Chapter 26

Haley

I find Cole sitting in the lobby with his face buried in his hands.

My heart drops.

“Cole?”

“Give me a minute.” His voice is ragged and deep. His knee bobs fast and he looks like he’s going to explode.

“Haley.” The head of catering heads over to me. “Last call on the open bar, in case you want to let everyone know.”

“Just break it down,” I say. No need to make another announcement. My focus is only on Cole, fuck all else. Pulling up a chair, I sit with him and fold my hands in my lap.

We don’t speak.

I don’t even know what to say. I’m not even sure what happened that would make him this devastated, but the possibilities flying through my imagination aren’t good.

“They pulled the deal,” he says gruffly. “The Marine Life building. They pulled it because of Noah.”

My heart breaks for him. “Cole, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for shit you didn’t do.” He leans back and sighs. “I knew it was too good to be true. I knew I shouldn’t have been this happy before we broke ground.”

“This isn’t your fault, Cole. You deserve that deal. You deserve to be happy.” Hopping up, I look around, preparing to help him anyway I can. “I’m going to talk with them. It was the guy with the silver hair, right? With the woman in that purple gown?”

“Sit down, Haley.” His voice is gruff. “They already left.”

Damn. I drop back into the chair, at a loss for what to do.

He grabs my hand, squeezing it. “Thank you.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You were going to. That’s just as good.” His hand is warm and heavy in mine. “You know the irony of this is, I was going to quit.”

“What?”

Cole nods. “I had plans to quit at the start of the New Year. And that project made me toss those plans in the trash. I was willing to stay, to put up with Noah and his bullshit, because I wanted that success so fucking bad.”

He can still have that success without Noah.

“I didn’t know he had a drug problem.” Cole stares at the carpet. “But now that I’m looking back, the signs were there. I just didn’t notice them because I always kept my nose to the drafting board, busting my ass, hoping for my big break.”

His knee won’t stop bobbing.

“What are you going to do now?”

He runs his palms along his thighs. “I’m going home. If I stay here any longer, I’ll beat that motherfucker to pulp, and I really don’t want jail time.”

“Okay.” I wish I could go with him, but I don’t think having me around will help. I know all too well that sometimes you need to handle shit by yourself. It’s how I survived most of my life. But I want to be there with him through this pain. He shouldn’t have to bear it alone. It’s not fair.

He leans over and kisses my temple. “Bye, Angel.”

I watch Cole sulk out the door, taking my heart and soul with him.

···

When I arrive at Cole’s place, it’s past midnight. The lights are out, and I don’t know if I should leave or crawl into bed with him.

I’m completely out of my element.

All this time, we’ve been in sync, like a pair of newlyweds who can’t keep their hands off each other. He gave me a key to his place, and he has one to mine. It’s been easy. So easy.

Too easy.

But tonight, I feel like an intruder.

Toeing my shoes off, I creep through his condo and head for the bedroom. There’s a faint glow of a laptop screen and he casually shuts it when I enter the room.

“Hey,” I say quietly. “You okay?”

He doesn’t answer as he sets his laptop on the floor and leans back on his pillows. The moonlight filters in from the windows, casting shadows across the bed.

Dread twists my gut. “Do you want to be alone?”

“No.” His answer spreads through the darkness of his bedroom, landing square in my chest.

“Jaedyn and Tamara were able to—”

“I don’t want to talk about any of them.”

“Okay.” Crawling onto the bed, I sit on my knees with my hands in my lap again. “Do you want to talk at all?”

“No.” He sits up and cups my face. Pressing his mouth to mine, he kisses me slowly. Deeply.

I mean, talking can be overrated sometimes. And since I know physical touch is his love language, maybe this will help comfort more than my words can.

His hands drift down my back and he unzips my dress slowly. Peeling it off my shoulders, he shoves it down. “You look beautiful in white.” Cole’s fingers trace the curve of my breasts. “The moonlight hits you in all the best places.”

I swallow the lump in my tightening throat. Straddling him with my dress bunched up around my waist, I kiss Cole again. This is different for us. Instead of being two clashing forces of nature tearing at each other, we’re softer. Slower. More deliberate.

“Make love to me, Haley.” His hands skate down my back. His dick is hard between my thighs, under the covers.

Cupping the back of his head, I kiss him softly and it’s like the night we took each other’s virginity.

We’re tentative. Cautious. Caring.

“I love you,” I say against his mouth. “Fuck, Cole, I love you so damn much.”

He groans against my mouth.

With a little effort, we get my dress completely off and I hover over his bare cock. Our eyes lock as I sink down on him. My thighs shake. A breath shudders out of him. Every noise he makes turns me inside out. To know I feel so good to Cole that he can’t help but make these sounds is a heady thing.

“You feel so good, Angel.” He buries his hand in my hair, holding the back of my head while he kisses me again. We move together, our bodies undulating, heat rolling off us both. “Fuck me slowly,” he says. “Keep your eyes on mine.”

He holds my hips, moving me at the pace he wants. Our eyes remain deadlocked on each other, and I feel like time and space no longer exist.

Years of solitude, of yearning, of regrets and sorrow vaporize.

“That’s it,” he says in a low tone. “Just like that.”

He’s so deep inside me like this that when I swing my hips back and forth, grinding against him, I swear I feel it from my head to my toes. We lace our hands together and I use his strength as leverage. His hands shake in mine. His breaths quicken.

I’m so close to an orgasm, my rhythm falters. When it finally hits, I milk his cock, my inner walls clamping down hard as I come.

“Haley.” His abs flex and he groans loudly. “Don’t stop.” Cole sits up and rocks me back and forth. His orgasm rips out of him and his body shakes. We both collapse on the bed, me still on top, and he holds me tight. “Thank you.”

What’s he thanking me for? “I didn’t do anything.”

Cole swipes the hair from my face when I look up at him. “You came back.”

He’s not talking about tonight.

“I came home.”

It isn’t always a shelter. Sometimes it’s the love of your life.