11. Cole
COLE
Whoever said Shakespeare isn’t sexy is wrong.
Dead wrong.
I flip to a sonnet that’s rife with innuendo.
One hundred thirty-five.
I read the first few lines out loud.
“ Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will,
And Will to boot, and Will in overplus;
More than enough am I that vex thee still,
To thy sweet will making addition thus.
Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,
Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine? ”
Stopping, I lift my eyes from the page to gauge her reaction. Her blue eyes twinkle with understanding. Perhaps some mischief too, as she says, “Are you saying that my sexual desires are enormous, and therefore you should put your desire in me?”
I shouldn’t be surprised that Sage Carmichael knows Shakespeare. But truthfully, I am. Or perhaps delighted is more like it. I don’t need to let her know that though.
“I was simply reading a lovely sonnet.” I do my best to appear innocent. Admittedly, that’s not my finest skill.
Her eyes say she knows better than that.
“Mr. Donovan, I studied English literature in college, and we lit majors made sure to know all the most innuendo-laden of the Bard’s lines.
Like this one.” She lifts her chin, meets my eyes, and recites, “Graze on my lips; and if those hills be dry, stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie. ”
And there she goes, turning the tables, turning me on even more with this quick-witted, bright side of her.
“ Venus and Adonis ,” I say, naming the poem. “And yes, I’d like to stray lower. And I believe I’ve made all my desires clear.”
“You have indeed. So, duly noted. But the jury is still out.” She draws a breath, like she’s mulling something over. Maybe whether she wants to say it. “Funny thing, this coincidence. I was going to get you a book for a gift.”
“And why did you decide not to?”
“I didn’t want you to feel any obligation to read it. Chocolate, on the other hand, rarely causes feelings of obligation.”
“Obligation is the last thing I feel right now.”
“What’s the first thing you feel?”
I inch closer, pinning my gaze to hers as heat flares between us once more. “Desire. Longing. And an insatiable hunger. That time with you at the party was not enough.”
She’s quiet for a spell, like she’s deciding. “And what about your English friend? If you fuck me now, what will he do?”
I file away those three perfect words— fuck me now . Yes, I would like that very much. “He’s not the jealous type. The question is, would you want that? Without him?”
Her blue-eyed stare is intense, but she doesn’t answer me. She asks another question. “Were you trying to seduce me by reading Shakespeare to me?”
The question comes out as both a challenge and an invitation. The tone in her voice says she’d like to be seduced. “Yes. Yes, I was,” I say.
She nods, taking that in. “Did you buy that book so you could fuck me?”
I laugh, shaking my head. “I bought that book as a gift for a business associate—Sage Carmichael. When I learned Sage Carmichael is the woman I want, I used that book to entice her.”
“But we agreed that nothing can happen again,” she says, standing, stepping away from the couch, striding across the carpet.
It’s like she needs to put distance between us.
Maybe it’s the distance between herself and her own desires that she’s struggling with.
Well, I’m not going to push her. That’s not my scene.
I stay on the couch, crossing one leg over the other.
“Yes, we did agree to that. Yet I can’t help but wonder if the book is working. ”
She stops at the wall with the window that looks over her casino. The top half of a portion of the wall is glass, the bottom half wood. She stares out the glass, then back at me. “What do you think?”
“I don’t want to make any assumptions. But when I look at the way your shoulders are rising and falling, when I look at how the flush spreads across your neck, I’d say it’s working.
Or maybe it’s that this chemistry we have is working.
That was a long and involved conversation on your couch, and neither one of us wanted to stop talking or flirting.
So, you tell me if you’re being seduced, Sage. ”
She closes her eyes, swallows kind of roughly, then opens them again to look at me. “You’re dangerous, Cole.”
“And do you like the kind of danger I bring to you?”
Her voice dips, a little husky. “Maybe I do.”
And that’s my cue. I stand, move closer to her, and tip my gaze to the window too. Because this window is part of the seduction. I’ve got a read on this woman. I can sense what she wants. And I want to give it to her. “This is quite a view you have, Ms. Carmichael.”
She taps a nail against the pane. “It was my indulgence when I took over the CEO office. This window.”
Taking a chance, but one I suspect will be met with shivers, I drag a finger down her spine. “You like to watch what’s happening at your casino?”
She trembles as I inch lower, traveling toward the globes of her luscious ass.
A second passes, perhaps one she needs to collect herself before she answers. “I do. I like to look at it and see everything that’s going on.”
“You like to survey your empire. You like to feel your own power.”
She turns to me, a skeptical look in her gorgeous blue eyes. “I don’t think of it as power.”
“What do you think of it as?”
“I think of it as business and family.”
“But it’s also power. You have power over all of this.”
“And is power what you get off on?”
“No. I like opportunity. Opportunity is what I crave,” I say as I rake my eyes over her. “And you have an incredible opportunity in this beautiful casino you’ve built, this incredible property you take care of. That’s your opportunity, and you like to enjoy it with your view, don’t you?”
She hums thoughtfully. “I suppose I do.”
She gazes at all of the activity happening below, a queen ruling her realm.
“I bet you like to look out at it because it reminds you of everything you have and everyone you’re responsible for,” I say, getting to the heart of what motivates this woman. She means it when she says her employees are kin to her. She wants to take care of them.
“Yes. Seeing everyone reminds me of why I do what I do. Why I work long hours. Why I try to do the best for them,” she says, but her voice is getting fainter as my hand drifts lower, cupping her gorgeous ass.
Her breath catches. I suppress a groan. “You know what else I think you’d like?”
Her eyes are curious, her expression intrigued. “What do you think I’d like?”
I move my mouth to her ear. “I think you’d like me to bend you over and fuck you by this window.”
A gasp falls from her lips. “So someone could see me?”
“You love the idea that maybe, just maybe, you could be caught,” I say, as her breasts heave, as a flush crawls over her chest.
She parts her lips, exhaling a sensual breath. “Do I like that . . .?” It’s less of a question and more of an open-ended discussion point.
I run my nose along her neck, and she trembles against me before I pull back. “Someone could open the door and walk in here. Someone could look up here and see you as I fuck you while you watch the casino below.”
She shivers against me. A full-body tremble that moves through her frame. She bites the corner of her lip. Like she’s trying to hold in all the lust rattling through her. “Is that what you plan to do to me?”
“I think that’s what you’d like me to do. And I only want to do things that bring you bliss. That bring you incomparable pleasure. Don’t you know? That’s what gets me off.”
Her eyes blaze with desire, then she walks to the door, locks it, and returns to me. “Tell me what else gets you off, Mr. Donovan.”
This woman.
She’s comprised of passion.
I slide a hand around her waist, pressing into her flesh, just out of view of the window.
“What turns me on is making you feel so fucking good the whole time. It’s bringing you bliss.
It’s making you moan, murmur, sigh. It’s you parting your legs and asking for it.
And it’s giving you everything you want,” I tell her, and her eyes go glossy.
She sets a hand on her chest as I continue.
“And what I suspect you want more than anything right now is the thrill that you might be discovered. You like a little danger. A bit of risk. That also includes fucking someone you shouldn’t be fucking. ”
“And you think I shouldn’t be fucking you?”
The lower halves of our bodies are obscured by the wood wall. Nobody below can tell we’re doing anything but talking, so I run a hand along the fabric of her skirt. “That’s what you want me to do right now.”
Her tongue darts out, wetting her lips. A telltale sign of her desire. “Maybe you get off watching my hotel. Maybe you get off surveying my empire,” she says in the most challenging tone I’ve ever heard.
A tone that turns me all the fuck on. That heats my body more. “I do. I absolutely do.” I slide a palm along her thigh, then under her skirt, up over her skin. “It’s a thrill, isn’t it?”
She lets out a sexy murmur. Her breath comes fast.
“You want a little danger, Sage? You want a little risk?”
She takes her time before she answers, “I wouldn’t mind it.”
And it’s a gorgeous answer.
It’s everything I want.
“Good. Because I’m going to make you feel extraordinary,” I say.
She arches a brow. Her eyes glint. Her lips hold secrets. “Or maybe I’m going to do that to you.”
Then she does the sexiest thing ever. Sage Carmichael, owner of this hotel, gets down on her knees, licks her red lips, opens them, and waits for me to fuck her mouth.
I had something different in mind, but I’m not going to turn this down.
I’m going to accept it for the gift it is.