Hung By the Fire (Evergreen Lake: Under the Mistletoe)

Chapter 14

fourteen

BETHANY

“Your aunt said Joy’s as happy as a clam, they are getting ready for dinner and to, and I quote, ‘not come steal her from me yet,’ end quote,” Cole said as he dropped his cell phone on the coffee table and walked up behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder and then back at the tree we had finished putting in the stand right before he called Aunt Nadine. “So, I take it to mean she doesn’t want to see us right now.”

“Well, at least me. I’d be the one stealing Joy from her.”

“In more ways than one,” I chuckled. Tilting my head from side to side, I decided the tree was finally at its perfect position. “She adores Joy. You need to watch her. I seriously think she’s considering stealing her from you.”

“There were days at the beginning I may have let her.” Cole placed his hands on my waist, turned me and guided me to the couch. “Sit,” he whispered against my ear before stepping back and disappearing into the kitchen.

Doing as he said, I curled my feet under me and sat back. The tree looked bare, all undecorated and naked, but it was a start. I hadn’t wanted to say anything to Cole about his lack of Christmas spirit in the house, but he’d walked in from work that morning hell-bent on going out to get a tree. I figured he’d ask me to watch Joy a little more, but couldn’t deny the shiver of excitement that sped through my body when he wanted me to join him. Just me. Alone. With him.

It was the first time we’d truly been alone since the night we met, and no matter if it was a wise decision or not, I wanted it with every fiber of my being.

I know I told my sisters I didn’t really know what to do with what he was offering, what he felt he could offer, but that wasn’t true. I knew exactly because, whatever it was, I wanted it too.

I wanted to get lost in him again like that first night. To feel him pressed against me, his body moving over mine, his lips skating along my skin. I wanted it all, if only for a little while.

“Do you want me to start a fire?” Cole asked as he came back in the living room carrying a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses. “Thought we could have some wine. I’m not the best cook around, but I could throw together spaghetti or something.”

Pushing away the thought that this whole day felt like a date, I moved over, making room for him on the couch. “Wine is good for now.” Something inside of me was too jittery for food.

Cole nodded before pouring us each a glass and sitting next to me.

“To getting a tree,” he proclaimed. “Thanks for helping me pick it out.”

I knew, as soon as that cardinal landed on the branch, that it was the right one. Joy would stare at them whenever one perched on the porch railing or the trees behind Cole’s house. If the legends and myths were to be believed, and I for one believed them, her parents were never far from her side with the way the birds flocked around here.

“You’re welcome, but I have to ask: what prompted the decision to get one? I mean, I was going to mention it, but I didn’t want to appear to overstep my bounds.”

“Will said something to me today that struck a chord.” He looked around his sparse living room. There was nothing except some pictures of him and who I was assuming were Brian and Tricia, given the fact Joy’s eyes were carbon copies of the woman in the photos. It was bare and reminded me a lot of the man, one who kept to himself. “Joy deserves Christmas even if she probably doesn’t understand any of it yet. Her parents would have decorated the hell out of their house, taken her to Santa, had piles of presents under the tree for her.”

I laughed, because I knew they wouldn’t have been the only ones. “Like you wouldn’t have sent your fair share of presents.” I had to get it through to him that he was hung up on the wrong things. Joy needed love and attention, the “doing parenting right” would come later. “You adore that little girl.”

Cole flushed, pink tinging his cheeks the slightest bit.

Annnnnnnd my ovaries exploded.

I bit back a groan at my inner voice and the thought itself, as it wasn’t that far off. Cole all embarrassed was doing it for me.

“She is pretty awesome. I guess it’s my responsibility now to see she gets everything her parents would have done for her.”

I turned more, so I sat facing him and reached out, brushing my hand over his cheek. “You’re doing a damn fine job of that, and I’ll say it as many times as I need to for you to realize it.”

He mimicked my move, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “Thanks. You’re pretty damn good with her yourself.” He leaned in farther, running his nose against my cheek until his lips brushed my ear. “You’re also damn pretty.”

I pulled back to look at him. The intensity in his eyes drilled through me. I saw so much there—lust, craving, desire—and something I couldn’t put a name to. Or maybe was too scared to.

“You said we’d see how today went, whiskey girl. So, what’s the verdict?”

His tongue traced the shell of my ear, and I could feel myself growing soft and wet for him. From one damn touch. My fingers played in his hair, keeping him exactly where he was.

“I think today went perfectly.” The words came from my mouth but sounded different than anything I’d ever said before. Even I could hear the breathiness in them, hear the catch in my throat as Cole skimmed his lips along the side of my neck as I spoke. I was about to get more honest with him than I’d been with any man before, and while it should scare the hell out of me, I realized it didn’t. “God, I want you.”

Dragging his head away from my neck, I looked him dead in the eye. “I get you don’t do more, that what I eventually want is not in your future too and I’m only here for a little while, but I want to throw myself into whatever it is between us.” That same emotion from seconds ago reappeared, and I still couldn’t make out what it was trying to tell me. “If all I can get is another night, like the rest of the women you’re with, I’ll take it.”

The words sounded pathetic even to my own ears and I cringed at them, but I knew he wasn’t a relationship guy. I could give him what he wanted even if it bit me in the ass in the long run. I couldn’t, wouldn’t, deny myself what I wanted in this moment, so why try?

“Don’t.” The word was clipped out. “Don’t talk about anyone else. There is no one else.” His words were rushed, almost like he was breathing too hard. “I don’t know which way is up anymore since the moment I walked in that damn bar and heard you speak.” Cole grasped my face in his palms, but in the gentlest way imaginable. “I want you just as much as you want me, Bethany. That’s the only thing that matters.”

Right now it was. I’d deal with the fallout later, when I was back in Edisonville with a one hundred percent chance of a broken heart. I didn’t do risky, didn’t lay my heart on the line, but I don’t think there was any other option for me right now.

My heart already didn’t feel like it was mine anymore. A thought that should terrify me a hell of a lot more than it did.

So I said the only thing that a woman in my position could say. “Then take me, Cole.” I let my tongue sweep across my lips, watching his eyes track every movement.

Before I knew it, his lips crashed into mine. His tongue working quick to pry my lips apart and surge inside. We met thrust for thrust as I followed him even as he pulled away from me. “You think you can tease me, like that? I want that pretty little tongue swiping over the head of my cock.” My pussy clenched at his words. “I dream about it at night, seeing you with your mouth full of me.” His hands moved to my ass and bringing my legs out from under me, until he was cradled between them. “I’m hard as fucking nails right now, all because of you.” He conquered my mouth again. It was the only word for it. I was helpless at his hands and didn’t have a single problem with it.

“Take that sweater off. I’ve been dying to see those tits all day. Hell, for a week now, ever since I walked out that motel door.”

Not needing to be told or asked twice, I did exactly what he said, pulling the sweater over my head. Before I had even flung it away, he was on me again. His teeth and lips nipping at my pebbled nipples encased in black lace. Arching my back, I gave them over to him as if I were some ancient sacrifice.

“You too,” I whispered, barely able to take a breath to speak. He’d sucked everything out of my lungs. Clawing at his sweater, I worked along with him to yank it over his head.

His chest and arms were damn works of art. Sculpted and colorful, hard and powerful.

Cole slipped his hand behind me, quickly unlatching the hooks on my bra and simply stared after moving it away from my skin. “So fucking pretty, whiskey girl.” He closed both hands on my breasts, pushing them together. “Makes me want to slide between these, push them together and fuck them. Would you like that?”

I was so delirious at this point, I was pretty sure I’d like anything he suggested. His words got to me almost as much as his touch.

“Yes,” the word said on a hushed breath.

Cole tilted forward, catching the peak of one breast between his teeth as he slipped his hands under my ass again and lifted. In a second, he was standing and I was wrapped around him like a koala on a tree.

“I’m not fucking you on the couch.” He started down the hallway to his bedroom. “I want you spread out on my bed so I can feast on you all night long.”

The word sent mixed feelings through me. It made me so hot; I could sense a new rush of moisture leaking into my panties, but I hated that it was only that. Fucking. No emotions, no feelings, no relationship. At least not on his part. I shoved those thoughts away. They served me no purpose right now.

“Do I get a taste too?”

Normally I was a silent lover, but then again so were the few men I’d been with. Cole wasn’t, and I wanted to give him everything he gave to me.

“Fuck yeah, you do. You want my cock in your pretty little mouth?”

I nodded. “God, yes,” the words a moan at the thought.

“We’ll get there.” He dropped me on his bed, and I giggled as I bounced. He only looked at me with a sexy as sin smirk. “First, I’m going to strip you down to nothing and get my fill.” He grabbed my foot, yanking off a sock, before repeating the action on the other leg. His hands made their way to my waist. With a quick flick of his fingers, the buttons on my jeans were undone. He tucked his fingers inside the waistband and pulled, shimmying the snug pants and panties down and off my legs, finally letting them fall to the floor in a heap. “Fuck, you look so gorgeous lying there. It’s a sight I could get used to.”

I didn’t want to read too much into his words right now. There would be plenty of time for that later, when I was alone. Right now, wanting him was my only thought.

Cole dropped to his knees on the plush carpet. “Whiskey girl, I’m going to need you to spread those legs wide.” I did as he commanded, making room for him. “Wider.”

My hips protested at the position. I chuckled, amazed I could find humor through the haze of lust. “I’m going to have to start yoga or something if you want that.”

He slapped his hand against my inner thigh, close to where I needed him most, but not close enough. “I’ll help you practice. I want you wide open to me.” He bent my knees and positioned one of my feet on the edge of the bed. I felt like a damn Barbie doll, being moved about to his specifications.

I propped myself up on my arms, not wanting to miss a second of what this delectable man had planned for me.

“You going to do something or just look?” I asked cheekily.

“I could look at you like this all day. Stare and watch you get wetter and wetter.” He swiped a single finger through my lips as if proving his point. “You would be my own personal work of art. One I could play with and get myself off to.” Cole looked up, the yellow in his eyes blazing a bright gold. “Would you want to watch me fucking my hand with you spread out before me?”

I mewled in response, trying to close my legs to find relief at his words, only to be blocked by his big body.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. My whiskey girl is some kind of dirty, isn’t she? Don’t answer. Your body is doing that for you. You should see how fucking wet you’re getting.”

“Colllllllleeee,” I cried. This was torture of the best and worst kind. “Please. Give me your mouth.”

“Where do you want it?”

I don’t know if he got off on hearing me say it or making me beg or what, but the man was slowly killing me.

And I didn’t hate it at all. I’d never been this turned on in my entire life.

“On my pussy,” the words coming out in a rush. “I want your mouth on my pussy. Lick me like you did at the hotel.”

“I can’t resist a damn thing about you. Your filthy words or this delectable cunt.”

The harsh word was accompanied by a long slow swipe of his tongue, and I careened upward, my entire upper body arching off the bed. Every inch of my skin felt overly sensitive, as if the lightest of touches would destroy me.

That’s what this man did to me. He’d destroyed every barrier I put up even when I knew I should have fortified them instead.

Too bad for me, I was willing to watch them burn to the ground.