by Ladew, Lisa
Coleton turned to her again. "Can I use your phone?"
"Sure," she mumbled, wondering who he would call in the middle of the night. She ran into the bedroom and grabbed it, checking the clock on the wall. 5:25 a.m. The sun would start coming up over the horizon soon. Hopefully they could get a bit more sleep when this was all over because they hadn't gone to bed until after midnight.
She shoved the battery back inside the phone, handed it to Coleton, then returned to the window and sank back down to watch the officers outside, praying in her mind that none of them would come to their door. That Joanne-Marie had no idea who Coleton was or where he had disappeared to.
Chapter 19
Coleton stood and walked into the kitchen to use her phone. Aria kept both eyes out into the parking lot but still tried to hear what Coleton was saying in the kitchen. She could only hear his side of the conversation but eventually figured out he was talking to a lawyer – probably his lawyer.
"Sorry, Ford, did I wake you?" He paused for a moment. "Great. I need something from you and I need it quickly. Do you have a pen and paper?"
"Okay, I want you to go to the Starlight Apartments in Tetam County. In apartment seven there is a young woman and her baby living there. Her name is Joanne-Marie and I don't know her last name. Her boyfriend Roger is being taken to jail right now for hitting her but I don't know how long he'll stay in there. I need you to convince her to leave the apartment before he gets out. I need you to set her up anywhere she wants to go. I don't care if she wants to go to Hawaii. You get her out of there and get her a place to live and maybe a job or school or something – something that she can do to make her life better. Right now she's living under this abusive asshole's thumb because she doesn't have anywhere else to live or any other way to survive. I want you to change that for her. I don't care how much of my money you have to spend."
Aria's heart pounded in her chest. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. How much money did Coleton really have? This was so much bigger than just giving someone a thousand dollars. Something like this could cost tens of thousands of dollars - no, hundreds of thousands of dollars - before it was over. Was he going to take care of this girl for the rest of her life?
Coleton began speaking again and Aria strained her ears to hear every word. "That's exactly right, Ford, thank you. Just take care of her and the baby. Even if something happens to me, I want my estate to take care of her."
Coleton waited for one more beat and then said something that made absolutely no sense to Aria.
"Purple elephant in a meadow. I will, bye."
***
Coleton hung up the phone and got himself a glass of water. That was it. He had done all he could do. Now he needed to focus on his own issues again. Ford was a good lawyer, and a good man. He would take care of Joanne-Marie and Roger Junior. He would make sure that they found their way to safety. If Coleton was still alive after his father's trial, he would call Ford again and see what the situation was.
He returned to the living room and sank down onto his knees next to Aria. Her eyes were wide and staring at him. She must have overheard the conversation. He hoped she didn't think he was stupid for trying to help someone that he'd only just met.
"Purple elephant in a meadow?" she said in a questioning whisper.
Coleton chuckled lightly. "That's our code word. That way he knows if someone is forcing me to say what I'm saying or if I'm saying it of my own free will."
Wonder drove across Aria's face. He thought it made her look more beautiful than ever.
"That's really wonderful what you're doing for Joanne-Marie. You might save her life, and give that little baby a chance at growing up differently from his father."
Coleton warmed inside at her praise. Maybe someday he would tell her what had happened to his oldest sister and her baby. Maybe someday he would be able to make up for being too young to help her back then.
Aria looked back outside at the police officers coalescing in the parking lot. Coleton pretended that he was looking too, but really he was studying Aria out of the corner of his eye. He pretended the parking lot lights were actually beams of moonlight dancing on her face. She was gorgeous, and he felt like he was going to burst just being this close to her.
He saw something shift in the set of her shoulders. She crawled closer to the window and almost pressed her forehead right up against the blinds.
"They're leaving," she whispered. She turned to Coleton, her eyes ablaze. "We did it. They aren't even talking to the neighbors. She must've just said you were some guy walking by and then you took off into the night." Aria leaned closer to Coleton and put her hands on his shoulders in her delight. "We did it!" she exclaimed again, leaning close to him, her face awash in triumph.
Coleton could smell the shampoo she washed her hair with. The touch of her hands on his shoulders instantly drove him mad and he felt his cock twitch and begin to stand at attention. Words as declarations of love flew through his mind. His mouth opened of its own accord and he spoke, not even knowing what he was going to say.
"In your light, I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems." he said, meaning every word of Rumi's wisdom.
Aria's face froze and a tiny gasp filled her lungs.
He couldn't contain himself. Coleton leaned forward and captured Aria's lips with his own. Her body tensed, but didn't pull away. Didn't scream. Didn't whip him across the face with her fist or the butt of her gun.
Coleton closed his eyes and gave everything he had to the kiss. This might be his one and only chance to taste something as sweet as Sergeant Aria Gale. He was not going to waste it. He crawled his hands across her back and raised one to her hair, plunging his fingers into the silky blonde tresses. He had wanted to do this since the first moment he saw he saw her - no, he had wanted to do it since the first moment he realized she wasn't Ava. He felt his cock standing at full attention now, straining against his jeans, begging to be part of the action.
He ignored it, and savored the taste of Aria's lips instead. He pushed his tongue lightly against the seam of her lips, urging her to let him deepen the kiss. She opened her mouth slightly and he took the advantage she offered, tenderly tracing her top and bottom lip, pulling her close to him, feeling the crush of her breasts against his chest. His senses threatened to overload. There was so much about her that he wanted to experience, to touch, to taste, to watch, to study. If only she would relax.
A split second before she did it, Coleton knew she was going to pull away. His heart wrenched in two and his soul tore in half. And then she was gone.
Aria stood up quickly and looked at him, panic written on her face. "I can't," she choked out and ran for the bedroom.
Coleton knelt next to the window for an hour considering those two words before he finally retreated to the couch and fell on top of it, his clothes and shoes still on, his mind alternating between reliving the most perfect kiss of his life and shutting down to avoid the pain of the loss of that kiss.
Chapter 20
Aria lay on the bed, over the top of the covers, staring at the ceiling overhead. Coleton had kissed her. She had let him. She had even enjoyed it, and almost given herself to him completely. Even now, hours after it had ended, her body was crying out for him. Her lips still tingled from his touch and she could smell his strong, clean scent on her skin. Her entire body thrummed with desire and need.
How had this happened? Why had this happened? The ethical and moral implications were huge and she couldn't get past them, but oh how she wanted to. Her mind kept returning to three images of him - first, him a few mornings ago, doing push-ups on the living room floor. His hard, muscled body. Then, the evening before, him sprinting across the kitchen of the apartment next door to save a woman he barely knew. And finally, a few hours ago, kissing her solidly, desperately.
She'd been awake for the rest of the night and at that very moment, she felt like she would never sleep again.
She heard Coleton finally m
oving around in the bathroom and then in the kitchen. Why had he done it? Why had he kissed her? And what he had said? Where did that come from? She had it memorized.
In your light, I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems.
Poetry, that's what he was reciting. But what did it mean? Was he calling her beautiful? Was he saying he loved her?
She shook her head. Of course not. Her job now was to let him know what he could do with his kisses and his poems.
Aria stood up forcefully and stepped out into the hallway, intent on shutting Coleton down for good. She found him in the kitchen, making her a plate. He smiled at her, hope written across his face, and she faltered, almost believing that he was only what he seemed to be – a good guy. A sweet man. Someone she could open up to and be with and not be scared of his exit.
No! She pushed those thoughts away and went on with her agenda. "What the hell do you think you were doing last night?" she snarled.
The hopeful look on Coleton's face fell away and Aria felt her soul twinge with regret.
"What my heart wanted," he said softly.
"What your heart wanted?" she sneered back. "Bullshit. What your dick wanted, more likely."
Coleton pulled back like she'd physically struck him. She cried inside but pushed on anyway.
"You wanted my sister!" she screamed at him, unable to contain herself. Unable to keep her promise to herself. Unable to separate the man in front of her from the man two years behind her.
"Not in the same way I want you," Coleton said and Aria stopped short. Her mind spun. What could he mean by that?
Coleton took a step forward and pressed on. "I was lonely when I tried to help your sister. She was there. She's a beautiful girl, but she's nothing compared to you."
"We're identical," Aria sputtered, knowing now that everything he said was a line.
"You're not identical. You, Aria, are stronger. Your eyes have more determination, your mouth has a harder set to it when you want something. Your drive and your determination outstrip anything that Ava could ever offer." He paused and his eyes took on a look of coldness. "Plus, I could tell her no. I wouldn't tell you no if my life depended on it. If I could have your love and mingle with your soul for just one night, I would gladly walk to my death the next morning with a smile on my lips and a song in my heart."
Aria took a step backwards. She had gone to him, determined to destroy any notion he had that there could ever be something between them, but that speech! What did it mean?
She couldn't do it. She couldn't continue to talk to him, to be around him, to be in the same room with him.
She retreated, leaving him in the kitchen with his confusing words hanging in the air.
Chapter 21
Aria woke up quickly, her eyes opening and taking in the familiar sight of the ceiling in the tiny bedroom of the tiny apartment that she was holed up in, with Coleton Savoy. It was dark. She'd slept lightly, fitfully, all day, twenty minutes here, forty-five minutes there, leaving the room only to use the bathroom and drink water straight out of the faucet. She had heard Coleton moving around in the apartment, so she knew he was still there, but what she didn't know was what she was going to do about him.
Her mind remembered her decision to go against her natural impulses and do the opposite, hoping that would lead her to happiness. But what about her job? What about what was right? What about the life she had here in Westwood Harbor? Would she be throwing that all away?
She stared at the ceiling and let her thoughts go where they wanted. She had a lot more thinking to do. Hours later, she drifted off one more time.
***
Aria woke again, decision made. She stood in the dark bedroom, then walked out into the living room, finding Coleton sleeping on the couch. She strode to the front door and peeked out into the darkness. The parking lot was quiet and still. The clock on the wall in the kitchen said it was 2:45 in the morning. She walked back to the couch and slowly took off her gun holster, placing it gently on the ground. Her shirt followed, and then her bra, then her pants and underwear. She lifted up the blanket Coleton was using to cover himself with and slipped onto the couch next to him.
He stirred immediately and opened his eyes, looking at her in confusion. She didn't bother to explain, just covered his lips with her own, feeling her desire and her decision meld, and giving herself over to it.
As soon as she kissed him the feeling of sleepy surrealism fell away and she realized she really was doing this. And she really wanted to do this.
Coleton's arms crept around her greedily, and he groaned into her mouth when all he touched was warm, bare skin.
"Is this real?" he whispered to her, breaking the contact of their lips for an awful moment.
She pinched him on the arm, hard, to assure him he wasn't dreaming and he moaned into her mouth again, then shifted his body up onto his elbow, pulling her beneath him. The blanket slid to the floor. Coleton held himself up and looked at her body in the dim, silvery moonlight falling from the window.
"You're so beautiful," he sighed and crushed her deliciously into the couch with his body, his lips finding hers again. She opened herself to him eagerly, their kiss melding them together in a new way.
Coleton pulled away slightly and trailed kisses down her neck.
"Tell me a poem," Aria breathed as his touch sang through her body, stirring her passions, whipping her emotions into rough peaks. He didn't speak for a moment, just moved farther down her neck and collarbone until his lips were at her breast. His hot breath on her nipple caused it to harden instantly, and the throb of her body increased.
He spoke then, his voice a harsh, rasping whisper. "Let the lover be, disgraceful, crazy, absentminded. Someone sober will worry about things going badly. Let the lover be."
Aria thrust her hands into his hair and pulled gently, her body on fire, her mind ablaze. How did he do that? How did he always have a poem that perfectly fit the situation ready to let loose from his luscious, biteable lips. She tugged on his hair, wanting to pull him back up to her mouth so she could do just that, bite his lips.
Instead, he bore the tugging and fastened his mouth over first one nipple, then the other, swirling his tongue around in a way that made the sensations shoot straight through her tender core. She groaned aloud and breathed, "Tell me another one." She felt suddenly like his poems were similar to an endearing accent that she couldn't get enough of.
He released her nipple long enough to force out, "When love itself comes to kiss you, don't hold back! When the king goes hunting, the forest smiles," then dropped his head right back down again, teasing the other nipple with his hot and talented mouth.
Aria tried to think about that one. Tried to puzzle it out. But her brain wouldn't work, wouldn't fit the pieces together. It was too busy processing the heavenly sensations that were coming from her body. Her nipples tingled and throbbed as Coleton lavished attention on them.
One of Coleton's hands snuck down her body and grazed across her belly, making her gasp. It kept inching lower until it met with the very top of her most delicate softness. She looked down at him and realized he was still fully clothed, but with his next movement she lost all capability of thought, all desire to care about his clothes. He grazed a finger over her clitoris, so lightly she could scream, the blissful sensation spreading quickly and making her quiver.
Aria bit back a moan and tried to quiet her breathing. He knew what he was doing. It had been so long for her. Two years since she'd had a man touch her with any degree of intimacy. Two years since she'd even thought about sex. In all that time, she'd never even touched herself, never once having thought about it. Her sex spasmed in sudden, awakened response and she gasped, feeling like she was going to explode.
One more slight graze from his fingers and Aria was off like a rocket. She pressed her hands to her mouth, trying to stifle the high keening sounds escaping her throat. The orgasm rolled through her with little regard for anything but her release. The
power and length of it floored her, and all she could do was press her mouth into her palm and try desperately to stay quiet while she rode out the blissful wave.
Finally, it was over, and Aria collapsed to the couch, aftershocks still spreading through her.
Coleton rolled off of the couch and met her gaze. "That was the hottest thing I've ever seen," he said.
Aria giggled helplessly in response. Men. One still very-fully clothed man who had made her detonate with two touches. Heat flooded her cheeks at the thought of what had just happened and she reached for the blanket.
Coleton pulled his shirt over his head in one fluid motion and the sight of his bare chest stopped her, instantly lighting her passion again.
She reached out and grazed one finger down his pectoral muscles, then around to his back, fingering the exact spot where she'd seen the drop of sweat traverse it's way to the floor. She had wanted so badly to touch him, and now she was. It was better than she had thought it would be.
"That didn't take much," he said, wonder in his voice.
"Yeah well, it's been a couple of years."
"A couple of years? You haven't even ..."
"No," Aria responded forcefully. "I haven't."
"But why?" Coleton asked, leaning forward and brushing a lock of hair off of her forehead.
Aria felt a need to bluster her way out of answering. A desire to turn the question away from her. Instead, she answered simply. "Two years ago was when my husband left me. I've been kind of broken up over it since then. I didn't even think about sex or anything like sex because I didn't want to think about Jason."
"And now?" Coleton asked, running his fingers through her hair.
She shrugged, still touching his rippling muscles. "What do you mean?"
"Are you still broken up about it?"