by Ella Frank
“I didn’t know there was a lock,” she admitted, thinking he would stop.
Instead, he gave her a shrug and a casual head tilt. “You better hope no one walks in then since you have your hand in a very compromising position.”
Rachel couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped her mouth as Cole leaned down and nuzzled her neck.
“And what about you?”
“What about me?” he countered. This time, it was his mouth by her ear. “You’re blocking me from anyone’s view. I could unzip my pants and have you give me a hand job, and Jane could walk in and be none the wiser.”
“That sounds like such a good plan,” she agreed. She turned her head, so they were staring at each other.
“But?”
Rachel shrugged as if she were indifferent, and then she moved her fingers against her own flesh. “But my hand’s currently busy.”
The look that came on to Cole’s face told her she was about to get it—and good.
That was when, just as he had predicted, his office door swung open, but it wasn’t Jane, who would leave as soon as Cole told her to. It was Logan, a man she had met once. And she knew he would not leave until he was damn well ready to.
Cole’s head snapped up as he crowded in against Rachel, who still had her hand inside the leather he wanted out of the way. Of course, fucking Logan has to walk in, Cole thought as he glared at the man standing in his door, sizing up the situation.
Cole could only hope that he didn’t catch on, or he knew there’d be no making Logan leave. Logan was perverse that way.
“Oh, look who’s here. It’s Mrs. Madison.”
Cole felt Rachel stiffen as she looked over her shoulder to stare at Logan.
“I see you heard,” she said, trying for light but coming off tense.
“And I see you’re still a hot piece of—”
“Logan,” Cole growled as he rubbed himself up against Rachel, who had turned back into him. “Are you here for a reason?”
“Well, of course. I didn’t come all the way down to your office in the hopes of catching you with your pants down…well, not literally anyway.” He paused.
If Cole had thought that was the end of it, he was sadly mistaken.
“Good to see that I found the hot cheetah with her hands down her pants instead. It makes this much more interesting for me, I must say.”
When Cole felt Rachel shake against his body, he thought he would kill Logan if he had made her cry. He looked down at her, and as she tipped up her face, he was surprised to see laugh lines crinkling her eyes as she shook with silent laughter. Every day, she had managed to surprise him, and this, right here, was no different.
“Something amusing here?” Cole asked, staring down at her.
Closing her eyes tightly, she let out an even louder giggle. Just as he was about to push the issue, he heard Logan’s voice chime in.
“Oh, Cole, don’t you realize that you are the only stiff prick in here?”
Cole glared up at his brother and business partner and growled through gritted teeth. “Get out.”
Rachel’s laughter seemed to increase as she removed her hand and started to tie the strings of her pants. “It’s okay, Cole.” She pulled herself together and turned around to face the man she had met last week, Logan. “You know, you remind me a lot of Cole—arrogant and persistent. The only difference is that you mask it better.”
“Hear that?” Logan scoffed to Cole. “She thinks I’m better than you.”
“No, she essentially said you lie better than me,” Cole pointed out.
Rachel looked back and forth between the two of them. “How long have you two worked with each other?”
“Too long as of three minutes ago,” Cole responded quickly.
“Aww, it’s so heartwarming to hear how much your own brother cares.”
“Wait, what? You two are brothers?” Rachel asked as she looked at first Logan and then Cole.
Cole let his head fall back as he stared at the ceiling, searching for sanity. “God give me patience,” he mumbled.
“Yes, shocking, isn’t it? I’m the much better looking one,” Logan said with a laugh as he walked forward and placed the file in his hand on Cole’s desk.
“Sometime today or tomorrow, do you think you could take a break from your husbandly duties and use the desk for something it was designed for?”
Cole brought his head back up and pinned the man across from him with what he hoped was a look that would kill or at least certainly hurt. “Who told you she was here?” he finally asked.
“Marissa,” Logan admitted and held up a finger. “In her defense, I asked her to alert me of strange women going into your office.”
Cole shook his head and pointed at the door. “Leave. Now.”
Logan turned to Rachel and gave her his usual killer smile accompanied by an easygoing wink. “I will talk to you later, Mrs. Madison.”
As he exited the office, Rachel turned to face Cole with a shocked look on her face. “That’s your brother?”
“Half-brother, and now, you get to claim him, too.” Cole felt his lips twitch.
“Well, speaking of brothers, mine invited us to dinner on Friday night.”
Cole pulled back and looked down at her skeptically.
“A friendly one,” she added with a grin.
Cole hugged her in close. “Maybe we should bring Logan, you know, as a party trick.”
Her laugh bubbled up and out of her, and Cole realized nothing could have ruined that moment for him as she nestled into his chest, like she felt just as home as he was.
Tuesday evening had passed by in a blur almost as if she were living in some kind of dream—one she got to wake up from with a smile on her face instead of being jolted from in terror. Rachel still couldn’t believe that she had found her peace with the one man she thought would cause chaos.
Making her way into Exquisite on Wednesday afternoon, Rachel took a moment to reflect on all that had happened over the last—holy shit—week. Okay, maybe a little more than a week. Who knew that was even possible? How did Cole manage that?
As she wandered down the back aisle toward the kitchen, she reached the entryway, and she was surprised to see Mason in there. He was showing around—
Cole? What the hell?
Stopping where she was, Rachel looked at the two men who were, for the first time, standing side-by-side. She watched apprehensively as they talked to one another, wondering if she would be called to testify if one murdered the other.
What is Cole doing here?
“Quite a sight, isn’t it?”
Rachel spun around quickly to find Lena standing behind her with a smile stretched across her mouth. Narrowing her eyes, Rachel walked toward her sister-in-law and placed her hands on her hips.
“I suppose you had nothing to do with this?”
Lena shrugged and glanced past Rachel’s shoulder. “I didn’t call him if that’s what you mean.”
Rachel tapped her foot and crossed her arms as she pursed her lips.
Lena’s green eyes twinkled as she raised her chin in the men’s direction. “I think it’s important that their first meeting—”
“Third,” Rachel interjected.
“Okay. I think it’s important that their third meeting be done before Friday. They need to know each other if they’re both going to be in your life.”
“And you decided to what? Nudge them together? Are you crazy? You don’t nudge men like that.”
“No, I asked Mason to give him a call, that’s all.”
Rachel cocked her head. “And he agreed? Just like that?”
Lena gave her a look that told Rachel exactly how she had persuaded Mason to call up Cole, and it had nothing to do with talking.
How weird, Rachel thought, looking back at her brother and husband. They were both so completely different, yet they are both so vital to my happiness.
Rachel moved to stand silently beside Lena to watch the men. She
had so many good memories in that kitchen, and as Cole made his way around all the stainless steel in jeans and a casual black shirt, Rachel knew this was one more she could add to the pile.
No matter what she had told herself, the sight of the two most important people in her life actually getting along made her heart happy.
“You can say it now,” Rachel whispered to the woman by her side.
“Say what?” Lena asked as she nudged her arm.
Rachel faced the doctor who was as much of her sister as Mason was her brother. “That I was wrong from the very beginning. That, from the first moment at Whipped, I was hiding.”
Lena shook her head as she faced her. “I know a little something about hiding. I think we do it to try and keep ourselves safe. The only problem with that is we sometimes miss what’s right in front of us.” Lena paused for a moment, and then she chuckled. “Or, in your case, we see it, grab it, and marry it.”
Rachel smirked and reached out to poke Lena in the arm. “I’ll have you know that he asked me, not the other way around.”
“Who asked what?” Mason’s familiar voice filtered through the air.
Spinning back around, Rachel found herself face-to-face with her brother and Cole. She was about to make something up when Cole spoke up.
“I have no doubt that Rachel was just telling your wife that I was the one who asked her to marry me. To be honest, she was actually a tough sell. I had to pull out all my negotiating tactics.”
Rachel’s mouth opened and then shut. Once again, she found she had nothing to say.
“Really?” Mason asked as he turned to look at Cole. “You asked her? I have to say that I honestly thought it was the other way around.”
“I told you what they would all think,” Rachel finally managed to say.
Cole pushed his hands into his tight jeans, and with a wink, he acknowledged, “Yes, I seem to remember you saying something of the sort.”
Rachel felt an unfamiliar blush rise up her neck and heat her cheeks at the memory of that particular discussion.
Beside her, Lena cleared her throat. “So, Cole, has Rachel cooked for you yet? On our first…well, really, our second date, Mason made me dinner and a peach pie.”
Rachel let out a laugh and almost snorted as Mason glared at her.
“It’s wrong on so many levels that you know about that,” he informed her.
Lena barely stifled her own laugh as she batted her lashes innocently at her husband. “Girls talk.”
“You three are not girls. You’re women, and you don’t find me and Josh standing around talking about—”
“Sex deals, secrets, and Josh’s preference for blondes? Yes, I’m sure you and Josh never talk about that,” Lena added, tongue-in-cheek.
“Actually, Joshua was very chatty when he first met Shelly.”
Rachel’s eyes widened as she grinned mischievously at Cole’s statement. “Ooh, you have to tell us,” she practically begged, bouncing on her toes.
“No, that wouldn’t be right, especially since the poor man was so distracted I took all his money in a game of poker.”
Rachel slapped her leg and hooted. “I love it! He’s so getting it when I see him again. He was walking around in a daze the minute Man-Eater showed up!”
“Man-Eater?” Cole inquired.
“Yeah, the perfect blonde with the annoying mouth. That would be Shelly Monroe.”
“Also known as Man-Eater?” Cole caught on.
“Yep, the one and the same.” Rachel beamed, delighted with this new piece of information. “Let’s just say, she doesn’t lack in confidence, and leave it at that.”
Mason shook his head and began muttering something about the women in his life. That was when Lena took the opportunity to defend her absent friend and colleague.
“Shelly’s great. She’s loud and outrageous, and she tells it exactly like it is. Doesn’t she, Mason?”
Cole looked at Mason, who was frowning, and then back to Rachel. “I’m missing something here, right?”
“Oh, Mason likes to forget, but these two lovebirds hated each other when they first met,” Rachel pointed out.
Cole raised a brow. “Now, that sounds familiar.”
Rachel’s frown matched her brother’s as she looked into amused hazel eyes. “I didn’t hate you.”
“Well, you certainly didn’t like me. If I recall, you told me something like no, thank you. you aren’t my type.”
Mason finally let out a chuckle as he told Cole, “Don’t feel too bad. The first time I met Lena, she asked me if I could read.”
Rachel snorted, very unladylike at that. “Remember the first date you two had? Lena turned up in this horrible pantsuit—”
“Hey! It wasn’t horrible. I still have that suit.”
Rachel turned and pointedly ran her eyes down Lena’s red pencil skirt and black blouse. “Yes, but you no longer wear it or dress like a nun.”
“And what do you dress like? A wannabe rock star?” Lena fired back.
Rachel looked at her tight blue jeans, which had a rip across her right thigh and were frayed around the bottom where her black boots peeked out. “I like my jeans.”
“So do I.”
Cole’s smooth voice reached across the space and pretty much stroked all her naughty places. As her eyes met his, Rachel found herself chewing on her bottom lip.
It wasn’t until Mason cleared his throat that she blinked and focused on him.
“I told Cole he could watch you work your magic tonight. It’s something everyone should experience at least once. Your desserts are out of this world.”
As Mason’s praise sank in, Rachel stepped forward and pressed a kiss to his cheek. She whispered, “Thank you for this.”
He returned the move by quickly smacking his lips against her cheek. “You’re welcome. I love you.” When he pulled away, he stepped around her toward his wife.
Rachel looked at Cole, who was watching her with a mixture of love and affection.
Holding out her hand to him, she asked, “Ready to heat up the kitchen?”
With the look he gave her, she knew he was remembering the way they had heated up his only last week.
He took a step toward her and slid his palm over hers. “With you? Always.”
Cole followed Rachel through the kitchen and into her small office.
“So, have you ever spent an evening behind the scenes of a restaurant?” she asked, dropping her bag on the floor.
He watched as she removed her coat and threw it over her desk. She took down the bright purple chef’s jacket hanging on a peg secured to the back of the door.
“Can’t say that I have.”
She gave him a quick smile and reached for a long black apron that had been hanging behind the jacket. Turning to him, she extended her arm. “Here, this is for you.”
“An apron?”
“You don’t have to look so appalled. It’s not a skirt, you know.”
She chuckled as he took the black material from her.
“I’m more appalled at the thought of what you want me to do once the apron is in place.”
Cole wrapped the ties around his waist and found that they were long enough to come back around, so he secured it just under the button of his jeans. Once he tied it off, he looked up to see Rachel staring at him.
“Did I not do it right?”
She stepped toward him in her button-up jacket and reached out to the sides of his hips. Without a word, she rolled the top of the apron down over the ties and then smoothed her hands around to grip his denim-clad ass, pulling him in close.
Cole felt his entire body tense and his cock harden at the ease she obviously now felt in touching him.
She winked up at him. “As usual, you did it perfectly. I was just thinking that this is probably the first time I will ever be in danger of sexually harassing someone in the workplace.”
“As opposed to sexually harassing them elsewhere?” Cole questioned, raising his palms
to her shoulders.
Rachel slid her hands into his back pockets and continued squeezing his ass.
“Are you enjoying yourself?” he asked.
“I am actually.”
Cole reached behind and removed her palms from his ass. Holding her hands in his, he informed her, “Your brother told me two things tonight.”
“And what were they?”
“That I was welcome in his restaurant—”
“Our restaurant,” she corrected.
“As long as I stayed out of the way and kept my hands off the pastry chef while she worked.”
“Well, I hope you told him to get lost. You’re my husband, and you can touch me whenever you like.”
“And he’s your brother, and he’s just starting to warm up to me. I’m going to respect that,” Cole told her, taking a step back.
The look of absolute annoyance on her face made her entirely too appealing for him to be within touching range.
“So, what?” she asked incredulously. “You’re going to stand four feet away from me all night? I knew he was being way too nice. Jerk.”
With a determined look on her face, she started to move toward him, and Cole took another step back. She stopped and threw her hands up in the air. Shaking her head, she made a move to pass him.
“This is ridiculous! I’m going to go and tell Mason he can shove—”
With catlike reflexes, Cole reached out and grabbed her arm, halting her on her way out the door. As she spun back on her toes, she almost slammed into him with the force of her momentum.
“Whoa. Slow down.”
“You know, I’m surprised you’re so relaxed about this.”
Leaning down so they were on eye level, Cole informed her, “I’m not relaxed. Your damn hands gave me a hard-on, and now, I’m standing here, trying to calm it the hell down. But you, all feisty and pissed off, is not helping the issue.”
“Then, why won’t you let me go and—”
“Think of this as foreplay,” he whispered, letting his warm breath float across her lips. “Four hours of close proximity without touch.” Pressing his mouth to hers, he ended with, “Followed by seven hours of the hands-on approach.”