by Hamel, B. B.
“Good to be home.” He walked into my room and sat down on my bed.
I leaned up against the window. “How was our friend?”
“Fine,” Cole said, waving his hand. “He won’t talk to anyone. But he did suggest I check out the staff, see if maybe someone there was involved.”
I nodded. That made sense. If it wasn’t the paparazzi, then it had to be someone even closer. “Okay,” I said.
He cocked his head. “What’s wrong with you?”
My heart skipped a beat. He could probably sense my hesitation and my nervousness.
“Nothing. Just, don’t you think we should hire someone to help with this?”
“I can handle it,” he grunted.
“I’m sure. But if you can’t?”
“Then we’ll pay.”
“But you said—”
He stood up, frustrated. “I know what I said.”
He closed the distance between us, looking at me hard.
“We can’t let this ruin everything, Cole,” I said softly.
“It won’t. We’ll handle it.” I could feel the heat rolling off him.
“You know what would help?” I asked.
He suddenly grabbed me by the waist and pulled me against him. I stumbled and landed right against his chest, breathing in his smell. I felt the familiar thrill run through my stomach, my pussy already soaking wet as my heart hammered a staccato rhythm.
“What’s that, sis?”
I looked up into his eyes, the stubble along his jaw giving him a rugged look, and wanted to bite his lip. Was that what I was becoming, a girl that could barely control herself around a handsome boy? It was so pathetic, and yet it was true.
“A divorce could help.”
He smirked. “I thought we were done with that.”
“Not until we’re not married anymore, we’re not.”
“I told you. I’m not ready.” I went to move away, but he held on tightly, giving me this deep look. “I’m not the type to chase,” he grunted.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You know what I mean. And what I want.”
I shook my head, my cheeks turning red. I had to look away.
“I’m just worried about our parents.”
He let me go and moved back toward the door. I watched him go with a sharp breath, feeling his absence strangely in my chest.
“Whatever you say. You know where to find me when you change your mind.” He paused, his hand on the doorknob, his face breaking out into a cocky smile. “And I know you will.”
I watched as he turned the knob and left my room. I wanted to yell at him or throw something, or maybe throw myself at him and let him make me yell. Every new step was one more frustrating experience after another.
“So he’s back home?”
“Yeah, he’s definitely back.”
I lay on my bed staring up at the ceiling, the phone cradled next to my ear as I absently picked at my nails. It was a bad habit, but I was pretty distracted.
“Get your divorce yet?” Lacey asked.
“Ugh. You know I haven’t.”
“Come on, girl. We both know you’d be single and free if you really wanted to be.”
I sighed. She did have a point, but it was more complicated than that. We had to be civil, a part of the same family, no matter how badly I wanted to just force him to go through with it. Legally I could, but it felt wrong. He’d be pissed and our relationship would be completely ruined.
Whatever that relationship was. The past two days hadn’t really cleared anything up.
We barely talked. Or at least I pretty much scampered away like a small, scared forest animal every time I heard him approach. For his part, he spent all his time working out and training for his fights. He didn’t try to break down my door and take me as his bride, which I half expected him to do each night.
Instead, he seemed to sense my hesitation. Actually, he didn’t really have to sense anything since I was probably making it pretty obvious. It was stupid and I knew it, but I didn’t know what else to do.
Every time I was near him, I wanted him to pin me against a wall and make me feel the things I knew he could.
Instead, we had more pressing issues.
“Maybe you’re right, but that doesn’t really change our situation.”
“No, I guess it doesn’t. So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know, Lace.”
“Listen to me,” she said seriously. “You have a hunk of a human man in the room next to yours, a man that will probably make you feel things you never imagined. Take advantage of this.”
“I can’t. It’s not that simple.”
“Why not?” she said, exasperated. “You keep making excuses.”
“We’re being blackmailed, okay?” I blurted out, annoyed.
There was a beat of silence.
“Are you joking?” she asked.
“I wish I was.”
“What the hell happened?”
So I explained it all to her, starting with the kiss, which she knew about, up through the night in the dressing room, and ending with the letters and Cole’s visit to the paparazzi guy.
“Holy cow shit,” Lacey said. “You have to be shitting me.”
“Wish I were,” I said, smiling at her incredible eloquence.
“Dude, that’s, like, some bad daytime soap opera drama right there.”
“I know. If we were both doctors, this would be the perfect plot for an E.R. story arc.”
“Worse than that. This is like some terrible romance—”
“Look,” I said, cutting her off, “it’s real and I have no idea what to do.”
“What does Cole think?”
“He wants to run around and beat people up until things are solved.”
She laughed. “Yeah, sounds right.”
“But that won’t work.”
“Can you pay them?”
“If we do, there’s no proof they won’t go public anyway, or that they won’t keep asking for more money.”
“Damn, girl. This is some real stuff.”
“So you see why I’m not just like legalling the crap out of him right now?”
“‘Legalling’? Is that even a word?”
“It is now!”
“Listen, Alexa, let me help.”
“How? I mean, this isn’t exactly your specialty.”
“No, it’s not, but I have some money saved up. I can help you with that at least.”
“No way, Lace. Thanks anyway, though.”
“Come on, this is big stuff. You don’t have to do this alone.” She paused, and I felt gratitude well up in me. “Anything you need.”
And then I had an idea. It was stupid, or maybe a little reckless, but it was a good one. Cole didn’t have to do everything alone.
“Actually, Lace, there is something you can do.”
“I don’t know how you talked me into this,” Cole said.
Lacey laughed at him. “You? I’m the one going inside.”
The three of us stood huddled at the entrance to the banquet hall from the night the photos were taken. Inside there was some event happening, though I couldn’t tell what it was.
“I could do this myself,” Cole grumbled.
“Enough out of you,” I said to him, turning to Lacey, “Lace, you look awesome. Sure you’re up for this?”
“Hell no.” She shrugged. “But I’m doing it anyway.”
I watched as she turned away resolutely and marched right through the front doors, blending in with the crowd and disappearing inside.
“Think she can handle it?”
“Probably,” I said.
The plan was pretty simple. Cole and I were both known to the people inside, or at least we were probably known. If one of them were blackmailing us, they’d definitely want to keep a huge distance.
But Lacey was different. Nobody knew her, nobody knew what she wanted, and that meant she was free to look around and maybe ask some questio
ns.
The event happening inside was definitely something upscale and fancy, and fortunately Lacey had dressed for the part. She looked totally stunning in a floor-length dress, her hair pinned up in a complicated swirl, her makeup on point. I’d seen her get cleaned up before, but she looked particularly incredible tonight.
I leaned up against the wall off to the side, away from the entrance, and Cole joined me.
“I guess now we wait,” I said.
“Any ideas on how we pass the time?”
I gave him a look. “We could play I Spy.”
“Okay. I spy a naughty girl in need of punishment.”
“I spy an asshole.”
“That’s not how you play.”
“Maybe, but it’s true.”
He grinned at me, shaking his head. “When are you going to get over this whole denial thing?”
“There’s no denial here, Cole, just an asshole and his stepsister.”
He moved closer, our arms practically touching. I snuck a look at him out of the corner of my eye. His clothes clung to his muscular body, making my heart flutter. He caught me looking and smiled bigger.
“There it is,” he said. “That look.”
“What look?”
“Like you’re about to throw yourself at me. Mouth parted slightly. Makes my cock hard.”
“Anything makes your . . . penis hard,” I mumbled.
He laughed loudly at that, getting a few stares from people walking from their cars. “Penis? Are you joking?”
“Cut it out. People are staring.”
“No,” he said, turning to me. “You have to say it.”
“Say what?”
“Cock! You have to say cock.”
“No way. Cut it out. People can hear you.”
“Penis is about the least sexy word in the entire world. Say cock, sis, or I’ll keep getting louder.”
I glanced around us, my heart hammering in my chest. I was bright red and I knew it, but I couldn’t do anything about it. “Okay, okay. Cock.”
He moved even closer to me. “There you go. Not so hard.”
“I thought you were always hard around me?”
My joke eased my tension. He smirked. “Oh, I most certainly am. Have a feel.”
“Feel yourself.” I turned away from him, crossing my arms.
He leaned back up against the wall. There was a short silence between the two of us.
“She’s going to be fine,” Cole said softly.
“How do you know that?”
“I can just tell. She’s probably a lot more resourceful than you realize.”
I smiled to myself, shaking my head. I had no clue how he managed to go from making dick jokes one second to practically reading my mind the next, but he somehow managed it.
He always managed to make me feel completely off balance. It was almost a dizzy feeling. He could go from incredibly intense to completely joking and light within seconds, but for some reason I absolutely couldn’t get enough of that. He kept me guessing and was always surprising.
People tended to think that fighters and MMA-type guys were just muscle-headed idiots, but Cole was completely unlike anything I would have imagined. Sure, he was a cocky asshole, but that probably just came with the territory. There was a whole world of something else down underneath his exterior, but he rarely gave me glimpses.
“You have to stop doing that,” he said, cutting into my thoughts.
“What?”
“Pouting like that.”
“I’m not pouting.”
He shook his head. “You’re definitely pouting.”
“I’m just worried about Lacey. That’s all.”
He came closer again, and this time I didn’t back off. “Worst case scenario, she gets thrown out. She’s going to be fine.”
“Maybe, but we shouldn’t have brought her into this.”
“Are you always like this?”
“Like what?”
“Worried.”
“I’m not ‘like’ anything, Cole.”
“You sure are, Alexa.” His breath was warm on my neck, and I knew I should push him away. We were back in the shadows next to the door, not directly in anyone’s sight. I knew nobody would notice us.
“You like pushing, don’t you?” I whispered in his ear.
“You know I do.” I felt his hands roam down my body, and suddenly his fingers slipped below the waist of my jeans.
I gasped but didn’t move, standing totally still. My eyes widened. “How far are you going to take this?” I asked him, a shiver running down my spine.
His fingers gently found my clit, moving in slow, soft circles. “Soaked, like I expected,” he said.
“Cole,” I managed to say, but it came out as a choked moan.
I could see the smirk through the dim light. “I know what you’re going to ask me. You want to ask, ‘Cole, are you going to get me off right here?’”
He moved in incredible motions along my clit, his fingers deft and hard, alternating between pressure and circles, and my legs stiffened as my back arched. I was so afraid someone would catch us, but that fear only heightened the experience, made it sharper.
I realized dimly that I was becoming the kind of girl that let a guy she shouldn’t be anywhere near finger her in public, but I couldn’t stop it. The thrill ran through me, violent spikes of pleasure. I loved being that kind of girl, especially if it made me feel so good.
“I will,” he whispered in my ear. “I will get you off, here and now, just because I love that little whimper you make as you come.”
“I don’t whimper,” I gasped, but I knew he had me. I couldn’t argue. My hands grasped hard on to his biceps, gripping his huge arms.
“But you do, at least for me. You moan like you can’t get enough of it. You moan like you’re begging for more.”
My lips parted, and a low, soft whine escaped my lips. What the hell was I doing? My whole mind was on fire because of him, because of every dirty word he said, every incredible move he made.
I knew I was going to come. I knew I was because he could play me like an instrument. My body was vibrating for him, and I realized that it had been forever since I had first seen him.
“Alexa?”
We stopped, both of us frozen in a moment of fear. And then his fingers were gone, slipped from my jeans.
“Alexa? Cole?” Lacey was standing near the parking lot, looking around, but she hadn’t seen us yet.
“Hey,” I called, walking over to her. I took a few deep breaths and caught Cole sucking his finger, laughter clearly in his eyes.
Lacey turned and waved. “What up, girl!”
“Are you drunk?”
“A little drunk, yes. I am drunk.” She walked over, a little unsteady on her feet. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed since she had gone inside, but she must have done some serious work to get a strong buzz on so quickly.
I laughed and shook my head. “How’s it going in there?”
“Oh yeah,” she said, like she was just remembering the whole reason we were there. “I got the scoop.”
Cole showed up behind me, his arms crossed. “Well?”
“Well,” Lacey said, “I went in there. It’s this, like, Republican fundraiser or something? Lots of old people. Everyone looks real fancy. Anyway, I sat at the bar, did a little flirting. Did you know that Ronald Reagan was a famous movie star before he was president?”
Cole stifled a laugh.
“You flirted with old people?” I said, surprised.
“No!” she replied quickly, laughing. “No, with the bartender. He’s real cute. Anyway, eventually I told him that I was looking to hire someone on his staff to take pictures for a magazine that I work for.”
“Smart,” I said.
“I know. And he was all like, ‘oh, we don’t do that here, blah blah blah.’ I flirted some more, and eventually he admitted that this one waitress did that stuff sometimes, but not often.”
“And
?” Cole grunted, eager.
“Well, apparently she quit not too long ago. Here’s her name.” She handed me a little slip of paper that I pushed into my pocket.
I gave Cole a look and he nodded.
“Thanks, Lacey,” I said. “You’re incredible.”
“Yeah, I really am. Anyway, I’m going back in. I think I’m going to get that guy’s number?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “Lace, we’re going to head out.”
“Cool. I’ll call a cab.”
Cole gave me an amused look, but I just shook my head. “You’re insane, you know that?” I said to her.
“Yeah, bitch, but he’s so cute!”
She hugged me and then turned and walked back toward the entrance. I waved to her and she waved back, disappearing inside.
Cole stared at me, and I just shrugged. “I guess she’s having fun in there.”
“I guess so.”
We looked at each other and then burst out laughing as we walked back toward the car. I was elated and excited all at once. Finally, something was going our way.
We had a lead.
Chapter Twelve: Cole
I wanted to rush right out there, track the waitress down, and bust through her door, but Alexa talked me out of it. Apparently you can’t just intimidate everyone around you. Apparently the world doesn’t work that way. At least according to Alexa, anyway.
My world worked that way. Everyone else was just catching up.
Instead, we were going to sit and think for the night. At least, that’s what she was going to do. As soon as we were home, the feel of Alexa’s pussy still fresh on my fingers, I followed her up to her room.
I couldn’t get that noise she made out of my head. It was half whine, part whimper, and all fucking sexy as hell. It drove me crazy the way her body responded to my every touch.
But as soon as we were home, it was like the damn spell was broken.
“No way,” she said as she went into her room.
“No what?”
“Forget about what happened out there. That was a mistake.”
I laughed at her, shaking my head. She was completely unbelievable.
“After all this, you’re still saying it’s a mistake? Your body disagrees with you.”
“Yeah, well, my body isn’t always right.”
My grin got bigger. “So you admit you’re fucking wet for me constantly? That you can’t be near me without wanting me to sink my cock deep between your legs?”