Cole easily bounced her light frame up and down on his shaft, her body relaxed and flexible. Penny had always been built for the fuck, so had Cole, for that matter. Both in perfect physical condition, limber and agile. Their bodies, worked well against each other, always pushing the others to go that much further.
He invaded every inch of her core, filling it to perfection. Cole had always felt as if Penny’s body had been built, just to fit his. No other woman had ever gripped him like she did, ever fit around him so exceptionally. And, she was always so, damn, wet for him, always. That had to mean something, didn’t it?
He wanted to say things to her, so many things, but he didn't. He knew that wouldn’t get him anywhere. So, he stayed silent of words, only allowing pleasured noises to leave his lips.
Penny was refusing to think about how many ways this was wrong or about the fact that it could only end badly. Instead, she let herself have the moment, let herself get lost to Cole’s body for the millionth time in her life.
"I'm so close," she panted into his mouth as he nipped her lip between his teeth.
Cole didn't need to be told, he knew it, even before she did. Hearing it out loud though, had his cock jerking.
"I missed you so fucking much. I hate being away from you!" Cole confessed in a pained growl.
His words sent Penny over the edge. She dug her nails into his scalp, smashing his face into her chest as her head tilted back, along with her eyes.
The pleading moan that escaped Penny’s lips sounded to Cole like an order to let loose, so that's just what he did. He pounded her hard and deep, forcing his cock to slip past her clenching muscles, hitting her end zone over and over again, until he felt his balls go tight, and his warm, milky seed shoot free of his cocks tip. He held himself deep within her. His thick release filling her core as her body twitched around his, sucking him dry with every pulse of her pussy’s clenching walls.
The pair, panted into each other's lips, holding on tight as they both started to descend back down to earth. A decent that always left them feeling just a bit woozy, like a shot of morphine to a main vein.
Penny couldn’t help but to think it was shameful, how long it had taken her to come back to the here and now. That shouldn’t have happened again. She hated herself for being so weak, for giving into him, and her body’s, always present ache for his.
"Fuck, put me down," she hissed, her eyes closed tight.
Cole let out a disappointed breath, knowing that her protective walls were back in place, which left him standing on the outside, yet again. It wasn’t the first time, and he hoped, it wouldn’t be the last, but either way, it hurt like hell to hear the rejection in her voice.
Each time, Penny pushed him away it served as a reminder that he had failed, all over again. A reminder that even though she had taken him into herself, she hadn’t really let him in, not where it really counted.
Allowing his spent cock to slip from her dripping folds, he let her body slide down his, until her boots were planted, not so firmly, back on the floor. Her legs wobbled, as she gripped his shoulders trying to steady herself. Then just like that, she was out of his arms.
"It's late, I should get home…"
Penny said the words to the floor as she reached down to pick up her purse, her tone sounding ashamed.
"Ya, of course," Cole nodded, reaching down to snatch up his baseball cap off the floor. Slipping it on, he followed her lead out of the building, with a heavy feeling in his gut.
The ride to her part of town was quiet, neither speaking a single word to the other. On the radio, a sad old country song played out, one that neither had the mind to change. It seemed fitting and went well with the powerful hum of the Vipers engine as Cole kept his foot pressed to the gas peddle, slow and steady. He wasn’t trying to rush. He had no interest in letting her out of the car, any sooner than he had to.
Penny lived in a part of town that Cole really didn’t like. It was a little, better than the last place that she had lived, but not by much. He had made sure that she didn't stay in that pit for long. A grand, paid to the slumlord, had her evicted from the rundown complex in less than a week. He had offered to let her stay with him, hell, he had begged her even, but of course, she had turned him down, just like she had every time before. He couldn’t really blame her, he wasn’t too fond of the overly modern beach house, either. It was way too damn big for one person and no matter how much stuff he bought to fill the space, it just never did manage to feel like a real home. Homes were made to feel that way by the people that filled them and by the memories made inside there walls. His house was nothing more than an insanely expensive storage locker that he kept all his cool shit in.
Penny didn’t even allow the car to come to a complete stop before she was yanking her seat belt off, and reaching for the door.
"Hey," Cole called out, just before she could slam the door in his face. She stilled but didn't bother turning around.
"Will you tell T.J, that I'll be by tomorrow to pick him up?"
"Kay," was her only response before she slammed the car's door, and made a mad dash for the front steps of her run-down apartment building.
Pressing his forehead to the steering wheel, Cole let out a heavy breath. He wanted to kick himself for pushing her tonight, he knew better. Half of him knew that it wasn't for the best, but the other half knew that he couldn't help himself.
Two months of filming in Ireland had kept him away. Each day he missed her more and more, until finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. As soon as they yelled wrap, he was off and running, right back here to Cali, right back here to his home but more importantly, right back into her arms and, to his surprise, she had let him. For a moment tonight it almost appeared as if she had missed him as much as he had missed her. The guilty look in her eyes after proved that not to be true, but at least for a moment, it was. She might not have missed him, but her body obviously had. It had responded to him just like it always had, ready and willing. If he could just find a way to make her heart listen to her vagina, all would be well.
Cole wondered how much tonight was gonna cost him, in the way of wasted time. How long would she spend avoiding him, until things could get back to normal? Well, as normal as things ever were between them, anyway. He hoped it wouldn't be too long. It killed him to not be able to see her or talk to her, not to be able to know what she was up to or how she was doing.
His phone, vibrating to life in his lap, had him eyeing the screen. As he read Penny’s message, a smile graced his lips.
"I’m glad your back. Night, old man."
There were only five years between them and now that they were older, that really didn’t seem like such a stretch but she still liked to tease him every chance she got, reminding him that he wasn’t as young as he once was.
Quickly, he texted back, his heart already feeling a bit lighter.
“Glad to be back. Night, my love.”
It wasn't much, but it was more than he had expected from her so soon. Maybe, just maybe, he would get a pardon from her notorious cold shoulder, this time. A man could hope, anyway. On the drive back to his house, Cole was content, knowing that he’d, finally, be able to get a halfway decent night of sleep. He never slept very well when he was out of town. Too many bad things could happen with Penny back here in Cali, all on her own. At least when he was around, he was just a car ride away if she needed him. The sad part about that was that he spent most of his days and nights, for that matter, praying that she would.
Chapter 3
H ey, Tons-of-fun! What the fuck do you want?!" Cole yelled, from down the hall, as he watched a short, fat, sweaty man walk up to Penny's door, stubby fingers already curled into a fist, ready to knock.
"Rent! That's what the fuck I want! What's it to ya, Pretty Boy?" The unkempt man questioned, looking Cole up and down.
Quickly, Cole reached into his pocket, pulling out a thick wad of cash, held together by his ‘T’ for Texas, money clip. A jerk of his hea
d and a little wave of the green had the obese man waddling his way over to the stairwell, where Cole stood far out of hearing range of Penny’s door.
"How much?" He questioned, sitting down the coffee holder he had been carrying on the step, before unclipping his cash.
“Four-hundred for this month and a hundred from last month. She keeps this shit up and I'm gonna have to kick her out. She's got a great ass, but when I ain’t getting any of it, it ain’t worth the money I’m losing on the place." The slumlord noted, rearranging his junk.
The deadly look Cole gave had the greasy looking man standing up just a bit straighter, his eyes dropping to the floor as he cleared the phlegm from his throat in a nervous manner.
"Sorry, ya know what I mean, though this ain't no flop house. She either has to start paying or she’s gonna have to find a new place for her and that kid of hers. That’s life." He shrugged, still feeling small under Cole's glare.
Any man with half a brain could look at Cole, and see he wasn’t someone you wanted to fuck with. Not only because of his muscled build, which was currently on display in his snug white V-neck Tee, but also because Cole just radiated a sense of Alpha wherever he went. His confidence and ability to back up his smart mouth, tended to have other men taking the lower ground when he was around. When you’re a black belt in jujitsu, you hold yourself in a certain way. A way that lets those around you know that you're not somebody they want to step up to, just because they’re feeling froggy.
"Alright, here’s how this is gonna go. Here's the money she owes you.” Cole said, ripping off hundred dollar bills from the top of his stack, before tucking them into the pocket of the chunkers stained T-shirt. “Tomorrow, you’re gonna knock on that door over there, and then, you’re gonna tell the nice lady who lives there that the rent’s been dropped,” Cole instructed with a point to Penny’s door. It earned him an absurd look from the rent collector, one he ignored completely. “I don’t care what you come up with, as of why it’s been dropped, just tell her it's dropped to half. Which is what it should be, anyway. This place is a shit hole." Cole noted, a disgusted look on his features as he gave the building a quick, once-over.
"Are you tryin’ to strong arm me, buddy? I can't let her get off only paying me half!" The man scoffed, finally meeting Cole’s eyes, once again.
"Shut your face, tubby, before I break your fuckin' arm. Now listen, from here on out, if she’s ever late or behind, you call me and I'll take care of it. I'll also be paying the other half of the rent that you’re gonna tell her you dropped. Got it?" Cole informed, pulling a black sharpie out of his pocket.
Being a celebrity. means always having one on hand. You never knew when a fan was going to hit you up for an autograph. No autograph was given today though, instead, he pulled a dollar bill out of his wad, wondering how it had gotten in there in the first place, before shoving the obnoxious wad of cash, back into the pocket of his black fatigues. Pressing the bill to the man's fat gut, Cole used it as a, not so hard surface, in order to jot down his cell number on the back of the one spot. After he was finished, he stuffed the meaningless buck into the man's shirt pocket, giving it a not so gentle tap.
“God damn, she must be a hellcat in the sack if you’re willin’…,”
Cole gripped the man's neck, in a lightning fast move that instantly had the douchebag’s eyes bugging out of his head and his nasty comment coming to a complete stop as his back slammed up against the wall behind him.
"If I ever hear you talk about her that way again, I’m gonna break your hand in twelve different places, in a way that won’t ever heal, making you lose any and all ability to masturbate, let alone hold your little pencil dick to take a piss. Are we clear?"
Cole’s tone was level and even, as if his threat was nothing more than a simple fact he was sharing with an old friend. His fake, friendly smile didn’t stop the man's eyes from going as wide as saucers, as he nodded his head in agreement.
"Good, I’m glad we got that all worked out. Now, fuck off!" Cole taunted with a smirk as he tapped the man on the cheek in a playful, more than a little rough way, before stepping back to retrieve the coffee he had brought along with him.
Letting out a held breath, the slumlord watched as Cole made his way over to Penny’s door.
"Oh,"
The pudgy man jumped in his skin as Cole spoke out once more, turning to lock eyes with the degenerate. Shit brown to icy greens.
"Let's keep this little chat between you, me, and the cockroaches, alright?"
The vigorous nod of the man's head had Cole gracing him with a cocky grin before turning his attention back to Penny's door. He tapped twice hard, then twice soft, followed by four rapid fire taps. The secret knock that would let them know it was him.
His smile grew real as he heard the sound of little footsteps running across the floor before the door swung open wide.
"There’s my little man!" Cole greeted with a big smile as the blonde haired boy, lunged at him with all the force an eleven-year-old could muster.
"It’s about time; you’ve been gone forever!" T.J. exclaimed, squeezing Cole tight before pushing him away fast. They were men, men couldn’t linger in their hugs. Lingering hugs were for pussies, which neither one of them considered themselves to be.
"Ya buddy, I know, it sucked ass! Work went stupid long but I'm back now, and boy am I ever ready to kick your ass in paintball!" Cole smirked, giving T.J.’s arm a gentle punch.
"You freaking wish, you're going down, old man!" T.J. declared, punching Cole back before heading into the small apartment that he and his mother called home.
"Old man, my ass! I can still run circles around you any day of the week, small fry." Cole reminded, taking a moment to look around their cramped living space. It was messy in the lived in kind of way, the kind of way that made it feel comfortable. Penny and T.J.’s apartment was nothing like Cole’s house. He actually liked spending time here, cramped or not.
"She's still sleeping," T.J. informed, taking a seat at the kitchen table.
It was early and with the way T.J. was still trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes, Cole could tell that he hadn't been up for long.
"Who asked about her?' Cole shrugged, sitting down the coffee container in front of T.J. on the table.
"You did, you just didn't say it out loud." The kid scoffed, rolling his eyes. He wasted no time in eyeing the scribbled writing on the sides of the cups, finding his, he pulled it his direction. Cappuccino, extra foam, just how he liked it.
"Lies, I was just thinking how much cooler the living room would look with a fifty-inch flat screen." Cole fibbed, making his way over to the kitchen cabinets.
Finding them almost bare he let out an annoyed breath. The only things left were things that he knew T.J. ate, nothing extra. He made a mental note to stop by the grocery store on their way back from paintball. Get T.J. all his junk food favorites and pick up all that weird shit Penny loved to eat but could never afford to buy.
"Flat screen, huh, yeah right; don’t I wish. I'm the only kid in my whole school that doesn't have a TV. It’s like we’re Amish or something." T.J. pouted.
"I can’t believe she’s still holding on to that stupid ‘no TV’ rule. I thought for sure that she’d let that go after a while. I mean, come on, who doesn’t watch TV for Christ Sake? The woman’s still living in the stone age."
Cole rolled his eyes as he pulled two bowls out of the cabinet and a box of Captain Crunch. Cereal was always something that stayed in stock in the Lane household. Penny pretty much lived off the shit. She could go days eating nothing but. Cole had never met anyone who enjoyed it so much, besides maybe his friend Able, that weirdo could eat an entire box in one sitting.
"No TV, no movies, no video games, it freaking sucks here! This house is a prison!" T.J. declared with an over dramatic slam of his fist on the table, making Cole laugh out.
"Oh ya, you got it so bad, man. Ya know when I was little…,"
"Yeah, yeah, I alread
y know, you had to walk uphill, ten miles, barefoot, both ways to school, in a snowstorm, every day of the year, I get it, I get it." T.J. teased, smirking over at his favorite person in the whole wide world.
"Oh, you got jokes, huh?" Cole challenged, sniffing the milk before he eyed the label for a date. It seemed legit, so he finished filling the two bowls before making his way over to the table.
"Hey, look, food," Cole announced, glancing over to see T.J. still scrolling through his phone.
“Oh, my bad,” T.J. apologized with a goofy look before sitting the phone down on the table and grabbing up the bowl that Cole had placed in front of him. The kid was smart as a whip but easily distracted. "I’m surprised your mom hasn't jacked that, yet." Cole noted, glancing at T.J.’s phone across the table.
"She still doesn't know I got it, sneaky, sneaky." T.J. winked.
“Yeah, speaking of which. I gave you that so you could get a hold of me in case of an emergency or just to shoot the shit and so that you wouldn't be a total freak when all your friends had one and you didn't. I however, did not give it to you so that you could use it to hack into the school's mainframe, you little dink." Cole scolded, trying like hell to keep the smile off his face.
"Oh come on, dude! It's not fair; we shouldn't even have to take that stupid class. This is, ‘Merica!" T.J announced proudly, before stuffing another huge bite of cereal into his mouth.
Cole couldn't help but laugh. The kid ate in the same heathen manner that his mother did. That was about where their similarities ended, though. The boy didn't really look much like Penny. Maybe in the nose a bit or a little in the shape of the eyes but that was about it.
Cole often found himself searching for her features in the little man's face but always seemed to come up short. He hated that there was so few of them to be found. That meant that the poor kid looked more like his deadbeat dad. Whoever the hell that was. The guy had never been around, never chipped in or tried to help out in any way. Cole never could understand how a man could do that, just abandon a woman after knocking her up.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place Page 4