by Lyla Payne
My eyes or face or just the chemistry between us must have communicated something to Cole. He was a watcher, which made him excel at reading people—especially me—and he came around to my side of the bed.
Soft fingers trailed down my face, sliding strands of hair between them and tucking them away, before tracing my lips. My hand reached up and snagged the front of his button-down, pulling him toward me until our noses almost touched.
“This isn’t goodbye.” Tears filled my eyes. “I don’t want that, either.”
His lips touched mine softly, like a whispered promise that we would leave here together. That whatever came our direction from his parents or my future in the city, or all of our inevitable disagreements, we would tackle them.
“Mister Cole is supposed to kiss me, Ruby.” Caroline’s scratchy voice protested.
We broke apart, smiling a little guiltily at being busted kissing in a fifth-grader’s hospital bed, but nothing could make me feel bad right now.
“Sorry, kid. I’m keeping him for myself.”
“So, now he’s your boyfriend?”
The question tied my tongue. I certainly wasn’t prepared to answer that five minutes after I’d decided to put my heart out there for the taking.
Luckily, we were saved by the entrance of Caroline’s harried mother. She flew in the room, her face lined with worry and stress, and grabbed her daughter’s hand while Cole helped me out of the bed. I straightened my hoodie, hoping the bun on top of my head wasn’t as askew as it felt.
After reassuring herself that her daughter was going to be fine, she looked at Cole and me, her face filled with gratitude. “Thank you for staying with her. It made me feel so much better when Mr. Stuart said you were coming, Ruby. Caroline adores you.”
“Mom.” Caro rolled her eyes.
I reached down and pinched her un-battered cheek. “It’s okay, Caro. I adore you, too.”
“We’ll let the two of you spend some time together,” Cole said. “I didn’t get much sleep last night, and I’d like to see Ruby home.”
“Of course. Thank you again, so much.”
“It was my pleasure.”
Cole’s hand wrapped around mine, but I leaned into the bed and gave Caroline a gentle hug. “Do you have a pen?”
Cole grabbed one off the nightstand and handed it over, and I wrote my phone number on Caroline’s hand. “You call me when you’re home, and I’ll bring over some movies and popcorn, okay? Girls’ night?”
She grinned up at me, blue eyes bright. “Can Noelle come, too?”
“She’s a girl, isn’t she?” I said it in a perfect imitation of Caro’s duh voice, making her giggle and then wince. “Okay. See you later.”
Cole tugged me out of the room and down the hallway, then into the first empty room we passed. Early morning shadows bathed the sterile space, partitioned by a flimsy, too-cheerful curtain, and he pinned me against the wall.
My breath came in quick gasps, body filled with the anticipation of his kiss, but he stopped short of my mouth, his eyes searching mine. “We’re really doing this? You’re in, and not just for today?”
I was surprised he couldn’t hear how hard my heart pounded while my brain begged for me to take this one last out. Staring up into his face, earnest and sweet, I couldn’t. I couldn’t walk away. “I want to go on a date with you, Cole.”
“More than one.”
“Let’s see how the first time goes.”
He lowered his lips to mine, then, gently at first but growing more demanding by the second. His tongue pushed my lips apart and sought mine. We kissed until I couldn’t breathe, until the hard outline of his desire pressed against my stomach and his hands were up my shirt.
“Come with me.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him back into the hallway, hoping we didn’t run into anyone because we looked like exactly what we were—two people looking for somewhere private.
“Where are we going?” He whispered.
I didn’t answer. The hallways were dimly lit and blessedly empty, given the early hour, and a couple more turns and one flight of stairs brought me to my destination—an On Call room.
Mentally crossing my fingers that it would be unoccupied, I pushed it open and crossed the threshold, not turning on the light but locking the door behind us. Both cots were empty.
I tugged Cole toward one and down on top of me, our lips finding each other’s like magnets before we even hit the sheets. He pushed my sweatshirt and tank top out of the way and I returned the favor, unbuttoning his dress shirt with quick, anxious fingers. When I laid back and pulled him with me, though, he paused.
Oh, fuck. Not again.
But he shook his head at the wrinkle in my brow. “No, hen. I want you, and you being willing to take a chance means there’s no way I’m backing out, it’s just….”
He looked away but I pulled his gaze back to mine, gently nudging his chin with one hand. Heat poured between my trembling thighs, but worry dampened my lust. His discomfort made my heart swell, made me recall that Cole still had secrets that somehow connected to sex. “You can tell me anything, Cole.”
“I haven’t done this with anyone in a while, Ruby. A long while. I’m afraid…I don’t want you to be disappointed.” The tips of his ears bloomed a purplish red, a now recognizable indication of embarrassment.
“How long is a long while?”
“Four years, give or take.”
“Holy…and you chose me?” For some reason I wanted to hug him close and kiss him silly at the same time. It also made me wonder more than ever what had happened four years ago. What had kept him cautious for so long? “Why?”
“I like you. I’ve wanted to know you since I saw you perform last summer, but you seemed so unattainable up there. I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone.” His voice shook as his gaze swept my body. One hand slid to my hips and pushed my shorts down to my ankles. When it returned to my face, I felt tremors jerk through his fingers.
My chest hurt at the sense of sweet vulnerability soaking out of him and into me. He thought this wasn’t going to last very long, or that he was out of practice, and maybe I’d think I should have listened to the website after all.
“Cole, it’s okay. Four years is a damn long time. There is nothing I want more than to be with you. Here.” I guided his still trembling hand to the backside of my thigh, then slipped it under the edge of my panties until he could feel how turned on I was just from his kisses. “Does that seem like a girl who’s disappointed? If you don’t want to do this right now, we don’t have to. But I want to, no matter how long it lasts.”
I wanted to ask why. Not why he’d chosen me, but why he hadn’t chosen anyone else at Whitman. Now wasn’t the time, though, and the way the tips of his fingers lingered inside my drawers, making lazy sweeps up and down, drove lust home and erased thoughts of everything else.
His gaze darkened when I started to wriggle closer to his hand, his breath quickening. “I want to. Whatever happens, I promise, I’ll make it up to you later.”
Cole sat back and dug a condom out of his pocket, then stood and dropped his pants. There was nothing underneath and my breath caught at the sight of him, bronze and muscled and naked and mine, if only for now. He crawled onto the cot and gently removed my panties, until the two of us lay naked next to each other.
Perfect silence wrapped around us, creating what felt like a bubble, insulated from the world and interrupted only by our erratic breathing. I wanted to reach out and stroke him, but his worries about jumping back into sex after all this time stayed my hand. Instead I waited, begging my body to be patient, and the way he drank in every inch of my bare skin turned out to be more erotic than I could have guessed.
He finally lowered his mouth, capturing my lips swiftly and drawing my tongue into a tangled dance. When he lifted a hand and laid it on the side of my face, warm contentment like I’d never felt flowed through my blood, like too many glasses of wine on a summer night. My arm went around his
neck and tugged us close together, flesh pressed against flesh, and his hand buried in the hair coming loose at the back of my head.
I hooked a tentative leg over his, not breaking our kiss but leveling our hips. His hand left my head and swept downward, squeezing my hip and then inching lower, until his fingers ran the length of my damp center. A shudder worked through me and he groaned against my lips, stiffening further against my belly.
His lips played with mine, tongue invading my mouth as his fingers moved again to push inside me, too. One, then another, moved in and out in an increasing pace that made me forget about trying to make this last. When Cole shifted to give the soft pad of his thumb access to the one spot still aching to be touched, the flash of intense pleasure took me by surprise. I came into his hand, my lips whimpering against his as he kept up his firm, sure strokes as my body jerked tight around him.
“My god, you have no idea how beautiful you are when you do that.” He moved his hand back to my side, fingers toying with my breast now, all emotion other than desire wiped from his face.
“The way I see it,” I gasped, still trying to regain my senses, “that took me less than two minutes. Now, it’s your turn.”
I reached down and grabbed him, sliding my hand from bottom to tip once, just to watch his eyes close, lashes fluttering against his cheeks, then guided him forward. He paused for a split second, our eyes connected as his tip rested just inside me, before he slid as deep as my body would take him.
Cole’s arms tightened around me, no longer concerned with teasing or touching, but it wasn’t like with Liam. His eyes burned into mine, our bodies somehow connected by more than flesh as we started to move together. After a moment his lips found mine again and he kissed me, emotion and tension and lust pouring between our mouths as he worked in and out, stroking deeper each time.
I broke away with a gasp, unable to hold back with the incredible feeling of him filling me. “Shit, it feels amazing. You feel amazing.”
He just shook his head and made a strangled noise, then buried his face in my neck and squeezed me tight against him, thrusting hard and gasping my name. The feeling of his sweating skin against mine, lips and breath moving across my pulse, while he shuddered inside me ripped a second completely unexpected orgasm through my body.
Holy shit, I thought, as we lay in each other’s arms, both shaking now. That entire thing had lasted less than ten minutes but I’d had two more orgasms than I’d had with Liam in six weeks. A grin split my lips and I rolled my head to find Cole watching me, a little wary.
“Oh, come on, you faker. It hasn’t been so long that you’ve forgotten what it feels like to make a girl come. Twice.”
That earned me a hesitant smile. He splayed his fingers out flat on my belly. “I just know it felt fucking amazing. All of it. You. Me.”
“I’m glad, because no way we’re done.”
“Oh, hen, we’re not even done for today.” His confidence had returned. Having sex after four years must be like riding a bike or something. “How did you know about this room?”
“I watch Grey’s Anatomy.” He snorted. “Seriously, it’s kind of a sad story.”
Something flickered across his face. Maybe fear, maybe something else. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“It’s not about me. The Gilberts, the ones the hospital is named after? My mom grew up with the woman, Lana. After they died in a car accident, she donated a bunch of money to their foundation and she’s part owner of the hospital. She comes down here for meetings and crap sometimes, usually for twenty-four hours, and insists I spend time with her, even though she’s always too busy.” I shrugged. “I spend most of my time studying in the cafeteria or napping in one of the on-call rooms.”
“Gilbert. Do they have a daughter?”
“Yeah, Kennedy. She’s younger than me by three or so years.”
“She’s a hot mess. She goes to Whitman—almost died at a party during orientation week.”
I flinched. I’d heard as much about the Gilberts’ only daughter, from my parents. I actually hadn’t realized she went to Whitman. We didn’t know each other, and I was positive she hadn’t gone through Recruitment.
My stomach grumbled loudly, and Cole raised an eyebrow. “A woman with an appetite. I like it.”
“You have no idea.”
“Hen, as anxious as I am to go again, I’m going to feed you first. Did you have dinner before you ran over here last night?”
“No.”
He sat up, feeling around for my underwear, then handing them over. He pulled his pants and T-shirt back into place while I re-dressed, then leaned down to press a lingering kiss to my lips.
I pushed up onto my toes, sliding my tongue along his lower lip and enjoying the way it made his breath hitch, then stepped back. “Well, you said you wanted food, so I guess we should go.”
“You are an evil woman. It’s one of the reasons I can’t get you out of my mind.”
I tried to hide my smile as he led me out to the parking lot, but it was a struggle. He raised his eyebrows at me, looking a little out of control and disheveled for the first time since I’d met him.
“You drove?”
“No, I took Quinn’s car. You?”
“Yes.” He pressed a key fob—I hadn’t even known he had a car—and the headlights on a gorgeous black Jag flicked twice.
He settled me into the passenger seat then walked around and got in, starting it up without another word. “Pancakes?”
“In lieu of beignets, sure.”
“I can’t wait for you to show me New Orleans.”
The offhand comment tightened a twinge between my shoulder blades. We were really doing this. Talking about not only later tonight, or tomorrow, but fictitious vacations home. “Tell me about Scotland.”
He did, the lilting brogue of his voice filling the rest of the ten-minute ride to the diner. We went inside and ordered pancakes and coffee, and I kept catching myself smiling at him like a weirdo. I shook my head, trying to dispel a little of the crazy. We’d been dating for like, an hour. “What are your plans after graduation?”
He dumped half a bottle of syrup on his plate and cut a bite, swirling it in the sticky mess. It was one of the first uncontrolled thing I’d seen him do, and it made it easy to see the little boy lurking in his past.
“I have a few options. Gavin wants me to come and work with him in Afghanistan. My parents have positions at their nonprofit back in Elgin. But I’d really like to finish at least my master’s before I leave Whitman, like the twins are doing. I’m not sure yet if I want to work in non-profit or try for tenure.”
“Teach college?”
He nodded. “I like learning. If I taught and researched and published, I’d never have to stop.”
“Don’t tell me you’re missing the Stuart do-gooding gene,” I teased, taking a sip of my black coffee.
“Not at all. I’ve got more real-world nonprofit experience than most of the professors at this school. But as you’ve so aptly observed,”—he winked and took another bite—“nonprofit is the family business. It will always be part of my life, no matter what path I choose.”
“It’s nice, isn’t it? Being sure where you life is headed?”
“Yes. Although my talents pale in comparison to yours.”
“If you saw every performance of As You Like It and supposedly had a crush on me then, why didn’t you ask me out until that first day of speech?”
Cole swallowed and glanced out the diner window, then took a drink of coffee. It felt suspiciously like stalling, but he finally cleared his throat. “I was going to. It took me the entire run to get up the nerve, because you’re so goddamn beautiful, for one, and for another, the way I felt, without even knowing you or talking to you, scared me a little.” He snuck a glance at me, probably to see if I was about to call him a stalker and bolt.
I might have, if every word didn’t sound like it had been torn from my own mind. My attraction to Cole had been stron
g from the first day I’d laid eyes on him, and the reason I’d fought it for so long was the strange surety that he wouldn’t be the same as the rest.
If Cole had a reason for not sleeping around, like I had a reason for sleeping around, maybe we’d both been scared of the inkling that this would be different. It would shake things up.
“But….” I prompted, letting him know I wasn’t going anywhere.
“I went to the cast party and you were so happy, and obviously into something with Liam. I didn’t want to be the one to ruin your night.” He ducked his head. “And I was a fanny. Dinnae want you to shoot me down.”
“I’m glad you didn’t say anything then, because I probably would have said no.” He looked up, startled. “And I like how we got here, Cole.”
I blushed, embarrassed by my stupid cheesiness, but Cole didn’t seem to mind. My skin heated under the weight of his stare and I suddenly wanted very badly to get out of this restaurant. Our eyes met and I saw the same desire hanging in his. We both scarfed the rest of breakfast, Cole paid the check, and we hustled back out to his Jag.
Chapter 18
Tension wound me up, infecting me from his side of the car, and it didn’t take a genius to recognize it for the sexual variety. Now that we’d come to some kind of agreement, it looked like things were game-on for Cole, which was good, since they’d been game-on for me for weeks.
“Where are we going?”
“My house.”
He didn’t ask my permission and he didn’t have to, but putting on an encore for his family didn’t hold much appeal. As though he’d read my mind, Cole shot me a dimpled grin. “The twins are out with Mum and Dad at the beach, then they’re attending a charity dinner.”
A delicious shiver slid down my spine. “Are you supposed to go?”
“I’m not obligated.” Cole put his right hand on my knee and squeezed lightly. “I’m happy you’re here.”