Chapter 10
COLE
Lorna sighed as she climbed out of bed, and I raised my head to peer at the clock on her nightstand. Then I frowned when I saw it was just after seven in the morning.
“Unless you’re headed to the shower and I’m invited, get your sexy ass back in this bed, lass,” I grunted, lying back down.
“I would, but if you get in the shower with me, I’ll be late, and you know it.”
I grinned, completely unrepentant. A quick fuck was hot as hell, but I did love to take my time exploring her incredible body and taking her to the height of pleasure. “Complaining?” I teased.
“Absolutely not,” she scoffed. “But I don’t want to be late for work, and the trains will be packed at this time of the morning. I wish the commute wasn’t such a pain in the butt.”
“Do you want me to drive you to work?” I offered.
I didn’t have to be at the stadium until noon, and I was happy to spend any time with her that I could get.
Especially since I’d gotten used to having her full attention when she’d been on vacation last week.
Although I’d been busy with my own job, the past few days had sucked since she’d returned to work.
“That’s silly,” she huffed as she dug through her bag and pulled out a clean bra and panties. “Driving me all the way to the city just to turn around and come back home?”
The corners of my lips tipped up at her turn of phrase. “I like hearing you say that.”
“Say what?” She looked adorably confused.
“Calling this place home.”
Her cheeks turned pink, and she sputtered for a second, making me chuckle. “I didn’t mean…I…this is…um…”
“I want you to think of this house as your home, lass,” I admitted as I sat up and tossed off the covers, then stood.
I prowled around the bed and smirked when her gaze dropped to my hard cock bouncing off my stomach, and she licked her lips.
“If you don’t stop looking at me like that, you won’t make it to work today at all,” I warned her.
She audibly gulped, then tore her eyes from my groin and up to my face. “Late,” she blurted before she spun around and hurried to the bathroom.
I followed her until I reached the door, then casually leaned against the jamb. “You know, your commute issue would be solved if you just moved in with me.”
Lorna froze for a second, then turned and stared at me with wide eyes. “Do what?” she gasped.
“Move in with me,” I repeated as I pushed away from the wall and stalked toward her. “As in bringing all your shit here and meaning it in every sense of the word when you call this house ‘home.’”
“We’ve…holy cow, Cole. It’s been…barely a week since we first met!”
I raised an eyebrow and cupped her elbows, drawing her body into mine. “So?”
“Isn’t that a little fast to be shacking up?”
My brow furrowed, and I scowled. “That is not what we will be doing, Lorna,” I growled.
“Fine,” she huffed. “What would you call it?”
“Blending our lives together. Making a deeper commitment. Spending every night with you wrapped in my arms and eating you for breakfast every morning.”
I grinned at her blush, amused that she was still shy about sex when she was so uninhibited in bed.
I almost added that we should probably be living together when she got pregnant, but I didn’t want to freak her out any more than she already was at that moment.
It was certainly a possibility since we hadn’t exactly been careful.
Okay…so I might have been reckless on purpose.
But fuck, I couldn’t wait to see my woman with a cute little bump in her belly.
“Say you’ll move in with me,” I urged gently. “Abair tá, lass.”
“Stop doing that,” she snapped, but the effect was ruined by her body melting into mine. “You won’t always be able to get your way by speaking Gaelic in that sensual voice and showing off your ridiculously sexy, naked body.”
Grinning, I winked and gently rocked my hips against her. “But I will this time, won’t I?”
I could see that she wanted to say yes, but something still held her back.
“It doesn’t really solve the problem, though, Cole. I’ll still have to go back and forth to the city. At least if I live there, then I’ll be close to work when you’re out of town or super busy.”
“First of all,” I stated firmly, “I will never, ever be too busy for you, lass. You will always come first. And as to your point about your job in the city…well, I’ve been thinking about that.”
“You have?”
Her shock had me rolling my eyes. “I’m beginning to wonder if I haven’t been clear enough over the past week,” I muttered.
“Clear about what?”
“That you’re mine.”
“Of course you have,” she mumbled. “You make me tell you every time we…you know…”
I laughed and dropped my head to rasp, “Every time we fuck, baby?”
Lorna cleared her throat as a shiver raced down her spine. “Um, yes. That.”
“If you are surprised that I’ve been thinking about our future, then maybe next time I’ll have to make you scream it a few more times.”
Lorna shifted restlessly and groaned as she dropped her forehead to my chest. “Stop.”
“Stop?”
“Yes. Stop driving me crazy with lust and making me want to jump your bones!”
I threw back my head and laughed before slowly walking her backward until we reached the shower. “If you thought that would discourage me from ravishing you while we’re getting cleaned up, then you don’t understand how fucking addicted I am to your delicious body.”
I tapped on the keypad next to the glass enclosure, turning on the heads and setting them at the right temperature. “Now, back to what I was saying.”
The room was quickly filling with steam, so I grabbed Lorna under the ass and hoisted her up. Her legs circled my waist, enveloping my long, thick cock in her slick heat. She put her arms around my neck, and her tits pushed against my chest, her hard nipples scraping over my skin with every breath.
Carrying her into the shower, I inhaled deeply, trying to refocus on what I’d been about to tell her. “I’ve been investing in real estate the past several years, and one of the buildings I own in town was just vacated by the tenant. It would be perfect for a salon.”
Lorna’s head had been buried in my neck, but it whipped up at my announcement. “A salon?”
“Mm-hmm,” I hummed, stepping under the hot spray and admiring the droplets of water that trailed down Lorna’s sexy, freckled skin. I’d spent a lot of time connecting those sexy little spots with my tongue.
“Cole?”
I lifted her a little higher so my mouth could reach her nipples. “Yeah, baby?”
“Focus!” she demanded, smacking my shoulder with her hand.
Frowning, I met her gaze. “I am, lass. I’m very much focused on giving you pleasure.” I spread her ass cheeks apart a little and dipped a pinky into her drenched pussy.
Lorna let out a little moan, then shook her head and blinked a few times. “What do you mean perfect for a salon?”
I sighed. “I mean exactly what I said, lass. I think you should open a salon out here, and I think this building is perfect. If you’ll let me show it to you, I think you’ll agree.”
“But…”
“Just take a look, Lorna,” I pleaded with one of my lopsided smiles.
Some of the tension in her shoulders eased, and she let out a puff of air. “Fine. I’ll look at it.”
“And if it suits, then you’ll move in with me?”
“Eventually,” she agreed, though not with the answer I wanted. “But I can’t afford to open a salon right now. I’ll have to—”
“But I can,” I murmured before bending my neck and sucking one of her distended peaks into my mouth.
“Oh, Cole,” she moaned. “I…um…would you please stop so I can think?”
“Nope,” I mumbled around her nipple. “If I have to fuck the answer I want out of you, I am not above any tactics.”
Lorna’s chest shook with her exasperated giggle, then she grabbed my cheeks with her hands and forced me to look her in the face. “I’m not going to let you pay for me to open a salon.”
“Why not?” I quizzed, a little annoyed that she was fighting me when I wanted to give her everything she’d ever wanted.
“You aren’t my sugar daddy!” she argued indignantly.
“I’m glad you're aware of that, and it's a good thing you are so I don’t have to spank your ass for implying that I am. However, you are mine, lass. Mine to care for, mine to provide for, and I intend to do everything I can to make you happy. So just shut up and let me.”
Lorna blinked a few times, and her green eyes became glassy with unshed tears. “How do you always say just the right thing to make me melt into a puddle?”
I laughed and took her lips in a deep kiss as I pushed her back against the wall. “I don’t know if I always say the right thing, lass, but I definitely do my best to make you drip with desire.”
“Yes,” she whimpered when I rocked against her. “I’m so wet for you, Cole. Please…please take me. We can talk later.”
“There’s nothing to talk about, lass,” I declared firmly. “But I’m gonna remind you who you belong to until you are hoarse from screaming it and won’t be able to sit down tomorrow without feeling me inside you.”
“Oh, Cole,” Lorna gasped as she walked into the space I owned in town.
After making her come four times, she agreed to see the building after work. So I finally drove her to the salon, getting there just a few minutes before her first client.
I’d been anxious as fuck all during practice with the team, and when it was over, I left without a word. Lorna had been adamant that she would take transit back to Long Island, but I’d rather she not take public transportation if she didn’t have to.
She was used to it, and while it wasn’t exactly dangerous, there were always risks, so I preferred to drive her and avoid any of the possibilities.
She'd rolled her eyes when she came out of the salon and spotted me double-parked right in front. But when I’d hopped out and came around to open her door, she’d lifted her face for my kiss, and her green eyes were lit with happiness.
“Dia duit, lass.”
Lorna had sighed dreamily, and I’d grinned as I helped her into her seat, shut the door, and loped around to my side.
The small downtown area where the building was situated was about ten minutes from our house. It was built into a little strip of stores with a bakery directly on one side and a bookstore on the other. Lorna had bemoaned the ease of treats and wriggled with excitement at the sight of all the books.
She was so fucking adorable.
“You could put the front desk here,” I suggested, pointing at the spot. “And maybe stagger the stations throughout the middle of the room, with hair dryers hanging from the ceiling above each booth.”
Lorna turned to stare at me incredulously, and I laughed, unable to hold a straight face. “I may have asked Ivy for a little help with this.”
“Ahhh. I should have known.” Snickering, Lorna continued to walk around the room.
“There’s also a full basement that could easily fit storage, as well as a setup for classes, if you ever wanted to expand into a school.”
“Ivy has a big mouth,” Lorna murmured, but her green orbs twinkled with merriment. “She’s the only person I’ve ever told about my idea to open my own school before you.”
I shrugged. “I needed to know as much as possible about what you would want and need for your salon before I bou—um, looked through my properties for one that would work.” I mentally slapped myself upside the head for almost spilling the truth about the building.
My guess was that she was much less likely to fight me on it if she thought I’d already owned the building.
Her eyes narrowed, and she looked like she might pounce on my slipup, but to my relief, something caught her attention, and she was distracted enough to forget about my blunder. I hoped.
“What do you think?” I finally asked when she was done oohing and aahing and inspecting every inch of the place.
“You were right, Cole. This is perfect.” Her lips turned down as she glanced around wistfully. “I still don’t feel right about you paying for everything, though.”
Closing the distance between us, I rested my hands on her hips and cocked my head to the side thoughtfully. “Well, consider this. I’m going to turn this place into a salon. If you don’t want it, then I’ll find—”
“What? You wouldn’t dare!”
I grinned smugly, and her lips formed a cute little pout.
“Not fair.”
Shrugging, I admitted, “I told you before, lass. I’m not above any tactic that gets me what I want when it comes to you. Now…about our deal…”
Lorna’s face filled with confusion, and I glared at her until she broke out into a smile and laughed. “Yes. I’ll move in with you, you big cheater.”