29. Bailey

The band playedoldies as I swayed to the music in Cole's arms beneath the canopy of fairy lights on the dance floor. Even though we were surrounded by hundreds of people, whenever Cole touched me, they all disappeared.

He seemed quieter than usual after his run-in with his ex. I couldn't tell if he was upset that he'd run into her or if he was just uncomfortable being here. Or maybe it had nothing to do with her. Mr. and Mrs. Prescott kept ‘borrowing' me because family and friends wanted to say hi. Although it had been nice seeing everyone, it was a little unsettling that they'd all expressed some version of Mr. Prescott's sentiment that they thought I'd be the one saying ‘I do' to Simon. It could be that Cole had overheard people saying that, and it had made him uncomfortable.

At the weddings I'd seen him at, he socialized and made rounds talking to people. Today, he'd mainly hung out with Billie. It seemed he'd gotten my eldest sister's stamp of approval, something Simon never had. Even when we first met, Billie thought Simon was an arrogant asshole.

Cole's thumbs rubbed lazily against my bare lower back as we swayed to the music. I could feel the ridges of his callouses on his large hands. The sensations caused tingles to explode in my core. I tried to ignore how good just the touch of his hand on me felt as I lifted my head and met his gaze.

"How are you doing?"

"Good. How are you doing?" he countered.

"I'm fine, but I didn't get blindsided by my ex."

"Yes, you did. Just not today," he pointed out.

A grin lifted on my lips. I could see why he and Billie seemed to be getting along. They both had a way of cutting right to the heart of the matter. "Did you two get a chance to talk?"

"Not really."

I glanced over to where Lindsay was standing with her date, a good-looking guy who might have had a little too much to drink. All night, every time I saw her, she'd been staring at Cole with a look of longing and regret. It was clear she felt they had unfinished business.

They'd been a couple for so long, and I felt guilty that I was monopolizing his time. Especially since this wasn't even an actual date. Or I guess it was since he refused to let me pay him. But it wasn't a date that could lead anywhere.

"She looks like she wants to talk." My eyes lifted back to Cole's. I watched as he glanced over in her direction. He seemed unmoved by her stare. "If you want to go talk to her, you can. I mean, not that you need my permission."

He redirected his focus to me. "I don't have anything to say."

The cold, detached look in his eyes took me back slightly. I blinked. "Oh, okay."

"I told you that she left and cheated on me, but I didn't tell you how I found out."

"No. You didn't."

He inhaled through his nose, then exhaled out his mouth. "Every Tuesday night, we went out for dinner. It started when we were in middle school. I would take her out for Taco Tuesdays for five bucks because of the one-dollar tacos, which was all I could afford on my paper boy salary."

I smiled, thinking about Cole at twelve, taking out his girlfriend with the money he'd earned as a paperboy. It didn't surprise me that he'd been responsible, even at that age. He just had this way about him—an innate sense of responsibility, like he was a born protector.

Cole continued, "It was a regular Tuesday, just like any other, and I showed up at her apartment, and her roommate, Georgie, told me she was gone. I said I'd wait, and she said it would be a while because she was in New York. I assumed she must have booked a job and had to fly at the last minute, but George told me that she wasn't coming back. I went into her room, and sure enough, it was empty. She'd left for New York without even saying goodbye."

"Wow. Just like Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting." The moment I said it, I wanted to remove my foot from my mouth. Why did I say random things like that?

The corners of his mouth curled in amusement. "Yeah, except I'm not Ben Affleck, and I never told her to leave without saying goodbye."

"I know, I'm sorry."

His head tilted, and his brow rose.

Shit.I'd just apologized. Again.

He must have seen that I recognized what I'd done, because he continued without mentioning it. "I called her, texted her, and left about ten voicemails over a week, but she didn't reply to any of them. I finally called her parents, just to make sure she was okay. They told me she was fine and was just busy settling in. Then, about a week later, I found out from my friend Finn that she'd cheated on me the night before she left with a guy we went to school with, who I'd always known was in love with her."

"I'm sorr?—"

Cole lowered his head and kissed me, interrupting my apology. It wasn't a family-friendly peck. It was a full-on makeout session. His arms tightened around me as my fingers grasped his shoulders, holding on for dear life. By the time we came up for air, I was panting and dazed.

As I stared up at him, he grinned. "That's one way to break your habit."

"I don't think that will work because it would be an incentive, not a deterrent," I responded breathlessly.

At the inference that his kissing me every time I apologized would only make me do it more often, the intensity in his stare, the fire, and the life was back.

"Do you want to go back to the room?" His voice was gritty and rough.

I knew what he was suggesting. He wasn't just asking me to go back to the room. The implication was that once we got there, we'd rip each other's clothes off.

I'd spent the past two decades pining after the wrong man, and he never made me feel half as alive, half as cared for, half as safe, or half as dangerous in all that time as Cole had in the past forty-eight hours.

The smart thing to do would be to stay with Billie and Birdie tonight. I didn't trust myself not to fall even deeper into whatever this was. I'd wasted so many years on loving someone I shouldn't have; I needed to break the cycle.

His thumb made lazy circles on my lower back. I wasn't sure if it was meant to seduce me, but if it was, it was working. The slightest touch from Cole was all it took to send my hormones into a frenzy of anticipation.

"Yes," I breathed.

The walk back to the room was a blur. I wasn't sure if that was because of the two glasses of champagne I'd drank or if it was because I was buzzed on the anticipation of what possibilities the night had in store.

Cole kept his hand on my back as we walked down the path toward the room. I did my best not to think about the fact that at this time tomorrow night, I'd be back in my apartment. Alone. Well, not alone. I had Duke and Whiskey. I loved them, but they were no Cole.

He opened the door, and I walked past him into the room. I only made it two steps when he grabbed my wrist and pulled me against him as the door slammed behind us. We'd only made it to the entryway and were standing in front of the floor-length mirror; my back was flush against his front.

Silently, he gathered my hair and draped it over my right shoulder. Even in the reflection, the intensity in his eyes was palpable as he stared down at my bare back. He lifted his arm, and his knuckles grazed the bare skin between my shoulder blades, then traveled down my spine, sending a ripple of tingles through me.

My heart thudded in my chest as the sound of the zipper being pulled down filled the air. His eyes met mine as he lifted both hands to my shoulders. The tips of his fingers dipped beneath the straps, and he slid them off my shoulders and down my arms. The dress pooled at my feet, leaving me wearing only my black thong panties and nude heels.

I turned around to face him and began to unbutton his shirt. He started to help, but I stopped him.

"Can I?" I asked. If he assisted in undressing himself, he'd be naked in seconds. If I did, I could take my time exploring him.

He nodded as his chest rose and fell in shallow pants. With each button that I freed, my heartbeat pounded heavier in my chest. I'd seen him naked; I'd touched him, but this felt more deliberate, somehow. We'd had sex, but this felt more intentional, more intimate.

I tugged his shirt from his pants. After the final button was freed, my hands traveled up his torso and over his shoulders as I slid the material off his body. Then, I worked on his pants, unbuttoning and unzipping them. He kicked off his shoes as my thumbs dipped beneath the waistband of his boxer briefs. I tugged his clothes down his hips. He assisted me, stepping out of his pants and underwear and removing his socks.

When he stood up straight, I splayed my hand on his chest and pushed him down onto the chair behind him in the entryway. He grinned as he sat down, appearing amused at me taking charge.

I'd always been self-conscious of my body, but standing in front of Cole wearing only a scrap of fabric and high heels, I'd never felt sexier or more feminine and empowered. Fueled by my newfound confidence, I lowered down onto my knees, and my hands settled on his strong thighs, which I was between.

My eyes remained locked with his as I leaned forward and licked the top of his erection, which was standing proudly at attention. After coating his crown with saliva, I wrapped my fingers around his shaft. Then, I leaned forward and rubbed his slippery, engorged tip against my right and then my left nipple. The muscles in his thighs twitched as he swelled in my grip. My fingers tightened and began to move up and down as I teased us both with the swollen head of his cock, rubbing it against my breasts.

"Fuck, that's hot," he rasped as his jaw tightened.

I kept eye contact with him as I leaned down and sucked him into my mouth. My lips clamped down around his girth. His hands gripped the arms of the chair as I moved my head up and down, taking him as deep as I could while continuing to stroke him.

I was concentrating so hard on the task at hand that I gasped when I felt myself being lifted off the ground. He easily pulled me up by my shoulders and onto his lap, as if I weighed nothing. I wiped my wet lips with the back of my hand as he ripped open a condom. I had no clue when he'd grabbed the protection, but once it was on, his hands guided my hips up so my sex was hovering above his erection. My thighs were shaking from arousal, so I reached out and held onto his broad, muscular shoulders, anchoring myself. His arm moved our bodies as he took himself in his hand and guided his dick to the opening of my pulsing sex.

Tingles surged through me when I felt the pressure of his tip. My fingers dug into his shoulders as I lowered myself slowly. He sucked in a force of air through clenched teeth, and his hands flexed on my hips as he entered me. My body stretched out to accommodate him, and the sensation was the perfect balance of pain and pleasure.

I started to lift my hips, but he held me in place.

"I need a second," he gritted out as he closed his eyes and breathed through his nose.

It was clear that he was holding on by a thin thread of control, which only made me want to snap it. Instead of moving my hips up and down, I began to roll them as I clenched my inner muscles, squeezing his erection.

His eyes flew open.

I continued to grind my hips as I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his as I whispered, "Seconds up."

When I moved back, the intensity in his eyes and the bad-boy crooked smile he wore told me I was going to get payback for my sins. And I couldn't wait.