When he got up to the condo, he found Alana fast asleep. He stood over her, looking at her hand curled under her cheek. He had to take a shower before he got into bed with something that sweet. He didn’t want to touch her knowing that someone else had put her hands on him.
Alana made a soft sound and reached over to the other side of the bed in her sleep. She expected him to be there with her. Even though it felt like the riskiest mission he’d ever taken, her soft, sleeping body called out to him.
He peeled off his clothes and rinsed off quickly, craving her warmth. He wrapped his arms around her and fitted her body to him. She was warm and soft and holding her was the first time he’d relaxed since he left the condo, filled with warmth in his chest.
He’d just popped his emotional cherry.
Chapter 15
Cole didn’t know who was banging on the door, but that person must have a death wish. Maybe they had the wrong condo. It had to stop eventually. Whoever was doing the pounding would get sore hands soon enough.
All Cole knew was that he wasn’t moving. He had a naked woman draped over him. The only activities on tap for the day were more sleeping and more fucking.
The banging persisted and was joined by one of their cell phones vibrating on the nightstand. He felt Alana stir and murmur into his chest. She rubbed her face against him. After about a minute of pounding and the third time the phone rang, he got up and put on his boxer briefs.
He headed out to the living area and looked through the peephole. Oh Shit. It was Javier. A very angry-looking Javier.
“I know you’re in there with my baby sister, asshole,” he said through the door. “I can see your ugly feet.”
“What’s going on, brother?”
“Don’t you fucking ‘brother’ me! You’ve been sleeping with my baby sister.”
Javi didn’t show up for a friendly chat, he guessed. Cole knew that Alana would be embarrassed if she knew their dirty laundry was about to be aired for the whole floor. Ultimately, he decided that protecting Alana from her brother’s bullshit was more important than a black eye.
He opened the door and held his finger to his lips. “Be quiet. She’s sleeping.”
Javier leveled him with a dirty look in response. His voice was low but deadly. “I let you hang out with her, and you decided that meant to use her like a whore. I can’t believe I trusted you.”
He wished he’d put on more clothes to answer the door. His friend was spoiling for a fight while Cole was wearing nothing but a pair of boxer briefs. Javier looked crazy. His hair was sticking up every which way, as though he’d been so mad or preoccupied that he’d been pulling at it. His eyes were wild. Cole knew that a man was dangerous when he had that look in his eye. It was pretty close to what a suicide bomber looked like hanging out on the side of the road.
He quickly went over options in his head for defusing his angry friend. It didn’t look good. After several tense seconds, he opened his mouth to say something. He couldn’t get anything out before Alana appeared at the bedroom door. “What’s going on?”
The words were husky, as if her voice had been worn out, which it had been. His gaze found hers involuntarily even though he knew it would be wise to keep one eye on the ticking bomb in front of him. She looked perfect wearing his T-shirt and nothing else. Her hair was bed-rumpled, and her perfect lips were swollen from kissing and taking his cock in her mouth. This was definitely not good.
“So it’s true.” Javier had seen the evidence, too.
“What’s true?” Alana asked. She came farther into the room and crossed her arms under her breasts. Very bad.
“He’s fucking you,” Javier said, pointing his middle finger in Cole’s direction.
Alana flushed. She pressed her lips together and leaned back with narrowed eyes. She looked between him and Javier, waiting. He’d spent enough time with her to know that she would go off if he didn’t do something. The two bombs in one room would raze the whole place. And take him with it.
“Darlin’, why don’t you go get dressed while I talk to your brother,” Cole said. “We have some business to iron out.”
“Yeah, we have business,” Javier said. He was still standing in the entryway. Cole put his body between brother and sister. He didn’t think that Javier would ever hurt Alana, but he wasn’t so sure Alana wouldn’t coldcock her brother. “What, were you thinking you’d get a better salary package if you fucked my sister?”
Her eyes widened and the set of her jaw said she wasn’t going anywhere. Of course she wouldn’t. She was just as stubborn as her brother. His woman was tough, but it was another reminder that she was too smart for him. Too good for him. It looked like what they had would end here because Javier was going to kill him.
“No, I think I’ll stay,” Alana said, lifting her chin in defiance. She glanced at Cole as she said, “Tell me more about this job offer.” His stomach sank. He’d lied to her about her business, and he knew that would be unforgivable in her eyes.
Cole knew he was fucked. There was no way to save this.
“Go in the bedroom, Alana. I’m going to rearrange your pretty boyfriend’s face, and you don’t need to see that.” Javier spit the words out like tacks, and looked at Cole. “You’re not really her boyfriend, though, are you? You’re not serious about the girl you’re seeing down here, are you?”
She said nothing, and Cole met her gaze for a split second. She was looking to him to explain himself. To stand up for them. To correct Javier and say that they were serious. He didn’t know if he could. He’d lied to her about the job. He’d seduced his best friend’s little sister when he was should have left it at one night and bugged out. But he hadn’t. As usual, he’d done the selfish thing. Instead of stepping up, he’d hurt her. And then he’d lied to his friend about his feelings. This was so fucked up.
He froze, waited for the words to come.
He must have looked at Alana for a few seconds too long because he didn’t even see Javier throw his first punch. Javier packed quite a bit of weight behind his fist for a rich, pampered city boy. His fists clenched, but he didn’t hit Javier back. Cole was an asshole, and he deserved to get punched in the face.
And then got drilled in the face again. Wetness dripped into his mouth and tasted copper, so he must have gotten a broken nose.
“Javi, what the hell are you doing? Stop it. You’re going to hurt him.”
Javier grabbed Cole’s throat, and hit him again and again. Cole’s head flew back with each blow. Between punches, Javier said, “He.” Punch. “Deserves.” Punch. “It.”
“He’s not even fighting back. Quit now.” Alana’s voice was all avenging angel. Of course she would have to swoop in and protect the man who’d omitted the truth about her brother’s job offer. He regretted the words he didn’t say.
Something about Alana’s voice seemed to get through to Javier. He shoved Cole in the chest one more time for good measure. He was sweating, panting, and even more disheveled than when he’d entered the room.
He stared at Cole before spitting in his face. “You’ll never be good enough for her. God. I hope she hasn’t caught anything from you.”
Cole remained silent.
“Javi, that’s out of line. I was a willing participant in what went on between us. I slept with him before I knew he was your friend.”
“Alana, he’s trailer trash! He’s nothing. And he isn’t serious about you. He told me.”
“Like you gave him a chance to tell you the truth. You just came in here and beat the shit out of him without getting our side of the story.” She walked over to Cole and touched his chin, winced in sympathy. “Tell him the truth.”
Cole looked at her, wishing she would stop talking and hoping that this wasn’t the last time he’d hear her voice. But, if she kept talking, Javier would hit him again. He was pretty sure that he needed medical attention, and getting punched again wouldn’t do anything good for his face.
“I don’t know what’s worse: you fuck her because you want a job, or you happen to pick up my little sister at a bar,” Javier said, and sank down on the couch. Thankfully not looking like he wanted to hit him anymore.
Cole’s face was really starting to hurt now that the adrenaline drained from his system. He sat hard on the couch opposite his friend. Javier scrubbed his hands over his face. At least he’d torn up his knuckles. Alana stared at them both, open-mouthed and more than a little pissed.
At least it didn’t seem like she was pissed at him. “I can’t believe you, Javi. When are you going to understand that my relationships with men are none of your business? When is this family going to understand that who I sleep with and whether and when I get married is none of their business?”
Bile rose in Cole’s throat when Alana mentioned the word “marriage.” The thought of marriage should have him running in the opposite direction. Instead, he was about to throw up because the one woman he could see himself spending the rest of his life with was out of his reach. She was too good for him. Period.
“He’s a man whore, sweetie. He’s not good enough for you. And, like I said, he was just buttering you up.”
“Shut up, Javier Luis Hernandez, before you say something I may not be able to forgive you for.”
Cole would have been amused at Alana’s chastising her brother like a bad little kid if he wasn’t about to lose her. Her brother was right. Cole was a man whore. For years, he’d used a parade of women in and out of his bed like a drug so he wouldn’t have to face the fact that he was a loser. That his woman didn’t wait for him.
Deep down, under the eau de stripper, Javier was a good man, and he was going to protect his sister. Cole could admire that, even if it meant that she would walk out that door and he would never see her again.
But making love to Alana did mean something.
“He’s right, Alana.” Her eyes were glassy, but he didn’t stop. He wasn’t good enough for her, and he had to make that very clear. “I was never serious about you. This was a vacation fling. I just got caught up in the idea of getting out of D.C..”
She shook her head. “No. You don’t mean that.” She started gently prodding his face. He winced when her fingers touched the spots where bruises were beginning to form. He grasped her wrists and pulled her hands away from his face.
“I do. I don’t want to do this anymore.”
“You don’t want to what? You don’t want to be with me?”
Cole covered his face in his hands. “I can’t.”
“See? I’m telling you the truth,” Javier said. “I know this guy too well to let him be with my baby sister. He left the bar with another girl last night.”
“He came here. To me. I’m not a baby anymore. I get to make these choices for myself.”
“If you want to be able to make choices for yourself, then you should make better ones.”
“Cole? You’re really not going to tell him that you care about me? I know you want to be with me. I believed you when you said that.”
He didn’t move. He knew doing nothing—not standing up for her with her brother—would be a betrayal. He’d spent a week getting her to trust him and trying to make her feel important. Not telling her right away that Javier had offered him a job behind her back would have pissed her off on its own. He’d thought he’d had more time. But he wasn’t going to tell Javier to fuck off because her brother was right. He’d never been good enough for her.
He just looked down at her feet, avoided her face. “It’s better I leave. You should be with someone better.”
“Don’t you think that I should get to decide? Or are you like him and my father? You think I can’t make my own choices? You’re really not going to say anything else?”
“What’s there to say, darlin’? He’s right,” Cole said. Every word tore him up to say. “This was going to burn out soon anyway. These little flings never last. And I was never going to take the job. Would be too complicated with me fucking you.”
Tears rolled down her face before she tore herself from his grip and marched into the bedroom. She walked away from him. He let her. He looked at her brother. “Happy now?”
Javier glared at him. “Fuck you.”
Cole walked out onto the patio, closing the sliding glass door behind him. He couldn’t stand to hear her walk out of the room. And his life.
* * * *
After Alana marched into the bedroom, she sat on the bed and ugly cried. She couldn’t believe how stupid she’d been. That’s how he got women to fall into bed with him in droves. He made them feel special, cherished. She wasn’t any different. But, this time, she’d probably messed up her career.
He’d never been serious about her. She’d fallen for a liar.
Madre de Dios. Carla had been right all along. No matter what Cole said, he wasn’t going to be the guy for her. And she’d thought she was going to be his girlfriend. For a smart woman, she really was stupid. The tears stopped about the time she realized that this was about her stupidity. She never could pick them. She really was meant to be alone.
She got out her overnight bag and quickly threw in her clothes and toiletries. Went into the bathroom and ran a brush through her violently tousled hair. Before she packed her toothpaste and brush, so she wouldn’t have to go all the way home with the taste of Cole in her mouth.
She went back into the bedroom and threw some jeans on. She thought about putting on one of her own shirts and leaving Cole’s T-shirt for him, but she couldn’t part with it. She just knew that she was going to want to get a whiff of him when she got drunk and cried again that night. Javi needed to stop at the liquor store on the way to her house.
When she’d gone over the room to check that she hadn’t forgotten anything, she looked at her cell phone on the nightstand. She had twelve missed calls and six voicemails. Three of the voicemails were from Carla. The first one simply said, “Call me. Right away.” As she listened to them, Carla became increasingly frantic.
In the last one, Carla sounded like she was crying. “I accidentally told Javi about you and Cole. It was an honest mistake. I was worried that he’d hurt you.” She’d paused then. “I think Javi’s pretty mad, and he’s headed for the condo. I also told him that you were staying there. Sorry.”
Well, that solved the mystery of how Javi found out that she and Cole were sleeping together. Of course Carla couldn’t keep her mouth shut. That was just who she was. An hour ago, she would have gone to Carla’s apartment and dragged her around by the hair, but her siblings had been right about Cole. He’d been using her for sex. She’d been an amusement.
Two of the other messages were from Javi. She deleted those without listening because she could guess at the contents, and she wasn’t excited to hear her brother ranting and raving via recording. As soon as she left the bedroom, she could hear that in person.
She wanted to stall leaving the bedroom. It still smelled like her and Cole together. She would probably never get to smell that again thanks to her stupid big brother—no her own stupidity. Not if he gave her up without a fight at all.
Maybe she could get a cab and avoid Javi altogether. Not likely.
She sent a quick text to Carla before taking a breath and walking out of the room.
Chapter 16
Cole sat on the balcony long after he heard the door to the condo open and close. She was really gone. He’d told her that she was temporary. He’d lied. There was nothing temporary about how he felt about her.
He walked back into the living room and winced when he saw the couch he’d bent her over.
The stinging pain on his face made him think about going to see a doctor. But he didn’t really feel like it. Maybe if he didn’t have a pretty face anymore, then he wouldn’t get in such trouble with women next time. Even the thought of another woman made him a little sick. Alana had ruined him.
He’d never find another woman who laughed the way she did.
Or did that breathy moan thing the way she did when she was about to come. He’d never find a woman with hips that filled his hand just right.
He got up and poured himself a whisky. If he got drunk, maybe he’d be able to think about something other than Alana.
Cole was halfway through his second drink when someone knocked on the door. Maybe he didn’t have to answer it, but the hope that Alana had come back propelled him to.
He looked through the peephole with the eye that wasn’t almost swollen shut and saw Alana’s sister standing there with an ice pack. Just what he needed, another Hernandez sibling. Hopefully her right hook wasn’t as mean as her brother’s.
When he opened the door, Carla swept into the room. “You look terrible. Javi did that?”
“Yeah.” It came out as a grunt.
“Will you put a shirt on? And some pants? I don’t think Alana would appreciate me seeing all that yumminess while I tend to your wounds.”
“Don’t think she’d care much, but sure.” Cole went into the bedroom and grabbed a pair of pants. He grabbed a clean T-shirt since he couldn’t find the one that Alana had been wearing that morning. He wished he had that one.
He walked back into the living area, and Carla patted one of the bar stools. “Hop up, buddy. Dr. Carla is in.”
He was not in the mood for chipper, and he wasn’t sure if Carla had another setting, but he followed her instructions. It looked like she’d brought a first aid kit with her, and he’d be grateful if he didn’t have to get to a doctor before he left Miami.
Carla started cleaning the small cuts on his face with a cotton swab dipped in peroxide. It fucking stung like a bitch.
“How did you know I was here? And to bring a first aid kit?”
Stroke of Midnight Page 13
