The Rebound (One Night Stand Series Book 2)

by Toni J Strawn

  Madison smile faltered and her brow furrowed. “I’m not sure. I never went to my prom.”

  “Why not?” This did shock me. I had visions of Madison swathed in silky gold, her hair bundled on top of her head, gliding across the dance floor like a glittering swan among the rest of the high school ducklings. She would have been dripping with jewels and senior boys.

  “I was probably at some beauty pageant or other.” She shrugged as if it didn’t really matter.

  But I could tell it did. “I bet you had heaps of guys lining up for a date?” I teased.

  Madison glanced away. “Not really. Most of them were too frightened to ask. My mother scared away the rest.” She laughed depreciatively. “No one was good enough for me.”

  I wanted to say, “So what?” At least she’d been at school. Unlike Jess, who’d never gotten to her prom either. But looking at Madison now, so beautiful and open and tinged with sadness, I realized it couldn’t have been much of a life. No freedom. No choices.

  I rubbed my thumb across the back of her hand. “I would have asked,” I said, knowing it was the truth, even if it would have been for the wrong reasons.

  Madison snorted. “My mother would have thrown a blue fit.”

  I lifted a brow. “But would you have said yes?”

  “Yes. I do believe I would have.”

  And that was all that mattered. Madison would have given me a chance. Shit, she was giving me a chance right now, wasn’t she? She hadn’t gone running back to her mother. She was trying to build herself a life, doing things she never dreamed of. My dream had a plan and a team of professionals who knew what they were doing. Madison was tackling everything on her own.

  Or nearly on her own.

  “Come on.” I tugged on her hand, drawing her back to the car. “You promised me an ice cream.”

  My phone was flashing and beeping a blue fit in the middle console. I fished it out, intending to ignore it, until I noticed there were three missed calls. All from Marcus. All in the last five minutes.

  “Let me just take this.” I apologized, thumbing the icon to return his call. “I won’t be long.”

  “Take as long as you want.” Madison said from the passenger seat.

  “Marcus?” I took a few steps away from the car.

  “Where the fuck have you been?” He answered abruptly.

  I blinked. “I’m out at the site.”

  “Well, you better get your ass over here.”

  “I’ve got Madison with me.” I threw a glance sideways then checked my watch. “We can be there in fifteen—”

  “No.” Marcus cut me off. “There’s something you need to see. Alone.”

  “Okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can—”

  “Good.” Marcus’s breath huffed down the line. “And whatever you do, don’t bring Madison.” He hung up.

  I frowned at my phone.

  “Everything okay?” Madison sent me a worried look.

  I gave a half-laugh, half-shrug. “Yeah. I’m sure everything’s fine. Marcus is overreacting.” Marcus. Cool, calm, levelheaded Marcus. I swallowed. “I’ll take a rain check on the ice-cream and drop you home. It looks like I have business to attend to.”

  * * * * *

  Marcus had been right to warn me.

  I stared at the computer screen, reading and re-reading the name sticking out like dogs balls among the list of Salamond Directors.

  Russell Langford

  Ernest Daniels

  Patricia St. James

  Each time I saw the letters that made up Madison’s mother’s name, it was like taking a punch to the gut.

  “St. James is a patron of the historical preservation society,” Marcus had explained. “Which gives Salamond Holdings a lot more credence than just a group of pissed-off businessmen.”

  “Her involvement means this claim will be taken seriously.” My voice rang hollow in my ears as all of the pieces of the puzzle clicked together in my mind.

  “Yeah. She’s razor-sharp and lethal,” Marcus cautioned. He threw me an apologetic look. “Its six o’clock and I have to meet Abby. Why don’t you take some time to get your head in order, then we’ll come up with a plan.”

  “Yeah. Sure.” I said the words, but my mind was reeling. I waved Marcus away. “Go ahead. I’m fine.”

  Marcus left and I lowered my head into my hands, the fight draining out of me. Madison. Was she involved with her mother?

  If so, I’d just been taken on the biggest ride of my life.

  If?

  Hell, the evidence stared me straight in the face. Her interest in seeing the mall today, the fact she was working for Logan, giving her access to my plans. She admitted she’d read them.

  I didn’t want it to be true.

  But everything pointed to her involvement.

  I picked up the phone and dialed half of her number before forcing myself to hang up. My hands shook from holding back. I had to know, but it was better to wait. I closed my eyes, knowing a part of me couldn’t trust my reaction to her anyway. Her sweet voice would come on the line, filling my head with her lies, lust tangling in my brain to confuse me.

  I had fallen for Madison, or at least the woman I had come to know over the last week. I wanted her to be that person and it would rip something inside of me if it turned out to be a lie.

  And if it was a lie? She was a lot better at hiding her true self than I had ever imagined. From her innocent act in the bar, right through to her fake friendship with Jess…

  My hands tightened into fists, every muscle screaming out with tension. I forced myself to sit back and clear my mind. Think things through.

  If Madison was involved, this presented a near perfect opportunity to find out what good old Uncle Russell and his cronies were up to. I had to go back to Madison and pretend everything was all right.

  If she could play me, I could play her twice as hard.

  After all, I’d just learned a lesson from the best.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Madison

  Something wasn’t right.

  I lay in Cole’s arms, the heaviness in my chest growing to the point of suffocation.

  Ever since leaving me to see Marcus, Cole had changed. He’d gone from being relaxed and attentive to having a hard edge. I couldn’t think of any other way to put it.

  What had happened? I’d asked him, of course, but he’d brushed off my concerns, stating nothing was wrong.

  Jess called it Cole’s hero complex.

  “He’d never believe we could do anything to help,” She’d said when we had a minute alone. Jess had noticed something was up with her brother too. “Don’t worry about it. He’s been like this all week.”

  Which made it worse as far as I was concerned. I’d put his remote attitude down to the fact we’d been in different cities, but maybe there had been more to it that he’d been hiding. Or maybe he really did resent my working for Logan?

  I’d had an amazing time with Cole at the empty lot. I had thought there had been a connection, a moment when his defenses had dropped and it was just me and Cole. Nothing else.

  Then had come the phone call, and now Cole seemed tense and unhappy. I didn’t know what to do about his mood change. In the past, I could have ignored my uneasiness and pretended everything was okay. But this was Cole. I wanted him to trust me enough to share his concerns.

  I stilled my fingers from drawing restless circles on his chest. “Are you still upset about me working with Logan?” I asked into the silence. “I-I want to talk about it if you’re angry.”

  Cole stiffened beneath my touch, then relaxed into an exaggerated shrug. “What’s there to talk about? You needed something—you went to one of your own. Birds of a feather, and all that.”

  Hurt tightened its grip on my chest. “Birds of a feather?” I twisted my head to look at him. “Why do you us so much?”

  “You wouldn’t understand.”

  Cole folded his hands behind his head and stared up at the c
eiling. I closed my eyes, trying to drag in a breath despite the feeling my chest was being crushed.

  “Then help me understand. Tell me what I’ve done wrong.”

  “It’s not that you’ve done anything wrong.” Cole huffed out an angry breath. “It’s that you’ve done nothing. You have no idea what it’s like…” He shook his head. “You treat ordinary people like they’re nothing. Less than nothing. Money is power. Rich people use it to get what they want, with no regard for anyone else.”

  His cold tone cut me to the quick and I rubbed at my arms, beginning to realize the true depth of his loathing. For my kind. I’d thought we’d been growing closer, but even after spending time in my bed, in my home, entrusting me with the care of his sister, Cole still counted me as one of the bad guys.

  I fought past the sting of rejection.

  “You have more power than I’ll ever have,” I argued. He had power over me. The power to hurt. “People like Logan and me are stuck in our parents’ world. We have less choice than anyone. Less power. At least you can stand up for yourself. For Jess.”

  “Because I had to,” Cole said harshly. He threw me a dark look as he got off the bed. “You have no idea what my life has been like.”

  “Then tell me,” I said. The tenuous hold between us stretched to snapping point. One wrong move and everything would break.

  Cole ran a hand through his hair, his eyes flicking around the room. “Langford may be my name, but it isn’t my family.” He paced. Short, angry strides. “They paid for me to go to school so I could take the fall when Thomas fucked up. The golden boy.” His lips twisted bitterly. “Who’s going to listen to the poor cousin, right? They believed every lie he fed them. Money talks. Sheep listen.”

  “So, what did you do?” I believed Cole spoke the truth. Or what he thought was the truth. To be honest, from what I knew of Thomas, he seemed too boring to have ever done anything wrong. But there had to be something behind Cole’s prejudice, if I could just get to the bottom of it…

  “What could I do?” Bitterness nipped at Cole’s words. “I was thrown out of school. Back to the gutter I crawled out of.”

  “That’s horrible.” I shook my head, but what he said didn’t surprise me. I’d seen how ruthless some of the prestigious families could be when it came to protecting their name. And I could also understand why he had so little respect for his moneyed family—but surely he could see I wasn’t like that. I searched the closed set of Cole’s face, looking for a small spark of softness that would tell me he saw me differently.

  My breath froze in my lungs when I met only hardness.

  Was he ever going to get past my name and see me?

  I took a deep breath and raised my chin, refusing to let Cole relegate me to a closed box and stick a label on me. He was the one who’d compelled me to be real the night at the hotel. He’d stripped me of everything I’d known. Forced me to look at myself. Really look at myself. I wasn’t going to let him shut me out and put up a smokescreen. Not now.

  Determination forced me to my feet. I would show him what it meant to face the truth. I caught him as he moved past, stepping in front of him, wrapping myself around him and pushing past the softness of his lips with my tongue.

  A fierce yearning shook me. A longing to prove to Cole he wasn’t alone, even if it was me he fought. I slid my hands into his hair, tugging him closer, pouring every ounce of feeling into the kiss.

  “Fuck.” With a groan Cole yielded, crushing me to him to take control of the moment with demands of his own. “Why can’t I resist you?” His words were almost tortured as he swept his tongue into my mouth, his pelvis driving against me so I could feel how much he wanted me.

  “I need you. Inside me.” I pushed his pants past his hips, raining kisses across his chin, his mouth, his chest, anywhere I could reach. With my own future blurry, Cole was the only thing tethering me to reality. With him, I never had to think about who I was, or who I should be. I just was. I wanted that for him too.

  He was angry, his movements bordering on rough as he pushed me back against the bed, gripped my wrists in his hands and held me still. His kiss was a punishment and I welcomed the hard dig of his tongue, the sense of possessiveness. Possession. With a growl he flipped me on my stomach, his cock nudging my ass as he lay over me, blanketing me.

  I wriggled against him, a moan pushing past my lips, soaking into the sheets beneath my cheek. My sex pulsed with anticipation, the wetness slick between my thighs.

  “Be still,” he growled, breathing hard. He flexed his hips, his cock riding the crease of my buttocks and he growled again. “Shit.” With a curse, he pushed himself away and grabbed a condom from the drawer. Then he pulled me up so I knelt in front of him. He shoved his leg between my thighs, spreading me wide. “Are you with me?”

  “Yes.” My breath hissed out as I shoved back against him.

  It was all the invitation Cole needed. Positioning his cock at my drenched entrance, he spread my cheeks with one hand, coating the pucker of my ass in creamy wetness.

  “I want you to come. Hard.” His cock slid deep inside my pussy, his thumb pressing against my anus at the same time.

  His pace was unrelenting. Demanding. Hard, fast thrusts that allowed no time for breath or thought. Pleasure and pain, the feeling of fullness so exquisite my brain shut down and I gave myself over to him. His harsh grunts became a litany, the slap of flesh setting the tempo as his thumb and cock pumped in and out, building me higher.

  “Oh, fuck. Madison.” He gritted out my name, his rhythm stuttering. He drove deep, hips bucking against me as he took his pleasure.

  I came with him, screaming out his name, squeezing my eyes shut against the tears as something yanked free from inside me. Unbound passion…lust…sympathy…

  Love?

  Maybe not love. But something close to it. I loved Cole’s honesty. The way he never shied away from anything. He faced life full on, giving everything of himself for those he thought were worth it. Jess. Marcus. The people involved in his development. I wanted to be someone like that to Cole.

  He twisted to lie on the bed, flinging his arm out to invite me in.

  “I’ll prove to you I’m not like them,” I said, settling against him as the sweat dried and our bodies cooled. I closed my eyes, saying the words I knew would change everything. “I will go to see my mother on the weekend.” My mouth went dry. “I-I’m going to tell her everything.”

  Cole grew still beside me. “Are you?” He sounded surprised. And there was a touch of wariness too.

  “Yes.” My resolve hardened. I was going to face my fears and do something I should’ve done a long time ago.

  Come clean with my mother.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Madison

  It was hard enough thinking about seeing my mother…doing it was another step entirely. Yet, my panic died down as I stood across the study from her. I took a deep breath, clutching my hands together to hide the slight tremble.

  Patricia St. James looked up, her eyes sharp and biting. “So, tell me what is happening with you and Logan Hamilton?”

  “I’m not marrying Logan.” I stood steady as my mother’s lips tightened into a thin line.

  “You don’t think I know that already?” She sniffed and leaned back in her chair. “You are my only child, Madison. Of course I know exactly what you have been doing.”

  Doing? My gaze swept the room, looking for a way out as a dark knot of foreboding gathered at the base of my spine.

  “Which is why I’ve taken steps to secure our future against Cole Langford.” My mother confirmed my worst fears.

  Logan. Logan had ratted me out. My heart thudded dully, my knees suddenly weak.

  Unlike my mother’s expression, which was rock-steady. Her mouth might have turned downward in a show of sympathy, but there was little comfort there. “Some people are born to be stars, my dear. Cole is not one of them. He is not for you.”

  I stared back, my mouth opening
and closing at my mother’s flippant dismissal of Cole. No discussion. No dispute. My mother’s judicious declaration as she saw it.

  Oh. I had no doubt she believed what she said. Cole wasn’t good enough? What would she know? Somewhere along the way, my mother had lost sight of the meaning of life. Of love. Of genuine happiness.

  It didn’t come with a price tag.

  “You don’t know him.” I refused to back down. Not from this. I lifted my chin as I made myself face the truth about my mother for the first time. I wanted to be a good daughter. I wanted to make her happy, but I wasn’t going to settle for less than something real. True love.

  “But I do know you.” Her air of confidence grew.

  Blood pounded through my head in a hollow warning. My mother was up to something. Her chilling smile spread and so did the chill down my spine. I should have known. My mother had planned my entire life down to the wedding march—no way did she not have a plot to combat an uncooperative daughter. My gut tightened. I felt stupid. Under-prepared. Naive. I should’ve known it would never be this easy.

  “Exactly what I said.” She glanced back down at her notes, as if she had the solution all laid out in some business portfolio.

  The first tingle of anger stirred in my belly.

  “Russell Langford came to see me some time ago about a delicate situation with Cole’s new development,” she said, placing her hands in front of her. “As a patron of the preservation society, he needed my help. Of course, after learning of your relationship with Cole, I thought it prudent to lend my support.” Her smile tightened as she stared across the desk at me. “So far it is in my best interests to help Russell Langford. However, if you back away now…I may consider withdrawing it.”

  “May consider?” Nausea rose in my throat and I pressed my fingers against my mouth. “What kind of support?

  “The kind that will ultimately bury Cole.” My mother pulled no punches as she spelled it out. “I will destroy his business. I will destroy him.”

  Every breath scraping across my lungs like razors. The ramifications spun around my brain. So this is what it came down to. Stay in my relationship with Cole and my mother would take part in ruining his life. Return to the fold like a good little lamb, and Mother would sheath her dagger.