The Rules In Paradise (Playing By The Rules)

by Woods, Lindsey

  I pulled my dress over my head and followed him. I met him out in the water which had reached his waist. He smiled and held his hand out for me as I climbed in and walked over to him. He took me by the hand under the waterfall. I closed my eyes until the water stopped. They opened again and we were behind the waterfall. He pulled himself up onto a rock and sat. He motioned for the smaller one next to him and I pulled myself up there and sat. The water was comfortable and the roaring of the falling water was relaxing.

  “This is beautiful,” I said, looking around.

  “I thought so too. I was so excited to bring you here.” He smiled at me, and I felt kind of melty. I admired the almost cave.

  “I am humbled by your generosity of time Olivia. Every second you allow me to spend in your presence makes me happy, but reminds me that I don’t deserve any of it. I’ll never tell you I’m sorry enough, but this is an honor.” He looked down at his hands. It was moments like this where I saw him truly down to earth that made me want to cry. I have always had him on a pedestal, yet here he was, pining after my forgiveness. He had done wrong, but I was also lucky.

  “Why did you go back to her?” I asked. He looked up and shrugged.

  “I needed to buy some time. I figured if I was with her, I could find a way out. It didn’t happen so I left for good.”

  “You didn’t have to sleep with her,” I said. This was really an issue for me.

  “Yes, ultimately you are correct.”

  “Ultimately, implying there is another side to that.”

  “She was upset, she was distraught because I had said I was leaving her. It was a way for me to convince her that I was back.”

  “You used sex to lie to her,” I said very bluntly.

  He thought for a second and then looked at his hands.

  “I didn’t see it that way then, but yes, you’re right.” We both sat in silence, deep in our own thoughts.

  “Number three,” I said, breaking the silence. He looked up and nodded.

  “What would you do if you were me?” He took a breath and exhaled forcefully.

  “Honestly? I’d have never seen you again. I committed the absolute crime of destruction. I destroyed what you and I had. I destroyed your feelings for me, I ruined your view of me. If you had done all of that I don’t think I’d be able to ever see you again. I’d be so angry and hurt. I was angry and hurt the night at the beach, and truthfully we are nothing to each other. You owe me nothing, but I felt such a strong stirring that night. I told you I lost my mind. I hated every second. Olivia, I don’t know how to explain this well which kind of speaks for itself. You make me lost for words. I rely on words to survive daily, I consider myself a master of words. You render me speechless. There has never in my life been someone who has created such a need for new vocabulary. I don’t have the words to express how you make me feel. One moment I am completely captivated by your beauty. The next moment I am spellbound by your humor and how you make me fight for an inch. I’m shocked about how you can make me so terribly weak. I literally feel like I should fall down at your feet. You truly bring me to my knees. You strip me of all of my power, but in the best way. I don’t feel like I need to be anything with you. There’s a difference there. I felt like I had to prove that I was perpetually the man with Vanessa. You are so strong willed I don’t need to exert that energy with you.”

  “Thank you, I think.” He smiled at me.

  “You have all the power, I am but your humble servant.” He bowed dramatically.

  “Somehow I doubt that,” I laughed at him.

  We sat and talked for awhile more about nothing specific before we decided to head back. I had taken a towel from his backpack before I slide my dress back on. Cole slid on his shirt while checking his phone. I watched his face change to a concerned look.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked kind of nervously.

  “I have over ten texts from Jason. I don’t know if you’ll care for the news.” He looked at me.

  “Ok?”

  “Apparently our topic of today has arrived in town for some reason,” he said, watching my reaction.

  “She’s here?” I asked loudly. He simply nodded his head.

  Chapter 27

  “Why is she here?” I asked we drove back.

  “I’m not sure,” Cole replied.

  “How did she know you were here?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Why aren’t you freaking out about this?”

  “Because you seem to be doing that enough for the both of us,” he said with a small smile.

  “Well the women who we’ve been talking about all day, and who was quite the topic of conversation almost this time last year is a big deal to me,” I said getting annoyed. How could he not care about this?

  His hand moved from the gear shifter to my hand. “I need you to not worry about this. I don’t care about her, and that’s a fact. I don’t know why she’s here, or how she knew I was here. The only thing I know is that she is already annoying me by upsetting you. That is the only emotion I feel for her at this moment. So please Olivia, relax.” He put his hand back on the shifter knob as we pulled into parking lot. Cole’s phone chirped as he pulled into a parking space.

  “Yes….well that’s excellent, let’s list every detail of my life for all to see…I know… not yet….yes, right here….concerned,” Cole looked at me as he spoke on the phone. I assumed he was talking about me. “I haven’t the slightest as to why…I’ll handle it as well as possible, but you know her…I’d make sure everything is drawn up anyway, we don’t know if he was behind this…I will after I’ve spoken to her…yes…bye,” Cole hung up and slid his phone in his pocket and hopped out of the car. I followed suit and met him at the back.

  I eyed him carefully, watching him take his stuff from the back.

  “Jason,” he said without looking up, “apparently my secretary had sent a reschedule email to some people that I would be away in Mexico, and we needed to reschedule. Well, good news travels fast, I guess. I would like to use some questions from my unlimited bank of them, let’s go to my room. If you are comfortable with that?” He said the last part as a question. I nodded and followed him to the lobby and the elevator.

  “I would like to change, get out of my wet bathing suit if possible.” He touched the number for my floor and we rode in silence. The door opened, and he waited for me to exit first.

  “Is it safe for me to come in,” he asked with a smile as he pushed his sunglasses up onto his head. I smiled back at him, walking down the hall.

  “If Charlotte’s not here, yes. Otherwise you might want to run for the hills. She’s pretty pissed at you,” I said, putting my key to the lock.

  “Where the hell have you been hiding? I’ve been looking for you all day.” A voice came from further down the hall. We both turned in the direction it came from. I heard Cole mutter a string of curse words under his breath.

  “Such a pleasant greeting from such a pleasant individual. Vanessa, you look downright outraged as per usual,” he said in his normal cool voice.

  I felt my eyes widen and I quickly tried to pull my expression back to neutral. Black hair fell neatly down to her mid-back. She was wearing impossibly tight leggings under an over-sized strappy tank top which allowed anyone interested to see her black lace bra underneath. I supposed if my body was as perfect as hers I would show it off too, but maybe with more class. She was wearing high wedges, and she was walking towards us at an alarming pace. As she got closer I noticed that she was unfortunately extremely pretty.

  “I’m serious, I’ve knocked on your door at least four times today.”

  “I am not entirely sure why. I have even less to say to you in there than I do right here.”

  She gave him a dirty look before she turned to me. Her gaze made me feel extremely self concious. I suddenly pictured my wet, now windblown dry hair and my ill-fitting damp dress. I saw her eye me up and down.

  “Wait, this is her?” She asked, he
r eyes finally leaving me. They turned to him full of a look of realization.

  “Vanessa, this is Olivia. Olivia, I believe you can guess who this is,” Cole said, his eyes never leaving Vanessa as he stared at her coolly.

  Out of habit I put my right hand out in front of me. Her eyes left Cole, traveled down to my hand and then back to Cole.

  “Cole, baby. You really can’t be serious.” His eyes narrowed at her in a way I had never seen from him before.

  “My suggestion for you Vanessa, is to call and get yourself on the next flight home. You wasted your, I mean my money, coming here.”

  “I don’t think so. I’ll leave when you’ve decided to come with me,” she batted her dangerously long lashes, and a smile came over her face for the first time.

  “Well then you probably should invest in a parka because you’ll need it when hell freezes over,” Cole said. his tone was dripping with sarcasm.

  “Interesting. Normally you are not so inclined to dole out tongue lashings, outside of the bedroom anyway,” she said with a devilish smirk.

  “Olivia, if you don’t mind, can you step inside for just a moment? I want to set Miss. Fredericks straight on a couple of things before we continue our day together. Thank-you sweetheart,” Cole said in a sweet voice. I nodded and unlocked the door, stepping inside. I closed the door and stood there silently, listening.

  “Just be aware Vanessa that I have no qualms about tearing you down at every opportunity I get. In fact, it excites me to belittle you in front of people. However, let’s be very clear. That woman in there? Is off limits. You do not get to speak to her. You do not get to look at her. You may not even cross her path. You and I are over. I am in love with her and you will not ruin that again. I have paid prices that are much too high for what I got from you. You will not take anything away from me again. I’d appreciate it if you left, and if you did so now. The less I have to see of you, the better.” There was silence for a few seconds. I was getting ready to run from the door, thinking he was going to open it.

  “Listen here Cole Cooper. You don’t intimidate me. In fact every time you try to cloud up my mind with your testosterone spikes it turns me on. You’re looking exceptionally hot today as well. I don’t have any interest in going home unless you’re coming with me. In fact, I won’t be going home unless it’s with you. Your homely little girlfriend is not someone I’m scared of. I’ve gotten you back once, there is no doubt in my mind that it’ll happen again. She can’t keep you happy otherwise you never would have come home.”

  “Except I came home to shut you up so your father would stop raping me and Jason. Because you’re a spoiled little bitch, you went and told daddy that someone hurt your feelings. Leaving you was the best thing I’ve ever done. I apologize only for making you think that I remotely wanted you before. Now I’ll stand here while you go back to your room. I want to make sure you’re gone.”

  “You always did like to watch me walk away,” I heard her voice coming from further away.

  “That’s just because it meant I was rid of you for awhile. Don’t flatter yourself too much,” he seemed to call after her. I quickly sprinted toward the kitchen as Cole turned the handle and opened the door.

  He walked in hesitantly and gave me a curious look. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “Because there is yet another bump in the already unpaved road.”

  “I know you didn’t ask for this. I’m ok,” I said as I shrugged.

  “I can see you’re upset. Remember, you don’t need to say anything for me to know things about you.” I took a deep breath to calm myself. I was shaken up, I was jealous, I was self conscious. All of my emotions were about to burst forward.

  “She’s beautiful,” I said. I sat in a stool by the island in the kitchen.

  “She’s hideous on the inside.”

  “I want to climb the walls thinking about you two together,” I said. This time my eyes were pricking.

  “I’m sorry. There’s no excuse for my behavior. In my mind I was doing the right then when I went back to her. I felt like I just needed some time to get a plan together.”

  “She wants you.” He nodded at my statement.

  “What if you want her too?”

  “That’s not a viable ‘what if’ Olivia. There is not one thing about that woman that I am interested in. I hate that she’s here because it is taking away from the focus, which is you. I am here for you. I’m here because I am distractedly in love with you, and I want to do everything in my power to win you back. Don’t let her steal you away from me. She is nothing.”

  “That’s what you say now. What if she never leaves? What if she is always there around us?”

  “Then she’ll spend the rest of her life watching me do everything in my power to make you the happiest woman alive.”

  I took a few deep breaths. I hated this with everything in me. Seeing her in the flesh made me nervous. She was beautiful and she was clearly not used to not getting her way.

  “Go change please so we can move on. We’ll order lunch in,” Cole said, sending me down the hallway. I did as he said and fifteen minutes later we were back in the elevator going up.

  I felt paranoid, like I had to watching everything going on around us, assuming she was going to pop out any minute. As if I didn’t have enough on my mind, a stalker ex-girlfriend added to the stress.

  He unlocked the door and held it open for me. The room was the same room he had last time. Extravagant as ever. I set my bag down on the huge sectional sofa and sat down. Cole through his keys and phone down, grabbing a menu from the kitchen table.

  “I’m starved, what would you like for dinner?” He asked, coming to sit next to me, handing me the menu.

  “You pick.” He gave me a slight frown.

  “As you wish,” he said and took the menu. He ordered and came to sit with me. He sat near me on the couch, keeping some distance between us, and he turned his body so he was facing me.

  “I hate to see you so distraught. It literally pains me not to be able to solve every trouble you have,” he said softly.

  “I’m fine.” He gave me a sad look.

  “You’re pulling away,” he said, his face was lined.

  “It’s just real now. The issue has literally been personified, and I come out on the losing end.”

  “How do you figure that?” He asked.

  “You heard her. Compared to her I am homely. I would have left and slept with her too if I were you,” I said. I knew I was wallowing a bit in self-pity, but I deserved it dammit!

  “I heard her speak out of fear. Olivia, she knows how I feel about you. She is scared of how I feel about you because she knows I never felt like that about her. You are way more beautiful as well. That has never even crossed my mind. I have told you over and over how you render me useless sometimes. I love every inch of you, inside and out. Please do not let her take another moment from you and I. I haven’t.” He touched my face with the back of his hand and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. I felt my skin prickle as a chill shot down my spine.

  I studied his face for awhile. He was ridiculously handsome, this was something I would never get over. His light eyes were beautiful, his hair was the perfect mess. It was so hard to believe he was here.

  “Now stop being stubborn. There are things I want to talk to you about.” I nodded and he gave me a small smile.

  “I want to know what you see in your future. What are the things you want? I do not mean this to include me. I may not be apart of your future. I just want to know your expectations.” I thought for a moment after he asked.

  “I want to find a job I really like. I enjoy my job now, but I’m ready for more. I want to be married to someone who loves me. I want children, but not too soon. I just want to be happy honestly. All I want in the world is to be happy in what my life is.”

  “Are you happy now?” He asked.

  “Yes and no. I am satisfied with my job, but like I said, I
want more. I love my friends, but both of them are moving onto the next step of growing up. I feel like I’m getting left behind.”

  “Would you be happier if you were getting married as well?” He asked. I stopped cold. That question sent a shock through my body. My heart started to beat fast.

  I didn’t reply and Cole smiled at me. There was a knock on the door and he got up, still smiling.

  “I’m pretty sure this is illegal,” I heard him say. I turned to see what he was talking about just in time to see the one person I didn’t want to see right now, pushing a big cart into the room.

  Chapter 28

  “How is it illegal? I am your servant for the day,” she said with an exaggerated bow.

  “I’m going to assume you stole this,” Cole said cooly.

  “You’d be wrong. I just happened to see a worker bringing it up here and decided to help him out. I told him that the gorgeous man behind the door would be thrilled to see me,” she said, sticking her finger in the whipped cream that was delicately draped on some strawberries. She sucked it seductively off of her finger, he eyes never leaving Cole’s.

  “You’re a regular Mother Theresa. Now, please leave,” he said to her.

  “And miss the party? Never!” She smiled as she looked around and sat on a stool at the breakfast bar, crossing her impossibly long legs.

  “I don’t have a problem contacting the police Vanessa.” She pouted as he spoke. She hopped off the stool and walked over to him. She draped her arms over his shoulders and pressed her body against his.

  “Cole…baby. Stop being so cold. Just come home where you belong. That’s all I want in the whole world. I know you miss me just as much as I miss you. Everything is so empty and cold without you. I promise I’ll take really good care of you,” she said. The last part flowed off her tongue and I felt awkward sitting there, like I was interrupting an intimate moment.

  “You’ve left me no choice,” he shrugged her arms off and walked toward the other room to use the phone. Her eyes followed him out and then turned to me. She walked with purpose to where I was seated on the couch.