Heat Up the Fall: New Adult Boxed Set (6 Book Bundle)

by Gennifer Albin

  Chapter Twelve

  Emilie raced up as soon as she saw me step out onto the deck, her face filled with annoyance and worry. “Where have you been? And why do you smell like a swamp?”

  “The manager was having some trouble in the kitchen and Cole and I got roped into helping. Why are you so flushed? You and Quinn didn’t have sex somewhere, did you, because if we get fined for that—”

  “No. Not yet, anyway.” She laughed. “I talked to Chaney, and then to that sophomore theatre girl that works as a waitress here—Manda. She was on your list of Cole’s exes.”

  “Yeah, I remember.” My curiosity spiked. “What did they say?”

  “You’re not going to believe it. Come on.” She led me down the wooden deck steps and out toward the beach, until the crowd had thinned out to sparse couples, all focused on something other than our discussion.

  “Okay, you’re killing me. Spill.”

  “He’s leading them on.”

  “Come again?”

  “Like, he takes them out on several dates, things heat up, then he refuses to sleep with them and tells them he doesn’t want to see them anymore. No explanation, but pretty much they all feel like he thinks they’re not good enough or something.”

  The truth didn’t make sense. What kind of guy didn’t sleep with a girl he’d been dating? “That’s definitely weird. And it explains the ratings. They’re all embarrassed or pissed.”

  “Do you think he’s gay?”

  “Nope.” No way a gay guy kissed a girl like Cole had kissed me in the back room.

  “Impotent?”

  “Nope.” That much had been perfectly clear.

  “What makes you so sure?” Emilie crossed her arms, giving me an exasperated look.

  “Because we just made out in the storeroom, and it was fucking hotter than shit.”

  “What?” She screeched, then slapped a hand over her lips. “That’s where you were?”

  “Well, the thing about helping was also true, but yeah.”

  “What does this mean?”

  “I don’t know. Nothing?”

  “Ruby Belle Cotton. It’s like your scheming gene has gone completely dormant. At the very least, it means we can find out what his issue is once and for all. Just keep seeing him.”

  “I’m not seeing him now.”

  “It’s been obvious he likes you since the first day of class. He’s going to ask you out again. Say yes this time, wait a couple of dates, then figure out what his deal is!”

  “It’s going to be like with everyone else, Em. He’s just going to not sleep with me and send me packing. I can’t…I don’t want to do that.”

  Silence hung between us for a moment, the murmur of laughter and voices far enough away to count as background noise. It took her a moment to hear what I left unsaid, but this was Emilie.

  “You like him.”

  “I don’t know if I like him, but I don’t hate him. I definitely want him.”

  She nodded. “If you’re worried about getting hurt, then we can figure out a different way.”

  I looked at her, at my best friend, the bravest girl I knew. She hadn’t been afraid to keep going to Quinn, even when he smacked her down emotionally time after time, because she’d felt something and acted on it. Shame flooded my blood at my own cowardice.

  Then again, Emilie had never been rejected the way I had been the first couple years at Whitman. She got the occasional racist asshole who assumed she wasn’t good enough because of her complexion, but her father’s name and reputation commanded respect. Even though he made buckets of money of his own as an innovative surgeon, their family money had been inherited.

  In the end, I knew that no matter what I resolved, staying away from Cole probably wouldn’t happen. He seemed determined to keep coming around and that pull between us.…I doubted I’d be able to resist it until I saw it through to the end. Whatever that meant.

  “I’ll do it. I’ll keep seeing him and find out what happens after date number three.”

  “I’m proud of you, Rubes. You never know.”

  Emilie and I headed back inside, a little sandy but no worse for the wear. Quinn swept her up when we stepped back through the screened door onto the patio, and I wandered the room, checking with my sisters and making sure everything was going smoothly. Once a mixer or party got going it pretty much ran itself, but it never hurt to make sure.

  I spotted Chaney chatting with a couple of good-looking guys and another senior DE, and stole her away for a second.

  “What’s up, Ruby? Great dress.”

  “Thanks. We never got a chance to talk after that night I let you in the house.”

  “Ugh, totally over it.”

  “Good. So, you wouldn’t care if I wanted to hang out with Cole?”

  Her eyes widened. “I mean…I don’t care, in that, I still like him. But talk to Emilie first.”

  “I have. I kind of want to figure him out.”

  She shrugged. “More power to you. He’s hot and actually a really good date, except for the withholding sex part.” Her gaze narrowed. “And he’d headed this way right now.”

  “Chaney. It’s good to see you.” Cole’s face arranged into a pleasant mask, even though confronting the last girl he booted probably didn’t rate high on his list of fun things to do. She grunted and went back to the group she’d been talking to, giving my arm a quick squeeze.

  “Hey, let me ask you something,” I asked as we stepped away.

  His expression didn’t change, but wariness stiffened his body. “Sure.”

  “The Saturday before school started, I found Chaney on the porch, no keys or wallet or cell phone, disheveled and pissed. She said she’d been with you. You were so contemptuous of Liam leaving me in that parking lot, so it’s been bugging me.”

  “There wasn’t a question in there, but if you’re asking why I appear to be a hypocrite, the answer is that she wouldn’t let me take her home. We had a…disagreement, and when I offered to drive her back to the house, she threw a rather large finance textbook at my napper and took off like a pelican.”

  I nodded. Knowing Chaney, I had figured as much. She looked like an actual angel, but the girl had a temper. She had dressed down an alumna advisor for falling asleep in the back of a Recruitment workshop in front of the entire chapter last year.

  Cole led me outside, where the band had moved onto the deck. October in Florida was about as perfect as weather got—still warm but less humid, and the pleasant breeze smelled of salty ocean and escaping summer. Night had fallen; stars twinkled overheard as the band shifted into a slower tempo and I realized Cole had extended his hand.

  “Care to dance?”

  “Why not,” I replied, hesitating only a split second.

  A quick look of suspicion crossed Cole’s handsome face before he pulled me into his arms. He probably couldn’t figure out why I’d done such a complete turnaround where he was concerned. If only he knew it hadn’t been quick at all.

  One hand warmed my waist though my dress, the other rested higher, toying with the ends of my hair. I rested one palm over his heart, enjoying the steady pattern of beats, and the other on his impossibly hard shoulder. He gathered me closer as the song wore on, until only the barest slip of moonlight could have slipped between our bodies.

  “You are quite the intriguing Cajun Princess,” he murmured, not taking his eyes from my face.

  “Why?”

  “You’re a study in contradictions. I mean, I’m not going to lie. At first it was the way just the sight of your face took my breath away, and the way your lithe little body moves under your clothes.”

  My skin heated, and I looked away, trying to hide my reaction. “And now?”

  He lowered his head until his lips brushed my ear, sending shivers down my spine. “You have this perfectly innocent face, but you prick like a thistle. You are smart and accomplished and passionate, yet you are wildly defensive. You seem to be putting on a show all the time, but with
the kids at the Coterie, you’re honest. Happy.”

  “Is that all?” I asked, wondering if I should have been shocked or pleased at how easily he saw through my charade.

  “Definitely not. I feel as though it would take a fair folk’s lifetime to plumb your depths.” He seemed to realize the unintentional double entendre and winked. “I mean, the emotional ones. Not that all of your depths don’t interest me.”

  “Do they?” It didn’t seem like sex interested Cole, at least not according to my website.

  And here I was, asking him to come in for a callback anyway.

  “I doubt you missed that very clear fact earlier tonight,” he breathed against my ear.

  “What the fuck is this?”

  I whirled at the sound of Liam’s voice, my back pressed against Cole’s chest. He didn’t move. Liam’s eyes shone, betraying he’d had plenty to drink tonight, and his hands curled into fists. I’d never considered him skinny, but after having my arms around Cole twice tonight, my former…whatever-he’d-been looked positively scrawny.

  “What are you doing here, Liam?” I crossed my arms, comforted by Cole’s silent support.

  “You invited me, remember?”

  “I invited you two weeks ago, when we were still…involved.”

  “And we’re not involved anymore?”

  “We haven’t spoken or seen each other in at least that long. Do you need it spelled out for you?”

  “Because of this hulking idiot?” Liam jerked his head toward Cole. “You going to fuck him instead now, you rich little whore?”

  Cole tensed. “You’re going to want to watch your step, mate.”

  The people around us stopped when Liam called me a whore, and the news that something was going on rippled outward until the entire deck fell silent, except for the band, which provided a strange, lilting soundtrack to our awkward confrontation.

  “I’m not your mate. I’m not friends with any of you rich fucks who think the world belongs to you because your granddaddy’s granddaddy shit gold.”

  “Liam, you’ve obviously had too much to drink. If you want to talk, we can go somewhere private.”

  “No. It’s not like all of your stupid friends don’t know what you are. That you don’t belong here, either, or that you fucked trash like me and liked it?”

  “Liam, for God’s sake, do you have to be such an asshole? We had a thing, it’s over. No one gives a shit except apparently you. Get out, or I’ll have you thrown out.”

  His mouth fell open slightly and his dark eyes widened, betraying his shock at my dismissal. It only proved that he’d always thought he had the upper hand in our relationship, even though I’d never intended to stay. Nausea bubbled over the fact that I’d ever slept with him at all. What a waste of a month and a half.

  Liam looked between Cole and me a few times, then got control of his surprise and shrugged. “You’re welcome to that pussy, mate. She’s a lousy fuck, anyway.”

  Cole’s fist lashed out in the blink of an eye, smashing into Liam’s right cheekbone with a crunch. Liam crashed backward, flopping onto his back and cracking his head on the deck, but not hard enough to knock him out. My hands flew over my mouth but couldn’t stop the giggle that escaped, or the second one over Cole’s surprised look.

  He rubbed his knuckles, and I was glad he didn’t need his hand to swim. I didn’t need every Whitman athletics fan on my ass for ruining a promising season.

  “You want to get out of here?”

  I nodded, even though we were technically in charge of this mixer and shouldn’t leave. The official party ended in less than a half hour, and we’d taken care of the payment. We stepped over Liam, who had struggled into a sitting position but held a hand over his cheek, spitting eye-daggers at the two of us.

  It took every last ounce of self-control I possessed not to kick him in the nuts on my way out.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Seriously, you didn’t have to do that,” I said for the third time, worrying my lip as his knuckles swelled more with each passing moment.

  “Ruby, I know. Stop. I’m going to be fine, and he deserved it. It actually pisses me off that he ever even had the balls to think he was your equal.”

  I bristled. “Just because he has to work for a living doesn’t mean—”

  “Christ, you’re daft when you want to be. It’s not your money that makes you better than him. It’s your spirit.” Cole pressed a bag of ice that his driver had grabbed from the gas station over his hand, wincing slightly and looking out the window.

  My spirit. Not my class or my money. It was something I hadn’t considered an asset before, or rather, not one that curried value with people other than maybe Emilie and some of my sisters.

  I’d gotten a text from Em as we were leaving, asking if I was okay—she’d been inside with Quinn and heard about Liam’s appearance right as the punch was thrown. Apparently, Quinn picked Liam up by his hair and tossed him none too kindly out into the street. I knew that asshat would be good for something besides laying my best friend.

  For the first time all night, Cole’s eyes weren’t on me. That, combined with the slump of his shoulders, scattered nerves through my belly. We’d had fun tonight, and he’d stood up for me when everyone else was staring like idiots.

  “You’re different than I thought you’d be,” I confessed, wanting to share something personal with him as a way of voicing the thank you that just wouldn’t roll off my tongue.

  He shifted in the seat, turning his entire body to face me in the back of the Town Car instead of just his eyes. Cole had a way about him that made me feel special, like I was worth his total focus.

  “In what way?”

  I shrugged, a little embarrassed now. “It’s what I get for believing stereotypes, I guess, but most of the Lambdas don’t care much about anything but family connections. You, well, look deeper, and it makes me feel….”

  He slid closer to me as the car pulled into the DE parking lot and stopped, idling at the curb. With one finger, Cole asked the driver to give us a moment and raised the partition.

  “It makes you feel…?”

  His handsome face filled my field of vision—the clean-shaven, strong jaw, the light green eyes that filled with more intensity every moment—and the good hand settled on my bare knee.

  The feeling of skin against skin made it hard to breathe, fogged my vision, but I struggled for clarity. “It makes me feel naked. Exposed.”

  The first word felt too charged in this moment. Naked was exactly what I wanted to be, but in a more literal and less scary sense. Quinn would have immediately latched onto the sexual tension, from what I knew of trying to have a conversation with him, but Cole just raised a finger, brushing it down my cheek.

  “And that frightens you? Worries you?”

  “I don’t want to think about what it does to me.” Whether it made me like Quinn Rowland or not, I decided to take a page from his playbook to ease back from this too-intense moment. “I want to think about doing things to you.”

  I looped my arms around his neck and dragged his lips to mine, crushing our mouths together and marveling again at how easily we fit together. Cole didn’t argue with my change of subject, exploring my lips and mouth with his tongue in a way that made me want to know how he’d treat the rest of me. His disposition came across almost gentle in public, but I could tell by the way he kissed that Cole tended toward the wild and maybe even slightly rough in the bedroom, a fact that made it almost impossible to stop the shivers running laps up and down my spine.

  His good hand snaked around my back, gathering me flush against him. I maneuvered my way into his lap, my legs wrapped around his waist, and gasped when his lips left mine and trailed hot kisses along my jaw and down my neck. He found the pulse throbbing in my neck.

  The sensation of his tongue flicking over it made me whimper, a sound I didn’t think I’d ever made before, and my hands dropped to his waist. I tugged his dress shirt free of the waistband and
ran my hands up his bare chest, digging my nails in until he growled and went after my lips again. It sucked that he only had one hand—stupid Liam rears his ugly head again—because Cole could only cover half the ground. Heat poured off us both everywhere we touched, and the ache between my legs when it pressed against him made me shudder with delightful anticipation.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I’d enjoyed the buildup more than the main event, but this night could escalate as slowly as possible, as far as I was concerned.

  Cole made no move for the zipper of my dress or to reach underneath it, but when one thick shoulder strap fell down to my elbow, he pulled back slightly, staring at the exposed swath of skin that ended at the lacy top of my champagne-colored bra.

  His big hand settled on my naked shoulder and his mouth followed, kissing his way down to the last scrap of material covering my skin. Cole pushed my dress a little farther, but not off, so that he could do some more staring, which made my entire body arch forward, begging for his touch.

  “You look like you’ve never seen a bra before.” I meant to tease him but it came out a little poutier than intended.

  “I’ve never seen you in a bra before.” He grinned, but it looked unsure.

  I loved the perfect way he had of phrasing things. The slight attention to detail made me believe it was me in the lingerie that excited him, not simply the pretty cloth.

  When his palm slid down and cupped my breast through the lace, I almost shrieked with pleasure. I gritted my teeth against the intensity of the feeling as his lips traced the sensitive curve of flesh that peered from the top, determined not to act like some sex-starved teenager. But when his tongue dipped inside the fabric and flicked against my nipple, I forgot about acting and gasped his name. It encouraged him and he doubled his attention, kissing his way to my other breast and back again, tongue working magic without removing a single piece of clothing.

  Lust like I’d never felt lit every nerve ending, making every tease and lick feel like a jolt of electricity, so that when he made his way back to my mouth it was almost a relief.