Chapter 18
Hadley didn’t remember falling back to sleep.
One minute, she was chatting with Cole, listening intently to every detail he was willing to share with her about his life, feeling warm and comfortable and safe in his arms, and the next, she was unconscious, probably drooling into her pillow.
She really hoped she was wrong about the drooling.
But she also had no idea what woke her up. It definitely wasn’t a nightmare. No pounding heart, sweaty skin, gasping for breath, or overwhelming sensation of impending doom. Nope. Nothing like that.
What she was experiencing, however, was the feeling of being flat on her back, pressed into the mattress by the weight of Cole’s body, his mouth very close to hers.
Definitely not a nightmare, because holy crap did he feel good.
“Stay calm,” he whispered, his warm breath feathering across her cheek.
Not fucking likely. She hadn’t had sex in a really long time, and never with a man as hot as Cole. Hyperventilating was possible. So were spontaneous orgasms. Either option would be mortifying. How was she supposed to stay calm under those circumstances?
“Someone’s in the house,” he added.
Well, that was a relief and terrifying all at the same time. He wasn’t making a move on her, so she wasn’t in danger of spontaneously coming all over the thigh he had shoved between hers. But also, who the hell was in the house? She grabbed his bicep and lifted her eyes to his, brow furrowed.
He tipped his ear toward the door. “One person. In the living room. Checking the drawers and vents.”
Fuck, he could hear all that? All she could hear was the pounding of her own heart. And…was that her stomach growling? Yikes. She should’ve eaten more of that cheeseboard earlier.
“This is a pro. It’s got to be our sleeper agent. Probably checking up on our cover.”
“How do you know?” she whispered.
“It’s what I’d do.”
She supposed it was a good thing she’d had that nightmare earlier. Otherwise, she had a sneaking suspicion Cole wouldn’t have gotten in bed with her and would still be lurking outside the bedroom door like a gargoyle when the sleeper agent came in. “Do we confront them?”
“No. All that’d do is run them out of town. Franklin would never leave us alone if we lost the guy.”
Which didn’t work for her at all because Franklin sucked and she’d die happy if she never had to see his stupid, fat face ever again. “Pretend we’re asleep?”
He hesitated. She immediately knew why. If he was wrong, if this was someone here to harm them and he was next to her, pretending to sleep, it’d be harder for him to shield her with his body, which was…she wasn’t going to lie…unbearably hot.
“He’s coming up the steps,” Cole whispered, his entire body tightening above hers.
Her brain raced almost as fast as her heart.
One idea did come to mind almost immediately.
And not because she wanted to do borderline disrespectful things with this man.
It was an idea that made sense in this particular circumstance, and it would allow him to guard her the way he wanted to. It was a win-win, really.
She could only hope Cole would agree with her, because she was about to take charge of this situation in a big way.
Hadley threw her leg around his hips, snaked a hand behind his neck, yanked him against her like she never intended to let him go…and crushed her lips against his.
(And, no, it wasn’t lost on her that this was the second time her on-the-spot problem solving involved her mouth on his. Total coincidence. That was her story and she was sticking to it.)
He froze, just like he’d done when she kissed him earlier. But either he understood what she was trying to accomplish, or he just wanted to kiss her (and she really hoped it was the latter), because it wasn’t long before he opened his mouth with a needy, hungry sound, tangling his tongue with hers.
Given the fact that they had an audience (or would very soon), she knew they should keep this relatively PG rated. PG-13 at worst. But when he slid one hand into her hair and gripped her hip with the other, all her thoughts veered immediately into R territory.
Then he shifted and rocked his hips against hers. The sweats he had on did absolutely nothing to conceal the long, thick length of his hard-on. And when that hard-on brushed over her clit, well, it was all over for her. X-rated thoughts, here she came!
Came. Heh.
Her body had a mind of its own as she started gently rocking against him.
Suddenly desperate to feel more of his skin against hers, she reached down, grabbed the hem of his T-shirt, and yanked it up.
He pulled back from their kiss just long enough to whip the shirt over his head and toss it onto the floor.
He tugged her head to one side and ran the tip of his tongue over the sensitive spot below her ear. Her eyes fluttered shut and she couldn’t contain the shuddering sigh that slipped past her lips.
“God,” she moaned. “You feel so good.”
He groaned when she kept rocking against him insistently, urgently. Then she returned his groan when he shoved his arm under her hips, pressing her harder against him.
“Take what you need, baby,” he growled in her ear.
To punctuate his statement, he rolled his hips hard against hers and a loud, embarrassing moan escaped her. “Fuck,” he muttered. “Keep moving like that, making those sounds for me, and you’re going make me come before I even get inside you.”
The idea that he could get off on her getting off turned her on almost more than the friction she was creating between them. Almost.
So, she let loose any lingering inhibitions she had and picked up her pace, rocking against him with complete abandon.
When she closed her eyes, he tightened his fist in her hair. “Look at me. I want your eyes on mine when you come,” he demanded.
Fuck yes. The intensity in his voice and his eyes was enough to push her over the edge.
But she wanted him to come with her, so she grabbed his hips and ground against him harder, increasing the pressure between them.
She felt the moment he lost control, felt it in the tightening of his muscles, saw it in his eyes as he ruthlessly held eye contact.
He growled her name as he shuddered above her, and Hadley cried out her release right along with him.
Heart racing, muscles trembling, she reached for the waistband of his sweats. She needed to get him naked now, because as soon as their recovery period was over, she wanted to do way more than dry hump.
Cole grabbed her hand. He pulled back, gasping for breath, and rested his forehead against hers. “He’s gone,” he rasped.
“Oh,” she whispered. That was it. Just, “oh.” Because anything more profound than that escaped her.
Cole must not have wanted to talk, either, because he yeeted himself off her like she was a live grenade, flopped on his back beside her, and threw his arm over his eyes.
She refused—refused, damn it!—to notice how the position highlighted his biceps…and the impressive hard on (how the hell was he still hard? She was pretty damn positive that he’d come, too) that was currently straining against the confines of his sweats.
But she totally noticed anyway. Ahem.
Hadley had no idea how long they stayed that way—breathing hard, side-by-side, on their backs, staring at the ceiling to avoid staring at each other, bathed in awkward silence.
But as usual, her brain wouldn’t let anything stay quiet for long.
So, eventually, she muttered, “Well…I guess the good news is that unless the sleeper agent assumes we’re just really good method actors, he’ll have to believe we’re exactly who we claim to be.
And that we have a really hot sex life.”
Cole pulled his arm off his eyes and slowly rolled his head to look at her.
She rolled her head to look back at him.
And after blinking at her a few times, he huffed out a laugh so rusty it sounded like it hadn’t been used in decades, if ever.
Knowing she was the one who brought that out of him made a grin split across her face.
She could get used to making him smile and laugh like that.
Did fake marriages built on blackmail and covert operations ever lead anywhere good? She had no idea. Seemed unlikely.
But something told her finding out was going to be one hell of an entertaining ride.