We kissed until I felt lightheaded. It was hard to breathe but I didn’t really want to—what I wanted was more of Cole. This did not seem like a guy accused of being a prude in wolf’s clothing, but when my fingers pulled at the clasp on his belt, he covered my hand with his, stalling my progress. He pulled my arms back around his neck, then tugged the strap of my bra and dress back into place before sitting back, his arm still wrapped tight around me.
“I have a swim meet tomorrow.”
The change of direction jarred me just enough to cap my lingering lust, at least for the moment. I avoided looking at how deliciously disheveled he looked; I’d never seen him with his shirt untucked and tie askew before tonight. I wanted to see more of relaxed Cole.
“I’m not sure what to make of that statement. Do I remind you of swimming, or is this like when you try to think about your grandmother’s waist-length boobs so you don’t finish too early?”
He looked at me with his serious expression that curled my toes into the leather seat. “I promise that nothing could make me think of my grandmum’s boobs while yours are in front of me, and contrary to what you might be wondering given the recent hit to my reputation, I don’t have a problem satisfying women.”
Cole tugged me forward, kissing me until all I could taste was the mint and rum, along with the lust crowding the back of the car.
“I was hoping you might want to get together after the meet.”
It was pretty clear from the way I was practically panting that I’d love to get together right now, but my heart fluttered at the invitation. That he didn’t want to bang me in the backseat and toss me to the curb wasn’t a surprise, exactly, given his track record—but he knew pretty much all there was to know about my background and he still wanted to see me again.
I took a deep breath, tamping down the fear clawing my insides to shreds, and then blew it out. Brave. Like Em. “Okay.”
“Okay? No arguments or protestations?” He smiled, both dimples creasing in his cheeks.
“Not this time. But don’t think we’re finished here.”
“Trust me, beautiful girl, you’ll know when you’re finished.”
Cole walked me to the front door, then gave me a soft kiss on the mouth. I went inside, wondering if he’d meant the comment sexually, a flirtation, as it had sounded at first…or if it simply meant that, like Chaney and the others, I’d know when he was finished with me.
***
Emilie and I had planned on getting an apartment for our senior year, but since she and Quinn practically lived together, I’d either have to stay in the house or find someone else. The nice thing about sisterhood with over two hundred girls was that there were several of them that I genuinely liked, so it might be fun to live with a couple of them off campus. Maybe at the beach.
Saturday mornings were my favorite time at the sorority house. No one had anywhere to be, usually, and morning was a relative term. Most people managed to stir before noon, but not everyone. Depended on how much fun the night before had turned out to be, and the Lambda Phi mixer had been a hit, even with my display of awesome trashiness toward the end.
Ginny and Annette had both wandered into my room around eleven. They brought coffee and bagels, so I only pretended to be irritated by their obvious gossip seeking for five minutes before giving in. “What do you guys want to know?”
Annette ran her fingers through hopeless blonde tangles, her lips widening into a grin. “Well, we’ve just never had two boys fight over us in the middle of a bar before, so spill the details, girl.”
“That’s because proper Whitman girls do not date boys who fight in bars.”
“Psh. Details.” Ginny seconded, taking a bite of bagel and watching me with big eyes.
“I’d been dating Liam—or sleeping with him, or hooking up, I don’t know. A few weeks ago, after the play, he pissed me off so I stopped returning his calls.” I shrugged and sipped the blessedly black coffee. It paled in comparison to the South American beans that Emilie’s mother sent, but it shocked my body awake anyway. “He got drunk, obviously, and apparently decided to man up for the first time in his life.”
“Which is interesting and all,” Ginny drawled, “but what we really want to know is why Cole Stuart played the white knight in this little scenario.”
My face felt hot. “He has an overdeveloped moral compass.”
“Nope, not going to work. Don’t think the fact that the two of you disappeared for a half hour earlier in the night went unnoticed.” Ginny leveled me with a steely gaze, her pre-law training coming out like she flipped a switch.
“And when the two of you weren’t together, Cole stared at you all night. It was borderline creepy,” Annette added helpfully. “You might as well spill. What’s going on with you two?”
“More importantly, have you seen his horrid referrals on that ratings website? Plus, you’re the one who told us about him and Chaney.”
“Doesn’t seem possible, with that face and that accent and everything, but how can a dozen girls all be wrong?” Annette mused, finally unsnarling a mass of last night’s hairdo.
It didn’t seem possible. It seemed even less so given the off-the-charts heat level in the backseat of his car last night, or the way our hands seemed to seek each other on their own, or how our mouths fit together like pieces of a puzzle. This conversation brought me back to earth, though, and reminded me Cole had secrets lurking behind his gorgeous exterior.
“I’ve read it. And I don’t know what’s going on between us. I’m supposed to see him again this afternoon, but maybe you’re right. What’s the point of having such an awesome website if we’re not going to use it?”
“I agree with you in principle,” Ginny said, picking at her cherry red nail polish. “But, I mean, there’s no harm in seeing what all the fuss is about firsthand. I know I’m curious about what’s going on in Cole’s pants.”
“Or not going on,” Annette giggled.
I laughed, too, but the tension in my stomach unknotted with the knowledge that I had an excuse to do what I wanted—which was to spend more time with Cole. To my surprise, getting into his pants didn’t necessarily take precedence. His sweet attentiveness to me, the way he coaxed information about my life free with easygoing, dimpled grins, made me comfortable and happy in his presence. But it also worried me.
We’d spent most of our time talking about me—my family, my past, my hang-ups as far as dating was concerned. The fact remained that he had to be hiding something, and though he seemed to enjoy making me feel vulnerable, Cole kept his own secrets stowed away in stitched-up pockets.
It scared me that I wanted to know what they were. That I’d somehow gotten tangled up with a guy who was the exact opposite of what I’d gone looking for, and even managed to convince myself he was different, somehow. That it wouldn’t matter what his family thought or whether his frat brothers made rude comments about me after meetings.
As much as I wanted to be like Emilie, this situation with Cole still terrified me. It would be best to remember that the time we spent together was meant to be nothing more than the resolution to another scheme, and not the beginning of something that would break my heart in the end.
Chapter Fourteen
Annette had to go study, but Ginny had offered to accompany me to Whitman’s swim meet. I turned her down because I’d hoped to sneak in and out incognito—after all, Cole had suggested we do something afterward, not that I come watch—and Ginny had the kind of personality that echoed off regular walls, never mind the kind that surrounded swimming pools.
I could have called Emilie, but in truth, keeping a low profile while scouting potential talent appealed to me. Like when a big time director snuck in to catch your community theatre performance but didn’t say a word. It was better for everyone that way. If you sucked, no rejection.
A wash of humid air bathed my face when I pulled open the door to the pool. Inside, a racket that made moot my decision to leave Ginny at home met my e
ars. Chatter from the spectators crammed into the raised bleachers, along with whistles and starting horns, and shouts from coaches and encouraging teammates as they crowded at either end of the pool, screaming for their guy to go faster. It deafened me, but made blending in easy.
I surveyed the bleachers, wanting to get off the deck as soon as possible, and spotted a few spots big enough for my skinny ass. A couple of steps had me sandwiched between what had to be someone’s dad—decked out from head to toe in Whitman green and black and jostling everyone with his foot-stamping, fist-pumping gyrations—and a pretty girl with dark red hair. She had on a white Whitman T-shirt and a green and black pompom in her hand, but almost looked too young to be a student. A freshman, maybe.
We were swimming against Central Florida, whose red Speedos combined with Whitman’s dark green to make the pool deck look like Christmas. The meet had been going about half an hour, maybe, and it took some time to spot Cole among the throng of guys.
He hauled himself out of the pool, droplets of water clinging to every hard muscle rippling across his back and down his arms. The tanned, perfect skin tapered at his waist and led to better legs than I’d ever seen on a guy in my life. For whatever Cole Stuart wasn’t, what he was included being in fucking amazing shape.
My heart fluttered as he turned and took the black cap off his head, shaking water out of his ears and tightening the stacked muscle in his abdomen and chest in the process. The flutters turned to hot desire and pooled in my stomach. I tried to tear my eyes away but it took several tries, even when he moved into a crowd of teammates.
“That was a new personal best for him, wasn’t it?” The girl with the dark red hair turned away from me, asking the boy next to her.
“Yes. By almost two whole seconds.”
Their unmistakable Scottish accents jerked my head around, and the fact that both of the boys on the girl’s far side were slightly older, scruffier versions of Cole filled my head with disbelief. All of the places to sit, and somehow I ended up next to who had to be Cole’s siblings.
The girl did look familiar, probably from Recruitment. My brain dug through piles of profiles and came up with the name Audra, but the boys’ names escaped me, even though Cole had told me.
One of them caught me looking and winked, heating my cheeks before I turned away. So much for scouting undetected.
Her brother’s wink whipped Audra’s head around and she smiled, probably because my face looked like a tomato. “Hi. Ignore Law. He thinks he’s a cad but really, his girlfriend humors him.”
“It’s okay,” I mumbled, shrugging out of my pink cardigan. The flimsy tank top underneath didn’t offer much in the way of modesty, but the scrutiny from Law and the muggy heat of the pool were making my deodorant work overtime.
Audra squinted at me, pushing sweaty red bangs off her face. “You look familiar. Delta Epsilon?”
I nodded. “Ruby Cotton.”
She nodded. “Audra Stuart. DE was my second choice, and I loved the house. Kappa legacy, though.”
Legacies were pretty much shoo-ins, musts on bid day, not that Audra looked like she wouldn’t fit right in there. They were the female equivalents of the Lambdas. “Kappa’s great.”
“I like it so far. I mean, I need to upgrade my jean collection, but other than that.” Her wide, friendly smile made me want to grin back, the way Cole’s did.
The second boy reached over his twin and Audra, holding out a hand. “I’m Lennox. Nox to most people. Sorry my siblings are rude.”
“It’s okay,” I said again like a moron, shaking his hand. I thought about going back to my own business, but I would look extra stupid later if they found out I’d been here to watch Cole and hadn’t said something. Only a real cement head wouldn’t pick up on the fact that they were related.
The last thing I needed was for them to think I was a dumbshit in addition to being loudmouthed bayou trash.
“You’re Cole’s family.”
Their eyes slid to me all at once, as though they were connected by more than genetics. Audra’s eyebrows went up. “You know our brother?”
“Yes. We’re both social-chairing right now and we’re paired for Homecoming and crap. Mixer last night, too.”
The boys turned back to the meet, probably bored with undergrad Greek talk, but Audra twisted toward me, crossing her legs and balancing on the thin metal bleacher. “How was it?”
It didn’t seem to be the question she wanted to ask.
“Don’t you want to watch your brother? When does he swim again?”
She grinned. “Are you here to watch Cole swim?”
This girl had laser focus. Yeesh. “We’re supposed to do something afterward and I didn’t have anything else to do, so….”
Audra squealed and clapped her hands. “I knew it! You’re just Cole’s type.”
As she slung her arm through mine, scooting closer and turning back to the action, I reminded myself she didn’t know anything about me. Based on Chaney’s looks, maybe Cole preferred blondes, but my daddy didn’t own half of Charleston and I wasn’t a few years from becoming a biochemical engineer, either.
Even so, Audra’s quick acceptance wrapped me in a strange warmth, sort of the way I felt at the sorority house on a good, lazy afternoon. She pointed toward Cole and then waved when he saw us, making me want to melt into the floor and die, hopefully to be mopped up and disposed. He grinned, dimples visible from halfway across the room, and nodded.
My stomach tightened, nerves returned at the newness and uncertainty of this thing with Cole. Now I’d unwittingly inserted myself further in his life by meeting his brothers and sister. I shook it off. This was a Whitman swim meet. Why shouldn’t I be here?
“Which event is he swimming next?” I asked as Cole put his cap on again, shaking out his arms and legs to limber up and ruining another pair of my underwear in the process.
“Butterfly,” Audra replied, her cheeks pink from the heat. “It’s his best event, but he’s the best IM on the team, too.”
“IM?”
“It’s a medley of all four strokes. Really hard. I tried to swim one length of the pool freestyle once and swear to Jesus, almost died.” She laughed, and it relaxed me further.
The Stuarts might have more money than the Queen, but they had an easy way about them that made me wonder about their parents, and what life in Scotland looked like when they were children. They reminded me of the kids I’d grown up with on the bayou, before Dad’s company hit it big and Mom’s workouts hit syndication, before we’d traded the country swamps for the old money of Saint Charles Ave.
Simple and honest.
“Where are you from, Ruby?” one of the boys, I thought Law, asked.
“New Orleans.”
“Oh, I’ve always wanted to go there! Is it as crazy as the movies make it seem?” Audra’s green eyes were darker than Cole’s, emerald, but sparkled with the same interest.
“It can be. Definitely go for Mardi Gras before you graduate.”
Cole climbed onto the starting block and all three of his siblings straightened up, paying attention to their brother. The starting horn blasted and he flew up and out, body held in a rigid arc before he sliced underneath the water. His movements down the pool and back, two times each way, mesmerized me. Water sluiced away from his skin and his lower body kicked like a dolphin, easily outpacing the opponents on either side of him. His bronzed muscles gleamed until I swore the temperature in the room raised another ten degrees.
He finished first, tearing off his cap and watching the final times go up before slapping the water in victory. The grin he shot toward his siblings flipped my stomach like a pancake, even though it was for them and not me. They flew to their feet, hooting and hollering and making a general ruckus that encouraged everyone around them to do the same.
Audra plopped down and caught me smiling. “He’s fucking something, huh?”
I felt my eyes widen, then a giggle escaped. “He’s something. I haven�
�t figured out exactly what, yet.”
“What do you mean?” Concern edged her pretty eyes with lines.
“Oh, nothing.” I didn’t want to insult her brother. Audra seemed really sweet, and the boys were friendly, but they’d just met me and Cole was family.
“Ruby, come on. He’s my brother, not my boyfriend.”
“He’s just a little…stiff. Proper,” I amended quickly, the word stiff conjuring images in my mind that weren’t helping my flustered thoughts.
“I thought stiff was good,” Nox mused, shooting me an evil grin.
“I have it on good authority that girls love stiffness.” Law agreed with his twin, nodding seriously.
“You guys are gross.” Audra rolled her eyes, turning her back on them again. “Do you have brothers?”
I shook my head, torn between laughing and being embarrassed.
“Do you want mine?”
“Kind of,” I admitted.
We all cracked up then, the boys standing and stretching after a minute. I noticed the rest of the crowd had started moving. The meet must be over; the swimmers had exited the deck, too.
“Did we win?”
“Of course!” Nox said, stepping over me and patting my head. “It was nice to meet you. When you figure out you’re way too pretty for my doofus brother, call me!”
Law shoved him forward, shooting me an apologetic smile, and the boys disappeared out the gym door.
“Cole does have a rod up his ass.”
I raised my eyebrows at his sister, who looked far more innocent than she seemed to be, something I related to. My blonde hair and blue eyes made most people assume I was sweet. “An actual rod, or?”
She snorted. “Not that I know of.” Audra bit her lip, casting a quick glance around, as though someone might overhear. “Seriously, you might have to give him a little time. He doesn’t—”
“What are you two beauties talking about?” Cole interrupted smoothly. His tone joked, but the dark tint to his eyes said that he’d cut his sister off on purpose.
Heat Up the Fall: New Adult Boxed Set (6 Book Bundle) Page 76
