Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
T he first bite sent my taste buds into an orgasm. My eyes closed as I savored the flavors, chewing and swallowing. “Holy shit. This, this”—I pointed my fork at the chicken parmesan on my plate—“might be better than sex.”
“Just wait until you have sex with me, Killer.” His tone had gone smooth and velvety like the petals of an onyx rose.
I moved my fork to the pasta, twirling it around. “There it is. The sexual innuendos. No guy can resist.”
“How could I when you set it up so perfectly? We could set the record straight tonight?” He gave me a smug smirk.
I lifted my glass of wine, needing to wet my throat. I was suddenly parched. Narrowing my eyes over the flute, I replied, “I’ll pass and reserve judgment, uh, never.” My tone dripped with sarcasm.
The knife in his hand cut smoothly through the chicken. “Another bet?”
I choked, wine burning my nostrils, an unpleasant feeling. “Not falling for that again.” I shoveled a forkful of pasta into my mouth to avoid saying anything else.
I hadn’t realized I finished my wine until Cole got up to refill it. It explained the warm tingles spreading through my body .
The lull in conversation had my thoughts turning to Dad. How was he faring? Was Sadie still with him? Had she stayed? Were they worried about me? It had been twenty-four hours. I officially qualified for a missing person’s report if the cell phone towers ever got back up or the power was restored.
“You’re worried about your father,” he said, reading me in a way that irritated me.
I lifted my gaze from the plate, noticing the swirl pattern I’d been making with the sauce. Over the last day, Cole and his antics had taken up so much space in my mind I hadn’t stressed about my dad as I normally would have. “I’m not usually gone this long, and he doesn’t know where I am.”
“Has it always been the two of you?” he asked, his plate nearly clean.
“Since I was six,” I retorted, picking up the refreshed glass of wine.
Dropping his fork onto his plate, he picked up the bottle of wine, forgoing the glass, and sat back in his chair. “And your mom?”
It was a normal question and yet one I always dreaded answering. I shrugged, ignoring the squeezing inside my chest. “Who knows. She could be dead or have a new family.”
His lips wrapped around the bottle opening, and he tipped his head back, taking a long drink. I couldn’t stop staring at his mouth. “I sense some abandonment issues.”
What is wrong with me? Stop eyeing his lips like they are covered in sugar and you want to lick it off. “Shut up. What about you? Are you close with your parents?” I asked, turning the interrogation on him. I had enough with talking about me, considering I wasn’t much of a sharer.
“Hardly,” he snorted.
“You mean behind the gilded walls isn’t a perfect family?”
The chair groaned under his weight as he shifted to get more comfortable. “Money doesn’t make a family close. If anything, in my experience, it tears them apart.”
Now we were getting somewhere. Keeping my glass in hand, I pulled my legs up underneath me on the plush seat. “Is that why you’re here? Avoiding your family?”
“More like a banishment. ”
I made an are-you-kidding-me expression. “Excuse me. This is considered a banishment. Most kids get sent to their rooms. You get sent to another fucking house?” He had to realize how insane that was.
Cole’s lips formed a straight line, and his voice went flat. “Distance is key in my family, which is why I need you.”
“Need me how exactly?” Suspicion edged into my tone. I learned long ago never to trust the summer assholes.
Dark shadows curled in his eyes. “The truth?”
“No, I prefer lies,” I said cheekily.
“Who doesn’t?” he retorted without taking a breath.
I hated to admit bantering with Cole did something to me inside. My stomach fluttered, and I wanted it to stop. “Does this have anything to do with the bet? Why would you need me to stay here?”
The silence of the flickering candles crept in. “I have my reasons,” he finally said.
Looked like I hit a sore spot. I’d started to think he didn’t have any, and it pleased me too much. “And you don’t want to share them with me?”
From the unyielding line of his lips, I thought he would shut down. To my surprise, he didn’t. “Living up to our parents’ expectations can be brutal, especially if you’re the son of Rowan Riley,” he replied, projecting an outward I-don’t-give-a-shit calm that betrayed the tightness of his mouth.
“Your father?” I guessed.
He took another heavy pull from the bottle, giving me a measured once-over. “Screw the bet. Why don’t we help each other instead.”
Me, enter a bargain with Cole? Why did that feel like signing a deal with the devil? “What do you have that I want?” The wine was for sure going to my head. Why else would I even entertain the idea of an agreement with Cole Riley?
I hated guys like him.
A cocky smirk fell in place on those full lips, the silver hoop winking under candlelight. “The obvious. Money. I imagine all those hospital and medical bills are stacking up. I can help you with those. If you help me.”
“How about fuck off,” I casually suggested, lifting a brow at him.
He set the bottle on the table, leaning forward in his chair. “Don’t be so stu bborn, Killer. This isn’t a pity offer. Like I said, I want something in exchange. Think of it as a job if it helps.”
“It doesn’t,” I snapped, licking a drop of wine off my lips.
A glimmer of heat sparked where gold flecked his eyes.
My free hand curled against my thigh, fingers pressing into my flesh. “Fine, I’ll play. How exactly would I be helping you? I think I’ve already established my position on sleeping with strangers for money. I’m not a prostitute or a whore.”
I’d agreed to nothing, and a slow victorious smile twisted on his lips. “No sex. That luxury is optional and only if it’s something we both agree to, but us getting naked has nothing to do with what I’m offering you.”
“I’m still unclear what you’re offering.”
His intense dark eyes stayed on mine as he said, “Stay with me here until the end of the summer.”
“I need to work. I can’t afford to lose my job,” I explained, poking holes in his offer, grasping at excuses, because I could definitely not spend a summer with Cole Riley. It had nothing to do with how people would talk because I didn’t give a field of fucks. What bothered me was who I would be at the end of the summer. I’d spent a single night with him, and I could already feel the effect he had on me—the pull—the desire.
Cole wasn’t someone I wanted or had the time to get entangled with.
Then again, with the money he was offering, I could go away to college. I could make sure Dad was cared for and the bills paid, giving me the freedom I so desperately craved.
Flickering candlelight glinted off the silver hoop on his bottom lip. “Fine. But your nights and days off are mine,” he conceded, being too damn agreeable.
“How much?” I wasn’t actually considering this, was I? Dangle dollar bills in front of me and I’d sell my soul to the devil. For the right amount, of course.
“Throw out a figure,” he said, raking a hand through his onyx hair.
“A hundred,” I tossed out, believing there was no way he’d agree. Foolish.
“Done.” Not a split second of hesitation. Didn’t blink an eye. Or break a sweat .
“Thousand,” I added in case he misunderstood. “A hundred thousand.”
“I got it. Not a problem.”
I cocked my head to the side, eyeing him. “I want half up front. A down payment.” What the hell am I doing negotiating with him?
He toyed with his lip ring with his thumb as he rested his chin on his hand. “You don’t trust me?”
“Hell no,” I retorted, polishing off my last bit of wine.
He smirked. “Good. You shouldn’t. I’ll get you the fifty thousand.”
Was it fate my path crossed with Cole’s when I was drowning in debt with no way out? A dark, twisted fate, most likely. “Before I take any money from you, we need to set some ground rules.”
His eye twitched at the mention of rules. “Like?” he prompted.
“Like what’s expected of me. What do I tell people? Do you sleep naked? Or have any other annoying habits I should be aware of?”
“If I need to go out, you will come with me. Doesn’t matter what it is. Dinners. Parties. Dates. No questions asked. If you need anything for these outings, I will pay for it. You stay here. Every night. People need to believe we’re living together. I sleep naked when the mood strikes, particularly on hot nights, and I guess we’ll find out what other ways I can annoy you.”
“That’s all?”
His smile was slow and dark. “Only more if you want there to be.”
I wanted to be unaffected by him, but my body was drawn to all the wrong things about Cole. Warmth unfurled in my stomach. “I won’t. No sex. I need to make that clear.”
“I don’t force girls to have sex with me. You won’t have to worry about me sneaking into your room in the middle of the night…not without an invitation,” he added, making it known if I wanted him in my bed he’d be a willing partner.
This deal seemed too good to be true, and in my experience, if something seemed too good, it usually was. I wanted the fine print. “Where’s the catch?”
“There isn’t one, Killer.”
My lips pressed together, and I thought the third glass of wine hadn’t been s mart. Or was it four? Regardless, I shouldn’t be making any promises I didn’t have the brain power to think through completely.
“Do we have a deal?” Cole pressed, and I got a whiff of his scent, crisp woodsy sage with hints of sea salt as if carried on a phantom breeze.
I squirmed in my seat for several reasons. One of them was I hated being pressured. Nearly almost as much as I hated being poor. Or being pitied. Or being the subject of town gossip. Turned out, there was a long list of shit I hated. And Cole Riley was climbing up on that list as well as the way my body reacted to him.
“Here’s your answer.” I plucked a piece of spaghetti off my plate and hurled it across the table. With a satisfying splat, it landed on Cole’s face, dangling from his cheek until it fell onto his lap.
A stunned moment of silence passed before my giggle filled the kitchen.
I didn’t know what came over me. It would be easy to blame the wine, and it definitely was partially to blame, but since I’d been locked in this house with Cole, he’d been too damn serious. Neither of us laughed. All we did was scowl at each other from across the room.
Besides, the way I saw it, he deserved a noodle slapped against his face for getting me stuck in this house with him. All because of that stupid T-shirt.
“Oh, I promise you’ll pay for that, Killer.” His chair scraped over the floor as he stood up. Nothing about his features showed amusement, and that made it only funnier to me.
Still laughing, I shot out of my seat, quickly moving to the other end of the table, keeping the large slab of wood between us. He chased me, quicker than I gave him credit for, but I’d always been a decent runner thanks to those miles I walked daily.
“When I get my hands on you…” he threatened, dashing to the right, but at the last second, he faked a change in direction that I stupidly fell for. The laughter gripping my stomach made my legs slower and clumsier than normal, and the growl in his tone, along with the splatter of red sauce still on his face, only made it worse.
He caught me, his fingers tight on my wrists as he whirled me to face him. My laughter died when I saw the storm churning in his eyes. I took a step back, but I had nowhere to go, and my ass bumped into the table. His fi ngers weren’t gentle above my hands, but the soreness didn’t bother me, not when I was enraptured by the features of his face. My chest rose and fell in heavy breaths, and the smile curved on my lips slowly slipped at the darkening of his eyes as his gaze fell on my mouth. When those gold-flecked irises lifted, I lost all rational thought.
Fuck it.
I slammed my mouth on his before I could stop myself, a rush of heat and lust, edged with anger. At him. At myself. At our situation. I couldn’t pick it apart, not with his lips earnestly moving on mine, taking control of what I started.
He locked a hand at the small of my back, the other digging into my hair as he tugged our bodies together.
God, he’s so hard.
Everywhere. And I meant everywhere .
I could feel the swell of him through his shorts, the thin material offering little barrier between our bodies. Until this moment, I hadn’t been sure how Cole felt about me, but this was undeniable proof he wanted me.
He joked. He toyed. He made the bet. With his reputation, I couldn’t take anything he said seriously. If I had doubts before, the way he kissed made it very clear.
His tongue skated across my lips, urging me to open for him.
I did, and the taste of his tongue gliding against and taunting mine sent me reeling. I moaned into his mouth, needing more. This feeling—the desperation, the ferocity burning me alive—was new and like nothing I’d experienced before. Sharp, violent, passionate, dark, hot. I didn’t know what to do with it all but hold on.
My fingers trailed over the planes of his broad shoulders, up the back of his neck, and into his silky hair as if I were following the path on a map. I nipped at his lower lip, dying to sink my teeth into the steel hoop cool against my mouth, but I settled for using my tongue instead, toying with it.
Cole groaned, seeking full possession of my mouth again and deepening the kiss with an insatiable hunger I wasn’t sure either of us could satisfy with our mouths alone.
He must have had the same thought .
His hands roamed over my body, grabbing for my ass and squeezing with enough force I almost bit him, before he lifted me onto the table. My legs wrapped around him, drawing Cole back against me. I had to feel him. Whimpers escaped me as his erection nuzzled hard into my core. He didn’t have a shy bone in his body, not when it came to this, but I hadn’t expected him to. Someone like Cole oozed the amount of menace that made him dangerously sexy.
Holy shit.
His fingers were fucking magic.
My hips inched forward, demanding more contact, demanding just more, and the friction my movement created, even as minor as it was against his erection, sent need throbbing between my legs.
Tension built to a point teetering on the edge of sweet and painful.
My body arched into his, loving the way we fit. Every curve and dip between the two of us fit together seamlessly like a puzzle.
His lips curved along the side of my mouth, grazing my jawline, before taking a leisurely stroll to my ear where he took my lobe between his teeth. “I win,” he whispered, causing a shiver to skate down my back.
“Bet’s off,” I murmured back, only half aware of what the hell I said and even less aware of the position I was in.
His dark chuckle warmed behind my ear, and I turned my head a fraction, seeking out his lips, but then his gaze captured mine, and I blinked.
How did I get here? Wrapped around Cole Riley like a sex-crazed monkey?
His tone went smoky, desire thick in his eyes. “Do we have a deal, Killer?”