Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

T ully

The last time I’d had Colson between my legs I’d fallen asleep on him. There was no chance of sleep this time around. The man had me pinned between his locker and the length of his hard body. Somehow the stacks and stacks of muscle were harder than the wood behind me. He smelled of sweat and shaving cream and soap. I wanted to butt my head against him like a cat, soaking up his scent.

“Shut up.”

Normally I didn’t like a man telling me to be quiet, but when Colson practically growled it, all my objections liquified into a simmering need that felt like it just might boil over. All week we’d been tiptoeing around each other, but it looked like the mutually agreed upon avoidance was over. Deep lines between his brows told me he wasn’t exactly happy with me, but then his lips were on mine and my brain turned off.

He didn’t kiss like I remembered.

He kissed better .

Fuck me. He took control of my mouth, angling my head and plunging inside to steal every breath I’d ever taken. He wasn’t gentle. He wasn’t hesitant. He fucking took . He pressed me so hard against the locker I knew I’d have bruises tomorrow. And yet I didn’t care. I just wanted more. More of Colson on me, around me, inside me. My nails dug into his skin, my legs thrashed against his hips, trying desperately to get closer.

Colson hissed against my lips. I tried to release my fingers from his bare shoulders, but they weren’t having it. He’d just have to deal with the pain of my fingernails. My eyes fluttered open long enough to see the most smug grin I’d ever seen in my life. Colson looked down at me like I was his favorite snack and he was the big bad wolf.

“Tell me you don’t want this,” he whispered hoarsely.

My whimper was the best I could give. Of course I wanted this. What woman wouldn’t want Colson Wolfe to ravage her? He wasn’t wrong last week when he admitted chemistry was never our problem. He flexed his hips, shoving his hard cock against the very part of me that wanted him most. I whimpered again, eyes fluttering closed against the heady feeling.

Colson’s hand slid from my waist to my neck. He squeezed just hard enough to have my eyes flying back open. His jaw was locked tight but that evil grin was still there in full view. He looked almost naked without the hair on his face covering his mouth.

“Keep those eyes open so you know who you’re with.”

My pulse quickened, which I’m sure he felt. This was a new side of Colson. He had always been good in bed, but he’d been so gentle, so caring, so busy trying to make it good for me. Grabbing me by the neck and giving me orders? Grown-up Colson was in another league entirely. Fuck, why did I like that so much?

“I kind of regret shaving that mustache off,” I muttered, swallowing hard against his hand.

His chest expanded, pressing me harder into the locker. The man was breathing like he’d run through a burning building to get to me. I liked that I made his heart race too.

“I’ll grow another one for you.”

I wiggled against his erection, tingles of pleasure rocking through my core, even through a layer of clothing. Colson cocked his head to the side and tilted his wrist to look at the big black watch he wore.

“You still have thirty-five minutes of the hour you paid for.”

I was pinned to his locker like a bug in a science experiment. His hips, his hand, and his hard chest kept me in place. But he wasn’t giving me what I wanted. What I needed. It had been a while since my last non-self-induced orgasm. I’d learned quickly that getting involved in Hollywood led to complications, so unless the man was overwhelmingly worth it, I didn’t bother.

My legs tried to climb Colson’s torso like a tree, but he squeezed his fingers again, stopping me. That cocky grin was almost a sneer now, alerting me to the game he was playing. Well, fuck that. I could play the game right back.

I shrugged, though the movement was thwarted a bit by his body pinning me in place. “Not much we can do in that amount of time.”

Colson gave my upper body a lazy once-over that had me squirming again. “Come on now, princess. There’s a whole world of things we can do in thirty-five minutes. Don’t you remember?”

I felt like I was going to pass out. Breathing this hard at our age probably wasn’t good for us. But I wasn’t going to give Colson the last word that easily. “I must have forgotten. You’ll have to remind me.”

His grin was wicked. Moving ever so slowly, he dipped his head, rubbing his cheek against mine. The five o’clock shadow on his cheeks abraded my skin in a delicious way. He inhaled deeply, like he was an animal, scenting me. His lips and then his tongue traced my jawline around to the other side of my face where he rubbed himself against me again, inhaling in my ear. He rumbled something I couldn’t make out above my obvious panting. He moved his lips closer to my ear, letting them brush against the shell with each word he whispered.

“I can get you naked. Find that sweet spot with my tongue that always made you scream.”

“Yes,” I said on a whoosh of an exhale. My leg tightened around his waist.

He pulled his head back, a hard glint in his eyes I’d never seen before. “Or I could push you down on your knees for leaving me. Make you take my cock out of my pants and take my frustrations out on your mouth.”

The visual of it had me trembling. He felt it, I knew he did. That grin was positively mocking now.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you, dirty girl.”

I opened my mouth, not sure if I intended to tell him to go to hell or to beg him to let me do just that. Didn’t matter because the door to the fire station banged open at that exact moment. Colson’s hand on my throat was suddenly gone and he pushed me down his body to stand on my own two shaking legs.

Joey came whistling into the room and stopped short at the doorway. Colson and I both looked in his direction, probably looking exactly like two people who’d gotten caught making out. Joey blinked like he wasn’t sure he could believe his eyes. I pressed further into the locker next to Colson’s, determined not to let my legs give out.

“Sorry, friends. Am I interrupting something?”

“What do you want?” Colson snapped.

Joey made a valiant effort not to smile. “Captain wants to know who’s taking the animals home.”

Colson leaned toward me, my heart hammering yet again. But he reached behind me, snatching a shirt from his locker and shoving it over his head before slamming the door shut and striding away from me. He reached down to adjust his pants, which made Joey muffle a laugh. Without a backward glance, Colson was gone, door clicking shut behind him.

Joey looked at me. I looked at Joey. For the first time in forever, I had no idea what to say. How do you explain making out with your ex-husband? Joey tapped his thumb against his thigh and cleared his throat.

“Careful with that, Tully. I was here after you left. I don’t want to see him go through that again.” And then he walked out too.

My legs gave up and I sank to the ground, my back to the lockers. I put my hands to my face and focused on breathing normally. Five counts in, five counts out. Repeat. When I had my breath under control, I lifted my head again and evaluated what just happened.

We simply got out of control for a second there.

Habit. That’s what it was. Simply an old habit we’d reverted to because of proximity. Another week or two and Mama’s house would be fixed up enough to move back in. I just needed to avoid being alone with Colson, and all this old attraction would fade. It had to. I couldn’t live here in Blueball and have an affair with my ex-husband. That would be…emotional annihilation. We’d broken up once before and once was enough for me.

With that decided, I pushed to my feet and squared my shoulders. I needed to be careful. No flirting, no teasing, no being in rooms with him all alone. I could do that.

With a few more deep breaths and the repetition of affirmations that made me feel like I was on the right path, I headed back outside and helped the crew take down the event. It was dirty work, cleaning up after the entire town and all their kids. Colson always seemed to choose a cleanup job that was on the opposite side of the property from me, which was great for the avoidance I was going for. He got the animals in the trailer Warrick pulled up to the curb with. Frank whined about cleaning up after the animals, but one look from Captain shut him up.

Several hours later, when everything was clean and the guys on shift headed back inside the station, Colson gave me a head lift and walked to his truck. Guess that was my cue to leave. I got in his truck and we both didn’t say a damn word to each other the whole way to his mom’s house. Which was fine. More than fine. Preferable actually. I tried not to inhale through my nose or else I got a whiff of the sweat-and-shaving-cream-and-soap scent that had made me lose my head earlier. I even rolled the window down for some fresh air, earning me a frown from Colson. But whatever. A girl had to do what a girl had to do.

He parked the car in the long driveway and I slid out, making a beeline for the house. He took his time, probably removing the tools in the back of his truck. I wasn’t sticking around to help, that was for sure.

“We’re home!” I called out as I entered the house.

Gigi answered from the living room where I found her working on another sewing project. “Oh, Tully. That fundraiser was spectacular!” She shoved her glasses up on her head and set the sewing aside.

“Thanks.” I leaned down to give her a hug. “The petting zoo was a big hit.”

I wished Mama had come out to see it, but not much would get her to leave her house these days. Not even to see what her only daughter was up to. She’d been bad about being social when I was younger, but she’d progressively gotten worse. Senior year she didn’t even come to see me and Colson crowned prom king and queen. Said the crowds made her anxious.

Gigi looked like a proud mama of her flock. “It was, wasn’t it? I knew Bessie would be a crowd favorite, no matter how much Warrick says she’s a menace.”

I laughed, thinking about the way that cow gave side-eye with the best of them anytime Warrick came near. “I think it was the geese that stole the show. They chased the toddlers around until the parents took mercy on them. The geese single-handedly wore out every toddler in Blueball.”

Gigi giggled and I had a moment of acute regret that she wasn’t my mother-in-law any longer. We’d gotten along so well when I was with Colson. Divorce really sucked. You not only lost your marriage, you lost the whole family that went with your spouse.

I heard Colson’s heavy bootsteps coming up the porch. “I’m beat. I’m going to head to bed.”

I was down the hallway and safely in my bedroom before Colson made it inside. Making sure the door was locked, I changed into cotton pajama shorts and my favorite old T-shirt that had been washed so many times it was softer than silk. I threw my hair into a bun on top of my head and slid between the sheets. The shower turned on and I grimaced up at my ceiling. I would not lie here and envision a soaped-up, naked Colson under the showerhead.

Trying to preoccupy my brain, I thought back on the fundraiser and all the events that brought the citizens of Blueball out in droves. There were some familiar faces, but quite a few I didn’t know. I’d met Gannon Hart and his wife, along with the rest of his bandmates and their wives. Curiously missing was Gabi. Joey had said she’d be there. Maybe she was avoiding me. I couldn’t really blame her after I let our friendship drop so easily. Em and Warrick had been there, of course. Savannah and Pip had bought me a beer, which I quickly realized was a brand I’d never had before. It was thicker than mud and tasted about the same. I drank as much as I could, not wanting to offend Pip, who clearly loved the stuff.

And then my brain slid right into the memory of that kiss.

I groaned and threw a pillow over my face to mute it. I hadn’t had a kiss that good since… Well, since things had still been good between me and Colson. The shower shut off and I pulled the pillow from my face. Good. Hopefully he went right to bed and I could sleep.

Except I lay there, wide awake and turned on.

I really could have used that orgasm before Joey walked in on us. Literally just a few more seconds rubbing up on Colson and I could have been there. The squeak of bed springs came through the wall. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to think about Colson in bed just feet from me. But of course, trying not to think about it was making me think about it. Does he sleep naked like he used to?

Before I knew it, I was out of bed and slowly unlocking my door. It swung open on silent hinges and there was his door, in shadows now that all the lights were out for the night. His mom’s room was on the other side of the house, leaving the two of us over here to be on our best behavior.

Don’t do it, Tully.

Except telling me don’t was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

I tiptoed out of my room and right to his door, my ear pressed against the wood like an obsessed woman.