by Diana Nixon
I took a deep breath and leaned against the pillows on my bed. It was a true blessing to be the head of the department now and have a flexible working schedule.
Though I expected my new life to be less…stressful.
The moment Cole said he would stay for another couple of days in the same house with me, I knew it would be anything but peaceful and quiet. But to my surprise, I didn’t see him much. After he returned from his afternoon meeting, he went to his room and never dared to bother me again. Either because he thought there were too many candles downstairs - I specifically didn’t take them away after I was done with my yoga break - or because he was busy working on something.
I looked at my watch and realized it was time to make dinner. I didn’t know if Cole was going to join me or not, but I decided to stop by his room and ask anyway.
The door was closed, so I knocked and waited for him to say anything.
“Come in!”
“Are you dressed?” I asked.
“Nope.”
I rolled my eyes and gave the door a slight push.
“Naughty girl, I knew you were dying to see me naked.” Cole was fully dressed, sitting in a chair with an iPad in his hands.
“I knew you were bluffing.”
He was wearing black-framed reading glasses, and I shall admit it, they made him look ever sexier.
“How did you know that?” He took off his glasses and put them and the iPad on a coffee table.
I shrugged. “If you were really naked, your answer would still be the same. So, I thought my question was pointless anyway and just let myself in.”
He stood up and slowly walked up to me. “Were you disappointed to see me dressed?” He was taller than me, so I had to look up to see his face.
“If I say yes, will you drop your pants right away?”
He chuckled. “Wanna try me?”
“No, thank you. I just wanted to know if you’re going to join me for dinner. If so, it would be handy to get some help with making it.”
“Sure. I just need to…” He looked at his iPad, then at me again. “Finish something first. Give me ten minutes, okay?”
“I’ll be in the kitchen.”
He nodded and I left the room, making a mental note to buy more food next time I place an order at the delivery service. Now I had a man in the house, and it was new to me in every meaning of the word. I had never shared a place with any of my so-called boyfriends. Well, technically, I never dated anyone long enough to get to the sharing a place step. Neither did I change my dates too often. And even more rarely did any of my dates ended up in a bed with me. I always felt a little insecure in the presence of the man I barely knew.
But despite how much personal information I knew about Cole from the folder left by Michael, I still felt like I needed to keep my distance from him.
Speaking of my real estate agent…
The moment I walked into the kitchen, my phone buzzed in my hand. I looked at the screen and saw Michael’s name flash on it.
“Hello?”
“Harlee, it’s Michael. I wanted to apologize for the inconveniences that Cole’s arrival caused. I really didn’t know he would be in the city any time soon.”
“It’s okay, don’t worry. He won’t stay long. By the way… Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“That folder…” I looked at the kitchen door, making sure it was closed and Cole wouldn’t hear me asking Michael about him. “The one that you gave me yesterday. Are you sure it wasn’t a mistake?”
Michael thought for a moment. “Too much information?”
“Well… too much is an underestimation. I sure didn’t expect to find the size of his boxers in there. Not to mention the sizes of the other…things.”
“Sorry, my secretary, she was in charge of gathering that information. She must have outdone herself.”
“A little. Or she might be secretly in love with Mr. Griffin.”
“Who’s secretly in love with me?”
I jumped at the sound of Cole’s voice and dropped my phone.
“Crap.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He hurried to pick up the pieces of my broken phone and gave them back to me. “Looks like I owe you a new one.”
I sighed. At least he didn’t know who I was talking to when he entered the kitchen or what Michael and I had been discussing. “Make sure it’s the updated version of the dead one.”
“Noted.”
“And before you repeat your question, I was talking about a different Mr. Griffin.”
“Oh… And here I thought you were telling someone you were secretly in love with me.””
“Keep dreaming.”
He shook his head and went ahead, “So, what do we have for dinner today?”
“How about roasted chicken with rice and vegetable salad?”
“Sounds good. I can take care of chicken, you make salad and rice.”
“Are you sure you know how to roast a chicken?”
“I sure know how to roast a chick, so a chicken shouldn’t be that hard to do either.”
“Whatever. But if I don’t like it…”
“I’ll take you to the best restaurant in the city.”
“Not that it will help you get into my bed.”
He chuckled. “I’ll never give up hoping. Now tell me, why did you like this place?”
“I think the answer is everywhere around you. It’s gorgeous!”
Cole nodded and smiled sadly. “Thanks.”
“Did you design it?”
“No. But I told the designers what I wanted to see in the end, and they made it happen.”
“Why has no one ever lived here?”
He didn’t rush to respond, and I could almost feel how uncomfortable my question made him feel. “It’s a long story.” It didn’t look like he was thrilled to share it with me.
I gave him a careful look. “Failed relationship?”
His jaw tightened; brows pulled together. “Something of the sort,” he mumbled.
Despite how much I wanted to hear more about it, I decided to change the subject. “Are you here on business or…?”
“Or.”
A detailed answer.
“If you prefer making dinner in silence, just say it.”
He sighed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.” Another sigh followed. “I came to New York to give my wife a divorce. And this house was supposed to be my wedding present for her. But she broke up with me even before I got a chance to tell her about it.”
“Wow…” Now that explained a lot.
“How long have you been married?”
“In fact - less than a week. But on paper – almost four years.”
Another ‘Wow’ followed.
Cole put the chicken filet into a bowl, added spices and mixed it all together. I could see that talking about his ex-wife saddened him. And I wondered what made her break up with him a few days after they got married. Who does things like this anyway? Why would she go to the altar if she wasn’t sure she wanted to be with him? And then what – the light came on, she looked at him and realized she wasn’t ready to spend the rest of her life with this man? Weird…
“What about you, Harlee? Any ex-husbands?”
“Nope, no husbands, no kids, no nothing.”
“Why so?”
“I don’t have time for any of it.”
“Boyfriend?”
“None.”
He gave me a questioning look. “When was the last time that you had sex?”
I stopped cutting Chinese cabbage and stared at him. “Why do you care?”
“You are too hot to cool heels.” He smiled with that playful smile that I liked so much more than his thoughtful or sad face.
“You and I look at sex differently.”
“Explain.”
Maybe talking about my non-existent sex life when in one room with a hot as hell guy wasn’t such a great idea.
; “Well…” I took a deep breath. “I don’t sleep around.”
“What makes you think I do?”
I remembered the things I found out about him from the folder.
“No offense, but you look like a man who loves meaningless affairs.”
He chuckled. “None taken. From your lips it sounds more like a compliment.”
“Are you saying I’m wrong about you?” Then how else would he have sex at four in the morning, every night, considering he wasn’t married anymore and most likely never dated anyone longer than a few days?
“Yes and no. The women I date know the rules. They have no expectations about me. But it doesn’t mean I use them for sex only. Will you believe if I say that I’m friends with all the women I’ve slept with?”
I laughed. “Never.”
“But it’s true. And you know why? Because I never promise anything that I can’t give them.”
“Really? Then what do you promise?”
His lips curved in a damn sexy smile. “To know that, you will need to agree to share a bedroom with me.” In a low voice he added. “And considering you haven’t had sex in a long time, you might like my promises. A lot more than you think.”
My cheeks flushed. All of a sudden, the idea of saying yes to whatever he had in that mind of his didn’t seem so crazy. No doubt, he was damn good at his promises.
“Like I said, I don’t do one-night stands. Besides, you’ll be back to L.A. in less than two days. What if I sleep with you and then fall in love with you? You will break my heart and leave me shedding my tears all over your house. We sure as hell will never be friends after that.”
He watched me with an unhidden scoff in his gaze. “Still, I can’t stop thinking about spending a night in the master bedroom. With you.”
“Yours is good too,” I said without thinking.
“So, you’d rather spend a night in mine?”
“I mean it’s good enough for you. The master bedroom is officially mine until the end of my rent deal.”
“Do you always have to be so stubborn?”
“Yep. And you’d better switch your attention to the chicken you are making. I don’t want you to burn it. Or anything else that might get accidentally burned in the process.”
“Don’t you care if I burn thinking about you?”
“You’ll survive. Go back to L.A. and find someone to cool you off.”
Just then the phone rang, and Cole and I stared at the white thing hanging on the wall as if it were an alien.
“Did you give someone the number?” He asked.
I never used a corded phone when at home, but when I moved here, I gave the number to Jazmine in case I didn’t answer my cell phone. Because like I said before, my cell phones tended to break way too often. And today was not an exception.
“I think I know who might be calling.” I hurried to answer the phone. I didn’t want my sister to know that I was sharing the house with its owner.
“Hello?”
“What happened to your phone this time?” She said, frustrated.
“I broke it. Accidentally.” I looked at the causer of my trouble. He was standing with his back to me and I could gaze at him a little longer. The man looked like the sweetest of provocations and damn it, my whole body responded to his every word, especially those intentionally whispered into my ear.
“Is everything all right?” I asked Jazmine.
“No. I need to talk to you.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Not on the phone. Can we meet tomorrow?”
“Sure. What time?”
“I’ll stop by your office after school.”
“Sounds good. How are mom and Theo doing?”
“Watching TV.”
“Are you guys missing me?”
“Always.”
“Good. Maybe now that you don’t see me on a daily basis, you will finally realize how good it was to have me around.”
Cole turned to look at me and smiled, as if he knew something I didn’t.
“See you tomorrow,” Jazmine said.
“See you.” I hung up the phone.
“How old is she?” Cole asked.
“Will turn seventeen in two months.”
“Likes giving you a hard time?”
“How do you know that?”
“Have you ever met a teenager who doesn’t like it?”
“No.”
“When I was her age, I stole my dad’s car and broke it ten seconds after I left the garage. I didn’t see mom’s flower bed and ruined the flowers, the pots and the car.”
“I’m sure your mom wasn’t happy about it.”
“And don’t even make me start on what dad did to punish me. I never dared to take his car keys without his permission anymore.”
“Do you have any siblings?”
“No. I’m the only troublemaker in the family. But I have a cousin and she’s like a sister to me. April is a couple of years older than me. She’s married and she has two kids: a boy and a girl. I like spending time with them. No matter the chaos they leave behind them.”
I wasn’t surprised to hear that. With Cole’s love for order, I bet he called a cleaning company right after the kids left his place.
“By the way,” he said, looking at his watch. “I have something for you. It should be delivered…” The doorbell rang. “Now!”
Frowning, I followed him to answer the door. He signed for the delivery and I saw a huge white box with a red ribbon on it. The courier helped him take it into the house and left.
“What’s that?”
“Open it.”
I gave Cole a suspicious look. “Will I hate you after I open it?”
“On the contrary.” He crossed his arms and watched me while I dealt with the ribbon.
“You might also want to keep the ribbon for the next time you welcome me home. You don’t even need a towel. A ribbon will be simply fine.”
I gave him a meaningful look.
When I finally opened the box and saw the contents, I stared at Cole and said, “I thought you were old enough to know that electricity in the house is not from batteries.”
Because there were thousands of batteries in the delivered box.
He smiled, walked over and kneeled next to me, saying in a low voice. “I’m old enough to know that if a girl’s to-do list says buy more batteries, she will need them for something that I would gladly watch her using them for.”
***
CHAPTER 5
Harlee
I swear catching me half naked in the morning was a much less humiliating thing than telling me he knew I needed more batteries for my silicone buddy.
“How the hell do you know what’s written on my to-do list?” We were still sitting next to the damn box and I wanted nothing more than to smack that all knowing grin off his pretty face.
“I accidentally saw it earlier today.”
I mentally scrolled back the events of the day, trying to remember if I left my laptop anywhere aside from my bedroom where Cole could see it, but I failed.
“Did you go to my room again?”
“I was looking for…a spare key from the back door.”
“In my bed?”
He shrugged and made the most innocent face ever. “Who knows where you might keep it?”
“Right.” I stood and said. “Thanks for the present. It was very…thoughtful of you.”
He stood up too. “You are welcome. If you need my help with changing the batteries in your…whatever it is that you are going to use them for, don’t hesitate to ask for it.”
“Thank you.” I looked at the box again. “Will you help me take it upstairs please?” I tried to sound as cool as possible, even though the only thing I wanted to do now was to shove the fucking batteries up his…never mind. You got the point.
“Sure. I like being handy.” He winked at me.
I rolled my eyes and followed him up the stairs to where my bedroom was.
He pu
t the box next to my bed, no doubt on purpose, and said, “Now every time I walk into this room, I can see nothing but you…”
“Shut up, okay?”
He grinned from ear to ear. “Shall we go back to the kitchen and check on our dinner? Or would you prefer staying here and changing batteries in your toys?”
Oh, he surely enjoyed making the blood boil in my veins.
“Dinner goes first.”
“As you wish, sweetie.”
“Didn’t I tell you to stop calling me that?”
“Sorry. But the harder I try to stop myself from calling you that, the more I want to know if you taste as sweet as you sound.”
“You are a pig.” I turned away from him and walked out of the room.
He followed me. “Looks like months of abstention didn’t do you any good, Harlee.”
“Years to be exact,” I muttered, walking down the stairs.
“You seem to be so worked up about everything that has anything to do with sex. Wait… What did you say? Years? Are you being serious now?”
Was it too late to take my words back? Yep. Way too late.
“Forget it. It was just a joke.”
“Poor thing… How are you handling it? Are your toys so good you don’t want to replace them with a real thing?”
I stopped and turned around abruptly, with Cole bumping into me. “If you don’t shut the fuck up, your real thing might get hurt, badly.”
“Ouch.” He grimaced. And then he smiled, as always.
By the time we got to the kitchen, my desire to share dinner with him dropped to zero.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to offend you with my stupid comments. I just don’t get it… That’s it.”
“Of course, you don’t. With the list of things you like doing at night…” Crap, I should have thought twice before saying it.
“How do you know about what I like doing at night?” He asked suspiciously.
“Guesses.”
“Oh, yeah?” He watched me closely from across the kitchen table and I felt like I was being interrogated.
“Can we just…have dinner, finally? I’m starving.”
“So am I.” The way he said it made me believe he wanted to eat me for dinner, instead of chicken. No matter how much of a pain in the ass he seemed to enjoy being, he was right about one thing – abstention didn’t do me or my rational thinking any good. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to imagine so clearly being his dinner now…