by Hadley Quinn
He could admit that was a bit surprising. “Well, I don’t think I’m suited for a desk job. Especially because it requires an actual suit. No thanks. And besides, I don’t have the college requirements they expect. Not gonna happen.”
Maggie smiled as she tapped a pen on the desk. “You’ll have to take that up with them when you’re approached about it in the near future,” she winked.
Cole was amused. “Well, I need to get going,” he said, glancing at the clock. “I’ve got plans.”
“Ahh, so who’s the lucky girl?” she grinned.
Her perception was pretty keen, but he wondered if she was really just guessing at this point. However, he decided to give her an answer.
“Well, someone I’d like to give my full attention to for a while. See where it leads. Other than that… I have no idea what is in store for me.” He shrugged. “We’ll see where the wind takes me.”
She came around the desk and gave him a hug after he stood. “Well I see nothing but good in your future, Cole. And don’t rely on chance to direct you. Find what you want and grab onto it. Keep that heart of gold and you can never go wrong.”
“Heart of gold?” he mocked as they separated.
“Yes,” she pointed a finger into his chest. “Men like you are hard to find, so I want you to be selective with who you give your time to. Got it? If you don’t, Judge Tate will have to pepper some unfortunate souls with her fury.”
Cole smiled as he walked toward the door. “I don’t think that’s necessary with this girl. But I’ll keep that in mind. Bye, Maggie. Thanks for everything.”
She gave him a silent wave as he shut the door behind him.
***
“So this is where the magic happens, huh?” Julia mused, glancing around the Divehouse.
“Magic?” Cole chuckled. “Only when I’m here, sweetheart.”
“Ha!” she laughed, shoving him in the arm. “You are so cocky!”
He wrapped his arm around her as they walked toward the wall of bags, but he was surprised to see Van come out of Mickey’s office and head their way.
“Hey, man. What are you doing here? Checking out your competition?” Cole was joking, even though Mickey had set up a few matchups with Van’s gym in Middletown. So far it had become a successful union of the two places.
“Yeah, as a matter of fact I am,” Van answered. “You, my friend. Let’s do it.” Then he glanced at Julia, seeming to finally recognize her. “Hey, you. It’s been a while.” He glanced between the two of them and smiled with surprise. “Ahh, I’m a little bit late to the party, I see.”
Then his eyes settled on Cole for a moment, a glimmer of fascination clearly apparent. Cole knew exactly what that look was about, and he was sure Van was eventually going to give him a hard time about Julia’s father.
“So what about me? Do what?” Cole asked.
Van pointed at him and answered, “Let’s grapple.”
He didn’t even wait for an answer and headed for an empty wrestling mat. Cole figured he could handle tangling with Van for a bit. He knew the guy wouldn’t try anything stupid and truly wanted some practice time.
“You don’t mind, do you?” he asked Julia. “I won’t be very long—”
“No, I don’t mind. Of course not. We came here to work out, so go ahead. I’ll find a bag to warm up and you go handle the mats. Till we meet again.”
She gave him a fist bump, to which he laughed at. He watched her carry her things to the far wall to set up camp by the bags as he headed toward Van.
“You look happy,” a voice said to his right. Leah was just entering the gym and she walked straight toward him. “It’s a nice change.”
He wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he just pointed ahead to Van and said, “Because I’m about to annihilate your brother in just a minute.”
She noticed Van and paused as she smiled. “Hmm, not sure how I feel about this. Be nice to each other.”
“Of course. We’re just gonna play.”
He dropped his things next to the mat so he could get loose. While he did so, it was hard not to keep watching Julia on the bags. She was just doing upper body right now, gently warming up. He knew she’d be hitting it hard in a couple of minutes, though. She sure as hell knew what she was doing.
“New girl caught your eye?” Leah asked.
Cole could sense the jealousy in her voice and it made him groan inwardly. He hadn’t actually seen Leah all week, so he wasn’t sure what she’d been up to. He knew she got a job recently, and Van had mentioned she was seeing someone but wouldn’t divulge who it was. He’d been pretty livid about it, even asking Cole straight up if it was him. After Cole assured him that Leah had become like a little sister to him, Van asked if he’d find out who she was seeing.
He seriously did not want to get involved in that. He’d told Van to leave her alone for now and let her figure things out.
“She’s not new to Cole,” Van answered her with a smirk.
He was deliberately making a very strong insinuation, to which Leah obviously gathered based on the look that crossed her face. But then she seemed to think he was joking and laughed it off.
“You’re hilarious,” she remarked dryly. “Even that girl wouldn’t be able to fight past the dozen fortress walls around Cole’s callous heart.”
That was an interesting assessment, but Cole couldn’t agree with her this time. There were several responses he could have made, but he chose not to and left Leah satisfied with her opinion of his personality.
He stepped into the middle of the mat to face Van so they could start right away. It was kind of odd, training with the guy that had originally brought him to the Block to begin with. Well, it wasn’t Van’s doing so much as the circumstances that were involved, but he didn’t feel like he had to keep the guy at a distance anymore. It was okay to let down his guard with a few people; he just needed to decide who they were.
And Leah had been right. Cole had always shut people out. He wasn’t ready to be open to just anyone, but he was happy with the ones he knew he could now trust.
He was trying.
Julia was waiting at the edge of the mat when Van and Cole parted thirty minutes later. He approached slowly so he could read her first.
“I’d kiss you but you’re all sweaty and gross,” he joked.
She scoffed at him, looking his body up and down. “So are you, punk.” She leaned forward and whispered, “And I was just about to drag you into the women’s showers with me, so I guess that sucks for you.”
She walked straight toward the hall that led to the locker rooms and never looked back. When she disappeared around the corner, Cole automatically followed after her. He didn’t fucking care who saw him go into the women’s locker room, but the entrance happened to be out of view from the rest of the gym.
Damn tempting woman.
He pushed open the door and paused, shutting it behind him. He’d never been in here before, but he wasn’t surprised it was a lot nicer than the men’s. It was half the size, but way nicer.
And it had a lock on the door. Click.
Julia had flipped on the shower water and stripped off her top. Over her shoulder she said, “I knew you couldn’t resist.”
He just stood there, watching her kick her shoes and socks off, and then strip off her shorts. She pulled her hair out of the ponytail and stood under the running water.
“This is a participation-only kind of show,” she teased him, running her hands over her wet skin. “Are you going to stand there and watch, or are you going to come play?”
His shorts were off within a second.
“I’m beginning to think your sassy mouth is a bit arrogant after you’ve worked out,” he told her, slipping his hands around her waist as the hot water made contact with his skin.
Her smile was one of agreement, but she bit her lip and moved her body against his. “So I feel like I need a rough shagging. So what? Are you complaining?”
“Nope.”<
br />
She pressed her lips to his firmly until they began working passionately against each other. God, he loved kissing this woman. She was so sweet and classy, but when she let herself go with him, her carnal nature was fucking amazing.
He pushed her up against the wall and wrapped her legs around his waist, burying himself deep inside of her. The gasps and groans that came out of her were beautiful; her nails against his back and her tongue in his mouth only made him thrust into her even harder. He grabbed her hips to angle her to his advantage, but decided against allowing her to finish so easily.
He set her down and flipped her around, grabbing her hair in his hand securely. His other hand rubbed against her breasts as he re-entered her from behind, not holding back with how hard he fucked her. Cole knew she liked it this way and he was more than happy to make her come until her body felt weakened from a such shattering release, his own following soon behind.
He gently turned her back around and held her against his chest under the water.
She sighed and wrapped her arms tightly around him. “Rough sex, quickie sex, shower sex, sex-in-a-place-we-probably-shouldn’t… Boom. Quadruple play.”
“Hopefully it was on your bucket list so you can check it off.”
Laughing she answered, “It will be now. Amongst some other things with you. I’ve got a few ideas you’ve probably never even considered.”
He arched an eyebrow and looked at her. “Movie night. You’re staying at my place, so let’s go.”
“Ooh, so bossy.”
“Damn straight I am, Temptress.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Hurry up, get your sexy ass out of my bed,” Cole jested, snapping Julia’s butt with a towel. He knew she was naked between those sheets, so it was a pretty nasty thing to do.
“Ow! That is not funny!”
“You like it, so shut your mouth.”
She sat up in his bed and playfully narrowed her eyes at him. “Hmm, that’s not what you told me last night. I seem to recall someone getting all excited the louder I got.”
He smiled at her facetiousness. “That is very true.” He tossed her clothes onto the bed. “Now get dressed.”
“What’s the hurry, Captain Bossy Pants. You need your ass kicked right about now.”
“Oh? Well would you like to waste time doing that or come with me to New York for the day and watch some baseball.”
She flew off the bed with her clothes in her hand and took off for the shower.
“That’s what I thought,” he smirked.
He was in the kitchen making eggs when she joined him. She began slicing the fruit he’d pulled out of the fridge when she said, “You’re lucky I have the day off.”
He smiled and replied, “I am very blessed that you have the day off and can spend it with me. Unfortunately I have to get back to work on Monday. Jack has a case for me and vacation time is over.”
She nodded her understanding and stopped what she was doing to wrap her arms around him. “I gotcha. Just don’t forget about me.”
He lightly laughed but held her close to him. “What do you mean?”
He felt her shrug. Her face was pressed up against his neck, so when she said, “I don’t know,” it was muffled. She leaned back to look him in the eyes. “There’s something I want to ask you. It’s kind of important.”
Well, he wasn’t sure what to think of that. It sounded serious and he was trying to determine what it could be about. “Sure, you can ask me anything.”
She pulled away with a nod and leaned back against the counter. “So my lease for my apartment is up at the end of next month. They’re raising the rent almost two hundred dollars and I’m not sure I want to pay that. I haven’t renewed yet—”
A knock at the door made her pause, but Cole was trying to wrap his brain around whatever it was she was getting at. She wasn’t renewing her apartment lease because…she was asking to move in with him???
That was something he wasn’t sure how to answer. He liked his space, his privacy. But that wasn’t even the issue. The reason he was so comfortable around her was because she wasn’t demanding of him. She was never clingy or needy. Approaching him with this type of thing was totally contradictory to her personality.
He didn’t quite understand why she thought he’d be okay with it.
“Are you going to get that?” she asked, motioning to the door.
He had no idea how long the person had been knocking at that point but he shook his head. He wanted to face this subject before it got too far. He needed to convince her to renew her lease. She was totally ruining a good thing between them.
“Whoever it is can go away,” he said. “Finish what you were saying.”
She smiled at him but shook her head. “It’s okay, it can wait. We have a drive if we’re heading north. I’ll just tell you then.”
Cole wasn’t sure if he was relieved or not. Getting it out of the way had been his intention, but maybe she could sense what his answer would be and decided to wait.
He chose to answer the door, just as a buffer. But the subject on the other side of that was just as bad or worse.
Scarlett.
She stood there for a moment without speaking. He could tell she was gauging his reaction. She also looked a lot different. The fiery auburn hair was gone, now replaced with a medium brown tone, and it was cut shorter to her shoulders.
“I know I’m the last person you expect to see, but I’d like to talk to you,” she said.
God, why did these things all come at once? It was almost like his carefree week was literally over the second he mentioned having to go back to work.
Julia was still in his apartment, so he was kind of torn. He wasn’t about to let the two meet face to face, even though he could assume that Scarlett had already kept tabs on him again and already knew about Jules.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he said over his shoulder to Julia. He didn’t risk checking her reaction because he quickly slipped through the door and shut it behind him.
“I think you’ll want to sit down somewhere private for this one,” Scarlett told him, glancing around the currently empty hallway.
“Doesn’t matter,” he shrugged. “What do you want?”
“I want to clear some things up with you. I feel like I’m in a position to do that, now that the case with Alex is finishing up.”
His guard went up even more. “What makes you think I’ll trust a word that you say?”
“I don’t care if you believe me, I just want to fill you in with some behind-the-scenes stuff. I feel like I owe you that for some reason. Just let me talk, okay?”
He barely shrugged his agreement.
“The truth is, my father is in prison. I was given an opportunity to lighten his sentence, so I took it. End of story. I’ll let you make a conclusion from that.”
His suspicions when they got Leah from Scarlett’s house had been right on. She was a confidential informant.
“How ‘bout we speak hypothetically,” he suggested. “Let’s say hypothetically you were persuaded by law enforcement to help them out with inside information.”
She paused for a moment, wet her lips, and sighed. “Speaking hypothetically, maybe my father was busted five years ago for killing someone that hurt me. Maybe I was offered a deal by the FBI that would give him a shorter sentence. Maybe I chose to use my lifestyle to help my father so…maybe I said yes. Are you understanding me?”
“Yeah, got it. I didn’t know those particular details, but I eventually figured out you were a C.I.”
“Did you? Because I would think you’d be a little less of a prick if you knew that.”
“You didn’t exactly follow protocol as an informant, did you,” he stated.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Okay, so I dabbled in the gray areas a bit. But only so I could bring those fuckers down. I had to please a lot of people, do you understand that? Wasn’t exactly a fun position to be in. And should I even be here explai
ning things to you? No.”
“So what do I owe this pleasure?” he replied dryly.
With a heavy sigh, she answered, “Because I feel like you were put in a tricky situation too, and I just wanted to let you know that I have no hard feelings about how you treated me.”
He laughed out loud. “You have no hard feelings? Hmm, well, okay. I can keep on living now.”
But she was biting back a smile, and it made Cole curious.
“So hypothetically speaking,” he added, “was a particular assignment successful?”
After a brief pause, she nodded. “Yes, it was. And I’ll answer some of the questions I know you have. I’d been working for Damien for about six years and already knew who Alex was. We hooked up back then but he was never serious about any one girl at a time, so when he asked me for a favor, I thought I could maybe change his mind. Yeah I know, it was dumb, but he really does have a charm that’s hard to resist. He fools a lot of people. But he convinced me to get a hold of Damien’s will, promised that it would be worth my time. God, the lawyer that I had to seduce…” She shuddered.
“Anyway, when Leah came to town looking for him, I just knew who she was. I started piecing things together. I’d already agreed to help the FBI uncover Damien’s underage operations—that’s what they wanted him for—and another guy that was getting in on the scene with human trafficking. But I couldn’t let Alex get suspicious, and I ended up having to work both angles. When Damien dumped me, I started hooking up with Alex again.”
“So you figured out Leah was Damien’s daughter, and later on that she was in his will to inherit twenty-million-dollars?”
“Well I didn’t kill him,” she frowned at him. “And even though you probably think Alex masterminded some way to have it done, it happened way before he was planning on it. He just wanted the damn money and wanted Leah’s commitment to him so he could assure his future.”
