Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Peyton
I’d woken up before Cole. Despite my body’s demands for another round, I wanted a few moments to myself. The past twenty-four hours had been so overwhelming, and we still had to address all the feelings swirling around us like bugs at a barbecue.
Cole was… God. He’d even blown my fantasies out of the water. After pining for him for so long, having him in the most intimate ways was beyond my wildest dreams. And the fact that our needs lined up perfectly? It was almost too good to be true.
I took a sip of my coffee, letting the warmth ground me. I’d found a comfy spot on the deck, leaning against the railing. I’d always loved it out here, no matter the weather, but the sparkling snow covering the yard was something I had yet to appreciate.
Cole had a fully-built back deck, providing a gorgeous view of the sprawling yard and a dry spot to admire it.
But the snow was quickly starting to melt.
Tufts of green poked through the blanket of white like the fingers of reality creeping through our winder-induced dreamland.
Jesse’s driveway would thaw soon. Either he’d come to us, or we’d have to go to him.
Either way, he would know what happened the second he laid eyes on me.
He’d always teased me about my crush on his best friend. The older we got, the more it became about normal sibling chiding, but Jesse didn’t know the truth: that I’d been deeply in love with Cole, and that had only grown with time.
The door opened suddenly, startling me. “Sorry,” Cole said, holding a drink of his own. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s okay.” My mouth struggled to form the words.
My body, however, hadn’t forgotten about what we’d done.
I peered over my shoulder at him. Desire tightened my gut, and I squirmed.
God, not now. There was a conversation to be had and it wouldn’t happen if I kept thinking about the way Cole roughly shoved his fingers inside me, demanding that I come for him—soaking his bed in the process. He hadn’t even cared.
And now? Shit, he wore my mark proudly. An angry bruise poked beneath the collar of his shirt. My heart thumped a steady rhythm against my ribcage. I gasped when his arm wrapped around me, hand flattening on my stomach. “Is this okay?” he asked.
My head was nodding before I even realized it.
Cole set his drink on the banister, wrapping both arms around me tight.
We were quiet for a while, gazing out over the snow-covered ground.
The sunlight glittered off the powdery surface, giving the illusion that the ground was sparkling.
Cole’s thumb softly stroked back and forth, warming my skin as if my clothes weren’t even there.
“I don’t want this to end,” I admitted, my voice no more than a whisper.
“Who says it has to?”
As his words settled in, my brows furrowed. I rotated in his arms, needing to look at him when I asked my next question. “You want this? You want me?”
Cole inhaled deeply. “If ‘this’ includes having you in my arms, in my bed, and completely wrapped around my little finger, then yes. I want it.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. Cole Davis had been the subject of my deepest fantasies for years, and now he was standing in front of me saying he wanted— “A relationship?” I voiced. “With me?”
He smiled, twin spots of color blooming over his cheeks. Something told me that it wasn’t because of the cold. “Peyton, that’s all I’ve wanted since the day we met.”
“You have?”
He nodded. “I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the first summer I visited you in Georgia. All Jesse could talk about was how he couldn’t wait for me to meet his younger sibling.
He knew I was going to love you, and he wasn’t wrong.
I’d seen pictures of you, but those didn’t hold a candle to the real thing.
You’d just come out, chopped your hair off, pierced what you could get away with, and fully embraced your true self.
And God, Peyton… you were thriving. You were so comfortable in your own skin that it was magnetic, and you pulled me right in. ”
I smiled fondly. As anxious I was about my first visit home, my identity was something I was sure of, even in a small southern town.
When I came out, it no longer felt like I was playing a role.
“You accepted me right away. You never misgendered me. Hell, you corrected my parents when they slipped.” A red bird fluttered down from a tree, and I focused on her instead of the man in front of me.
“I always thought I only had a crush on you because you were nice to me.”
“But?”
“It never went away. As we got older, that crush only grew with us.”
Cole shifted his hand, cupping my neck and stroking my cheekbone with his thumb. “I always felt the same way, Peyton.”
With misty eyes, I inhaled a deep breath. The cold grounded me, pulling me back to the important matter at hand. “Are you sure? You’re not just doing this because you think it’s what I want?”
“I’m sure. When we go home for Christmas in a couple of weeks, I want it to be with you on my arm.”
I worried my bottom lip. “Think Jesse’s going to freak?”
“Nah, I don’t think so.”
“No? I did always think you had a thing for him.”
“I know. He’ll be devastated.” I laughed, and Cole continued. “Seriously, I know your brother. and I don’t think he’d want to lose his best friend or his sibling for what essentially boils down to a pissing contest. No one owns either of us. We’re two consenting adults.”
As if on cue, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Reluctantly, I let go of Cole to check it, and chuckled to myself. I debated answering it, so long that it went to voicemail. “Perfect timing. Do we have to tell him now?”
“We can tell him whenever you want.”
My gaze flickered from him to the snowy landscape around us and back again. “One more day,” I requested. “This stuff should melt by tomorrow, and Jesse will be free to come over here and harass us—stop laughing; you know that’s exactly what he’s going to do. Until then, I want you all to myself.”
Drinks forgotten, I fisted Cole’s sweater in my hands and hauled his mouth to mine.
I stood on my toes, folding myself into his arms. Heat returned, and I found myself diving in for a deeper taste.
Our breath steamed the air between us, which quickly grew hot and heavy.
Cole’s hands wandered outside my clothes, seeming to burn right through the fabric.
Kneading my ass with one hand, he cupped the other between my thighs, easing the insistent throbbing that had started up once more. Even through thick jeans, Cole found the spot that drove me to the edge before I could blink.
I’d always been insatiable, hormones worsened that, but Cole brought out a side of me that was damn near animalistic. I couldn’t get enough.
I bucked into his hand, chasing the friction.
Tongues clashed, battling for dominance even though we knew who would ultimately come out on top.
That didn’t stop me from trying to climb him like a Georgia pine, until he got the hint and scooped me into his arms. “I haven’t changed the sheets yet,” he muttered, coming up for air.
“Good. We’ll only mess them up again anyway.” I panted, voice transforming into that breathy moan that I knew drove him wild. “Take me to bed, Daddy. Please.”
Cole growled. “You’re going to be the death of me, Peyton.”
He easily carried me into the bedroom, tossing me onto the bed.
My shirt flew off in a flash, and Cole was working at my pants.
I grappled for his belt, fumbling it open with eager hands.
Button, then the zipper, and I was sliding my hand into his jeans, cupping his engorged cock in my palm.
Cole groaned into the kiss, and I ate it right up.
One firm squeeze had him shuddering in my grip.
My other hand weakly shoved at his sweater and thankfully, Cole took the hint.
The garment was gone, falling to the floor, followed by his jeans.
Cole hastened to undress me and save for my binder, I sat bare in front of him, leaning back on my hands and fighting for every breath.
Sweat trickled along my hairline. My thighs already trembled.
Fuck. Cole had the ability to entirely wreck me with hardly a touch.
His thumb found the place where I needed it the most, and blood surged to the spot.
My head fell back, my eyes shut, my orgasm rushing to the surface.
“You going to give me a show, pretty baby?”
Gritting my teeth, I batted his hand away. “Lay down on the bed, and I’ll take you for one hell of a ride.”