Broken Barriers (Barriers Series Book 4)

by Shirley, Sara

  Well, I did have a front row seat to stare at Cole’s long legs switching between the gas and brake pedals. It was just an added bonus to watch her pull her hairband out as her hair blew in the wind from her cracked driver’s side window. Even watching her laugh as I tickled her sides was fun for me, but not so much for her.

  She scrolled through her tablet, popping cheeses and fruits into her mouth, taunting me as her tongue glided out and slowly pulled the snacks into her mouth. A simple sip of wine was torture, and I was on sexual sensory overload. She knew what I wanted, and she deliberately took her time and ignored me. She slowly placed a grape between her lips and sucked it back with a popping sound.

  I took a deep breath and brought my wine glass to my lips. I tilted my head back and let the cool wine flow down the back of my throat. I was never one to waste a drink even if white wine wasn’t one of my favorites. Placing the glass onto the counter, I noticed Cole still avoiding eye contact with me, but I sensed she was feigning any reaction to my desperate attempt to get her to spill her guts to me.

  The room was silent. Not even the moan of a single boat’s motor was heard outside, with all the windows closed tighter than a drum. But, the clock in the living room ticked and ticked with each passing second. My fingers thumped against the counter, and my sneaker anxiously tapped the floor. By the tenth tick on the clock, I had finally reached my limit.

  “That’s it!” I yanked the tablet from her fingers and downed the rest of her wine. I pushed the snack platter out of her reach and laid my hands on her shoulders.

  Cole flipped her hair back with her hand and stared up at me from her seat. “I’m sorry. Did you want something? You seem really tense. I’d offer you some wine, but I think you drank the rest of it,” she said, quirking an eyebrow, teasing me.

  “Fuck the wine. I want to know what this big secret is. So, spill the beans.”

  She exhaled a long breath and let her head fall back as she glared up at the ceiling. “Fine!” She finally surrendered. “But, dammit, I didn’t actually think you’d go through with wearing that apron.”

  “Coooole.” My warning tone said I was not letting this go until she told me. “There is no getting out of this one.”

  “OkayOkayOkay,” she blurted out quickly. My hands squeezed her shoulders as she rubbed her palms against her bare thighs. She appeared nervous, and I was more concerned about this than I was earlier when I found out she thought I needed help.

  Her worried eyes stared up at me before she jabbed her finger into my chest. “You’re lucky I like you, but if I catch wind that someone outside of these walls finds out about this, I will annihilate you.” I couldn’t help it. I laughed at her. My sides began to hurt from the laughter as my eyes watered. I regained my composure and wiped the corners of my eyes with my palms, clearing my vision.

  “Sweetheart, as much as I would love to see you try to take me down…‘cuz you know I was kind of an all-star wrestler in college…I have to admit gossip and spreading stories is really not my thing. So, enough with trying to hold out on me.”

  Cole hopped off the stool and padded her bare feet over to the fridge again, this time getting two chilled shot glasses and a bottle of…Oh, sweet Jesus. “Is that?” She nodded as she pulled the cork plug from the bottle.

  “Normally, this is only for my tequila-soaked espresso cupcakes.” She placed the bottle back into the fridge after she finished pouring the glasses full of the liquid. Once she handed me a shot glass, the dark brown liquid beckoned me. “But, for this I’ll make an exception.” I brought the glass to my nose and inhaled. The stars aligned, and I was in heaven. “The fact that I’m allowing you to have a single drop of this should tell you just how top secret this is.” We clinked shot glasses and tilted our heads back, allowing the coffee-flavored tequila to slither its way through our bodies. Cole coughed before placing her shot glass into the sink. I followed suit while she picked up her tablet and headed into the living room. “Follow me. You’ll be more than interested after I’m done with this story, and you’ll want to be sitting down.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Trust me.”

  As I sat down on the sofa, Cole twisted the wooden blinds on the windows shut and flicked on the table lamps. The soft light bounced off the walls. I made out the flushed color on her cheeks as she sat in the chair across from me. My eyes zoned in on her as she ran her fingers over her brow.

  “Cole,” I beckoned, but she didn’t look up. “Tell me. No more stalling. Just say it.”

  “Many years back, before I even moved up here to the lake, back when I still lived with my parents, I didn’t have a lot of female friends. So, the one female friend I did have at the time was like a big sister to me. She was a close family friend, and I was naïve and took everything she said as if it was written in stone. Well, she owned a dance studio, but it wasn’t just any dance studio,” she replied, her chest heaving. Cole focused her eyes on her hands as she nervously scratched her palms.

  “I’m not sure I understand why that’s a big secret.” I leaned forward, linking my fingers together in front of me.

  “Oh…” Cole’s face turned even redder. “That’s not the secret,” she declared.

  “So, what is?” I asked, pleading for her to tell me.

  “It was a pole dancing studio. I learned stripper moves, lap dancing, everything!” Cole pushed off the sofa, ready to bolt out of the room, but I instinctively reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her back to sit next to me instead of across from me.

  “Sit,” I bellowed. She didn’t look at me. Her eyes suddenly displayed shyness behind them. I saw the embarrassment in her body language, but she said it all so fast I wasn’t sure I heard it correctly. “Did you just say you learned how to be a stripper?” I questioned, shocked and curious.

  Cole raised a finger to me. “No!” she snapped. “I was never a stripper. Let’s get that straight, but to say I didn’t learn the moves would technically be a lie.” Her body trembled, and I grasped her hands in mine and dropped my head so she was forced to look me in the eyes.

  “Is that why you forgave me so quickly the other day when I told you about…well…you know?” I had to wonder if she forgave me for what I did with Katie because somehow she felt that she was no better than her in a way.

  “Yes…No…I don’t know. The truth is, I can’t see anything wrong with it. Yes, I’m somewhat ashamed to tell people that I spent time learning the ins-and-outs of the business. God, I even went to strip clubs with my friend just so she could test out new moves. Nothing left the studio, because if my family ever found out, I’d have to move clear across the country.” Cole’s head dropped into her hands as she groaned.

  “You learned how to do those spin moves?” A muffled “yes” sounded from behind her hands. I smirked at how embarrassed she was to talk about it. “And you learned how to properly execute the perfect lap dance?” Her face was still hidden, but her head nodded yes silently. “Well, I’m going to need some kind of proof of this, because I can’t see you going all Cock Teaser Cole on people.” Her head shot up, and her fiery eyes nearly jumped out of her head. Before she could argue, I quickly leaped to my feet and began pacing her living room with my arms folded across my chest. “You have one of two options.”

  “Drew…”

  “Shoosh! I believe I have the floor.”

  “It’s my house.”

  “I fought for you to have this roof over your head and that bed of freedom you sleep in each night. Back to what I was saying… Oh, yes, option one: we can drive to town, and you can show me your stripper moves on the flag pole outside of the tavern…”

  “No! Hell…no! I run a business across the street. Option one is not happening!”

  “Well, then you have to take option two.” I walked around and pulled an armless chair from her writing desk in the corner. I slowly dragged it to the middle of the room across from where she was sitting. The minute my ass parked itself in the chair and reclined my back into it with my le
gs jutted out in front of me, she knew exactly what option two was. I waved my hand across the living room nonchalantly. “I’m waiting.”

  “Drew, you can’t be serious?”

  “Oh…well, well, look who’s all shy now.” I egged her on as I laced my fingers behind my head. My eyes narrowed on her as she focused solely on me.

  Once Cole stood, I expected her to deny the whole thing, but as she left the room, I heard her frustrated sighs before she yelled back from the room down the hall. “I swear to God if you tell anyone about this I will poison the next batch of muffins you get.”

  “Sweetheart, that’s not a bright idea, really. You don’t want people to know I died after eating a muffin from Trouvaille!” I shouted back to her from my soon-to-be official lap dance chair. I contemplated bronzing the chair after the dance. I heard her grumbling, and I snickered at her frustration. Actually, I couldn’t care less about her proving she ever learned any of it. She made such a big deal about the secret that I couldn’t help but have a little fun with her. She was just too damn loveable not to play around with. Plus, there was the fact that I had to wear a pink ruffled apron today. That had yet to be forgotten.

  A door shut down the hall and the click-clack of what could only be high heels hitting the wooden floor resonated behind me. “So help me, if you make one single comment about this,” Cole announced as the clicks and clacks moved closer. My ears perked, as the sound got louder until she stood in the doorway. I choked on the lump that was stuck in my throat. I took a huge gulp and quickly caught my breath while I rapidly blinked, thinking I was dreaming. My eyes scanned the vision in front of me, and I was lost for words.

  Knee-high black leather boots with at least a five-inch heel took painfully slow steps across the living room to the phone dock station on the mantel. My eyes followed her sultry hips that were only covered by black leather boy shorts. My entire body scorched like lava as my arms fell heavily from behind my head and my mouth hung open. I looked like a panting dog waiting for a friggin’ treat. Her tight magenta lace halter-top was see-through in all the right places and was only covering her breasts.

  Cole thumbed through her phone until the sound of seductive drums and orgasmic oohs and aahs bounced across the room. Her hand pulled the band from her hair, and I watched it cascade down her exposed back. She slowly shook it out and ran her fingers through it, teasing me as she lifted it off the back of her neck. Cole gave one glance over her shoulder and licked her lips. I was down for the count before the show began. The referee slammed his palm against the matted floor and called the match as I watched my opponent hop with raised fists in the air. I didn’t care about the loss at this point. Everything that was set to happen sent an instant message to my cock, and he was replying, “Oh, hell yes” before she had taken off any clothing.

  Cole sauntered over. Her hands started moving down over the swell of her breasts. She stilled for a second, only to push one hand lower, swaying her hips until her hand was flat over her core. She snapped her hand back, slapping her ass once before pushing my knees apart and closed as she twisted and gyrated against every part of my body. My eyes didn’t know where to look. Her barely-covered tits hovered close to my face as she slid her whole body down to the floor in front of me. She pushed to her feet, turned, and graced me with an eye-level view of her ass as she moved her hips like the fucking Amazon River. Then the famous stripper shake happened, and I almost exploded in my boxers. She snapped her back up quickly, and the moment her heated core ground against my crotch, it was all I could do to not have my way with her on her coffee table. Hell, it was all I could do to keep my dick from getting any harder, but dammit, those long legs and heels. Oh God, the stiletto heels. Sweat beaded on my forehead, but my fingers were too busy gripping the edge of the seat. I would have wiped it off, but I was afraid of my hands doing very bad things to Cole as she bent over again, giving me possibly one of the best views I’d seen of a woman’s ass in quite a long time.

  This was a million times better than the strip club. I needed to grab a frequent flyer card, because I planned to reserve more of these on a regular basis.

  She turned and trailed her fingertips over my knees, up and under the hem of my khaki shorts. The pounding in my ears matched that of the beating in my chest. Her eyelashes batted quickly. While her blue eyes played tricks with me, a hint of a shy but devilish grin splayed across her face before she dragged her fingers further from my barely confined cock. With a wink and a bite of her lower lip, she stood up as the music faded, and then she strolled away. As her hips swayed with each click and clack of her heels, my eyes slowly blinked with a heaviness weighing them down.

  What the fuck just happened?

  Shit. I heard Cole chuckle, and I knew I said those words out loud. Her shoulders moved with her soft laughter as she grabbed her phone off the docking speakers.

  “That good, huh?” she teased as she peered over her shoulder. I pulled at the zipper of my crotch and pushed at the fabric to allow some additional space for my hardened length. “So, now that you know I was telling the truth.” Cole shut off the speakers and twisted back in my direction to face me with her arms folded over her chest tightly. My eyes fluttered up to her halter-top, and just as I was about to point something out to her, she silenced me. My lips formed a thin line as I kept my mouth shut. I leaned back in my seat and waved for her to continue as I pulled my foot up over my knee. My fingers laced behind my head again, my expression nonchalant as I pretended to listen to what she had to say. As hard as it was to avoid staring, I managed to maintain eye contact.

  “Like I was saying, now that you know I was telling the truth, and I’ve proven to you that I’m on the same level as any stripper at those clubs you go to, I’ll trust you to never mention a word of this to anyone…any-one.” She slowly stressed the word. “Got it?”

  I cocked my head to the side and shrugged my shoulders. As I lowered my hands to my lap, I pulled on my ankle that rested nervously on my knee. I continued to openly gawk at her chest, but the more she talked about keeping this ‘contained’ and ‘under wraps,’ the less I was able to not stare south of her eyes. Once she crossed her arms over her chest, she somehow managed to pop out her right boob from her halter-top. Ultimately, this allowed her bright pink nipple to ever so slightly stare me in the face, kind of like the one-eyed snake liked to do on occasion. How ironic.

  I held up my hands in surrender. The laughter I had kept ‘under wraps’ let loose, and Cole stared back at me. “Cole, I tried to tell you a while ago, but the fact that you haven’t noticed it yet is enthralling to me at this point. Most girls can sense when one or both of the twins decide to hang out there.” She was still clueless after my subtle…okay…not-so-subtle attempt to tell her that her boob was hanging out. My eyes zeroed in on her chest before she dropped her gaze.

  Within seconds, Cole expelled a shriek and took off shuffling her heels down the hall and into her bedroom. The door slammed shut, and the only sounds around me were the low hums of the appliances and the whooshing of the ceiling fan.

  My fingers scratched the scruff under my chin as I placed the chair back at her wooden writing desk. My own wood was no longer a situation in my pants. Seconds ticked by and still no sign of Cole from behind the closed door. I angled my head around the corner and saw the soft light filtering from under the door.

  With three long strides, I stood outside her door and softly tapped with the back of my hand. “Cole? You coming out?” I leaned my ear against the door and barely heard a sound. I thought perhaps she was changing, but then I wondered if I had the right room in the house.

  I leaned back to see if there were any other doors on the first floor, and I only noticed one, but I saw Cole grab some stuff from behind that door this morning. I knew it was a closet before I even looked. No other doors, so she had to be in there.

  A sinking feeling anchored in my chest, and I felt bad now for laughing at her in her exposed state. After replaying what happened in th
e living room in my head, I could have handled that better than I did, especially after she basically gave me a full-blown lap dance to trump all previous lap dances.

  I knocked again and waited for something, anything. My hand hovered over the doorknob, wanting to go inside, but I thought better of it. I retracted my hand and leaned in closer to listen for any sound that would let me know she was okay. What sounded like muffled sniffling was heard only when my ear touched the door. God, I wished I could go back and change how I handled things.

  “Cole.” I paused and hoped to hell she opened the door. No luck. “Cole, please don’t cry.” I pulled my ear back and stood there nervously twisting my bracelet. I honestly didn’t know what I was supposed to say at this moment to make things better, because I had never actually been in this situation before.

  Women had never been ones to run away from me. Okay, that sounded bad in my head. I never had to chase after women until recently, and well, when I didn’t fight hard enough, I lost it all. Not this time. No. This was it. I stopped walking away right then. I was not making the same mistake twice in my life. “Cole, open the door.” My voice was more demanding.

  “Go away, Drew.”

  I let out a long sigh of relief. My hands rested on the edge of the doorjambs. “Cole, I’m not leaving, so you may as well open this door and show me you’re okay.”

  “Think you’ve seen enough of me already today!” she shouted from the other side of the heavy white door. My sweaty hand gripped the brushed nickel door handle, twisting it this time, only to find it unlocked. The door swung open easily.

  My eyes looked around the dimly lit bedroom, and I was in awe. It was as though I had walked into an entirely different house. Everything about it screamed Cole. It smelled of sugary sweet vanilla, like the smell of a freshly baked waffle cone at the ice cream stand in the summer. The scent alone made me smile as it transported me to my childhood when Sam and I rode our bikes to the stand in town.