, and Cole couldn’t let him have the last word.
“Okay, smartass, where we going to put all these kids?”
“Oh, about that.” Cole turned in the doorway. “I was looking at the real estate section of the paper, and the old Gravey place is up for sale.”
“That thing's a rotted piece of shit.”
“It’s got nine bedrooms.”
“Its plumbing dates from the civil war.”
“And more than enough land for a shop.”
“You could fall through the floor just stepping on the porch.”
“They’re only asking three hundred for it.”
“Thousand?”
“You know, Kyle, you take the fun out of everything,” Cole snapped before storming off. Sure, the Gravey place was a pit, but it had potential. Sitting on the hill with the sweeping porches looking out over the grassy slopes—that was the place to raise a family.
Despite Kyle’s predictably rational reaction, Cole knew Hailey would love it. He would fix it up any way she wanted, and it would be perfect. With nine bedrooms, they could have eight kids. Eight kids. That would be one hell of a Thanksgiving dinner.
He could already hear the thunder of conversation and imagine the long stretch of table, piled high with food while the kids elbowed each other and complained. With eight kids, he could end up with eighteen grandkids. They’d need two Christmas trees, if not three, to fit all the gifts.
What other house would accommodate three Christmas trees but the Gravey place? No place that Cole knew, and he’d sell that case to Hailey before Kyle poisoned her mind with a bunch of details. T
urning into his room, he considered the issue settled.
If Kyle didn’t want to do the sane thing and work out the agreements ahead of time, then Cole would just make the deal with Hailey. Given how much Hailey liked to deal, he figured she’d jump at the bait. Once he got her to agree to having the kids.
Cole considered how hard that might be as he ignored the obvious ball of sheets making a statement on the middle of his bed to saunter into the bathroom. He’d need to wash the stink of Kitty’s perfume off along with the stench of smoke from the bar before he could crawl into Hailey’s bed.
The pathetically short supply of hot water told him how many showers Kyle had already taken, which let him conclude how worn out their princess probably was. Too bad about that. The Mr. Man definitely didn’t want to have to wait till morning for his treat.
He would, though, Cole decided as he padded into Kyle’s room. The sight of Hailey passed out in the carnage of bedding brought a smile to Cole’s lips. In sleep, at least, Hailey looked sweet and innocent, completely incapable of conspiring to publicly ridicule him.
His little savage. Cole understood why she did it. He could even understand why she worried. He didn’t have the best track record when it came to women. That didn’t mean he couldn’t be trusted. With all the women who had come before, he only ever promised his loyalty to Serena, and he kept it.
Hailey just needed to learn to trust him. She could do it. The way she snuggled back into his warmth as he settled into bed spoke volumes of how much she already trusted him. That was her heart. When she woke up, the cynical little part of her mind would start to sow new fears and worries. Cole had the cure for that—one night, his way.
Wrapping an arm around her, his hand went in search of hers only to find it fisted beneath her chin. Peeling back her fingers exposed the ring she’d been clinging to. Cole smirked at the sight. He’d have loved to see her reaction to that gift.
Threading his fingers through hers to curl her fist in his, Cole let the scent of cinnamon lure his cheek into the soft tresses dampening the pillow. This is how a man should go to sleep, with his little woman tucked into her place. He’d been an absolute fool to pass it up until now.
Hailey's Game Page 34
