Chapter 18
18
“Cole?”
“Mmhm?”
We’re sitting by the fire. We just finished dinner. Yet another of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.
I’m curled up next to Colton on the couch, sipping a glass of French red wine he poured me and gazing out at the view of the purple mountains and the starry night sky. We haven’t bothered turning on the t.v. or anything else. The view is too beautiful.
Being with Colton is so different to my usual life. So unfamiliarly comfortable. I remember thinking he was like a buffer against reality and the feeling only compounds itself the more time I spend with him. “Remember how I told you my favorite designer is Ralph Lauren?”
“Yeah. ”
“Well, believe it or not, I got an email from them today.”
“Yeah?” The casualness of his reply answers my question before I even ask it.
“You don’t by any chance know anyone there, do you?”
“I’ve been to a few of their shows. I get invited to a lot of fashion shows for some reason. They tell me I liven up the front row.”
“With your killer sense of humor?” It’s a petulant thing to say and I didn’t really mean for it to be, but I’m picturing Colton flirting with gorgeous supermodels and A-list celebrities and a little devil in me wants to bite him.
He narrows his eyes at me. His slow smile is more like a sneer. “Something like that.”
“You didn’t happen to…like, mention me to anyone, did you?”
He crooks a burly arm along the back of the couch behind my shoulders and I stiffen a little. “One of their design coordinators invests with us in a minor account. She emailed me this morning for an update.”
I wait for it.
“I might have mentioned a young designer people are raving about.”
At least he’s honest about it. And, obviously, it’s not a terrible thing for him to have done. But still. It feels like he’s playing with my life, in more ways than I can handle. “I kind of wish you’d asked me first.”
“All I said was that a couple of my assistants and their friends were going crazy over your designs and she should check out your Instagram.”
“You said that?”
“Yeah. What’s the problem?”
“The problem is that she emailed me today and she invited me to interview for a job. In New York.”
“And?” Like he can’t see the problem at all.
“Don’t you think you’re taking some major freaking liberties by doing that?”
One of Colton’s eyebrows lifts and his grin is annoyingly entertained. “Liberties?”
“Yes. Liberties.”
“I wouldn’t consider it a liberty. I’d consider it a seed.”
“Seed?” Of course the word makes me blush because every now and then I can still feel trickles of his .
“Of possibility. Most people would be happy to get a job interview.”
“I’m not most people. And I am happy.” It’s times like these that his uncut smugness rubs me the wrong way. “But you can’t just take over my life like this.”
“I’m not taking over your life.”
“I don’t want you to get me a job. If I get a job, I want to be the one to get myself a job.”
“I didn’t know if she’d contact you or not. I just pointed her in your direction. I can’t sell your clothes if she doesn’t like them. Looks like she liked them.”
Why am I even mad about this? I’m over the moon about the potential of the job offer, but something isn’t sitting right about the whole thing.
Maybe because everything’s so easy for him and he’s making me feel like I’m losing control.
Of my heart. Of my body. Of my future. Because all of them want to entwine themselves around Colton Fucking Maddox.
And they can’t because he’s a commitment-phobic playboy who sits in front rows at fashion shows and who I’ve been warned about over and over and now he’s doing it in slow motion.
He’s breaking my heart.
He’s not even remorseful about any of it in the slightest.
He mimics my frown. He looks so good doing it I hate him even more.
“Poor Bailey,” he purrs, pouting like I am, taking my glass from my hand and setting it on the giant coffee table.
He gently but forcefully lays me back on the couch and pins me down with his weight.
“Don’t,” I snap.
“Don’t what?” He’s unfastening his jeans and crawling down my body.
And damn him, I’m already wet because he’s so damn big and hard and he’s pushing my dress up. And I’m not wearing panties because I lost them somewhere along the way of cashing in my V-card in the Mile Freaking High Club.
“Don’t do things like that without talking to me about it first. ”
“All right, Sunshine.” Oh god. He kisses my pussy, open-mouthed, licking into me. But he takes little breaks as he talks to me. “Chill, baby girl. I would have asked you but you were meeting with the shrink.” Another really lewd lick. “I got the email and I remembered that you happened to mention that working at Ralph Lauren would be your dream job. And Sloane and her entourage had been talking about your clothes.” He sucks on my pussy with such messy, greedy gusto, I’m about to come already. “So I used my contact to get you an in. I didn’t get you the job. You still have to do that, which you no doubt will, with your talent and your sassy gorgeousness. So stop fucking overreacting.” The stubble of his face scratches against me as he eats me in lusty mouthfuls and the tidal wave is starting.
But then his mouth is gone and the heavy weight of him is on top of me again. He pulls my knees high and wide as he moves, and the thick, wet head of his cock pushes into me.
I moan because I’m so tender but I’m almost coming. It’s sitting there, a sure thing, just waiting for the tiniest push.
It’s like he knows this. He holds himself still, denying me, staring down at me, his hair falling over his forehead, his eyes as dark as the night sky.
“‘ Don’t’? ” he whispers, withdrawing his slippery beautiful thickness just a fraction.
“Okay, do ,” I whisper back, gripping him. Trying to pull him closer.
“Do what, Bailey?”
“ Fuck me, Maddox. Fuck me hard with your big fucking cock . ”
I can hear his low chuckle turn to a growl as he drives all the way to the hilt. I cry out. The pain is too intense. But the pleasure is already there, being coaxed higher and higher by his deep, hard aggression. It erupts through my body in an explosive rush. The cascading spasms are too much. I’m moaning with ecstasy, my body tugging at the length of him until I can feel the violent beat of his release and the warmth of him pulsing deeply into me.
He presses his savage groan into my neck. “ Mine .”