I shook my head and grinned as I retorted, “Something tells me you didn’t do very much chasing either. I’m pretty sure they flocked to you.”
A bark of laughter escaped his lips before he challenged, “Oh yeah? Well, I’m sure as shit chasin’ you.”
When he put it like that, I couldn’t deny it. I didn’t understand it, but I couldn’t deny it.
********
After that, neither one of us said much, until I got an indication on my radar of a cell I wanted to commit to. I focused, and Coleman helped me with anything I asked. He stayed quiet otherwise, which I was thankful for because it made it easier for me to pretend he wasn’t there and do what I normally did.
We were on a gravel road, just off the two lane highway, leaning against the side of the car and waiting to see how it panned out, when a familiar feeling crawled over my skin. Rolling my head and eyes to the left, I spotted the reason why.
Son of a bitch. Of all the freaking cells out there, Max and Tony were following the same one as me. Again.
Coleman still had his eyes on the clouds, no doubt trying to figure out what the hell I was seeing, when I muttered, “Shitdizzle,” under my breath.
His eyes came to me and then promptly followed mine to the approaching vehicle. I had been hoping that Max’s injuries would keep him locked up in the hospital a while longer, but apparently he wasn’t as bad off as I thought. That, or he was just good at ignoring doctor’s orders like me.
Coleman squeezed my hand to get my attention before muttering, “Who’s that?”
I knew this wasn’t going to go well, so I shook my head, puffed out a huff of air, and answered, “You don’t wanna know.”
Coleman didn’t miss much, and he certainly didn’t miss this. “Aha, so it’s the set of balls you’ve kneed and the man who owns them.”
“Yep.”
The motion of him straightening to his full height and stepping close to me was hard to miss. At the same time he muttered, “This should be interesting.”
My thoughts exactly.
Standing there and waiting, feeling like hours were passing, I held onto a shred of optimism that this would end some other way than the scenario playing in my head.
As they were pulling to a stop, I finally gave up on the hope that they would keep on driving and leave us to our peace. Knowing it would bite me in the ass if I didn’t, I rushed to tell Coleman the other set of important details involving Max and Tony.
“By the way, the stitches-” I pointed to my head like a spaz, as though he didn’t know what I meant when I just said it, and continued, “They’re kind of the reason I have them.”
Coleman’s face turned to granite, and it didn’t take me long to realize I hadn’t chosen my words well. “No. No! I mean we were chasing in Alabama, got into some trouble, them more than me, and I went back to help them. Debris hit me in the head. That’s how I got the stitches.”
The tension in his face eased a little, but I could tell he was going to need a minute to fully calm down. “Christ, I was literally about to kill him, Roni. Thank God you clarified.”
Thank God, indeed.
However, as Max climbed out of the car, and I got a clear view of the cocky look on his face, I knew it would be mere moments before Coleman was back to wanting to kill him.
“Roni, baby. I heard the rumors that you had a man with you today.”
Oh God, here we go.
I just knew he wouldn’t stop there, and he definitely didn’t.
He definitely didn’t stop there.
“If you wanted a cock to ride, you know you could have asked me,” Max fake cooed in a voice that he thought made him sound sexy.
Of all the ways for him to take this encounter, this was probably the last direction he should have gone. I closed my eyes and my chin hit my chest. This scene was going to get ugly, and it was going to get that way fast.
At least I knew how to use OnStar to call the ambulance this time.
Tony tried to mediate by stepping forward, putting a hand to Max’s chest, and shaking his head. I did my best to be a buffer too, but I knew our efforts were going to be futile in the scheme of things to come.
Never one to shy away from fighting my own battles, I answered with a saccharine voice, “Why would I ask you, Max? If I’m going to ride a cock, I want it to be big enough to feel it,” before Coleman had a chance to say anything...or throw any punches.
Max looked furious, Tony looked scared (perhaps hoping he wouldn’t get beat up via the adage of guilty by association), and I could hear Coleman chuckling lightly behind me.
Max took a menacing step toward me, his fists clenching at his sides, and Coleman’s mirth died abruptly.
“Think long and hard before you take another step in this direction, Bud,” Coleman growled. His voice was low and fierce, the playful version of him was nothing but a memory, and ‘Bud’, a word that would normally be considered a frequent conduit of communication between friends, was the absolute antithesis of friendly.
Max’s face twisted into an ugly glower as he barked, “Oh yeah? Who the fuck are you?”
“Roni’s boyfriend.”
Contrary to what I would have thought, I was starting to like his ‘wish it true’ bullshit. Maybe this would get Max off my back and I wouldn’t have to deal with him anymore. Plus, there was a little flutter in my chest, one that no one else would ever know about, that happened when he said it.
Thinking it might kill two birds with one stone by both calming Coleman and frustrating Max, I scooted close and slid my arm around Coleman’s trim waist. He looked down at me and I could tell he was wondering if this was another act done purely for show or if maybe I was looking for a little comfort by being in his arms.
I’d like to tell you it was strictly the first reason, but the truth was, it was probably a little bit of both. I didn’t want to give in to the way he made me feel, the way he turned on all of the emotions I’d been careful to keep numb for years, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t notice how good it felt.
As I looked into his mismatched eyes, I got lost for a few seconds. Honest to God, the tense situation, the two other people standing close, and the way the wind howled with the weather all faded away as I got sucked into the way his eyes seemed to go perfectly together even though they weren’t the same. His green eye was like the inside of an avocado, a perfect bright green rim around the outside that faded into a remarkable pale green right around his pupil. The other eye was a faultless sky blue, the complete opposite of the stormy atmosphere surrounding us.
As his soft, scruff encircled, lips started to curve into a smile, I knew I had gone too far in my perusal. He was onto me, and he was liking the effects he had caused.
Satisfied that a show had been made and scared that I was convincing more than my intended audience (namely me), I stepped back and pulled my emotional armor back up. It seemed like I’d been out of it for hours, but really it had only been a few seconds and Max was still focused on trying to stir up conflict.
“Whatever. She’s a frigid, lousy fuck anyway,” Max jeered and my face contorted at the thought of actually having sex with Max. Gross.
Coleman was pissed, but I wasn’t. He was only saying that shit because he didn’t know what kind of fuck I was and never would.
I placed a hand on Coleman’s arm and shifted the focus of the conversation because the one we were having was utterly ridiculous. “Sweet baby Jesus, enough conversation about dick size and imagined lack of sexual prowess. If you haven’t noticed, we’re in prime storm conditions, and I for one want to see a freaking tornado.” Jerking my head at Coleman in an effort to signal my desire to get in the car, I added, “This cell is a dud, but there are plenty around here with potential. Let’s get the hell on the road.”
Coleman’s actions were the picture of concession as he moved to round the back of the Tahoe to get in on his side. Unfortunately, Max wasn’t feeling like letting it go.
For reasons o
nly known by him, seeing as the confrontation was pretty much over as far as everyone else was concerned, he took another step toward me, his body tense and aggressive, and yelled, “Stupid fucking cunt!”
The next events happened so fast that they almost didn’t register in my brain until they were already over. Coleman turned on his heel and ran straight at Max, landing a blood spattering punch to Max’s face before he saw it coming. To be honest, I don’t think any of us saw it coming. Max went flying, his ass and lower back slamming to the ground at the same time that his hands flew to his nose. He pulled them away for a fraction of a second and I could see that they were already acting as a crater, a perfect holding place for the lake of blood that had escaped his nose. Coleman leaned in, got right in his face, and growled with barely restrained ferocity, “If you even breathe in Roni’s direction, speak like that about her again, or even fuckin’ think about her in an unkind, ungentlemanly way, I will find you. And you’ll be fuckin’ wishin’ you were breathin’ through a tube.”
Holy crap. In all of my years with Josh, he had never acted like that. In fact, he probably would have been the one to tell me to let it go. I wasn’t sure if I liked this completely different attitude or if it scared me.
As I subconsciously compared the two men, I was worried that the situation would escalate even further.
Completely surprising me, it didn’t. Unaffectedly, as if nothing had just happened, Coleman turned, walked toward the Tahoe, inclined his head to indicate I should get in, rounded the back, opened the passenger door, and climbed in.
As I scrambled inside and shut my door, I took a deep breath and steeled my nerves for the raw anger I was expecting to encounter. But when I looked over, there was a little smirk just starting to curve one of the corners of his mouth upward.
With a bewildered expression clinging to my face, I murmured, “Um...thanks?”
His lips curved even higher, further cementing my state of confusion. “I’m sorry, I’m confused. Why are you smiling right now?”
“I was just remembering you telling that prick that his dick wouldn’t be big enough to feel it.”
Rolling my eyes, I pulled the gearshift into drive and put my foot on the gas. “Of course that’s the stand out part of that encounter for you.”
His answer was a deep, rough, delicious chuckle that slid through me with ease and settled a pocket of warmth in my chest. It had taken him no time whatsoever to transform from the fun-loving, playful guy I had come to know to a seriously scary, ass-kicking alpha and then back to his original easygoing self. While it was borderline bipolar, it was also endearing. He stood up for me, but he didn’t stew on it or let it leak into his interactions with me. I had never met someone with that kind of ability, turning it on and off with the flick of switch, but it was really remarkable to witness.
Feeling his positive vibes seeping into my actions, I reeled in my focus and got back to business. If he wasn’t going to dwell, there was no reason for me to.
“Okay, time to work. Look at that Level III radar that I showed you and find us a cell with some rotation. Keep in mind where we are and that we’re gonna need to move between these two cells quickly.”
Coleman turned my laptop around on the console so that it was facing him, and his tongue curled out the side of his mouth with his concentration. He was trying so hard, and it was freaking adorable.
God, why did he make it so hard to not like him?
After about a minute of uninterrupted searching, a boyish twinkle entered his eye and signaled me that he had found what we were looking for. Or at least, he thought he had.
He swung the laptop in my direction and pointed to the screen, simultaneously questioning, “This one. Looks good right?”
I slowed my driving to a languid enough pace that I could look at the computer without running us off the road and studied his choice. It had a high echo top, a good sign that it was a single cell, good rotation indicators, and the storm motion was conducive to our safely getting to it.
Decided, I slammed my foot back to the gas, took off in a race to get there in time, and congratulated him, “Good job. No guarantees, but it certainly has the potential to be a good one.”
His face lit up and his body leaned forward, as if he was unable to contain his excitement.
A grown man in his thirties, a freaking testosterone fueled beard growing on his face, and the body to match, and he still managed to look like a kid on Christmas when I told him he had done a good job.
Pulling my eyes back to the road, I leaned toward the windshield, trying to get a better look at where I was going because we were being absolutely slammed by rain. Glancing at the computer and then back to my GPS, I could see that we were coming up on our storm, and that we were going to be punching the core soon. I normally tried to avoid core punching, or driving through the heaviest precipitation and hail, since it was extra dangerous, super abusive to the car, and I was usually by myself.
But for some reason, with Coleman Cade beside me, I decided it was worth the risk to get to the reward of him witnessing a tornado with me. Apparently, his craziness was rubbing off on me. Or maybe I was just crazy all on my own. The evidence was certainly starting to build up in favor of that theory.
The hail started to pound us hard, and the adrenaline and excitement coming off the two of us was almost potent enough that you could smell it. Gripping the steering wheel tight, I did my best to navigate us safely to the other side of the core even though I couldn’t see a damn thing.
After a couple of tense minutes, the hail finally eased up and my visibility markedly improved.
I looked up to the wall cloud in front of me, mesmerized by the sight of a beautiful funnel descending. My heart flipped in my chest and a feeling of peace enveloped me like it usually did. Part of that peace came from witnessing something so beautiful that man had no part in. And part of it came from it giving me something that I so desperately needed. It reminded me that the world is an unbelievably powerful and sometimes unjust entity, taking lives that it shouldn’t and leaving others for no reason.
Assessing that we were in a safe position, and that it was thankfully only tearing through fields and not people, I quickly called it in, grabbed my camera, and jumped out of the Tahoe to snap some pictures. Coleman followed me, jumping out of his side of the car and rounding the hood, and then came to stand behind me with his hands spanning my hips as we looked on together.
Chapter 8
I’m Not the Asshole Here
Work callused fingers trailed up the inside of my leg as lips worked my neck and a thumb swiped my nipple. A moan escaped my lips and a shiver skated up my spine.
Coleman’s pleased chuckle flowed into my ears and brought goosebumps to my skin. Wrapping my arms around his body I flexed my fingertips into the hot, firm skin of his back, feeling the muscles, and the tattoo that covered them, flex under my touch.
His hand glided from my thigh to the juncture between my legs, his touch light and teasing and extremely pleasure inducing. I hadn’t been touched in three years, so I felt every last cell of his skin that touched any part of mine.
Kissing from my neck down to my collarbone, his lips teased and nibbled, bringing the blood to the surface and intensifying my enjoyment. His hand palmed my breast, and then lifted the nipple to his mouth, as he closed over it and swirled the tip of his tongue around the rim.
My toes curled into the hotel sheets and my legs moved to wrap around him, pulling him as close as I possibly could.
His fingers teased my folds, and I could feel him hard, ready, and throbbing against my thigh.
“Coleman, please,” I begged him, desperate to feel the fullness I was sure he would provide. I missed this pleasure, this feeling of closeness and connection with another person.
Bending to my will, he hovered over me, reaching down and positioning himself at my entrance as I bit my bottom him to keep from moaning again.
He looked deep into my eyes and whispered
, “I love you, Roni,” just before sinking himself fully inside.
********
My eyes flew open and I clutched the blanket at my chest as I took in my surroundings. I was in bed, in a hotel, and there was a warm body laying close behind me. An arm was wrapped around my stomach, and I could feel the tips of fingers touching my scar. And they weren’t my own.
Eager to make sense of what was going on, I catalogued the events that preceded my sleeping last night one by one.
We had chased the storm, stood together watching the tornado, had an uneventful dinner, and then checked into a hotel. Coleman had insisted that we get just one room, and I had been in a panic about it. He had promised to be on his best behavior, and he had been. We had hung out talking, watched Duck Dynasty on TV, and then fallen asleep, our bodies separated by a healthy amount of space on the bed.
I thanked God because that meant the sex had just been a dream. My mind may have been celebrating the victory, but my body didn’t think it was such a good thing. I was unbelievably turned on, even more so than I had been after the last dream, no doubt because I had spent more time with him, gotten to know him better, and thus dreamt of a more realistic depiction of what it would actually be like. Not to mention, the heat from his body was very warm and very real at my back.
Coming out of my visualization of last night and back into the present, I took in the feeling of his fingers on my scar and panicked. Carefully, I lifted his arm off of my body with precise, gentle movements. I wanted to make it out of here without him noticing. It would be much easier that way, and if he woke up it would completely screw up my plan.
I slid a pillow under his arm at the same time that I scooted away and stood back, my ears pounding with my pulse from trying to quiet my movements. When he laid motionless for fifteen seconds, I figured I had executed my switcheroo successfully. Turning and running on my tiptoes to the bathroom, I closed the door and turned on the water to take a quick shower before I left.
It would have been smarter to forego the shower and just get out while I could, but I smelled from yesterday’s activities since I had fallen asleep without showering last night. It would be another full day before I would have another opportunity to shower, so I knew I had to use these facilities now. I stepped out of my clothes, felt the water to test the temperature and stepped into the spray, letting the hot water wash away my conflicting emotions. I knew I had to get out of here, but I couldn’t help but notice that I was going to miss him.
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