“You looked sad just then,” he said, pausing in putting on mitts to take something out the oven.
His eyes stayed locked on her and she shifted under his steady gaze.
“I’m good,” she said.
Their eyes met and held.
Her heart pounded. She felt breathless. Staring into Cole’s eyes, being captivated by him again, was beyond words, thus leaving her speechless.
“Today I met my half-brother Lincoln,” Cole said, finally offering a reprieve by turning away from her to pull a heavy-duty sheet pan from the oven.
Her eyes dipped to take in his buttocks.
“Wait! What?” she asked with two hard blinks as his words registered.
“When my father was eighteen and about to go off to college, he fathered a son with a young woman. He left England not knowing she was pregnant,” he explained. “And today, we all met him.”
She watched him as he set the pan of roasted Cornish hens and root vegetables with baby potatoes on the counter. “That must have been a shock. Are you okay?” she asked, having seen the battle of wills and might between father and son when she’d worked for them.
Cole eyed her again for long unsettling moments before focusing on taking the hens off the pan to rest and trap in the juices. “Yeah,” he said, nodding. “There’s still so much to question and understand, but Lincoln agreed to come back to New York for a little while to give us all time to figure out what it all means for the family. The brothers.”
“How’s Phillip Junior?” she asked with an amused expression.
“Traumatized,” Cole countered. “I’m sure he skipped dinner and will whine to Raquel all night about no longer being the heir apparent to the Cress throne.”
“And Nicolette?”
Cole retrieved a bottle of wine from his wine rack. “Composed,” he said.
They shared a knowing look. Nicolette was the queen of composure but beneath the façade she may very well be close to blowing like a geyser.
“I’ve had some revelations about myself that directly correlate to my relationship with my father,” he said, the muscles of his arms straining against the thinness of his sweater as he opened the bottle.
Jillian bit back a gasp that almost escaped her lips and cleared her throat as she followed him into the dining room. “Has that made things better between you?” she asked.
Cole suddenly stopped and turned.
She nearly bumped into him.
He looked down at her. “No,” he said. “But it made me realize that I let my issues with him affect us. And I regret that, Jillian.”
Everything inside her fluttered. Her heart. Her belly. Her pulse. And the bud nestled between the lips of her intimacy.
“I thought I was here to talk about the medical bills,” she whispered, seeking control when her body was ready to relinquish it. “Did you pay them?”
“Yes,” he admitted.
“Why, Cole?” she asked, even as she felt light-headed from the intensity of his stare upon her face, the closeness of his body, and the reminder of his regrets about them.
“Because I love you,” he said with a simplicity that shook her to her very core.
Jillian closed her lids and pressed a hand to her eyes as she took a step back. It was a reprieve from that pulsing and all too familiar energy between them. “I can’t let you do that,” she insisted as she turned and pressed her back to the wall.
She was overwhelmed by it all.
“You can and you will,” he insisted.
Her body shivered, and she knew before she opened her eyes that he now stood in front of her. “Cole—”
“I won’t have you focusing more on making money than on enjoying your gift so that you can pay a bill for someone I have come to care for myself,” he said, reaching to stroke her cheek with his thumb.
A gasp escaped.
“My father once betrayed my mother and I caught him...” Cole began as his eyes caressed her. “Since I was a teenager, that betrayal that I kept—the secret that I held—shaped everything I thought I knew about love and fidelity. That, plus an ex I discovered only wanted me because I was a Cress, destroyed my trust.”
She saw the emotions raging in the gray-blue depths of his eyes. “Oh, Cole,” she whispered, reaching to gently hold his wrist and connect with him as he shared with her.
“I never wanted to fall in love and trust anyone with my heart...and then two years ago, I saw you during that interview with my mother,” he reminisced. “I fell for you before I even knew it. That’s why, when you chose the job over me—”
Jillian rose on her heeled boots and pressed a kiss to his mouth to halt his words in the hope of easing the hurt she now knew she’d caused him. His arms wrapped around her, pressing her body to his as he eased his face against her neck. The first kiss at her pulse brought shivers. The second softened her knees.
She was thankful when he took her up into his strong and able arms. She wrapped hers around his neck. “I have my own confession,” she whispered in his ear, feeling him shiver as her breath stroked his lobe. “It’s about Warren.”
Cole stiffened.
“I spoke to him after what you said and he admitted that he was hoping he and I would get back together,” she said. “So, I didn’t take the job and told him maybe it was best we saw less of each other because I didn’t want his hope to rise.”
Cole relaxed. “I thought you were going to say y’all—”
“For the past two years, I have not been with anyone but you, Cole,” she admitted.
He lowered her to her feet and then picked her up again, this time with her legs wrapped around his waist so that they were looking at each other. Eye to eye. Mouth to mouth. “Same here,” he promised her, his words breezing against her lips.
She believed him.
With a light lick of her lips, she kissed him.
Cole released a moan of hunger as he deepened it with his clever tongue, turning to press her back against the wall. She grabbed his costly sweater into her fists without a care as she kissed him with every bit of passion she had been denied over the weeks. She was starved for it. For him.
Wait!
Jillian jerked her head back to break the kiss. He looked dazed, his mouth covered with her sheer-pink gloss as his eyes filled with confusion. “If you had this wonderful epiphany about us, why did I have to call you, Cole Cress?” she asked, using her thumb to clean his lips.
“I have a surprise for you,” he said, carrying her down the hall to his suite.
She released a soft moan at the sight of the lighted candles offering the only illumination in the spacious room other than the moon’s shine. Atop the bed were rose petals and the scent of them burst in the air. In the center of the array was another of his notes.
Cole carried her across the room and set her on her feet as he started to undress her. Her eyes stayed locked on the note.
“You did all this since I called. How?” she asked before her sweater went flying over his head.
“Wealth has its benefits,” Cole said as he undid her bra.
“This is nice. And that is very nice,” she said, trembling as he sucked one hard nipple and then the other into his mouth. “But why did I have to call you?”
Cole ignored her as he bent to unzip her boots before removing each along with her sheer socks. He pressed heated kisses to her hips as he slid her leggings and lace thong panties down over her plump bottom and thighs. He turned his head to suck her plump vee with a grunt before giving it a gentle bite.
She cried out and arched her back with a gasp at the pleasure. Naked and shivering before him, Cole looked on as he stepped back from her, his erection pressing against the zipper of his pants as he pulled his sweater over his head, revealing his chiseled chest and abdomen. She closed the gap between them to stroke the flat hairs
on his chest before dipping her head to stroke one flat brown nipple with her tongue. “Can I have my note?” she asked as she undid his belt and zipper to work his pants and black boxer briefs around his hard buttocks and even harder inches.
Cole chuckled. “Yes,” he said.
Jillian gripped his tool and gently guided him behind her to the side of the bed as she reached for the note with her free hand. Behind it was a red-velvet, heart-shaped ring box. “Oh,” she said in surprise.
Cole wrapped an arm around her waist. “All of this I did tonight. But that, I purchased a few days ago,” he explained, finally offering the proof of his intentions toward her before her call.
Jillian leaned back against his strength, releasing his erection to clutch her note with both hands as she emotionally choked up.
“I was trying to figure out some grand way to propose and then you called,” he further explained. “I went with fate.”
Tears welled from the joy of being loved by someone she loved and having him want to share the rest of his life with her. But her fears crept up—she couldn’t deny that. Opening the note, she smiled at his words, caressing them with her fingertips as she read them aloud. “‘I hunger for your love the same as I hunger for your body. Your presence is my comfort zone. Your smile is my light. Making you happy will be my goal for the rest of our lives, my Jillian.’”
Jillian closed her eyes as tears fell. Their affair had begun with a note and it was so romantic of him to propose with one, as well. She wanted nothing more in the world than to believe him. Memories of two failed marriages were her detractors. And she hated that, for Cole and for herself.
Damn.
Cole pressed one knee into the bed to pick up the ring box before turning to sit on the bed in front of her as he opened it.
The ring was exquisite. She loved its unique design and the brilliant sparkle of the large diamond. “Cole,” she whispered, seeing the flicker of candlelight in his eyes.
He removed the ring from the box. “Will you—?”
“Wait,” she said, reaching to cover the ring and his hand with her own.
He looked up at her, apprehension in his eyes.
Jillian pressed a hand to the side of his face. “Cole, I’ve been married before—”
“Do you love me?” he asked.
“More than I have ever loved anyone,” she said with sincerity.
“Then how can you compare me and what we can build together—trust, love, a family—when you have never had the same love for those other men?” he said. “Who you are now is not who you were then. And I am not them.”
“A family?” she asked, pressing her hand to her belly and envisioning it swollen with their child.
Cole covered her hand with his own. “Yes,” he stressed.
“Girl or boy?” she asked.
“Girl,” they said in unison.
“There’re more than enough male Cress family members,” Cole said dryly.
Jillian’s eyes went back to the ring.
I do love him.
She reread the note.
And he loves me.
She remembered reading something Maya Angelou had said. “‘Have enough courage to trust love one more time...’” she quoted the poet.
Cole rose before her. “We both have to leave our past in the past and trust in each other,” he said before dropping to his knee. “Let’s do it together. Marry me?”
I can’t let the hurt caused by other men keep this love from me now.
With a building excitement like nothing she had ever felt, Jillian bit her bottom lip as she raised her left hand, presented it to him, hoping he could see and feel the love she had for him. And as he took her hand in his and slid the weighty jewel onto her finger, she pushed aside her fears, determined to claim her happiness with the man she loved.
Cole stood and kissed her before quickly grabbing her waist and turning her body to lay it down on the bed, sandwiched by the rose petals and his body.
His weight felt familiar. Comfortable. Perfect.
“And what about dinner, my love?” she said, rubbing her leg up and down the length of his as he pressed kisses to her neck.
Cole gave her a wicked smile before moving his body down between her legs as he spread them. “I have everything I want to eat right here,” he said before lowering his head to blow a cool stream of air against her intimacy.
Jillian clutched at his head as she arched her back and closed her eyes at the pleasure of his tongue. She rolled her hips and Gabe moaned deep in his throat as his fingers gripped her buttocks. “Yes,” she gasped in ecstasy as goose bumps raced across her skin.
She gave in to the pleasure and her love with the hope that they would cherish, honor, and trust one another in a way neither had before with anyone. She was hopeful. Even as she was driven to mindless passion by her love—who seemed hell-bent on pleasing her—she allowed herself to free-fall into the bliss of love and carry Cole—her sexy rebel—right along with her.
Hopefully, for forever and a day.
EPILOGUE
Three months later
Cole looked over his mother’s head as they danced to eye Jillian dancing with her father. There was a smile on her face as she looked up at the tall, broad man with the love a daughter has for her father. His bride looked beautiful in a couture, formfitting, soft tulle gown scattered with delicate beading. The deep V-neckline and detachable overskirt of layers of tulle made her hourglass figure more pronounced. The sheer blush color of the gown was sexy and delicate. She was stunning. Cole smiled and chuckled when Harry surprised her with a dip and Jillian’s eyes widened.
I love my wife.
Earlier that afternoon, they had wed at the courthouse. Just the two of them. They had chosen to put their marriage and each other first above all else. They’d wanted the focus on their marriage and not just a lavish wedding ceremony.
The reception was open to all their family and friends, and their wedding planner had magically converted the grand ballroom in the luxury Manhattan hotel to a floral wonderland—just the way Jillian had envisioned it. And that was his goal for the rest of his life. He wanted to make her as happy as she deserved to be.
“Are you happy, son?”
Cole looked down into his mother’s blue eyes. In their depths, a genuine concern for him—even if her actions to destroy things between Jillian and him had been her misguided attempt to make his life as easy as possible.
Perhaps to save him from the heartbreak he was sure she’d felt at the discovery of her husband’s affair.
“There is no one who could make me any happier,” Cole said, giving her the smile he’d used as a young boy to charm her for an extra dessert after dinner.
Nicolette nodded as she blinked away tears. “Okay,” she said, her voice soft and resigned to yet another of her sons being with a woman not of her choosing.
“Why did you forgive him?” he asked, his eyes studying his mother’s profile.
For the briefest moment, Nicolette’s body stiffened and she avoided looking up at him.
“A man’s ego is a fragile thing,” she said. “And having your wife win a trifecta of James Beard awards, for which both of you were nominated, can weaken a shaky foundation.”
Cole saw a flash of pain in her eyes even as she attempted to keep from facing him. He bent his head and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Then he was a childish fool,” he said for her ears alone.
Nicolette touched her head to his chest briefly. “I agree,” she said, summoning a smile for her son.
The song for the parents’ dance ended and everyone applauded before both Cole and Jillian moved toward each other. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close as he looked into her upturned face. “Ready for our honeymoon?” he asked, her hands stroking his neck as they danced to “All of Me” by Jo
hn Legend.
“Yes. I can’t wait for a week-long vacation in Greece,” she said, her eyes sparkling with love and happiness.
“That sounds like you won’t miss the food truck,” he mused, raising her hand to spin her before pulling her body back to his.
“No offense, but I won’t,” she said.
Cole chuckled.
Jillian had left behind her coveted position as the private chef of a high-powered movie executive to fulfill her dreams of her own cooking establishment by operating the food truck during the week while Cole was busy with his duties at Cress, INC. On the weekends, they enjoyed working it together, combining their love of food and each other.
“Listen, Jillian...” he said.
“Yes, husband,” she said.
“I never want you to worry if your light shines brighter than mine that I will resent you or harbor ill feelings toward you. A win for you is a win for us,” Cole promised, again shirking ever taking on the bad traits his father possessed.
“A win for you is a win for us. Same difference,” she assured him, easing her hands onto his shoulders.
“Always,” he vowed before gripping her waist and lifting her to kiss her deeply and with all the passion he could muster without offending their now applauding audience with proof of his arousal.
“And forever,” she whispered against his mouth.
* * * * *
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