22. Riley
“Hey, Riley!”Archie exclaims. “Look at this!”
I lean past the side of my easel to take a look at his painting. Even though I lent him a few sponges and brushes to work with, he has still somehow managed to get covered in acrylics. There’s a spot of yellow on his nose, a streak of green down the front of his smock, which I made him wear to protect his clothing.
In the spirit of our game, I affect the posture of an art critic, holding my hand contemplatively to my chin. “Ah. That’s a very interesting piece, Mr. Sullivan. What can you tell me about it?”
The piece in question features a lion, identifiable only by its spiky mane, standing next to a dinosaur, identifiable only by its long neck. The two wonky creatures are standing on a strip of green, beneath a strip of blue. A yellow semicircle—the sun, I assume—hangs above them.
“It’s Trevor and Dino,” Archie explains. “This is one of their adventures. It’s from my story last night.”
It’s hard to say what scene in particular Archie’s painting depicts, but I’m not about to tell him that. Instead, I smile and say, “What a brilliant composition. You’re a very good artist.”
Archie beams, holding up the painting proudly.
“Do you want to show your dad?” I ask.
Archie turns toward Cole, who is sitting across the room on a small couch tucked into the corner. He’s working casually, his laptop balanced on one knee. He looks up as I mention him, catching my eye briefly.
A little shiver goes down my spine.
We agreed not to do anything while I’m on the clock, or while we’re around Archie, so he can’t touch me at the moment.
But every evening for the past week, after Archie is in bed, he’s come to my room. It’s so fucking hot—it feels taboo, exciting. Cole has introduced me to kinks I didn’t even know I had.
With each passing day, I’m more excited for the night to come, to give myself over to Cole and trust him to make me feel incredible. The sound of his growling voice in my ear as he whispers filthy things to me makes me see stars.
And then each night, in the aftermath, as I lie on the bed in a sated heap, the moment is shattered. He leaves. I try not to dwell on it, but there’s something in my mind that balks whenever faced with the truth of what that means.
The obvious fact that this won’t ever be anything more.
Archie trots across the room to show Cole his painting, and I take a quick breath, forcing myself to remember my mantra. Just have fun. Olivia must have told me a thousand times by now.
Focusing on Olivia’s advice, I gesture to Archie. “Hey, let’s not move the painting off the newspapers while it’s drying! Bring it back over here.”
As Archie lays the paper back down on its bed of newspapers, I bend over to point at the sun. I take care to give Cole the perfect view of my ass.
While I’m waiting for tonight, I might as well do a few things to drive him crazy.
“This paint is still wet,” I tell Archie. “You could swirl a little bit of orange into the yellow, and it’ll look cool.”
Behind me, I can feel Cole’s stare. He’s definitely caught on to what I’m doing—and I think it’s working. I can practically hear him gnashing his teeth.
When I look back at him, he quickly looks back at his laptop screen like he’s trying to focus on his work. Despite his efforts, his gaze keeps sliding to me, and over the next half hour, I catch him staring every few minutes.
At seven o’clock, the second the clock on the wall chimes the hour, Cole stands abruptly. “It’s time to get ready for bed, Archie.”
“Aw,” Archie complains, looking over his shoulder.
“You’re covered in paint, and if we want you to be in bed by eight, we need to get you in the bath now.” There’s a briskness to Cole’s voice, despite his gentle tone. I can tell that he’s been waiting for this all evening. “Let’s go.”
I start to put away my brushes, ready to head upstairs and run Archie’s bath, but Cole holds up a hand to stop me.
“There’s no need,” he says. “I’ll take care of it tonight.”
“Really?” Archie looks up at Cole with wide, adoring eyes. “Are you gonna tell me a story?”
“Of course, bud.” Cole ruffles his hair, and I feel a flutter in my chest. I love seeing Cole with Archie. He’s a little stiff sometimes, in the way that people sometimes are when they don’t know how to interact with kids, but he clearly loves the little boy.
Archie puts his brushes into a cup of water, then gets up from the floor and follows Cole out of the room. Quickly, I busy myself clearing up the newspaper and hanging up Archie’s painting to dry. I clean off the brushes in the sink, then hurry upstairs.
From down the hall, I can hear the sound of Archie’s laughter, and the faucet running. I hear the deep rumble of Cole’s voice in response, though I can’t tell what he’s saying.
A shiver of anticipation goes down my spine. Buzzing with arousal, I go straight to my room, closing the door gently behind me.
As I wait on the bed, my anticipation climbs until I can hardly take it anymore. I pull out my phone and scroll through Instagram, but it doesn’t hold my attention. I turn to the library book I have waiting on the bedside table, but my eyes gloss right over every word.
He’s all I can think about. I can’t focus on anything else.
I’m almost tempted to take care of myself. I can feel the heat of arousal between my legs, and for a moment, I think about touching myself. But it wouldn’t be enough. I need him. I want it to be him.
Finally, after what feels like years, there’s a soft knock at my door.
My heart skips a beat in my chest, and I quickly slide off the bed and pad across the room to open it. Cole is on the other side, and without a word, he steps forward and yanks me into his arms. The door shuts behind him, and he spins me around in one quick movement, pressing me against it.
His hands seem to be everywhere as his lips devour me with a kind of ravenous intensity that makes me gasp.
“You dirty girl,” he murmurs roughly, nipping at my jaw as one hand slides between my legs to palm my aching pussy. “You knew exactly what you were doing all night, didn’t you? You little tease. You had me hard as a fucking rock for you, and I couldn’t do a goddamn thing about it. You’ve been driving me crazy.”
I drop my head back against the door, my eyes rolling back a little as he grinds the heel of his hand against my clit through my clothes. “Sorry. Was it too much?”
As fun as it was to tease him all evening, I don’t want him to think I’m trying to circumvent the rules we have in place, or for him to think I don’t take my duties with Archie seriously.
Cole chuckles, pressing hot kisses along the column of my neck as his free hand palms my breast roughly. “No. I’d be fantasizing about you anyway, even without you deliberately trying to tease me. You’d tempt me no matter what, even if you were doing nothing.”
His words send a hot rush through me, and I gasp as he punctuates them by pinching my nipple lightly. He sucks on the skin of my throat for a moment, although I can tell he’s holding himself back so there won’t be a mark, then lifts his head.
His dark blue eyes are molten as he gazes down at me, and a smirk tugs at his full, angular lips.
“Still, you were a very bad girl tonight. I might have to punish you for it.”
My clit throbs, my breath hitching as my hands trail over his muscled arms. “Punish me how?”
Cole rubs his hand lightly over my pussy, holding my gaze as he asks, “Have you ever been edged?”
My stomach swoops. I’m familiar with the concept of edging, but the answer to his question is definitely no. Most of the guys I’ve been with were pretty basic in the bedroom, sticking to a few positions and never getting very adventurous. But everything that Cole has done to me so far, I’ve enjoyed very thoroughly, so even though he’s talking about this as a ‘punishment,’ I have a feeling I’ll like it in the end.
Besides, I trust him.
There’s something so strong and solid about Cole, something that makes me feel safe in a way I rarely have before, and it makes it easy to give myself over to him.
“No,” I whisper. “But I want to try.”
His smile widens. “Look at my bad girl, being so good.”
Something flutters in my chest at the way he calls me his bad girl, but I ignore it. It’s not something that has any place in our arrangement, so it’s easy enough to convince myself that it’s just the praise and not the possessive note in his voice that makes my body respond that way.
“What are you going to do?” I ask.
Cole leans in closer, resting one forearm on the door and boxing me in as his body looms over mine. His fingers keep sliding gently over my clit through the layers of fabric as he tells me, “I’m going to push you to the edge of orgasm over and over again, but I won’t let you come until I’m ready. Not until I give you permission. Are you up for that?”
I swallow, biting my lip as I nod. Honestly, I’m so close to coming just from the light pressure on my clit and the way he’s looking at me that I’m not sure how I’m going to stop myself from falling over the edge without his go-ahead.
As if he can read my thoughts, Cole chuckles. “We’ll use a code so you can let me know when you’re close, and I’ll back off. Red means stop. Yellow means slow down. Green means keep going. If you get too close to coming or need a second to recover, say red or yellow. Got it?”
“Yes,” I whisper.
“Good.” His smile darkens, turning positively filthy. “Because I’ve been starving for your pussy all night, and I can’t wait another second to taste you.”
He tips my chin up and kisses me once more, hot and hard, before breaking away and dropping down to his knees in front of me. His movements are sharp and focused as he undoes my pants and slides them down my legs, lifting my feet to tug them all the way off. My panties are next, and when I’m completely bare from the waist down, Cole lifts one of my legs and drapes it over his shoulder.
“The best fucking view in Manhattan,” he murmurs roughly, and I blush at the realization that he’s staring right at my crotch. Then he grips my thigh and leans in, burying his face between my legs as his tongue slides over me.
I’m already so worked up from everything he’s said and done since he got to my room—not to mention the looks he was shooting me while I was hanging out with Archie. I wasn’t just teasing Cole all evening, and now the low-level arousal that’s been building up all night threatens to spill over.
“Red, red,” I gasp, tugging at Cole’s hair.
He stops immediately, but he arches a brow as he tilts his head up a little. “That’s cheating.”
“No,” I gasp, shaking my head. “I just… need a second.”
His eyes heat. “Are you really that close to coming already?”
I purse my lips as I stare down at him, giving him a sardonic look. “Have you met yourself? I’ve got the hottest man I’ve ever met on his knees in front of me, doing shit with his tongue that I’ve never experienced before. Yeah, I’m that close.”
His grip on my thigh tightens a little, as if he really fucking likes that answer. But he waits patiently, giving me a second to breathe through the pleasure humming in my veins. Once the buzzing of an impending orgasm subsides a little, I nod, biting my lip.
“Green.”
Instantly, Cole’s tongue is on my pussy again. He doesn’t go right for my clit this time, exploring and lapping at me with strokes that are deliberately teasing. The back of my head hits the door with a soft thunk as I lose myself in it, moving my hips a little to try to put his tongue right where I want it.
A few minutes later, my toes start to curl, my stomach tightening.
“Red!” I blurt.
He stops again, then adds two fingers when he resumes, sliding them inside me and pumping them slowly.
“Fuck, you’re so tight,” he groans. “Can’t wait until this is my cock. Gonna make you come so hard you fucking wreck me. This tight little pussy is gonna squeeze me like a vise.”
“Cole…” I moan his name, my hips moving more urgently now. “Please…”
“Please what?”
“Make me come. God, please.”
His low chuckle vibrates against my pussy, only serving to drive my arousal higher. “Oh, angel, do you think that’s what edging is? That I push you to the edge a couple times and then let you come? I told you this was a punishment for teasing me like that, and I don’t think you’ve learned your lesson yet. So I’m gonna eat you out and then fuck you, watching you take every inch of my cock. But I’m not gonna let you come, baby girl. Not until you truly beg me.”
The sexy growl in his voice sends a shiver through me, and for the first time, it occurs to me that although everything he’s doing feels amazing, this truly is a form of torture. The need to come is building inside me like pressure inside a valve, making my heart pound in my chest as my limbs shake.
“Yellow,” I whisper, playing along with his rules even though all I want is to crest the wave of the orgasm that’s hovering just out of reach.
“Such a good girl.” He slows his movements. “Goddamn, you’re fucking soaked, Riley.”
I lose track of how much longer he eats me out against the door. Time seems to stretch and expand as my eyes flutter closed, all my senses focused on the places where Cole is touching me. Several more times, I have to tell him to stop or slow down, and every time I inch right up to an orgasm and don’t fly over the edge, I can feel something inside me winding tighter.
A soft whining sound fills my ears, breathy and quiet, and I realize after a moment that it’s me. My hands are in Cole’s hair, gripping so tightly that my knuckles are white, and when I blink down at him, his eyes are dark with lust.
He meets my gaze, a hungry smile spreading across his lips. Then, instead of diving back in to eat me out some more, he rises to his feet. In almost the same movement, he scoops me up and carries me to the bed, depositing me on the mattress. I’m too strung out on pleasure to do anything but watch as he slowly strips himself bare, his gaze locked on me the entire time.
I’ve started keeping a fresh stash of condoms in my room, since the one I used the first night he fucked me was just a random one that I happened to have brought with me when I packed up my bathroom stuff. He grabs one of them from the nightstand and rolls it on, and my clit throbs as I watch the latex slowly cover his thick shaft.
“You keep looking at me like that, and I won’t be able to go slow,” Cole warns, his voice raspy.
My tongue darts out to wet my lips. “Maybe I don’t want you to go slow.”
“Fuck, Riley.” His jaw works as he climbs up onto the bed with me, spreading my legs as he kneels between them. “You make me lose control, you know that? You know how many promises to myself I broke because of you? When you first moved in, I promised myself I wouldn’t let myself jerk off to thoughts of you, but that only lasted a damn day. No matter how hard I tried to keep thoughts of you out of my head, it was goddamn impossible.”
He reaches down, his thumb finding my clit as he lines himself up and presses his cock into my slick pussy.
“You’re my temptation. My fucking weakness. Look how fucking stunning you are, laid out on your bed, taking my cock like it’s the only thing you need.”
“It is,” I gasp, fisting the sheets as my breath hitches. In this moment, I can’t think of anything else in the world that I could possibly need—except the orgasm that he’s been denying me for so long.
Despite what I said, he does go slow, working his way in carefully until he’s finally pumping all the way in and out with each stroke. Little spots of light dance at the edges of my vision, and I have to call out “red” again after a moment.
As I pant for breath beneath him, his cock buried inside me as he holds perfectly still, I take some satisfaction in the fact that Cole looks almost as wrecked as I feel. It’s clearly taking a lot of effort for him to hold back, and there’s a sheen of sweat on his forehead.
When he starts to move again, his strokes are slow and measured. His thumb is still on my clit, circling with maddening precision, and I feel as if my entire body is being consumed by fire.
“Cole,” I whimper, writhing beneath him. “Fuck, please. Please, please, please. I need to come. I want to come on your cock. God, I’ll be good. Just let me… give me…”
His lips curve up into a wicked smile, his thumb going still. “Not such a tease now, are you, angel?”
Fucking hell, he’s going to kill me.
I shake my head, not caring that my hair is probably a wild mess on the pillow beneath me, sweat-dampened and tangled. “No. Fuck. Oh god, I’m so close. Please.”
“Love it when you beg for me.”
He still doesn’t give me what I want, though. He makes me wait for it, working me right up to the breaking point until I’m practically sobbing with the need for release.
I’ve stopped forming full sentences by this point, can barely even make my lips form words. The only sound coming out of my mouth is a gasping “please,” which I repeat over and over like a mantra. Like a prayer.
And then, finally, Cole pinches my clit.
After the slow, maddening circles of his thumb, the sudden surge of sensation is like a lightning bolt through my entire body. It’s pleasure tinged with just a hint of pain, and it snaps the tension inside me, sending me hurtling headfirst into an orgasm.
I have never in my life come like this.
It’s like a hurricane, a force of nature, stealing my breath and making my muscles lock up as Cole crushes his mouth to mine to muffle my cry of pleasure. I kiss him hard, lifting my head off the pillow to get even closer to him, grounding myself in the feel of his lips and tongue against mine.
“So tight. Fuck, Riley. You’re so. Tight.”
His hips punch forward, driving into me fast and hard as my inner walls squeeze around his cock. Our lips break apart, our sharp breaths mingling as he rests his forehead against mine, fucking me relentlessly as he chases his own release.
He lets out a low, harsh grunt as he comes, spilling into the condom as his body shudders on top of mine.
In the aftermath, he collapses on top of me, his large frame slumping over me as if he doesn’t have the energy to hold himself up. His face is pressed against the side of my neck, and I can feel each puff of air as he exhales sharply, both of us trying to catch our breath. He’s heavy, but there’s something comforting about being pinned by him like this, especially after the intensity of the orgasm that just rocked through me. It feels grounding, like he’s keeping me from floating away.
“Are you okay?” he asks after a moment, shifting some of his weight onto his elbows so that he’s not crushing me. “That was a lot.”
“I’m…” My voice is raspy, and I have to clear my throat. “I’m good. I didn’t—I’ve never felt anything like that before.”
Cole lifts his head. His eyes are warm and languid, and he grins down at me, smoothing my messy hair back from my face. “I like introducing you to new things.”
“Feel free to keep doing it,” I say with a chuckle, my pussy clenching around him.
His jaw tightens in response, and he kisses me once before securing the condom and pulling out. He slips it off and knots it, then tosses it into the little trash can set against one wall of the room, not even bothering to get off the bed to dispose of it. He rolls onto his back, the tension visibly gone from his shoulders as he runs a hand through his hair. For a moment, he closes his eyes.
“It’s been a long day,” he says. “I really needed that.”
I turn onto my side next to him, resisting the urge to let my fingers dance over his bare chest. In the aftermath of sex, I’ve never been quite sure what to do.
We’ve cuddled, obviously, so that kind of close contact isn’t off-limits. But… this entire time, I’ve been fighting the urge to be romantic. Trying to keep the walls up, just like we agreed. So it always feels like a delicate line to walk.
“Has work been stressful?” I finally ask. It’s probably too personal of a question, but I can’t help myself.
He sighs, his broad shoulders shifting in a shrug. “Not particularly. It’s a stressful field, and I work a stressful job. There’s never been any point when it wasn’t stressful.”
The words seem to come easily to him now that he’s so relaxed. I feel a sense of warmth inside me, a desire for closeness. I like seeing him like this—so open and calm. As if all of his worries have melted away.
“Why do you do it?”
He huffs a small laugh. “Honestly, I do it because I like the way it drives me.”
I tilt my head. “But you just said it stresses you out.”
“Yes,” he agrees. “And it does. But the thing is, this kind of work—if it doesn’t stress you out, it means you aren’t giving it your all.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are plenty of people in investments who are content to coast through their careers. They let the world slide by them, and the end result is that they never… climb. They tread water for their entire lives.”
“And that’s not you,” I say automatically. It isn’t really a question. I’ve noticed Cole’s drive in everything he does, whether he’s working on a Saturday or plugging away at the morning newspaper’s Sudoku problem.
He smiles, glancing at me out of the corner of half-lidded eyes. “I wouldn’t say so, no.”
“If the stress is necessary, it sounds like the relaxation is, too,” I tease. “You have to find release somewhere, right?”
“Oh, definitely.” He stretches, his forearm brushing against my bare back. I shiver, moving closer to him. “We all do, if we’re the kind of people who strive for something.”
His words sink into my mind, and I turn them over slowly.
He’s right, I think. We all need some form of release.
I’m just starting to wonder if the physical release is enough, or if there’s more I’m looking for. More we’re both looking for.
We lie together for a while, talking idly, letting the post-sex endorphins flow through our relaxed bodies. As it gets later, I almost convince myself that tonight, he’s going to stay.
Of course, he doesn’t. At one in the morning, just when I’m beginning to think that we’ve hit some kind of turning point, he lets out a breath and pulls himself upright, swinging his legs out of bed.
I don’t say anything as he gets to his feet. I sit back against the headboard of the bed, watching him go.
He offers me a quick “good night,” and I nod in response, a tightness in my throat that prevents me from saying anything else.
He had to leave, I remind myself. It would be unprofessional to stay.
I try not to think about it, turning off the lights and rolling over to get comfortable in bed. But the truth is, every night, this part gets harder and harder.