Cole's Mistake (Haven, Texas Book 8)

by Laylah Roberts

  “I know you said making decisions scares you.” She stiffened and he rubbed her back. “How about this? When it all gets too much, you tell us, and we’ll take over. You can make the decisions when we’re out that door, but once we’re inside you say the word and we take control.”

  “Will that . . . do you want that?”

  Poor baby, she really did find it hard to trust in herself.

  “What do you want?” Julian asked, leaning forward, placing his elbows on his knees.

  They both waited, giving her a chance to think it all through, not pushing her for an answer.

  “I think I would like that. It will take some of the pressure off. When I’m submitting, I feel more relaxed.”

  “Good girl for telling us what you want,” he praised her. “Then that’s what we’ll do.” Cole turned to Julian. “I get why it’s hard to let Keira out of your sight. I feel the same now that I know everything. But do you trust me to watch over her?”

  Julian frowned. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just, it’s more than just protecting her.”

  “She’s your anchor,” Cole guessed. “She helps keep you focused? In the here and now?”

  “Yes. I guess that’s pretty accurate.”

  “How about when you’re working out?” he asked.

  “Huh?”

  “You use Joel’s gym, right? To work out? And Keira goes with you?”

  “She pretends to lift weights. Mostly, she just checks me out.” Julian grinned.

  “Hey. Not my fault if my husband is sexy as hell.”

  “That he is,” Cole agreed. “But while you’re working out and the endorphins are flowing are you as worried about Keira’s protection? About watching her every move?”

  Julian frowned, obviously thinking. “No, I don’t think so.”

  “So how about you work out with Joel tomorrow and Keira and I will have a cup of coffee with Aspen. We won’t leave the house, and I won’t let Keira out of my sight.”

  Julian looked uncomfortable and he wondered if he was pushing too hard too fast.

  “You won’t leave her. Not even to go to the bathroom,” Julian demanded.

  “If I need to go then she goes with me.”

  “Eew,” Keira screwed up her nose. “Kind of gross.”

  Cole gave her a stern look. “Hey, I’m pretty sure that calling your Dom gross is a spankable offense.”

  “I’m pretty sure you think everything is a spankable offense,” she countered. “You’re obsessed with my naked butt.”

  “It’s a very gorgeous butt, naked or not.”

  “All right,” Julian said finally. “Let’s try.”

  “Good.” Cole squeezed Keira to him.

  “Cole?” Keira asked hesitantly.

  “Yeah, baby?”

  “I was just wondering um . . . well, you’re sticking around, right?”

  He stiffened then forced himself to relax. These questions were expected. They hadn’t talked much about the future, which had been deliberate on his part. There was a lot going on right now for them all to deal with.

  “I plan on being with the two of you until we’re old and gray and sitting on a porch in our rocking chairs, casting disapproving looks at the youth of today, and talking about the good old days.”

  Keira smiled. “That’s . . . that’s what I thought. It’s just . . .” She looked over at Julian. “We were kind of worried about where you might be planning on living. We just . . . we really like it here and people accept relationships like ours here, but I know it’s quiet compared to L.A. and I don’t want you to resent us if you start to miss the city, but I also don’t think I can live anywhere else.”

  Julian watched him steadily, waiting.

  “I’m an idiot.”

  Keira raised her eyebrows. “Hmm, if I’m not supposed to speak badly about myself, why are you allowed to?”

  “Because I am an idiot. I bought a house.”

  Both of them tensed.

  “Here, I bought a house here,” he added quickly. His communication could use some work too. “I brought a house here, in Haven.”

  “You did? When?” Keira asked.

  “About a week or so ago. The house was already vacant, and since I was a cash buyer it went through quickly.”

  “You bought it before you even knew if we wanted you back?” Julian asked.

  “Yes. I didn’t know if you’d ever forgive me or want me, but I had to be close to the two of you. I think you’ll like the house. At least I hope you both will since I’m hoping you’ll live there with me.”

  There was silence.

  “Not right away. I mean, when you’re ready. The house needs a bit of work anyway—” His words were silenced as Keira kissed him. Which seemed to be her favorite way of getting him to be quiet.

  When she drew back, she smiled at him. “I’m so glad you bought a house here.” She looked over at Julian.

  The other man cleared his throat. “When the time is right, we could talk about us moving in with you.”

  Something shifted in him. Something huge. And he found himself breathing a little easier. They weren’t ready yet, but he got that. They were here. They were his.

  Keira bit her lip. “But are you sure you won’t get bored here?”

  “Bored? With the two of you to look after? Somehow, I don’t think so, little bit. You need a full-time keeper as it is.” He tapped her nose, and she attempted to give him a disgruntled look. “Truthfully, now that I’m out of the city, I’m glad to be away from it all. The noise, the pollution, all the maneuvering and bullshit that came from the board. I like it here. Even if the people are a little unusual, they’re protective and loyal. That’s not something you find everywhere.”

  “No,” Julian agreed. “It’s not.”

  “There’s something else I have to tell you, though,” he added, knowing it was best to lay all his cards on the table. “Something I don’t quite know how to tell you both, but I can’t put it off any longer. I want full honesty and communication between us.”

  And he hoped like hell they wouldn’t be too angry with him for not telling them already.

  “You need to understand that I was in a bad place. After I pushed the two of you away, I focused on finding the traitor on the board. It was the only thing that really kept me going. That stopped me from chasing after the two of you. After I discovered who it was, I fell into a dark place. I wanted to go after the two of you, but I told myself you were better off without me. That our relationship had just been a fantasy, that it could never be a reality. I threw myself back into work. I no longer cared about my life. About what I did—”

  “Cole, what is it?” Keira asked carefully.

  “I nearly got married,” he blurted out.

  28

  “You nearly got married?” It was a stab to her gut. She’d known he wouldn’t be celibate all this time, of course.

  But he’d been engaged? He’d been going to marry someone else?

  Cole looked pained. “It wasn’t . . . I wasn’t in love with her. Arabella is Hank Bridges’s daughter. It was an arranged engagement. He suggested a match between us. It was a business decision. I was tired of fighting the board constantly. I couldn’t have the two of you, I knew I’d never love anyone like I did the two of you, so I figured it didn’t matter what I did.” He gave them both a guilty look.

  “We knew you would have been with other people,” Keira said.

  Cole shook his head. “I wasn’t. There was no one else. I didn’t have sex with anyone else. Not even with Arabella.”

  “What? Since we left?” Julian asked, looking shocked.

  “I couldn’t even look at anyone else, let alone feel an attraction towards them,” Cole told them.

  She believed him.

  “What happened to the engagement?” Keira asked.

  “One day, I told my assistant to cancel my obligations for the evening and she reminded me that I had dinner planned with my fiancée, and t
hat I’d canceled every appointment with her for weeks. I don’t know why that hit me with such clarity in that moment, but I realized I could go the rest of my life without seeing her and I wouldn’t care. It made me see that I had nothing in my life I cared about. Not even the company anymore.”

  He looked at them both. “I didn’t want Arabella. Didn’t care about her the way I should have. I wanted something more in my life. So I broke it off. I took some time to think about what was really important. And it wasn’t the business or money or power. I thought about who I was then and who I wanted to be. I wasn’t living the life I wanted. I wasn’t being true to myself. About a week after our engagement broke off, I joined a BDSM club, and enrolled in Dom classes. It felt right. It felt good.”

  “Did she . . . did she love you?” Keira asked.

  He reached over and grabbed hold of her hand, squeezing it. “Arabella didn’t love me any more than I did her. Truthfully, she seemed relieved when I told her I couldn’t marry her. She was getting as much pressure from her father as I was. Hank held too much power and he would have acquired more with our merger.”

  Keira wrinkled her nose. “Merger?”

  “That’s all it would have been. Not a real marriage. An aligning of assets. I finally figured out that wasn’t what I wanted. Not at all. I think in a way it was a good thing, because it dragged me out of that dark hole I’d been in. It made me realize that my life was nothing if I didn’t have anyone in it who loved me. I didn’t think the two of you would want me, I fully expected you to have found someone else, but I had to know. To move on, I had to first make sure the two of you had. So, I sent an investigator to find you. And I decided to try and mend fences with Joel. Do you guys believe me? I’m sorry it happened, but there was truly nothing between us.”

  “I believe you,” Julian told him.

  Keira leaned her head against his shoulder. “Me too. I’m glad you didn’t marry her.”

  “Me too, baby, me too.” He kissed the top of her head. “I promise, for me, it has only ever been the two of you. I’m never letting the two of you go.”

  “Wow this place is massive,” Keira said as she looked around the house in wonder. “I can’t believe you own it. It’s beautiful.”

  Cole was glad she liked it. The farmhouse had six bedrooms and four bathrooms. The master suite was enormous with a huge attached bathroom and jacuzzi tub. You couldn’t see the nearest neighbors; they were miles away. Outside lay acres of unused land he had no idea what he was going to do with. He was no rancher.

  But he’d figure something out.

  As soon as he’d seen the place, he’d known it was perfect. It had Keira written all over it.

  “Wow,” Keira gasped. “Look at this kitchen.”

  “Yeah, it needs some work,” he said, glancing around at the scratched and worn cupboards, some of the doors were missing. The fridge was ancient, the floor buckled. “So do the bathrooms. Figure I’ve got the time to deal with that, though.”

  He glanced over at Julian, who’d been silent up until now. “What do you think?”

  A strange look came across the other man’s face. “It’s gorgeous. Something we always dreamed of having.”

  There was a sadness in their faces that he hated. Didn’t they realize he’d damn well bought this place for them? His hands clenched into fists.

  Easy, man. Easy.

  “If either of you have any ideas, I’d like to hear them,” he told them both.

  “Really?” Keira’s face lit up.

  Julian had to grin. “You’ve just said the magic words for Keira. Nothing she loves more than decorating and renovating.” His grin dropped off. “That’s what we’d planned for the house in L.A.”

  That place needed to be bulldozed, not renovated. “Yeah, about that place.”

  They both turned to him.

  “I might have been the one to buy it.”

  “You were?” Keira gaped at him. “But you hated that place.”

  He shrugged. “I also knew you probably wouldn’t be able to sell it and you needed money. So, I bought it.”

  “I should have known when we got above asking price.” Julian frowned. “You didn’t need to do that.”

  “Ah, yeah, but here’s the embarrassing thing. See, a contractor decided he wanted to put in a new housing suburb about six months after you both left. I sold it for nearly twice what I paid for it. So, you see, I owe you two money.”

  Julian stared at him in shock. Keira laughed. “You mean my instincts weren’t off?”

  He grinned, glad they weren’t mad at him. “Yeah, baby.” Then he turned to Julian, bracing himself for his reaction.

  “Well, looks like we’re gonna need that money to put back into this place.” Julian smiled at Keira’s squeal of delight.

  That was sweet. So, he decided not to tell them that he had no intention of using their money to do this place up.

  As they drove back towards Haven, anticipation filled him, thinking of what had arrived this morning in the mail. He hadn’t shown Keira and Julian yet. Before they’d come out to the house, Joel and Julian had worked out together while Cole and Keira had hung out with Aspen and her boys. Julian had lasted about fifteen minutes before coming to check on them.

  Which is ten minutes longer than Cole thought he’d manage. Keira and Cole had then joined him for a work-out. Well, Cole and Julian had worked out, Keira had watched and drooled.

  His phone started ringing. He frowned. “Sorry. Thought I turned it to silent. Little bit, could you grab it and turn the sound off for me?”

  She picked it up, not meaning to glance at the screen. “It’s Mr. Bridges.”

  “Hank? Why the hell is he calling?” Cole muttered.

  “Do you want to answer it?” Keira asked.

  “No,” Cole replied. “I have no ties to him anymore.”

  That part of his life was done. He stopped at a cross walk as a man in his twenties helped an older lady and her dog walk across the street. Keira waved at the pair. They grinned and waved back.

  “Do you know everyone here, little bit?” Cole asked with amusement.

  “No, of course not.”

  “Yes, she does,” Julian said dryly. “Takes us forever just to walk down the street because everyone wants to stop and say hi to her.”

  Keira blushed as he grinned at her and pulled up in front of Joel’s place.

  “There’s nothing wrong with being friendly,” she protested, reaching for the door handle. Cole grabbed her thigh gently.

  “No, baby, there’s not,” he told her warmly. “It’s good that one of us has people skills. Because your men don’t have many.”

  She shook her head as Julian came around and opened her door. As soon as they were inside and the alarm was on, Cole turned to Keira.

  “I have a present for you.”

  Her eyes lit up. “You do?”

  “Yes. Wait here, okay?”

  He moved into the spare room where he’d put the box that had arrived this morning. He’d barely managed to sneak it in there without them seeing.

  “What is it?” she asked excitedly.

  Julian quietly walked into the kitchen to get a knife, returning to cut through the tape. Keira tore into the box and squealed with delight. “A kitten outfit? For me?”

  “Well, I doubt it’s for me,” Julian said dryly.

  “They didn’t have your size,” Cole teased. He turned to Keira. “Would you like to spend some time as our kitty? Being cared for completely? Pampered and cherished and disciplined as we see fit?”

  “Oh, yes, please!”

  “Good,” Cole said. He ran his finger down her cheek. “Julian, maybe you could get some snacks ready while I help our kitty get ready?”

  Keira practically shook with excitement as Cole directed her into the bedroom, carrying the box with him. He set the package on the bed as she started stripping. He turned and gave her hand a small slap.

  “Bad kitty. Let Sir get you ready. Now,
we should talk about the rules for kitty. You’re not to crawl around or do anything that might hurt your leg. You’ll be carried if you need to go anywhere. Kittens only speak when absolutely necessary. And only briefly. Understand? But you can say your safeword at any time. Especially if you’re in pain or need things to stop. Oh, and kittens aren’t allowed on the furniture unless their owner gives permission. They’re also not allowed to touch themselves.”

  By this time, she was fully naked. She and Julian had done this once, in a special room at the club they’d been members of in San Antonio. But that had only been for an hour. She’d spent most of her time playing with a ball and curled up on Julian’s knee while he’d teased her to a spectacular orgasm.

  This felt like it could be very different. And she couldn’t wait.

  Cole reached into the box and pulled out a headband with black kitten ears. Along the bottom of the ears were pretty pink daisies. Next, he drew out a butt plug that had a long black tail attached to the end, with a pink bow at the top. Holy shit.

  “Right, turn and bend over, kitty. Place your hands on the mattress and poke that ass up into the air. Spread your legs wide. Is that position all right?”

  “Yes, Sir,” she replied.

  She heard the drawer open, then the squirting of lube. Oh, hell. Please.

  He parted her ass cheeks and she took in a deep breath. He ran his finger over her puckered hole.

  “This is a beautiful sight. I think I’ll take this ass later, how do you feel about that, kitty?”

  “Yes, please, Sir.”

  He pushed one finger slowly inside her and she groaned. Her nipples were hard points, her pussy aching.

  “My little kitty likes her ass being played with. I bet she’s wet already.”

  Was she ever. Her clit desperately wanted to be touched, but she remembered his rule about no touching herself.

  Damn it.

  He moved up to two fingers, thrusting them in and out of her ass. Her breathing grew faster. Christ. How long was he going to torture her for?