28. Cole

The entire worldhad tinted red.

I hadn't punched Max in years. Too long, really, and I got a certain amount of satisfaction when my fist came back with blood from my brother's split lip.

Blood Max spit out—like my hit was nothing. For all his failings, he"d always been able to take a punch like a fighter and come back swinging.

"Nice!"Max said, thumbing his nose and raising his own fists with a wild blood-stained grin."I was wondering when therealCole would show up. Sunny, let me introduce you to him. I don't think you've met yet."

This fucking asshole.Sitting in view of everyone passing by, holding Sunny"s hand across the table. Like she belonged to him. Not me.

The old anger pumped through my body like a drug injected, racing through my bloodstream, curling my hands into fists. Truly, Max might die today.

But then Sunny got in front of me. "Cole, no. It"s not what you think."

"Be careful, Sunny,"Max warned."You don't want him to lose it and hit you, too."

I squinted over Sunny"s head at my lowlife waste of a brother, who knew I would never hit a woman. But I did try to moveSunny out of the way so I could hit Max again and again. However many times it took to make him stop talking.

Unfortunately, Sunny refused to be moved.

She placed her hands on my chest, her eyes blazing with anger."What did you say to me about causing scenes?"

The red fell away from my eyes, and the world came back into focus. I looked up to see...lunch patrons—a few of them, some with camera phones out. They probably hadn"t caught my first punch, but they were more than ready to record whatever I did next.

"Please, Cole, calm down,"Sunny said, keeping her voice low.

I stared at Max over her shoulder. Max. And the red threatened to overtake my vision again, blurring the edges of my sanity.

Sunny was right. I had to get out of there. Before I did something that irrevocably affected the Benton Worldwide brand.

I grabbed her hand and dragged her through the main part of the restaurant and out the front door.

There wasn't a patio entrance, so I'd been forced to jump the fence.

As I stormed out of the restaurant, Tomas emerged from the driver"s side of the Mercedes parked in the lot. "Do you want me to take her back to..."

The rest of whatever he said faded into the background as I cut right with Sunny toward my Jag, which was still idling, double-parked in front of the restaurant"s outside dining area with the driver-side door open. All logical thought had disappeared when I drove up to see Sunny holding hands with Max.

"You sure you want to go with him, Sunny Delight?" Max appeared on the other side of the patio fence to watch me drag Sunny back to my car, like we were some kind of spectator sport he"d bought courtside seats to attend. He had that bullshit brand ambassador title, but he obviously didn"t give two shits about making our beef public.

I opened the passenger-side door of the Jag with a hard yank."Get in,"I commanded Sunny.

"Hunting us down and punching me just for hanging out with you?" Max continued his argument from the other side of the fence. "That's not cool, is it? I'm not so sure you should be going home with him."

"No, Cole, don"t!"

I didn"t consciously realize I"d started toward Max again until Sunny pushed me back."Don't make it worse than it already is."

Then she looked over her shoulder at Max."I'll be fine. Please just stop, Max. I know hurt people hurt people, but it"s not funny to upset your brother like this. It"s just mean. And cruel."

Something raw flashed across Max"s face, collapsing his smug expression. If it was anyone else but my half brother, I might have mistaken it for regret.

But whatever it was, it quickly passed, and he looked from Sunny to me with another smirk. "Yeah, fine.I'll stop. But Sunny, if you need anything…"

He pressed his palm to his chest and gave her a little bow in mock simulation of a true gentleman."You know where to find me. I've just decided I'll be sticking around to help dear, sick Grandma. At least until the March board meeting."

Max"s eyes clashed with mine before returning to Sunny."Then maybe you and me will meet up in New York. Havesome real fun."

I probably would have toppled Sunny over in my bid to get to Max if she hadn't dug her heels into the ground and used all her weight to keep me from moving forward.

"Cole, no. I'll go with you, okay? Please ignore him." She lowered her voice to plead,"Just get in the car, or you'll ruin everything. If Nora hears about this…"

She was right. I had to get myself under control.

I breathed and breathed some more until the red faded from my vision and I was left with nothing but ice-cold. A welcome black ice numbness that filled me up from head to toe.

I held the door open for Sunny and repeated,"Get in."

Sunny got in—with the most miserable expression on her pretty face as she slid into the passenger seat.

I drove us back to the Benton in complete silence, staring dead ahead. It was too dangerous to talk to her. Too dangerous to look at her.

Control, control, control, I chanted all the way home.

"Cole?"she said when we got in the elevator.

I jabbed my thumb into the round PH button.

"Cole,"she repeated, her voice becoming a lot firmer."Talk to me, or I can"t go into that penthouse with you. Because right now, you are acting like the beginning of a true crime podcast, and you know my best friend moonlights as a private investigator."

I expelled a breath through my nose. Like a bull."I wouldn"t hurt you."

"I know."

"What Max said?—"

"Yeah, like I said,hurt people hurt people," she agreed without me even having to finish. "Max is a welcoming example of that."

"I need..."

I trailed off, expelling more bull breaths.

"What?"Her hand came up, hovering but not quite touching my arm. "What do you need?"

"I need your consent,"I bit out.

"To punish me?"

"To reclaim you."

"Reclaim me?"she repeated.

"Fuck you,"I clarified."Right now. Without a condom. I need to spill inside you, no barriers."

"Oh."Her eyes went to the elevator buttons, most of which would take her to a floor that would allow her to exit this conversation.

I knew from the medical background she gave the concierge nurse that she had an IUD installed three years ago, and both our panels came back clean. But we hadn"t talked about this, and the use of protection at all times was a cardinal condition of all my relationship contracts.

"Okay,"she said carefully."You have my consent?—"

I was on her before the words were fully out, pushing her into a wall with my kiss. Devouring the mouth that had spoken to him. Reaching under her shirt to palm the breasts Max had openly admired at the CEO of the Year dinner. Lifting the skirt he"d probably love to take off her. Curling my fingers into the slit he probably planned to add to his international list of conquests.

"You"re already wet."My forehead fell to her shoulder, and I squeezed my eyes shut. Control. Control. Control. But I had to ask,"Because of him. Or because of me?"

"Because of you."There was no hesitation in her answer. "There"s something wrong with me. You pulled me out of the restaurant. You are jealous and wantto reclaim me as yours. I don"t know why it"s flipping switches, but Cole, it is. I"m so turned on."

How did she know how to do that? Enflame me and soothe me at the same time? Reclaim, reclaim, reclaim.

I was in pain—sick with need.

With an urgency unlike anything I"d ever felt before, I turned her into the wall, unzipped my pants, yanked her panties down just enough, and shoved myself into her tightness like an animal.

"Fuck, Sunny!" The relief of finally being back inside of her after seeing her out with Max flooded through me. I pressed my face into the back of her hair, inhaling her shea butter and sweet apple body wash scent as she clenched around my shaft, tight as a fist.

Forget the old anger. Sunny was the real drug, and I almost came from the first injection.

She must have sensed how close I was. Her arm came up, and she wrapped a hand around the back of my neck, grounding me with a whispered, "Stay here with me, Cole."

Our eyes met in the elevator"s mirrored back wall, and the thinnest thread of self-control reappeared to let me begin moving into her with fast, punishing thrusts.

This elevator had cameras in it. I"d have to dispatch my special security team later to retrieve the tape. But at that moment, I couldn"t care. I fucked her into the wall, like the beast I"d turned into—the beast she made me.

"Who do you belong to?" I demanded, fisting her waves into one hand and pulling her head back. "Him or me?"

"You!" She answered without hesitation. Her slick opening contracted all around me, pulling me back in with each hard thrust. Accepting her punishment like a good girl.

Christ, I wouldn"t be able to hold on much longer.

"Then show me who you belong to," I commanded. "Come, Sunny! Come right now while saying my name!"

"Cole!" she cried out before succumbing to her orgasm.

She clamped down so hard with her release that I had no choice but to spill into her with one last thrust, my body seizing up with the final claim.

"Oh, my God, the elevator doors!" Sunny suddenly said.

That was when I looked up to find the metal doors open, exposing us to any penthouse-floor guest or hotel employee who happened to walk by my private elevator.

I hadn"t been able to wait until we made it home. I"d lost all sense of time and space, reclaiming Sunny with sex.

I didn"t know what was scarier. That it took so long to notice. Or that I wasn"t sure we could have stopped, even if we had.

Or that it still wasn"t enough.

"What did he tell you?" I demanded as soon as we were back inside the penthouse.

As usual, upon re-entry to my living space, she reached down to remove her shoes, a pair of wedge heels that enhanced the length of her toned dancer legs.

"Nothing," she answered. Without looking at me.

"You"re lying."The ice was back. But barely able to cover the molten lava underneath."Again.

A guilty beat, then she amended,"Nothing important. He mostly complained about you being too responsible and insisting on cleaning up all his messes. And he talked about his weird nightclub project. It"s, like, clubs named after the states but, you know, in different countries. He"s very...proud, I guess, of it."

I wanted to laugh at her confused tone. I wanted to slam my fist into the nearest wall. I wanted, I wanted...

"Why were you two holding hands? In public. In violation of our contract."

"He was...he was upset," Sunny explained slowly as if I were one of her newer dance students. "He was talking about his mom, and I got the feeling she wasn"t one of the good ones, so I patted his hand."

All I heard was the part where she was the one who initiated the physical contact. "You touched him."

"Yes, I comforted him. Because he was upset. Cole, are we seriously arguing about this? It was just a little hand pat."

Control. Control. Control.

I breathed out heat and breathed in ice. Again and again, until I could get my voice level.

"Here's how we"re going to solve this miscommunication," I informed her, my tone all business. "I"ll return to my office and put in a call to my lawyer. He'll draw up an addendum to our contract, one guaranteeing you won't talk to Max or be seen with him."

My mouth broke into a menacing snarl, but my voice remained an icy monotone as I told her,"And then I'm going to come back up here after work, and I'm going to reclaim you, Sunny. Again and again, until I forget about you having lunch with him. Until I can unsee you holding his hand like he was someone you care about. Until you remember exactly whose bed you"re supposed to be occupying."

Sunny stared at me.

Then she stared at me some more.

Then she said,"No."

No.

Justone word. But it went off like a bomb between us.

I crooked my head at her."What did you just say?"

"You heard me,"she answered. "I mean, do you really think a contract is the only way to end this argument?"

My jaw clenched."After what you did?—"

"I didn't do anything!"she shouted at me."But you did. You, Cole. Not me. All I did was have a perfectly innocent lunch with your brother. You're the one who punched him out over it?—"

"You're mad at me for punching Max? Max is exactly like his mother. He's lucky I didn't do worse."

She shook her head."What does Max have to do with me signing yet another contract?"

"You were touching him."The new frost melted away with a fresh blast of anger.

"Because he was upset."

"He was playing you. He wasn"t upset. Max doesn"t have feelings."

"Everyone has feelings, Cole."Sunny spread her arms to the sides."I know that"s not something you want to acknowledge, but everyone has them. Even your brother. And he wasn"t lying—not about that."

"How do you know?"Something mean inside of me wouldn"t just let her have her delusion.

"Because I could tell he was genuinely upset about his mother,"she insisted.

"Oh, you mean like you were able to tell Rich Harrison was married?"

She jerked her head back. Like I slapped her."What?"

Some cruel part of me reveled in shocking her—of upsetting her the way she"d upset me when I found her having lunch with my brother."I know. I know Rich Harrison is the guy who you dated for two years without realizing he already had a wife. I figured it out."

Sunny stared at me, her expression a mix of shock and horror.

And that new voice in the back of my head warned me I"d gone too far.

"Look, Sunny. I get that you"re not as experienced as me in the ways of men," I said, trying out a more conciliatory tone. "Let"s get this addendum done, and then we"ll?—"

"Rich Harrison is my father."

I stopped. Tipped my head to side.Then it was my turn to say,"What?"

"He"s my father," she repeated. "He"s the man who paid for schooling but never claimed my mother. Or me. The man who stood there stunned when I showed up in his world for the very first time in the thirty-two years he"s been pretending I didn"t exist. So you think I don"t know when someone"s lying to me?"

Sunny"s expression tightened into an icy look that put all of mine to shame."Trust me, I figured it out. And that"s why I resisted entering into this arrangement with you so hard. I didn"t want to end up like my mother—some wealthy guy"s mistress."

Silence. Terrible silence filled up the space between us.

I didn"t know what to say. How to respond.

Sunny turned away before I could come up with any answer."I need a shower. ThenI"ll call Agnes about moving out."

"Sunny, wait..."

But it was too late. She ran upstairs, leaving me there. With no ice. And no volcanic fire.

Just the certain feeling that I had severely, severely fucked up.