Dirty Rich Cinderella Story: Ever After: Lori & Cole

by Lisa Renee Jones

  He leans in and whispers. “As long as I get to spank yours.”

  As many intimate, erotic things as I’ve done with this man, I still have these shy, wonderful moments with him that curl my toes and heat my cheeks. “I love when you blush,” he adds, with a low laugh, lacing his fingers with mine. “Come. Let’s go rule this part of our world together.”

  ***

  It’s not long before I’ve met the front office and administrative staff and a few attorneys Cole seems to be fond of before he ends up behind closed doors with the man who we have long known wants to organize a hostile takeover. I don’t actually meet the man. I’m distracted by conversation elsewhere when it happens.

  Being on my own is not uncomfortable. Everyone is friendly and while Cole believes I will hear horrible stories about his father, I hear praise for Cole. He’s nothing like his father is a common statement. Help is another. Most people are aware that there has been a decline in the office in Cole’s absence. A few people ask about Ashley and how she’s doing with us in New York, but no one really knows her. She was a loner, at least at the office.

  On the pretense of Ashley asking me to find a missing item for her, I search her desk and still find nothing. She cleaned it out well before she left, or someone cleaned it out like they did her apartment. Cole is in his meeting for so long that I hole up in his old office that is empty but for the furnishings now. It’s after five and I’ve settled onto the couch with my MacBook when Royce calls me. “Do you have news on Ashley?” I ask eagerly.

  “Where is Cole? He’s not answering his line.” Cole walks into the room, owning it the minute he arrives, power radiating off him that I’ve come to understand. He’s not quite come down from a battle, but he won the fight. “Royce,” I say to him and he shuts the door, walking my direction.

  “Put him on speaker,” he says, joining me on the couch.

  “I’m here,” Cole says. “I know you’ve been calling. I’ve been in a meeting. Where do we meet up with your man?”

  “I’ve been told to step back from this,” Royce announces.

  I frown and my eyes meet Cole’s as he asks, “By who?”

  “The CIA and the FBI,” Royce says. “We won’t stop pushing, but we need to be discreet and back off. You guys need to back off before you end up pulled into this in a way that won’t allow you an exit.”

  A chill runs down my spine. “Okay, but what does that mean for Ashley?”

  “She’s safe,” Royce assures us. “Maybe she won’t be if we bring attention to her.”

  “Did they say that?” Cole asks, his tone sharp.

  “Yes. They say they’re protecting her.”

  “What does that mean?” I ask.

  “Protection,” Royce says, “can mean many things. Come see me when you get back.”

  “Tomorrow,” Cole says. “We still need to go by her apartment. A neighbor might know something about that man she was with.”

  “Let my men handle that,” Royce says. “We will handle it and Cole, I wouldn’t want my woman anywhere near this.”

  Cole sucks in air. “I’ll call you when we land tomorrow.” He disconnects. “We aren’t done. We won’t give up.”

  “Agreed,” I say, making sure he knows I’m standing by him, holding up the world right now.

  He studies me a moment. “How was your afternoon?”

  “No one spoke of your father. I got the impression the living asshole in charge of the office affected them to present day and stirred the past. They want help.”

  “That’s why we need to recruit Alex.” But he’s not thinking about Alex. He’s watching me.

  I lean forward and brush his jaw. “They said what I know and one day you will, too. You’re not him.”

  He is stone in response, but even in the hardness of his stare, I can see the demons of his past. The pain that lives there and in this place for him. Abruptly, he pulls me to him and kisses me. “We can’t be home soon enough. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  Home.

  Our home.

  The place we don’t have to hold up anything but each other.

  He stands to offer me his hand when his cellphone rings again. He glances down at the screen and frown. “No caller ID.” He answers. “Cole Brooks.” His eyes jolt. “Ashley?”

  I jump to my feet. “Is she okay? Where is she?”

  He puts her on speaker. “I have Lori here, too. Where are you?”

  “I love you both,” she says, her voice strong, “but you need to back off. I’m okay. I’m leaving. I have to go.”

  “Witness protection?” I ask, sharing Cole’s concerned look.

  “Yes. And I’m not supposed to say that. You will force me to hide even deeper. I can’t contact you. Cole, you’re like a brother. Lori, you were fast becoming a sister. But I’m gone now. Forget me or you’ll get me killed.” She disconnects.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Lori

  Once Cole and I exit the Houston office, I stop him right before we enter the car waiting on us, concerned about privacy. “Should we call Royce about Ashley’s call?”

  “Royce already told us what she told us,” he says. “In fact, I’m quite certain he was giving us a heads up about that call, but yes.” He eyes his watch. “I’ll text him in a discreet way from the car.”

  I nod and he opens the door for me. Once we’re settled inside, he directs our driver and then sends the text. Royce replies instantly, and Cole shows me the message that reads: She’s safe. That’s what matters.

  “She really is in that program,” I say, choosing my words carefully.

  “Yes. I believe she is.”

  “Can she ever get out?”

  “Doubtful,” he says, kissing my hand. “I think we said our final goodbyes upstairs.”

  “Me too,” I say, feeling sad and relieved at the same time. “She’s safe,” I repeat. “That is ultimately what matters.”

  “Except that someone stripped away her life.”

  “Maybe she’ll find a new, happy one,” I suggest. “Like we did.”

  “Like we did,” he repeats, his eyes warm on mine.

  I settle my head on his shoulder, silently imagining a fairy tale for Ashley with her own Prince Charming, praying it comes true. We arrive at the restaurant only a few minutes later, and Cat sends me a text as we exit the car. “Cat’s holding a surprise birthday party for Reese at the house Saturday night. It’s a last-minute idea she had, she says. She wants us to come and Alex is invited.”

  Cole’s hand settles on my back. “Let’s go convince him he needs to be at that party.”

  We step inside the cozy entrance with stone beneath our feet, and wine bottles lining the walls left and right. “The pizza is the best,” he says, as we wait our turn for the hostess.

  “Pizza it is, then,” I say, and my stomach is growling when it’s finally our turn to be seated. Cole and I step forward, and the hostess leaves us at the podium to check on our table. We maneuver to the side of the line when a man steps between us and Cole and I are momentarily separated.

  Cole offers me his hand to pull me close, but suddenly a beautiful brunette throws her arms around him, and my hand falls from his reach. “My God, Cole. I thought you left.” She leans back, her deep cleavage right smack in the middle of the two of them, her smile sexy. “Let’s catch up, preferably not here.”

  Cole untangles himself from her arms. “Shelly,” he says, looking for me, and literally taking a sideways step to catch my finger. “This is Lori, my wife. Lori this is Shelly Waller. She’s a corporate attorney that I’ve known for some years.”

  Her eyes go wide. “Wife? Oh God.” She holds up her hands. “I’m sorry.” She looks at me. “Lori, I’m sorry. I would never—I wouldn’t—this is very awkward.”

  “It’s okay,” I say, and then I smile. “Well, not really, but I’ll live.”

  She laughs nervously. “Right. Okay.” She looks
a Cole. “I’ll leave now.” She eyes Cole. “Congrats.” She disappears.

  “Mr. Brooks,” the hostess says. “Your table is ready.”

  Cole looks at me. “I’ll explain.” His arm wraps my shoulders and he kisses me before we follow the waitress, and I try to decide what I feel. This woman was clearly intimate with Cole, and it wasn’t a one-time thing. But he was free then. He was a gorgeous, successful man who, of course, had women lining up for him. I have no reason to be bothered by this. He’s my husband.

  We settle into a half-moon-shaped booth, and once we’re alone, Cole’s hand comes down on my leg and he drags me close. “She was just someone I knew.”

  “She’s very pretty.”

  “She is very pretty, and yet I had no desire to see her or anyone else from the moment I met you. And that, my wife, pissed me off.”

  I blanch. “Pissed you off? Why did it piss you off?”

  “Because you left me and I had no idea how to find you.”

  “Oh,” I laugh. “That.”

  “Yes. That.”

  “How well did you know Ms. Very Pretty?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes,” I say. “It does.”

  “I had a couple of women I dated casually.”

  “You mean a couple of women you fucked?”

  His grip tightens on my leg. “Now I only fuck you, as often as I can.”

  “I’m glad we don’t live here.”

  “Me too, sweetheart,” he says softly, his mood darkening. “Me too. And for the record, you’re beautiful and the only reason I agreed that she’s pretty is I wanted you to understand that it didn’t matter. You mattered then and you damn sure matter now.”

  The waiter appears at that very moment and Cole leans in and kisses me, and the rush of heat flooding my body isn’t about the kiss, well, not the kiss alone. It’s about this man and all the things he makes me feel and want and need. And now I know I can have all of those things that I still feel, want, and need just as much. Cole orders a bottle of wine after we discuss our options, and no sooner does the man disappear then the hostess appears, leaving us a tall, dark and good looking man in a gray suit with a neatly trimmed goatee.

  “What’s a guy got to do to get a whiskey sour around here?” he asks, claiming the seat on the other side of the booth from us.

  “Hey, man,” Cole says. “Good to see you.”

  They do some guy shake that isn’t a shake at all and then Alex is fixing me in a rich brown stare. “And you must be Lori.”

  “I’m definitely not Shelly,” I say before I can stop myself.

  Both men laugh and Alex says, “No. You are not. I know Shelly, and Cole was never going to marry that woman.”

  The waiter appears with our wine, and a few minutes later, all three of us have drinks in front of us and Alex cuts to the chase. “I know why you want me. You have an asshole running the Houston location.”

  “While that’s true, that’s not why,” Cole says. “We want to rule the world. I believe you can help us do that.”

  I sit back and listen to them talk, enjoying watching my husband negotiate as much as I enjoy watching him in the courtroom. He needs to be back in a courtroom. “What’s the offer?” Alex finally asks.

  “You can buy in as third in line.”

  “Why not equal?”

  “I put in fifty million. If you want to meet that, you’re equal,” Cole says.

  Alex arches a brow. “I’ll go a few million tops and we both know you didn’t buy in for fifty million.”

  “No,” Cole concedes, “but I set-up a fund for the company, readily available in that sum. Money you’d have available. Are you in?”

  “I want to meet Reese,” he says. “I’ll hitch that ride with you, but I have a trial starting next week. It’s big and I’m all the way in on it until it’s over.”

  “We’ll make it work,” Cole says.

  “What’s the case?” I ask.

  “Real estate investor accused of killing his wife to get out the sizable divorce settlement and then burying her under a rental house,” he says. “Her sister did it. I’m going to prove it.”

  I start asking questions, intrigued by the case, and before long our glasses are empty and stomachs full. Alex looks at me and then Cole. “If you had to go the damn marriage route, at least you picked one with a brain.”

  “You don’t like marriage?” I ask.

  “Not the marrying kind,” he says dryly. “Not the family kind. I work too hard and too long, with no time for distractions, like women who need and want more than what I need and want.”

  “Which is what?” I ask.

  “A moment that passes without a mention of white picket fences so I can get back to work.”

  “And you’re thirty-six?” I ask.

  “Look out,” Cole says. “She’s going to tell you that—”

  “That there must be something wrong with me,” Alex supplies. “There is and I like it that way.” He glances at his watch. “What time are we leaving in the morning?”

  “Nine,” Cole says, giving him details.

  Alex winks at me. “Don’t be trying to fix me up or the deal is off.” He motions to Cole. “He likes me just how I am.” He leaves and I turn to Cole.

  “What’s his real story?”

  “Foster child shoved from bad home to bad home, but he’s brilliant, as in really brilliant. He got into Harvard with a full scholarship. Landed a big firm job. Made some cash, invested well, and then started his firm.”

  “So he’s broken.”

  “Aren’t we all?”

  “Yes,” I agree. “But he’s alone and broken.”

  “And so was I until I found you. Let’s go to the hotel.” He tosses cash on the table and helps me to my feet.

  About fifteen minutes later, we pull up in front of Ashley’s old building. We don’t go in. We just sit there a few minutes, talking about her, and laughing at her big personality. We say our goodbyes. When we finally head back to the hotel, we enter our room, and stand at the window, me in front of Cole, his arms wrapped around me. We don’t make love and it doesn’t feel wrong.

  We just enjoy the fact that we’re together.

  We are no longer alone.

  It feels like we are settling into a new place together, one that isn’t just about passion and intensity, though we are those things. But here, now, we’ve created a shelter, a small space in the universe that is only ours, where it’s safe and calm. One we’ve relaxed inside, as we’ve escaped fear and doubt and even pain. We’ve found more than love. We’ve found peace, the kind that doesn’t care what hell rages around us. We can step into this space together, and everything else fades. There is just us.

  I’m pretty sure that means we’ve finally fit all the broken pieces of our lives into one perfect heart that we now share.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Lori

  Cole and I dress in work attire for the trip home to New York City to allow us to go straight to the office when we land, him in a blue suit and me in a simple, travel-easy black dress. We’re settled into the leather seats of a private plane, both doctoring our coffee when I have this surreal moment of this being my life. I’m living my dream, sitting next to the man I love who is my husband, on my way to New York City, where we will go to work, and I love my job. I’m doing what I wanted to do. I’m doing what I always wanted to do and I’m doing it with this man.

  I reach up and stroke his cleanly shaven jaw and he catches my hand, kissing it, giving me an inquiring look. “What are you thinking?”

  “That daring to have a one night stand was a really good decision.”

  His eyes warm and soften. “Yes. It was.”

  He kisses me, his hand coming down on my face in that possessive, wonderful way of his, his tongue licking into my mouth, only to have his cellphone ring. Cole groans this deep, masculine tormented groan that is sexy as hell, partial
ly because it’s his distress at the interruption. “It could be Alex. I better take it.” He grabs his phone and glances at the screen. “Reid.”

  “Oh, good,” I say. “Hopefully he finally finished negotiating with the DA.”

  He answers the call and I listen in with little success, but thankfully I don’t have to wait long. The call is fast and Cole’s relaxed demeanor tells me the news is good even before he says, “It’s done. Reid’s emailing me a final look at the contract, it won’t be long before we sign and release the settlement proceeds to the victims’ families.”

  “What about a press conference?” I ask.

  “Reid will set it up quickly once we ink, that way we get the press attention off of us right after we make the deal,” he says. “I’d rather let them burn themselves out next week during working hours.”

  “I’ll forgot about the press after the press conference,” I say. “I’m sure we’ll have a good week of hell, but it will be worth it. You did a good thing for the victims’ families, Cole.”

  “We did a good thing,” he amends. “Now we hold Royce to his word and make sure he takes down the DA which,” he adds, “we’re going to need to share with Alex before this plane takes off. I should have addressed it at dinner and I didn’t. He needs to know the path we’re traveling.”

  It’s right about then that Alex walks onto the plane, and a few minutes later, we’re sitting at a lounge table in the back of the plane with the DA bombshell hanging in the air. Alex smiles. “If you didn’t have balls of steel,” he says, “I wouldn’t be on this plane.”

  From there, the rest of the ride only gets better. Alex and Cole get along well and soon the three of us are talking about their old cases, Alex’s current case, and the future of the firm. Alex is friendly with a good sense of humor, but I get the sense that I see this because he trusts me by way of Cole. I don’t believe many see this side of him. He’s hard beneath this friendly encounter with an edge that feels gritty in a street boxer kind of way. He’s a fighter in every way, hard to the core, ready for war. That has me wondering if that’s not exactly why I have no doubt he is an opponent to be reckoned with.