by Bryce, Megan
Maggie took a step back, Cole’s fingers still tangled with hers.
He held on and said, “Still no?”
“It’s always no, Cole. Stop falling for it.”
If Ginny didn’t know her sister, she’d call her a cold-blooded tease, too.
Cole smiled at Maggie and Ginny thought he knew her sister, too. That he could hear past the words to the huskiness below it. Could see past her nose in the air to her shallow breaths.
He said, “Where’s the fun in that?”
Maggie dropped his hand, turning to the door. Ginny watched him stare at the door as it closed. Watched him stand there, put his hands in his pockets, and wait for Maggie to come back out.
He undid his bow-tie and he waited.
And when Maggie didn’t come back out, he turned to his truck and walked slowly away.
Ginny had never thought she would feel bad for a man like Cole Montgomery. He wasn’t really a man that engendered pity.
But she thought he’d met his match with Maggie. He looked like he knew it, too.
Ginny dropped the blind, walked around the corner to find Maggie leaning against the front door, her hands tightly closed and pushing against her chest.
When she saw Ginny, Maggie dropped her hands, pushed herself away from the door.
Ginny said, “You sent him away after that?”
Maggie leaned down to undo her shoes, kicking them off with a heartfelt groan.
She closed her eyes and said, “I did. And Emily Brontë was wrong. We don’t breed sad sorrows for ourselves. We make our own hell on earth. A hell filled with unending, impossible want.”
“Then go back out there and wave him down. It’s not too late.”
Maggie sighed. “If I could figure out a way to have him and my pride at the same time, I would. If I could figure out a way to have him without losing everything, I would. But it is too late. It was too late twelve years ago. It’s been too late since I was born Margaret Caldwell and he was born Cole Montgomery.”
Sad and hopeless. Ginny couldn’t stand when those she loved were sad and hopeless.
Maggie unhooked the choker around her neck. “I’m going for a swim.”
Ginny looked out towards the pool. “Now?”
“Yeah. Go to bed, Ginny. Go curl up with your husband and be glad you’re not a slave to your dignity.”
Ginny watched Maggie walk down the hall to her bedroom. She waited until she saw Maggie come back out in her faded, worn swimsuit. Watched as Maggie dove into the pool and begin steady strokes that took her to one end of the pool and back again.
Then Ginny picked up the phone.
Cole picked up after one ring and said, “Maggie. Have you called to tell me you’ve taken those offending undergarments off?”
“It’s Ginny.”
“Oh.” He cleared his throat.
“Maggie is sad.”
“I’ll be right over.”
Ginny smiled in the darkness, still watching her sister, wondering how someone so smart could be so stupid. “Don’t you want to know why she’s sad?”
“Oh. Yeah. Sure.”
“She’s sad because she can’t figure out how to get what she needs without giving up her pride.”
“What does she need? She only has to ask me.”
Ginny said, “Oh, Cole. She won’t ever ask. She’ll deny she needs you until the breath is ripped from her body.”
He answered her with silence and she said, “One of you is going to have to bend. I don’t think it’s going to be her.”
And she hung up.
She put the phone back in its cradle and Tanner said behind her, “What are you doing?”
She jumped, whirling around. She put her hand to her chest, tried to slow it back down.
She said, “Just trying to make my sister happy.”
He cocked his head and she blushed slightly.
“Okay, I was trying to get my sister laid.”
He looked out the window at Maggie swimming back and forth. “They’re not sleeping together already?”
When she shook her head, he said, “Why not?”
Ginny screwed her face up, trying to think of how to tell him, and he groaned. He shut his eyes tight and said with conviction, “They’re not really engaged.
“They’re engaged. There just won’t be a wedding.”
“Maggie’s using him to get her creditors to back off.”
Ginny hadn’t meant to keep it from him, it was just every time Cole’s name up, Tanner found a drink. Ginny had stopped saying his name
He folded his arms. “Why didn’t I know this?”
“Because every time Cole is here, you’re not.”
“So, it’s not real.”
“It’s real. Just not permanent.”
Ginny looked back out at Maggie cutting through the water and Tanner said, “But you’re trying to make it permanent?”
“I don’t know. But he makes her happy. Have you ever seen her like this before?”
He shook his head no but Ginny had. Twelve years ago, Maggie had been happy and wild and crazy.
Her sister was not normally any of those. She was focused, dedicated, driven.
And when Cole was around she was distracted. When her and Cole were together she was happy.
She didn’t know why Maggie couldn’t see it. Or maybe she could see it, she just didn’t think it was important. Maybe happy wasn’t really a goal for Maggie.
They heard the engine of a truck, saw lights flash against the window.
Tanner said, “For one bright shining moment I thought I was not going to be related to Cole Montgomery.”
“Yes. But think what a good mood he’ll be in tomorrow for your meeting.”
“If she says yes. He’s going to be pissed off if it’s no.”
Cole was going to be in a really, really bad mood if it was no again. Ginny decided not to tell Tanner that.
He said, “So I’m going out tomorrow to beg a man who isn’t going to be family.”
“Tomorrow you’ll be meeting with a man who might be really happy, really relaxed. A man who may or may not be family some day.”
Tanner looked up at the ceiling and muttered, “I might need another distraction.”
Ginny grinned, pulling his face down to kiss him long and hard. She started walking him backwards to their bedroom and said, “Oh, the sacrifices I make.”
He ran his hands down her back and cupped her butt. “Shouldn’t we see what happens?”
Ginny shook her head. “We’ll know in the morning.”
“God.”
“Just think, if he’s still here in the morning you won’t have to drive out to Midland.”
“Oh, I can see it. I’ll propose Harwood’s deal while we sip coffee in our pajamas, Rosa sharpening her knives in the kitchen. Sounds great.”
“I might help in the kitchen tomorrow morning.”
He laughed, closing his eyes. “I’m pretty lucky I never got on Rosa’s bad side, aren’t I?”
“It’s not luck. It’s you not breaking my heart.”
He stopped. “That’s what you want for your sister? A man who has already broken her heart?”
“That’s what she needs. Someone who can break her heart.”
Tanner looked down at her chest, put his hand on her heart. “I won’t break yours.”
She smiled. “No. But you could.”
At his look of fear, she said, “Just like I could break yours.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“No. But I could.”
“And that’s what you want for Maggie. With Cole Montgomery.”
Ginny’s stomach clenched and she looked up with him. “I didn’t pick him, she did.”
“And kept him under control.”
She turned around, ready to run out to the pool, stop what she’d started, but Tanner kept hold of her waist.
“Stop interfering, Ginny.”
“But–”
“She can st
ill say no.”
He rested his cheek on her hair and she whispered, “He wouldn’t do it again.”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
Ginny closed her eyes, trying to remember the look on his face tonight.
There’d been want but had there been love? The kind of love that sacrificed, that would protect the heart it had been trusted with? Maybe Cole didn’t know how to love like that.
Tanner said, “Maybe Maggie won’t let him break her heart again.”
Ginny knew it was too late for that. She’d seen Maggie, her fists pressed to her chest. She’d seen the look on Maggie’s face, the pain of an unprotected heart.
Maggie had said that all she had left was her pride.
And Ginny had told Cole that’s what was standing in his way.
All Ginny could hope was that he didn’t know how to let Maggie keep her pride.
Nine
Should he just knock, go in? Cole had rushed over here but now what. Maggie might be sad but that didn’t mean she’d give in. That she’d even want to see him.
He heard a splash from the pool and walked around the house. The lights were out, the only light coming from the full moon. Bright enough to see by, bright enough to know when she saw him.
Ginny had said she needed him.
And he knew Maggie did. She needed him, wanted him, just not enough. Not enough to want him in the daylight.
He shucked his pants, ripped his shirt off. She didn’t say a word, just watched him.
He dropped his briefs and walked into the pool, not breaking eye contact with her.
If she didn’t want him during the day, he’d take the night. He didn’t care. Not right now.
Cole glided towards her, stopping a foot away. He pulled one dripping, closed fist from the water and held it up between them.
He said quietly, “You know what I want if I win.”
She stared at his fist a long time, her chest rising and falling, the water lapping against her black swimsuit.
She lifted a hand out of the water, reaching for him, and whispered, “I always pick scissors.”
Cole let out his breath, taking that last step, crushing her to him.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and he said, “Try not to drown me.”
“Not until I’m done with you, at least.”
He put his palm on her chest, felt the coolness of her skin. He pulled down the straps of her suit, cupped her breasts. He licked the cool pool water from her skin, the chlorine all he could taste, and he hated it. He wanted to taste her.
He tugged the suit down as far as it would go and she lay back, floating on the water, her legs still wrapped around him, her suit still halfway on. He slid his fingers under the suit, stroking the smooth skin, sliding his thumb in to stroke her wetness.
He closed his eyes, slowly torturing his thumb, moving between her heat and the cool water. His cock throbbed, wanting its turn.
“Faster, Cole.”
He would go slow if it fucking killed him. He would make this so good for her that come the daylight she couldn’t say no again. Wouldn’t ever say no again.
He pulled her legs up his chest, bent to run his tongue where his thumb had been, closed his eyes at finally tasting her. She made a small sound as his tongue entered her; she was swollen and wet and hot, and he knew she’d been suffering like him.
Fucking pride.
He nipped her and she jerked against him, swallowing her scream.
She unhooked her legs, pushing him away and ripping her suit off. She threw it out of the pool and took a deep breath. She went underwater, took him into her mouth. Stroked and nibbled and sucked until he grabbed her hair and pulled her up.
She gasped for air, pressing against him, her breasts tight against his chest, his cock prodding her stomach. She dug her nails into his butt and said, “Fast.”
He groaned. “Slow.”
“Fast.” She wrapped her leg around one of his, toppling him.
They went underwater and she kissed him, fastening her legs around his waist.
Her hair floated in the water around them, the moonlight glinting off it and he decided he didn’t ever need to breathe again.
She was going to drown him and he didn’t give a shit.
They sunk to the bottom of the pool, her skin sliding against his, her legs wrapped tightly around him.
His lungs started to burn long before he was ready and he thought fuck. He wasn’t going to drown before he even got in her.
He shoved at the bottom of the pool with one foot, pushing them out of the water for a gasp of air before they went back under.
He shoved again and again, every time they surfaced gasping for air, the change from water to air, the shot of oxygen making him harder.
Maggie clung to him, gasping with him. Her breath coming just as hard and fast as his.
He shoved again, hitting the steps with his back on the way down and he grabbed for them, held on, pushed himself up them until he was sitting just out of the water.
She sank down on him, hot and tight against his cool cock. The water lapped against his balls, she sighed as if she’d been waiting to have him hard inside her, and dammit, he came.
She fisted her hands in his air, pulling his mouth to hers and he groaned, closing his eyes, thrusting into her. She whispered his name, and came with him.
When their hearts stopped pounding, when he could open his eyes, he said, “You’re in such a hurry.”
She was still sitting in his lap, boneless, and she whispered, “Goal oriented.”
“Is one of your goals to kill me? ‘Cause you just about did it.”
“Does that mean we’re not going to do it again?”
“Oh, we’re going to do it again. It’ll just have to be on land if you want me to survive it.”
She hummed at him, not opening her eyes, running her hand down his bicep.
He stood, lifting her, climbing the steps of the pool, and heading to the back door.
She opened her eyes. “We going to give my sister a show?”
He stopped, looked down at her naked in his arms. “Tanner, too?”
“They are married.”
He put her down, leaving her to wrap a towel around her as he tried to pull his pants onto wet legs.
He finally said, “Fuck it. They’ll just have to enjoy it.”
She said, “I guess Rosa has already seen it. She won’t be too surprised if she catches sight of you.”
“Shit. Walk in front of me.”
He walked right behind her until they got to her bedroom, meeting no one in the dark house. He closed the door behind him, wrapped his arms around her waist.
He said, “Thanks for not making me crawl in through the window.”
“You can go out that way. Relive old times.”
He sat on her bed, a king instead of a double, the furnishings sophisticated and modern instead of childish, and he realized they’d been children the last time he’d been in here. Children who thought they were done growing when they’d only just begun.
She stayed standing in front of him and he spread his hands across her belly, gripping her waist, looking up at her.
She pushed his hair off his face. “Did you ever tell anyone about us?”
He shook his head. “Who would have believed me?”
“Everyone.”
He rested his cheek on her skin, inhaled deeply. “No one. I didn’t believe it myself. Besides, who would I have told? You were my only friend.”
“Is that why this time you’re telling the world?”
He shook his head. “I’m not telling anyone. They’re assuming.”
When he looked up, she was fighting a smile. “I guess it’s a pretty good assumption.”
He ran his hand down her butt. “It is now. And I’m still not going to tell anyone.”
He’d keep this in the dark for her.
Besides, who would he tell?
He pulled her down onto his lap, laid b
ack on the bed with her on top of him.
She said, “Fast this time. Wild. Crazy.”
He raised his eyebrows. “That wasn’t fast?”
“I was fast. You were still thinking.”
“I wasn’t. I was trying to breathe.”
She said, “I can tell when you’re thinking, Cole. And you never stopped.”
“Are you saying that wasn’t good?”
“It was good. Fun. Just. . .”
She looked at him and he said, “Just I was thinking.”
“You were being careful.”
He clenched his jaw. “We were in a pool. I didn’t want either of us to drown. Something you did not seem to care about.”
“No, I didn’t. You wouldn’t have either if you weren’t thinking.”
“What do you have against thinking, Maggie?”
She sighed, rolling off him and onto her stomach. He followed her, trapping her against the bed. He said to her back, “Did I ever say I was sorry?”
“Only every other time.”
“One more time?”
She let out a long breath. “You really don’t have to.”
“I’m still saying it. I’m sorry. Sorry I hurt you.”
Sorry for all the times he’d hurt her.
“It’s only one of many, Cole. Of things we wish we could change.”
“That’s depressingly true.”
“And I’ll give you a hint. I don’t like you gentle. I don’t like you sorry.”
He softly rubbed his stubble up her back and she arched against him. He said, “I had gotten that impression.”
He ran his hands up her back, pushed her arms above her head. He straddled her, pushing his rapidly hardening cock between her closed legs. “So if I can’t be sorry, I guess I just have to give you what you want.”
He could see her breath coming faster, her back rising and falling quickly.
She started to rise and he pushed her back down, his hand on her neck. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Take what I want.”
She whispered back, “You can try,” and he smiled.
He sunk his teeth into her shoulder, pushed her legs apart, and took what he wanted.
Cole was gone when she awoke. But she could still feel him, still smell him.