“Did you love her?” Rachael asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
He grinned slyly. “I believe that’s another question.”
Diving back into the game, Rachael put a blue-striped ball in her sights and shot it into the side-pocket. She sent another two balls whizzing into the corners, tying up the game.
Cole took off his sweatshirt and draped it over a table in the corner. The black shirt underneath was tight, stretching over his biceps. Her hand wobbled slightly as the stick slid over it, and she missed her next shot.
“Have you ever been in love?” he countered.
“Wow, now we’re really getting personal.”
He laughed. “You’re the one who breached the topic of the ‘L word’.”
True.
“Yes,” she answered. “Too many times to count, though since those guys are long gone from here, I’d say I was mistaken. It wasn’t really love at all.”
He ordered another two rounds of Jameson and brought them over.
“To the damned ‘L word’,” he said, holding out his glass.
“To love.”
Glass clinked against glass. The drink warmed Rachael’s insides on its way down, buzzing as it settled in her stomach. As their gazes collided over the rims, Rachael studied the warm flecks in Cole’s honey-brown eyes. There was more to him than a crude mouth and a set of drool-worthy abs. She was sure of that now. There was something deeper flowing beneath the surface of his rock star persona. He had determination to succeed mixed with a solid work ethic; she truly admired that. Plus, she got the feeling he regretted how things ended with Tori West.
An Adonis body with a steel resolve and a sweet heart?
She might’ve hit the jackpot…or maybe the Jameson made Cole Turner seem dreamier than he really was.
Cole took a shot at one of the last striped balls on the table, and missed. His angle was off.
“So? Did you love her?” Rachael’s stomach flipped. Did she really want to hear?
“Probably not.” Even from the opposite end of the table, Cole’s whiskey-brown eyes smoldered. “But she ruined any chance of figuring out if we could get there when she tried to make me profess my feelings in front of everyone. The last thing I need is my private life to collide with my professional one.”
Rachel walked around the table and bumped into his shoulder, sending chills ratcheting down her arms. “We’re not so different after all.”
“How’d you figure?”
“I’ve dated a few guests who’ve stayed at the inn, and I think I’ve loved a few of them.” She bent over the table to take her shot. Her vision blurred and suddenly there were two balls with red stripes. “It’s all fun and games while they’re sleeping two doors down, but then they leave and go on their way. I’m left with the memory of a great week. That’s it.”
His gaze bore into her back. “I see.”
“That’s why I can’t date someone who stays there.” She fired the stick through her fingers. And missed. “It’s how I protect myself. Probably the same reason you date woman after woman without getting serious with any one.”
Before she could take her next shot—or was it his turn?—Cole was standing beside her. The crisp aroma of his aftershave and the smell of rich leather tickled her nose. His body radiated heat and hers responded, the blood in her veins heating to molten lava.
Slowly, he took the pool stick out of her hand and rested it behind her. He planted his arms on the edge of the table, pinning her within the strong cage of his body. Her eyelids fluttered closed and her lips pouted, but not because she was trying to be cute. It was the alcohol, the way it made her warm in her belly and weak in the knees.
Okay, okay…it was him.
“I didn’t realize this was a problem,” he said, his voice a lover’s caress against her ears. “But I’ve had my eye on you since I came into town and you caught me in my towel.”
She shuddered from the memory.
“Consider this my notice.” He leaned in, his breath fanning warm against her cheek. “I’m checking out early. Like now.”
He dropped his head and planted a gentle kiss on her lips. Gone were the thoughts of Cole Turner skipping out of town. Gone were the worries of being left behind, broken-hearted. She wasn’t marrying the guy, she was kissing him.
There was nothing serious about a little, innocent peck.
And then, when she thought he’d pull back, he slid one hand around her waist and yanked her against him. She sucked in a surprised breath. He took advantage of the opening, sliding his tongue past her lips.
God, he tasted good. Like spice and whiskey mixed into a warm, yummy blend that made her stomach whirl.
Her lips were deliciously numb, so she mashed them against his and drove her fingers through his hair. He groaned at the contact, and suckled her bottom lip into his mouth. A fierce blaze of desire lashed through her and blew that innocent kiss to smithereens.
It was the night, the whiskey, the taste of Cole’s mouth and the skill of his tongue as it tangled with hers. Whatever the reason, she hopped back onto the table and drew him closer with her thighs. Pool balls scattered behind her; out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the eight ball dropping into the corner pocket.
Game over.
“Whoa, hold up,” Cole said, ripping his mouth from hers. His gaze trailed over her shoulder. “As much as I like what you’re doin’ right here, there are people watching. I can’t afford pictures showing up online.”
She craned her neck around. The bartender, Nathan Ogletree, was averting his eyes, pretending to dry the bar with a wet towel—she wasn’t buying it—and Dom, the town’s snow-plower and painter, was holding up his phone.
“Did you take a picture, Dom?” Rachael spat, spinning around.
He shrugged big, flannel-covered shoulders. “What if I did?”
“Shit,” Cole said. “This is what I was worried about.”
Rachael narrowed her eyes, holding Dom square in her sights. “If anything shows up online, I swear to God that I’ll tell your mother about the graffiti we did to her barn.”
Dom shoved his phone into his breast pocket and shuffled outside.
“You graffitied a little old lady’s barn?” Cole asked.
She laughed into a snort. “You’re not the only one who had a delinquent streak in school.”
“Rachael McCoy, you are one sweet surprise after another.” His hand moved to her thigh. “What do you say we go back to your inn and finish what we started here?”
“I’m not falling for you, Cole Turner,” she said rather decidedly. “I won’t let myself.”
“That’s good,” he said, brushing a few strands of hair behind her ear. “Because I’m not talking about falling for anyone. I’m talking about hot and heavy, make-you-forget-your-own-name sex. What’d you say?”
Is this really what she—
“Hell, yes!” She hopped off the pool table, and dragged him out of the saloon.
Chapter Eight
They burst through the front door of the inn, laughing as their mouths collided. Cole pinned her against the door as it swung wide and slammed into the wall.
“Wait,” she said, gasping for air. “Waitwaitwait.”
He licked her bottom lip. “For what?”
He smelled like rich spice and tasted like whiskey—she wanted to lap him up and eat him in one swift helping.
“I can’t…” She clawed at the wide breadth of his shoulders, her fingers suddenly numb as they skidded down his bicep. “…breathe.”
She should’ve stopped at the first drink…or the fifth.
He palmed her stomach and took a step back so she could get some air. He looked disheveled, his short dark hair sticking up on end from her hands grabbing fistfuls of it. His caramel-brown eyes were intense, glaring through the dim lights of the hall.
It struck her how crazy this was.
She was making out with Cole Turner, the same guy that she’d seen on the
American Music Awards last year. The same Cole Turner who had a cardboard cutout twin standing up in Lucy’s house.
If she brought the cutout over to the inn, Cardboard Cole could watch her have hot kinky sex with Real Deal Cole.
A laugh bubbled out of her at the drunken thought. She slid along the wall and slammed the door shut, and then threw her arms around Cole’s neck, leaning all her weight into him. She smashed her mouth to his. He moaned against her lips and let her guide him back against the opposite wall of the entry. His hands were possessive and greedy, gripping her with more force than she expected. She felt alive, wanted, and damn, it felt good.
He smudged fevered kisses down her neck. “Can you breathe now?”
“Don’t care.”
He nipped at her earlobe, sending starbursts of hot sensations down her neck. And then, in a flash of movement, he clenched her sweater in his fists and raised it to her breasts.
“May I?” he asked, licking a scorching line just beneath her jaw.
She nodded, her head knocking against the wall.
Lifting the sweater from her body, he left her in a red lacy bra—one she’d bought specifically for her date tonight.
He groaned as his gaze drank her in. “Red?”
“Let me guess. Is red your favorite color?”
The corner of his lips curved upward in the sexiest way. “It is now.”
Palming her breasts in his hand, he dropped to his knees. He ravished her, gripping her waist, burying his head between her breasts, nipping at the lace and tugging it with his teeth. The whiskey flowed through her veins, making her weak, but it came in pathetic second to the hollow ache flooding her middle. She could barely stand, hardly keep her eyes open.
As he stood to claim her mouth once more, Rachael closed her eyes and lost her balance. She reached out and grabbed him between the legs, using his shaft to steady herself.
“Glad I could be of service.” He chuckled, pushing his hips forward. “Feel free to hold on whenever you feel yourself falling off the earth.”
She leaned her head back and grinned, stroking him outside of his jeans. He was impressively large, like a hot rod of steel, but she already knew that; the image of him standing in the hall, dripping wet, had burned into her memory.
“We should get these off,” she slurred, the ache between her legs increasing each passing second. She couldn’t wait for his body to hover over hers, for his hips to pin her down as his thick length stretched her tight. “If you like the bra, you should see the panties.”
He kissed her open-mouthed, plunging his tongue deep. “That’s the magic word right there.”
“Panties?”
Groaning, he shrugged out of his sweater, tossed it to the floor, and then popped the button on his jeans. He was even more gorgeous without his clothes: golden-tan skin shaped over rippled muscle. His abs flexed and twitched as he brought the zipper down. Rachael’s mouth watered as her fingers grazed down his chest, his abs, his—
The doorbell went off, ring-a-ding-linging into the hall.
“We’re closed!” she hollered, falling against him. The instant skin hit skin, she went damp with need. She’d never wanted anyone more.
“Rachael?” Another knock. “It’s Joey.”
Shit damn freaking shit.
She’d just said she wasn’t home. Lot of sense that made. She couldn’t blow Joey off now. She didn’t want to answer the door, but she didn’t want to be completely rude, either.
“Give me another ten seconds and you’ll forget all about him.” Cole swiped his fingers between her legs, over her jeans. Her girlie parts tingled with desperation. She ached to feel his fingers on her sensitive flesh, to stroke her to climax. It’d be so easy. She was already so close.
“I have to get it. I can’t turn him away now.” Rachael moaned as he swirled his fingers along the seam of her jeans. “Give me two seconds!” she called out, though she wasn’t sure exactly who she was talking to.
“Rachael?” Joey said, trying the handle. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes!” She stopped the door with her heel and leaned over to snatch her sweater off the floor. “One second!” She shoved it over her head. “Don’t move,” she whispered to Cole. “Not one muscle.”
“I’ll try, but there’s one muscle that’s got a mind of its own.”
Giving a visible shudder, Rachael tugged the sweater down her stomach. She let the door creep open and stood in the entry, blocking Joey’s view.
* * *
Rachael didn’t give Cole the chance to get his shirt back on or get out of the way. He was stuck. To go upstairs, he had to cross the foyer. To sneak into the dining room and kitchen, he had to do the same.
“Hey Joey!” she said, leaning against the door to completely obstruct his view. “What are you doing here?”
“I brought you these.” He handed her a dozen yellow roses. “I felt bad about rescheduling our date earlier and thought I’d come by to apologize in person.”
“Oh!” She patted her hair, smoothing the strands he’d messed up by tunneling his fingers through it; pride streaked through him. “That was nice of you. Thanks.”
“Are you…” Joey paused. “…drunk?”
She giggled, burying her nose in the flowers. “I went to Shots for a drink after you canceled.”
“From the looks of it, I’d say you had more than one.”
Cole straightened against the wall.
What was this guy’s deal? He wasn’t her father or her boyfriend. What did he care where she went or how many drinks she had?
“Caught me red handed.” She put her hands up as if she was held at gunpoint. “One turned into four. How many have you had?”
“Me?” Joey laughed. “None. I came straight here after the fire.”
Rachael shifted her weight from one foot to another. “How was it?”
“The fire?”
She was damn cute when she was tipsy.
“Yeah,” she said. “I hope no one got hurt.”
“No one was injured, but the Robertson’s lost their home. They’re devastated. I was the last one to leave. I couldn’t bear to turn my back after they’d lost everything they owned. I offered to take them to a hotel, but they said they had family coming to help them.”
The guy was a real life, rush into burning houses kind of hero. And what did Cole do? He sang songs about those kind of heroes.
Quite the difference.
“Seeing a situation like that makes you appreciate the good you have in your own life, you know?” Joey went on. “It makes you realize what you want and what you’re missing, and I’m missing more than I thought I was.”
“I understand,” Rachael said. She seemed to sober quickly, steading herself as her movements slowed. “When you see a family who’s lost everything, the things that really matter become clear.”
Joey cleared his throat awkwardly. “Makes a man want a nice woman to come home to.”
Cole had to give it to the guy—he had skills.
“Aww, that’s very sweet of you,” she crooned. “Whatever woman you end up with will be lucky to have you.”
“Maybe I could—” Joey began.
“The Robertson’s have always been the nicest people,” she interrupted, sagging against the door to block his advance. “I’ll have to invite them to stay here until their place is rebuilt.”
“I actually suggested that, but they said they’d stay with Chase, their son. Do you remember Chase? We went to school with him.”
She nodded and her voice softened. “Yeah, I remember. I sat next to him at graduation. I wish there was more I could do.”
“It’s not like they could stay here anyway,” Joey said. “I hear you’ve booked up every room for the rock star.”
She started to turn toward Cole, but stopped short. “Yeah, he’s rented the entire place.”
“Bet you can’t wait to get rid of him, huh?” Joey said, half-laughing. “You hate rock music.”
/> Play up the hero act, run the singer through the mud. Way to fight dirty, Fireman.
Rachael shuffled her foot along the wood floor. “I haven’t heard him play, actually. He’s been keeping quiet.”
“Well, he’ll be gone soon enough.”
“Yeah.” Rachael kicked her heel against the door. “You’re right. He’s leaving Sunday for a show in Tahoe.”
“If I were you, I’d keep that guy at arm’s length. He’s from a whole different world than we are. He’s a different breed, probably counting his money as we speak.” Joey paused, taking Rachael’s hand. Cole couldn’t see what happened, but the muffled sound of lips smacking against skin gave it away. “I, on the other hand, am going to count the minutes until our date Sunday night.”
“Me too,” she said.
As she shut the door, Cole wasn’t sure whether Rachael was going to want to pick up where they left off, or call it a night.
“Where were we?” He stole behind her and took the flowers from her hand, dropping them to the floor. Nuzzling against her neck, he wrapped his arms around her waist and suckled her ear lobe into her mouth.
“Cole,” she said, and it was all the invitation he needed.
He spun her around and pressed her back against the wall, humming low in his throat as his mouth found hers once more. With one touch of her lips, the fire that’d been burning before rekindled. It was so easy to get lost in her, in the moment, and the chemistry between them.
“Cole,” she whispered again, the sweet sound of her voice music to his ears. “Can we take this slow?”
“Slow?” He slid his hand down to the button of her jeans. He tugged slowly, gently, until it popped free. “I can go real slow baby, if that’s the way you like it.”
She caught his hand. “Joey’s a good guy…”
“If you say so.” He kissed the smooth slope of her neck and swirled his tongue round and round against her skin. “But are you really going to kiss me and talk about him?”
She shook her head. “What he said was right. You’ll leave Sunday and never look back.”
“You knew that already,” Cole said, peeling his mouth from her neck.
Crazy in Love (Contemporary Romance) (Blue Lake Series) Page 5