“Dear god,” she muttered, shoulders shaking as he returned his attention to her ear. “I don’t know whether to be disgusted or amused.”
“I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive emotions, but if you’re dead set on picking just one my vote is for amused.” He lifted his head up again. “Although, now that I think about it, being amused while you’re full of me doesn’t help my poor neglected ego. You know I’ve gone two years without a woman screaming my name and telling me just how big I am. One tends to forget.”
Blair rolled her eyes and ran a finger down his abs, following the shallow cutouts. “I’m too much of a lady to comment on a man’s size.” Her hand dropped lower and she circled his hardening cock with her hand. “But I can tell you with some confidence that you’re very pretty.”
He apparently didn’t have anything to say to that and when she looked up, she was stunned to see that he was blushing. His cheeks were flushed and he averted his eyes as soon as she met them.
Lifting up to her elbow to make him meet her gaze, she laughed. “Are you embarrassed right now?”
“Nah,” he said, still not able to meet her gaze.
“Oh, my gosh, you totally are,” she exclaimed, releasing him from her hand and straddling him so he couldn’t avoid her gaze. “Is it because you don’t know you have a good-looking penis or because you’ve heard it so many times before.”
A heavy shoulder shrugged and while he turned his face forward he still wasn’t looking at her eyes. “No one’s ever come right out and said something like that, no.”
“And why are you embarrassed by it?”
“You know, you’re all of a sudden real interested in me, aren’t you?” he asked, trying to change the subject, his hands drifting up her thighs until he was lightly gripping her ass. “When before you wouldn’t even laugh at my legendary wit and charm.”
“Yeah, because that was boring and rehearsed, but now you just got interesting.”
That got a smile out of him. “I’m a man—it’s weird for me to hear shit like that.”
Blair rolled her eyes. “Compliments about your appearance? You do that all the time to me.”
“Yeah, and you don’t take it too well either.” He ran a thumb over the crease of her ass and tendrils of anticipation floated throughout her body.
“Because I know you’re saying that stuff just to sleep with me.”
“Doesn’t mean it’s not true,” he pointed out.
Blair drifted her thumbnails over his nipples down to the undersides of his pecs, playing around just like he was, stoking the embers for their next round. “So why are you embarrassed again?”
Cole’s eyes met hers then, the green suddenly intense. “I don’t know why. Just that I guess you’re different from other women I’ve slept with and you’re not exactly issuing out compliments.” He sighed hugely. “It’s been a little bit since someone’s seen it, so I guess—” his eyes slid away and then back again “—it was nice to hear and I liked it probably more than I should.”
The guilt was apparent in his voice, that he didn’t think he deserved happiness after his brother died. A pang of sadness gripped Blair. She couldn’t imagine losing Nate, but then feeling as if it was her fault as well? Cole had been through it the past two years and she felt good that she’d been able to make him smile a little. Guilt was definitely something she understood, still struggling under the weight of her shame. Even if she was innocent in the damage she’d caused, that naivete didn’t help her sleep at night. She was the very worst kind of woman and she didn’t deserve the man currently beneath her, but at least she’d been able to alleviate some of Cole’s misplaced guilt as well.
She leaned down to drop a kiss on his lips and his hand came up around her neck and held her there, taking the kiss from a sweet tap to an instant conflagration. Pulling back for a moment, she managed, “I think you should enjoy it however much you want.”
Then she kissed him again, tongue exploring his straight white teeth, the plush inside of his lip. Tugging on his lower lip and eventually letting it go, she sat back up and started kissing her way down his body. His skin was like an inferno, radiating serious waves of heat into the air around him. She slid a wide tongue over his nipple, sucking and nipping until his grip on her ass became tight, his big fingers digging into her flesh. Dropping more kisses down his chest, she didn’t waste much more time getting where she wanted to go.
Looking up, she met his eyes. “So is this something you’ve done in the past two years?”
He shook his head. “No one’s touched me but you, sweetheart.”
It shouldn’t have pleased her, but it did. For once, she was the one who’d been chosen. She wasn’t just some side woman someone was using to spice up their boring life or because cheating on their wife was some kink of theirs. Cole wanted her. He could have slept with anyone tonight or in the past two years and yet she was the one in bed with him now, seeing him naked, making him blush with the most casual of compliments. It shouldn’t matter at all, shouldn’t signify in her life, but she couldn’t help but feel warmed from the inside out. Out of nowhere, maybe it was possible that she’d unexpectedly found the friend she’d needed. Someone who didn’t know her or her history of epic shame. In two days, knowing Cole had done more to pull her out of her funk than all her family and friends hovering with concern, her mother’s vengeful musings and her father’s sad puppy eyes full of pity every time he saw her.
In this bed, she was finally allowed to be fully Blair. Mouthy, powerful and kind, and that was enough. It was such a huge relief to know she was enough for someone else.
* * *
Blair wrapped her hand around his length, the thick vein pulsing heavily against her hand and Cole thought he’d died and gone to heaven. He crossed his arms behind his head and gave her a heated look, intending to enjoy himself while she worked, which was pretty fucking phenomenal because he loved seeing her enjoy him. It was the first time someone (else) had touched him like this in too long and to know that she was having such a good time with it, he was barely hanging on.
She stroked him a couple of times, his hips rolling of their own volition, his eyes locking on hers, as his body soaked up every single bit of her touch. Nothing had compared to how he felt with her hands on him, the banked reverence and curiosity was killing him more than the maelstrom of sexual need she was stoking as she stroked him. She adjusted her position so she could take him into her mouth, but he scooted back from her amazing hands and stood up instead.
“Let’s just do this right, shall we?” He proceeded to throw a pillow on the floor at his feet because he had truly waited long enough for a decent blow job and he wanted it how he wanted it.
Blair understood immediately and sank to her knees in front of him, taking a quick intake of breath when his hand sifted through her hair and to the back of the skull.
“Just so you know, sweetheart, I’m a little demanding.” He ran a thumb gently over her cheek and adjusted her head so he could see her face because he wanted her to see how much he was loving what she was doing. “But you’ve proven yourself a hardworking woman so I think we’ll be all right.”
Then he guided her to his waiting cock, feeling the wetness of her mouth and nearly losing his shit. She made a whimper of need and his ass clenched knowing she wanted him. Her mouth opened wide as the tip of him hit her lips, a drop of liquid there for her to lick, which she did. His intake of breath was audible as her tongue shot out to taste him before he eased himself into her mouth. Inch by inch he made progress, her jaw widening as he went to accommodate him until eventually he hit the soft back of her throat with a ravaged groan.
“Holy hell, Blair,” he gritted, his thumb brushing over her cheek again. “You are fucking amazing.”
She kept going, her tongue sweeping across the sensitive skin of his cock as she took him in and out of her mouth. His hips t
hrust against her and he could feel him grow even harder in her mouth as she whimpered around his mouth again. The depth of feeling stunned him as he watched her take him, that she cared to do it, that she didn’t find him disgusting or unworthy considering she now knew about his role in his brother’s death. It felt like water in the desert.
“If you don’t stop I’m going to go before we get to have some more fun,” he warned.
But she ignored him, sucked him in harder, her hand coming up to grip the thick base of him as she shuttled him in and out of her mouth, her lips swollen with the friction.
“Damn it, Blair,” Cole gritted, his hips thrusting. He was no longer in control at all. “You just can’t let a man be a gentleman, can you?”
She shook her head the slightest bit and he gripped the back of her head so that he could see her eyes. He brushed the hair out of her face and sighed in glorious defeat. “Well, go ahead and take me, sunshine.” Their eyes locked, she brushed against his tightened sack and then he was letting go. His eyes narrowed as she swallowed the thick spurts of hot liquid. With a final groan that he felt in his toes, she milked him, licking him clean before finally dropping a small kiss on his hipbone and rising to her feet.
“This was worth all the fucking wait,” he growled, then picked her up in his arms and placed her on the bed on all fours with her ass in the air. He ran a hand down her left cheek. “But you shouldn’t have taken me all the way. Now we’re both going to have to wait until I’m inside you again and that’s a damn shame, Blair.”
He gently opened her up to him from behind, setting his mouth on her, his tongue sliding into her, deep and erotic and wet from this angle, and he feasted like it was a banquet. After she was all but shuddering against him, he pulled back, his breath hot on her skin. “I get why you took me all the way now,” he said, drawing a finger down her entire, drenched slit, “you were getting just as turned on, weren’t you?”
He spread her thighs wider apart, then held her open and so she could feel his gaze on her. “Ms. Sandoval likes to suck my cock,” he mused, running his thumb down the side of her lip, possessive, because he was staking his claim on her vagina, exploring but also planting a flag there for everyone else to see. Because no one had ever paid so much attention to him before, clearly enjoying the learning of him like she would a particular variety of grape. He was under her spell completely. “I think that’s good news because I fucking love returning the favor, sweetheart.”
And then he was on her, his tongue sliding forward to work over her clit while his fingers stretched her inside, two fingers, then three, pumping as if he were already inside her. She was gasping already, so close to coming yet he was as relentless as she’d been with him. He wanted to make sure she never forgot this night—never forgot him, maybe, even though they had only tonight. Every time her hips found a rhythm and she was building toward release, he pulled back, gentling his touch, removing his hands and tongue. Right now he was blowing on her oversensitized clit like an animal trainer cooing to a trapped animal. He wanted her out of her fucking mind with need. Wanted all other men to pale in comparison to him. It was an insane thing to want, but he wasn’t really in a position to examine the emotion at the moment.
She was at the edge and tried to change positions and take control, take him inside of her to get it done but he held her with an iron grip, essentially bolting her to the spot as he proceeded to suck and nibble and caress.
“I hate you right now,” she choked out as the pressure built again and she finally, finally, came. She cried out her release, the wave of relief and pleasure and sensation taking her under as his tongue slid over her clit.
He laughed at her ire before he slid her arms out from under her until her face was on the bed, and hoisted her hips higher into the air. Then he breached her entrance in one long, demanding thrust, burying himself to the hilt with a wickedly low growl.
“Fucking hell,” he gritted, letting them both get used to the new turn of events. “I can still feel your muscles clenching.”
She tried to buck up against him but he held her still, dropping a kiss in the middle of her spine.
“You want more of me here, Blair?” he asked. “Because if you’re feeling too tender, you know I’ll stop.”
She shook her head immediately, and breathed out a raspy, “Keep going.”
He did, too. Slow at first, dragging every single long inch of him through her on-fire inner walls. She was slick and ready and lush and he felt it everywhere.
“Too slow,” she choked out, her fists clenching in her silky duvet.
He laughed again, loving how demanding she was. Instead of obeying her demands, he slid out of her and picked her up instead, making a quick detour to pick up the discarded scarf he’d seen on her dresser. Then true to his word, he stood her in front of one of her bed posters and proceeded to use it to tie her hands to the top of the wooden pole.
Then he hoisted her up, threw a leg over the footboard and put the other one around his waist and thrust into her again. He couldn’t go as deep in this position but he could see her eyes now as he worked himself inside her again and nearly lost his mind.
He almost grinned when she tried to move her arms but found that she was well and truly stuck. “Now normally I like a handsy woman, but I have to admit that I like you being all tied up too.” Then he drew a nipple into his mouth and sucked until she yelped with the tiniest bit of pain.
“Cole, please,” she begged, her body flushed red with need.
He grinned. “Well, since you asked so nicely.”
Then he gave her want she wanted. Hard, fast, messy, a rhythm that existed for only a few thrusts at a time before he changed his position to deliver more and more pleasure until finally she was breaking all around him, her untethered cries urging him on and making him wild.
With a guttural roar, he let go as well, taking her mouth as he did so, wringing every last bit of connection from her that he could as he untied her.
Both breathing hard, they clung to each other.
Two years had led him here, to a vineyard in California, and to a woman who was as uninterested in a real connection as he was, and yet, as he was about to fall into the best night of sleep he’d had since Scott’s death, he wondered if she’d nudged awake something else inside him along with his libido.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SIX DAYS HAD passed since Cole had left Sonoma. He’d been gone when Blair had woken up the morning after the party, a short note from him on her pillow, and she hadn’t heard from him since. It was her most successful one-night stand ever. Most importantly, her crisis of conscience had been averted. She’d had a single night with a man as a palate cleanser and now she’d return to no men all the time. He was a celebrity who wasn’t married or in a relationship, so there were no secret repercussions to further mire her in self-loathing.
Except there was a different problem altogether.
It was that she couldn’t stop thinking about him. And if she were being honest, she missed him. Found herself hanging out in the tasting room more than she ever had just on the off chance he would walk in one day again with that goofy smile, even though she knew very well he was on an entirely different continent. Since the breakup, Cole had been the only person to tempt her into more than perfunctory small talk.
Instead, most evenings she’d found herself internet searching, reading more about his career and life, and finally taking a deeper dive into his brother’s death. As she scrolled through the photos of him on the side of the track that day staring at his brother’s mangled car her heart ached for him. She found well-wishers from all over the globe who had started fan websites dedicated to the brothers and who mourned Scott right along with Cole. It looked as if Cole had retired immediately after that race and resurfaced six months later as an announcer.
Nate appeared at the threshold of her office, reminding her exactly why t
his newfound preoccupation with Cole was misguided. So what if they’d had a good time together? So had she and her ex and look how that turned out. It was better that it had only been one night and that was it. She didn’t have the emotional bandwidth for anything else.
“So are you going to tell me what happened with Cole Taggart?” Nate asked, his arms crossing as he regarded her.
“I took him on a tour, just like you demanded,” she said pointedly, having already answered this question three times this week from her meddling troublemaker brother who just wanted to needle her and was the reigning gold medalist of the Annoy Blair Olympics.
“Why did he want to go to your house?”
“How do you know who he is, by the way? He doesn’t even race for NASCAR.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
She shrugged and gave him a haughty sister look. “Neither did you.”
Her brother snorted and threw himself into the only other seat in the room, an elaborately carved dining chair from two tasting room redesigns ago. “Just tell me you didn’t sleep with him. The guy is a massive player and you’re not exactly batting a thousand with men.”
Blair’s lips thinned as her brother’s constant drudging up of the past threatened her newfound state of semi-hope for the future. But now with the mention of her epic fail of a love life, the image of her ex’s wife’s tear-streaked face was right back in the forefront of her mind. The woman’s heartfelt plea for her to stop seeing her husband was burned into her soul and Blair would never forget it. She’d give anything to fast-forward time and not have the memory of that woman’s misery in such sharp focus.
“I’m not batting with men at all,” Blair declared for the umpteenth time. “Which is why I didn’t sleep with Cole Taggart. As I’ve informed you at least a dozen times by now, I had a bottle of a 2015 pinot noir there that we’d talked about that I forgot to give to him so he came to get it.”
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