Chapter 40
JULES
After the third sprint, I gave up. This had probably been the worst idea in history.
It was impossible to concentrate with him sitting across from me. Every slight touch, even accidental, and every look, reminded me of when we were together.
And now he was looking at me… like that.
“How did you do?”
“Truthfully?”
“Always.”
“I’m finding it slightly difficult to concentrate.”
I knew the reason. Might be guarded in many ways, but he wasn’t hiding his interest in me at all.
The feeling was mutual.
“Do you want me to grab another round of coffee for the last sprint?”
Cole looked up at the register and then back to me, and then—did the bastard actually lick his lips? It was very subtle, but for a second, I saw that tongue and knew what he could do with it.
“Cole…”
“Jules, when you say my name that way, do you have any idea what I want to do with you?”
My stomach did a little flip. “I can guess.”
“Can you now? Give it a shot.”
Oh boy. Flirting with a guy as intelligent as him, and who knew how to deliver, was tricky—but also so much fun.
I couldn’t ever remember feeling so alive.
“Are you thinking about walking me back to my house?” I asked, extra innocently.
“For starters.”
Surely my cheeks were beginning to turn pink.
“I could put the rest in writing, but I don’t think I can say it out loud.”
Cole hesitated for a beat and then closed his laptop. He proceeded to put it in his messenger bag, along with the notepad and pen. Slow. Deliberate. In a way that set every nerve ending in my body firing away.
He stood up, slung the bag over his shoulder, and walked the two steps toward me. With his hand, he guided me inward on the booth, proceeding to sit down next to me. Cole tucked my hair behind my ear and leaned forward, smelling very Cole-like.
I could hear my heart pounding away, anticipating what he was about to say, knowing it would be naughty.
“Let me put it in words for you. We’re going back to your place. I’m going to tear every inch of clothing off your body, and then use the tie from that cute pink robe I saw hanging on the door of your bathroom.”
I didn’t dare look at him, but instead stared straight ahead at my computer.
“I’m going to tie your hands above your head so that you can’t push me into you as I’m edging you. Start, and then stop. Start, stop. When you’re sufficiently begging for release, only then will I consider it.”
And then, as if he had sat next to me and offered to refill our coffees, he stood up and waited patiently, with a look that told me every word he said was true.
I’d never done that before, or anything kinky really. I imagined myself as he described and then wondered if I should ask what was bound to be a really stupid question. Grabbing my stuff, I followed him outside and waited until there was nobody near.
“I have a confession.”
Cole was still looking at me the way he had been in The Coffee Cabin. It was as if my entire body felt alive, like I could run a marathon.
Maybe a half marathon.
Definitely a 5K.
“Go for it.”
“I haven’t really done anything like that before. And I swear I’m not completely sheltered, but… I don’t know what edging is.”
I mean, my girlfriends and I talked about sex pretty often, but that just hadn’t come up.
He didn’t scoff at me or smirk. Cole simply said, “You will very soon.”
That was almost unfair. The unknown was an entirely different beast than something you could prepare for.
By the time we made it inside my house, my senses were singing.
And Cole, who obviously liked picking me up, did the very same thing as in the cottage.
He took my stairs as if he were carrying a feather, and I was definitely no feather.
Once in my bedroom, he made good on his second promise.
I kicked off my shoes while he undressed me so fast it was only when I stood completely naked that I could register what was happening.
I reached forward, but Cole did it for me, taking off every stitch as he looked toward my en suite bathroom.
There it was. The pink robe.
Cole made good on that promise as well, grabbing the tie and ripping it right off the robe in one swoop.
When he stalked toward me—and there was no other word for it—my knees wobbled a bit.
“Lie down on the bed, monella.”
So he wanted bold Jules. Interesting.
“And if I want to take my time? Maybe sit a bit first?”
His eyes flashed, and this was no college professor in front of me. It was the athlete, the guy whose arms were muscle from helping Parker so often.
This was another Cole completely.
As I expected he might, Cole lifted me up and tossed me onto the bed. It was a gentle enough toss, but I was airborne for a second. How did he do that so effortlessly?
Climbing beside me, he didn’t even ask. Just grabbed one wrist, and then another wrist, and tied them together, watching me the whole time. When he was done, I let my hands fall and waited.
Lying beside me, as if we were about to have a conversation, leaning his head on his hand, Cole leaned down and kissed my ear, my neck, and down until he was teasing my nipple. It was a strange sensation, not being able to return the favor.
“I want to touch you.”
He pulled his head up, shrugged, looked extremely unapologetic. “Oh well.”
And then his hand went between my legs.
“Jesus, Jules. You are so fucking wet already.”
I was wet enough that I could hear his fingers as they moved in and out of me. And then he touched a spot that I didn’t even know was there. I really wasn’t that ignorant about sex. I had plenty of toys and could get off in twenty seconds.
“What are you even doing?”
Again, no smugness, no judgment. “You’ve heard of the G spot?”
“Yeah. It’s some magical thing down there… I have no idea what it is really.”
He touched it. Circled it. It felt just as good as when he circled my clit. “It’s right here.”
I let my head fall back to the pillow, closing my eyes and letting myself come.
And I did.
From a few minutes of fingering. My walls clenched in and out against his fingers, and I opened my eyes. He was watching me intently.
“So much to learn.”
I would ignore the fact that that implied a future.
Still couldn’t move my hands, and that was strange. I lifted them up. “Are you taking these off now?”
This time he did smile, and it was not a reassuring one. Pretty sure it wasn’t meant to be, but just the opposite. A knowing smile. A secret smile. One that had my breath coming just as fast now as when I climaxed a few seconds ago.
“I think you forgot exactly what I told you I was going to do.”
I hadn’t forgotten a word of it, but still wasn’t sure what edging meant. I should’ve looked it up on my phone on the walk back.
Cole climbed above me. He licked his lips, and this time I didn’t have to pretend that didn’t trigger me. I tried to reach up to kiss him, but then remembered my hands and couldn’t move.
“Kiss me. Please.”
He did. Cole’s mouth flashed against mine, our tongues tangled as he entered me slowly… so slowly that I bucked my hips up and tried to use my hands for leverage.
No dice.
Before long, he was not only inside me, but Cole’s thumb circled my clit as he held himself above me. Our kiss had broken. It was like too much was happening, and I couldn’t concentrate. All I knew was that it felt so good, and I wanted him to feel that too.
“Oh man, yes. That’s so perfect.”
In and out, slow and then fast, circling me, pressing against me, he moved with a rhythm that I didn’t know existed.
“Cole… I’m gonna come again.”
And then he froze.
Quite literally stopped.
My heartbeat was no longer in my ears, just in my chest. My pulse slowed. Breathing slowed.
“What the hell?”
“Want something?”
Oh my God—my hands. I kept forgetting.
“Yes. I want you to make me come again. I want you to come too.”
He looked down between us, watching as his thumb began to move again, circling, pressing. And then he moved, buried himself fully in me, and stayed there.
“That feels so good.”
“Yeah? Should I fuck you some more, monella?”
Oh my God.
“Yes. Please, yes.”
And then he did it all over again. Twice. Three times. The fourth time I couldn’t take it. I literally begged and called his name so loud that I was certain my neighbors could hear.
“Cole. I’m serious. Please. Please don’t stop this time. Please. I’m begging you.”
He leaned down and kissed me, his tongue marking time with his thrusts, his thumb like part of a one-man orchestra, and somehow everything worked perfectly together. I couldn’t do much in this position except hope and pray this time he would not stop.
And when it began to build, and he could feel me quivering, he didn’t stop. He did pull back to look at me, took his hand from my clit, braced himself, and then pumped into me hard. I began to shake, my legs quivering, Cole’s face strained as if what he had been doing cost him as much as it had me.
And then he let it go.
He roared my name. His gorgeous face full of pleasure, mouth open, probably looking like I did—a combination of sensation and awe.
After a few minutes, he pulled out and reached out to untie my hands. I immediately used them to pull him back to me. I wanted to feel us pressing close together for some reason.
Neither of us moved for a bit until Cole leaned back, looked at me, and then kissed me on the nose.
“And now, my sweet monella, you know what edging is.”
Yeah, I did. “Bringing me to the edge and then stopping? That was downright cruel.”
He smiled.
“You seemed to like it well enough a few minutes ago.”
I did. “It felt amazing, but also really frustrating. Like pleasure mixed with pain. But not pain-pain. Does that make sense?”
He chuckled. “It does.”
“Next time you do that, I want my hands untied. At least give me a fighting chance.”
Next time.
The second those words were out of my mouth, I could feel him tense. He tried to mask it, but couldn’t.
I wanted to lie here in his arms, keep talking about our past and get to know each other. But every minute that went by, I was falling deeper into whatever we were.
“Hungry?”
“Very. Also wishing I had a cigarette or a cigar right about now. Even though I don’t smoke.”
Cole hopped up from the bed as effortlessly as he carried me up the stairs. He held out his hand and pulled me with him.
“I can’t help you on the cigar front, but I think we can find a place to grab some dinner if you want.”
I did want. Very much.
And that was the problem.