Chapter 23 Violet
TWENTY-THREE
VIOLET
OCTOBER | COLUMBUS, OHIO
My eyes ached. My head throbbed. I could have gone for one of Colton’s famous neck and shoulder massages.
Shit, Colton. I was supposed to be leaving for a dinner at his teammate’s house very soon, and I was hung up at work.
My phone buzzed on the lab counter.
COLTON
i’ll be heading to get you in about 10 min
bonus points if you send a pic of what you’re wearing
I extended my arm and took a frowny selfie in my lab coat.
My phone rang with his incoming call.
I expected him to be upset, since this would have been our first social outing as a . . . what were we? A reunited friend pair who planned on doing orgasmic things?
But instead his voice was just concerned. “You get stuck at work?”
“Yes. I’m so sorry. I hoped I’d be done by now, but I’m trying to send this back tomorrow and my boss has a family so she left an hour ago and I just feel so bad because I really thought I could come with you—”
“Violet,” Colton said in his sweet voice. “You’re fine.”
I pouted. “I’d rather be going with you.”
“Will you be done anytime soon? I don’t mind going a little late.”
I looked at my surroundings. Papers with half-baked calculations on them littered my work surface. “I don’t think so. I have to get these figured out tonight.” My boss had offered to come back after her kids went to bed, but I hoped it didn’t come to that. “Go on and have some fun without me.”
Colt whined, a sympathetic little sound. “I wish you could come.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“No, not to make you feel guilty. I just know it’ll be fun and I feel like you need it.”
My cheeks flashed hot. Colton was still very much himself: wanting the world to have as much fun as he did. “I’ll be okay.”
“How are you, really?”
I snorted. “Pissed. Tired. Weak. Fucking hungry. What time is it? I didn’t have lunch.”
“You didn’t have lunch?!” Colton blustered.
“I’ve got a granola bar. I just need to take a minute to eat it.”
“Eat it right now.”
“I don’t want to talk with my mouth full,” I objected.
“Violet. I don’t care. Feed yourself.”
I loved stern Colton. It was a rare treat. My stomach flip-flopped, because there have been times when that voice sent me over the edge in a good way, and other times when it made me run.
Context is everything.
But I pushed the harsh memories down, and focused on the way my face got hot when he talked to me that way. “I like that voice.”
He cleared his throat and spoke again, deeper this time. “Eat, Violet.”
“Okay,” I said, sweeping my hair behind my ears without realizing it. “You sound like Mr. Billionaire Boss.”
The line went quiet. “Is that all you have to eat?”
“For now, yeah. I’ll just grab something whenever I get out of here.”
“Violet.”
“What? I’ll be fine. These are actually super filling.”
“Violet.”
“Colton,” I said in a mock serious voice.
“Don’t make me send you a food delivery,” he threatened.
“You know what? There’s an orange in the break room. I’ll have that too. Happy?”
“No.”
“But will you go enjoy yourself and stop worrying about me?”
Colton sighed. “Fine.”
The next time I looked up, it was 10 p.m. 10 o’freaking clock, and I only looked up because my phone buzzed. Colton again. “Hello?”
“Hey, are you still at work?”
I slumped back in my seat and yawned. “Yeah. How was the party?”
“Can you come downstairs?”
I froze. “Where are you?”
“Alter Hall. Come down and let me in. The building’s locked.”
My heart sped up and I couldn’t stop the smile spreading over my lips. “Be right there.”
I tried not to skip my way down the stairs and through the long hallway. I saw him from the back: broad shoulders leading to a tapered waist on his long and tall frame. Fucking linen pants. I wouldn’t even think of putting a man in linen pants away from the beach, but Colt wore them effortlessly.
And of course his ass looked ridiculous in them. Ridiculously good.
But more than anything, Colton was here. He left a party and came to be with me.
I flipped the lock on the glass doors and held it open. He looked over his shoulder with a shy grin. He extended the takeout box my way. “Hungry?”
I tried not to moan at the mouthwatering smell wafting from the box. “Starved.”
I waved him inside and led him to the elevator, scanning my badge. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“The Colton Jones Foundation for the Sciences insisted,” he joked. “Do I get to see where you work?”
My stomach rumbled. I wasn’t allowed to have food in the lab area, but I wouldn’t be having food at all if he hadn’t shown up.
I badged into my area and made a turn for the breakroom. “Let me just set this down and I can give you a tour.”
“Set it down? Vi, I came so you’d eat. I can keep myself entertained while you eat, or I can leave you with your food. Whatever you want.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to send you away after you brought me dinner at 10 p.m. on a Wednesday. Come on.”
We sat at the small table in the breakroom. Colton sat kitty-corner to me and it was weird to see him in my work space. Any discomfort evaporated when I opened the box. “Oh my god, this looks amazing.”
Colt’s lips twitched. “Jeanine tried to send me with leftovers for you, but I told her you really like burgers when you’re stressed. If you still do, that is.”
I was already a quarter of the way into the burger, trying to slow down because I was being uncouth.
I held up the half-vacant sandwich. “I still do. Jesus, Colt.” I legitimately had to pinch my legs together, the feeling of actual full calories hitting my stomach close to orgasmic. “So, whose house again?”
“Jeanine and Dylan Sorrento. Dylan was the captain in LA, and now he’s an alternate here.
Both alternate captains for the Rusties are married, so they sub in for me as hosts.
Jeannie and Sorrento sort of adopt me and have me over for dinner when they feel bad for me. Jeanine—actually, nope, you go.”
I’d started to talk and stopped, realizing how full my mouth was.
I worked around another massive bite. Instead of being grossed out or annoyed, Colton just watched me with bright eyes, waiting for whatever I had to say.
I wiped a napkin around my lips. “Wait, wasn’t it a cookout?
And you still went and bought me this burger? ”
Colton looked sheepish. “I mean . . . Jeanine offered the leftovers but I know you like fresh better.”
“Colton.” I leveled him with a look but was quickly distracted when I dipped a fry in the mayo-based fry sauce. Was that a kiss of sweetness? Every pleasure center in my body was firing. “Shit, that’s good.”
Colton chuckled. “I forgot how fun it is to watch you eat. Real meals, though. Not just granola bars over the phone.”
My cheeks heated. “Thanks for that, by the way. You know I get buried in stuff.”
He bobbed his head. “I do.”
His look turned wistful, focusing on the formica table between us. I could take a guess as to what he was thinking about: all the time we spent studying together. No matter how we ended, I’d always have fond memories of that.
Falling in love for the first time. The only time for me.
My stomach was just starting to dip when Colton stood, patting his pocket. “Forgot something.”
“Huh?”
He sauntered to the vending machines, looking over the options. He tapped his card on the reader and selected a drink. He held up my favorite soda. “A drink.”
I pinched my lips together to suppress a smile. “Why are you spoiling me so much?”
Colt wiggled his shoulders and stuck his tongue in his cheek. “Trying to keep up with these book boyfriends.”
I scoffed. “I’m aware that these are men written by women and not actual real-life expectations.”
“Why shouldn’t they be? At the bare minimum, I can challenge myself to be better. A more considerate partner.”
My throat tickled and I coughed. Did he think we were partners? Were we? Was this a mistake of grand proportions, making him believe I was ready to be more than we were? His gentle hand was on my shoulder. “Down the wrong pipe?”
He asked it with such genuine concern that I didn’t know how to act. “I guess,” I coughed.
He cracked the soda can and slid it over to me. “Here you go.”
“Thanks,” I said, taking a sip. “Oh, hey, I finished the billionaire one and I feel like they’re about to kiss in the college book. Feels nostalgic in all the best ways.”
Colt grinned. “Yeah. It’s like living the sweetest parts of college again.”
A dense, palpable silence hung between us. Colton was part of my sweetest college memories. His smiles, his kisses, his encouragement, his laugh. Being so smitten with him, convinced nothing could rip us apart.
But the thing that ripped us apart lived inside me, and I didn’t know how to forgive myself for pushing him away. I shoved the last few fries in my mouth all at once to justify not speaking.
Colt’s cheeks flushed and his voice was gravelly. “The kisses are important, huh? In the books?”
I nodded. “Unless it’s a one night stand, it’s usually a big turning point about halfway through. Gives you something to hope for.”
His expression was pained, and he licked and combed his teeth over his bottom lip. “Yeah. I could see that.”
As soon as I said my next words, I wanted them back. “You really love kissing.”
I was apparently not the captain of my body, because, without intending to, I’d leaned a centimeter closer to him and angled my face that much more toward his.
Why, Violet? Why did you have to make it more tense? You were the one who asked for a just-friends arrangement, to protect this man in front of you. And here you are, reminding him of not only every kiss, but of our first kiss.
“Yeah,” Colton said. “I do.”
I cleared my throat because for some reason, it was dry. “So, you really want a tour of the place?”
Colt’s eyes softened. “If you have time. I don’t want to intrude.”
“Come on. I’ll show you around.” I gathered up my trash, then showed Colt to the bathrooms so he could wash his hands. No dirty hands in the lab.
I badged us in and Colt looked around. “So, what are you trying to figure out?”
“Glioblastoma in children. How, why, genetics, you name it, we’re trying to figure it out.”
“Damn. And glioblastoma is?”
“An aggressive and malignant brain tumor. The leading team for brain cancer nationally is here in Columbus, so that’s why I’m here.”
Colt smiled, wrapping his arm around my side to tap my hip. “That’s incredible. I mean, terrible that it exists, but awesome that you get to figure it out.”
“And that I’m in your city?” I supplied.
“That is one massive benefit for me personally,” he said.
We paused and stared into each other’s eyes.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I said, and he looked like I just told him I figured out how to bottle lightning.
All that talk about kissing had me fifty kinds of stirred up.
My lips popped open and I didn’t realize I was looking at his until they quirked upward.
He lifted a finger and booped my nose. “And I’m glad you’re here.”
Giddy feelings swirled through my body: a flutter here, humming blood there, the desire to drag my lips over the space next to his Adam’s apple. I knew if I lunged at him, he’d receive it. But there were cameras all over the lab, and I felt suddenly on the spot. “Wanna see the mice?” I offered.
“Mice?” he asked, scrunching his nose in his ever-Colton way. “I thought it was ‘lab rats’ for a reason.”
“Mice are easier for what we’re doing. I understand if you don’t want to see them.”
He shook his head. “I definitely want to see them.”
After he’d seen the sights, we came to a lull by my desk. I rolled my lips between my teeth and looked at the exceedingly narrow space between us. “I hate to say it, but I should probably get back to it.”
“Yeah, of course.”
“But thanks for bringing me dinner.”
Colt grinned. “You’re much happier now.”
My throat tightened and made some gurgly noise as I looked up at him. I was happier when I saw him calling, but I wasn’t sharing that little tidbit. The goal was to not get his hopes up. “I’ll walk you out.”
Just before we left the lab area, he pointed to a door on our right. “You didn’t show me that room.”
I waved a hand. “Oh. It’s just a storage closet.”
Colton paused and lifted a brow. “A storage closet, you say?” He stepped a little closer. “I feel like I’ve read something about a storage closet before.”
My heart sped up and my eyes widened. He was talking about the billionaire book. He was ready to act out a scene now. Some combination of adrenaline and sex hormones hit my bloodstream as I considered the risk, the fact that we could really go for it. “I do believe you have.”
He pursed his lips. “No pressure from me. And I wasn’t even thinking of that coming over here.”
I planted him with a look, but I couldn’t keep a straight face.
Colt held up his hands. “I didn’t! But, you know, if you’re ready for that . . .”
He slipped one hand into his pants pocket and sifted the other through his hair.
Was I ready to jump the bones of a man who spoke to me in stern tones and made me eat my favorite food? To let that man touch me, kiss me, tease me? I met his gaze.
“I’m ready.”
His eyes widened, and he took two quick breaths. “Okay. If you get scared or don’t like something, I want you to say something. Or pinch me.”
“Nothing from the back.”
He nodded. “Nothing from the back.” He stepped in closer with a wary look, leaning down to my ear. “We’re alone?”
“Only people left in the building, but there are cameras.”
His breath tickled the shell of my ear. “And are there cameras in there, or could a potential billionaire and his assistant perhaps spend a little time in there?”
I checked our surroundings, and with no additional words, I pulled him into the storage closet.