Part 4 (1/2)
Oh. My. G.o.d.
”I have to go,” I squeak, and spin on my heel in the world's fastest and least elegant bathroom escape ever.
In the foyer, Trevor is waiting a few yards away, holding two gla.s.ses of wine. An usher opens the doors to the hall again, welcoming us back for the talk, and all of a sudden I just can't.
I fumble at my purse, pretending that it just vibrated. I quickly hand back the gla.s.s he'd just slid into my fingers, and look at my dark phone. ”It's my sister, do you mind going in without me?”
He better not mind. He spent most of the first half taking work calls on a Sat.u.r.day night first date. And of course he doesn't, because whether or not I'm on his arm really doesn't matter to him.
I watch my date disappear, toss back my wine like it's water, and look for a place to stash the gla.s.s before I disappear into the sad, cold night. I feel a momentary pang of guilt, but I can text him an apology. Family emergency. He'll believe that.
Cole's hand is not the place I wanted to dump an empty gla.s.s of wine. But there it is, reached out in front of me as he comes around my body. ”Long night?”
”Something like that. I need to leave, so if you could give that to a waiter,” I murmur, not looking him in the eye.
Without breaking eye contact with me, he finds a surface I didn't notice and disposes of the gla.s.s. ”We need to talk, beautiful.”
No, I need to knee him in the groin, then go home and take off this stupid gown.
”Why does your girlfriend think she might be able to watch you f.u.c.k me?” I hiss under my breath, barely taking a beat to appreciate the way he blanches ever so slightly. Good. f.u.c.k him.
”Penny told me she said too much. She's sorry.”
”She doesn't need to be sorry. You do, for kissing me. And calling me beautiful. Totally uncalled for.” My words are coming out in short, sharp, staccato bursts. I wish they'd land half as painfully as they rip from me, but Cole seems unaffected.
”Fine, then I'm sorry. It was inappropriate for me to kiss you.” He moves closer as he says it, and as much as I want to knee him in the junk, there's a part of me that gets warm. Stupid girl warm, with the goose b.u.mps and convenient memory loss that ensures that a.s.sholes like Cole get to keep spreading their DNA through the population.
But this isn't the first time I've mistaken attention as something more. And it wouldn't be the first time that attention would be purposefully misrepresented as something more.
”There's nothing hot about being used,” I say quietly. It doesn't sound quite right as I say it, and the flare in his eyes says I'm wrong. If I am, he needs to fix that impression, because he kissed me when he had a girlfriend, and he sure as h.e.l.l acted like it was a dirty little secret.
I slap myself back. No. It doesn't matter if he had twisted good intentions when he kissed me.
His lips tighten and he clenches his jaw for a minute, like he's at war with himself. I know the feeling.
Finally he drops his chin, staring at me with his magnetic eyes. His voice, low and rough and intimate, does dangerous things to me on the cellular level. ”I wasn't using you, and that kiss was f.u.c.king hot. You can't deny it.”
I can't. Doesn't mean I won't try. ”Wow, mixed messages much, Mr. Parker? It can't happen again, you've got a girlfriend, a convenient omission of fact the other day...but you sure seem obsessed with my mouth.”
I think he's getting taller and wider and angrier as he stands in front of me, but I'm not afraid. I'm fired up, and so is he. ”Not at all, Ms. Reid. I didn't realize that I needed to spell out the details of my personal life before I reacted to you eye-f.u.c.king me in your kitchen. It was a kiss. Get the f.u.c.k over it.”
”Oh, I'm over it.” Another lie. My nose must be a foot long.
”And if it seems like I'm obsessed with your pretty little mouth, it's because you keep licking your lips.” His gaze drops to my mouth again, and I laugh.
Then I lick my lips.
”If I wasn't working for your family right now...” His voice is still low and tense, but we're starting to attract some attention. Just enough that people might wonder what we're talking about.
I should shut up. I should walk away. I don't do either of those things, because I can't let him have the last word, especially when it's a lie. ”What? Nothing, Cole. You'd be working for some other sc.u.m bag. Tell me-how many murders have you covered up this week?”
Eyes dark, nostrils flaring, he looks every part the affronted party. Torn between disappointment and relief-because I've pushed him away for a reason, and not just because I'm frustrated and feeling scorned. Cole's no good for me on any level.
But his words, when they come, aren't angry. They're taunting. And he takes his sweet time delivering them. ”You don't know what you're talking about, beautiful. And that's okay. You have a right to be p.i.s.sed at me, because I live in a world of secrets and lies that, G.o.d help me, you'll never understand.” For a second, I think he's going to stop there. When he starts again, his voice has changed. s.h.i.+fted, like he's lost a tug-of-war, and his eyes glint in a new and thrilling way. ”But when you say s.h.i.+t like that, it makes me want to put that mouth to work doing something more...satisfying.”
Heat crawls up my neck, then down between my aching b.r.e.a.s.t.s and into my belly. Sucking him off is not a turn on. Stop it, body. You're fired from the What's Best for Hailey Committee. ”Surely you can find someone else who doesn't object to you being completely amoral to give you a b.l.o.w. .j.o.b. Like your girlfriend.”
”Haven't you figured out yet that I don't want anyone else?” He shakes his head, clearly frustrated, and before I can process what he's saying, he's slamming even more at me, his words coming fast and furious now. ”I want you. On your knees, your lips wrapped around my c.o.c.k.”
I gasp. ”What the h.e.l.l happened to it was a mistake and this is nothing?”
”Oh, it's still a mistake. But I was kidding myself about one taste being enough.”
He has a girlfriend. And I'm not into threesomes. Plus he'd said c.o.c.k, like that was something one just said in the foyer of the Kennedy Center. My cheeks are hot and I know that as soon as I open my mouth again, I'm going to be stammering.
But before I can react, before I can grab on to the s.h.i.+tastic pile of truth he just dumped between us, he makes an amused face, as if to say, see? We're playing in different leagues, little girl, and turns on his heel, quickly striding toward the Hall of Nations.
He's pulled back behind his curtain of lies. More to the point, he's had the last word.
”Get back here,” I whisper, my voice stolen by white-hot rage. I literally feel tipped sideways, but this isn't over. I get to end it, I stubbornly insist in my head, even though it feels completely laughable at the moment.
I stare at his retreating back, righteous indignation coursing through my body. I want to run after him, leap on his back and pummel him about the head, but my heels preclude the running and the fact that we're very much not alone precludes the rest.
But we are so not done with this conversation, so I follow. Slowly, but he knows I'm behind him. I can tell from the extra-square shoulders and the way he isn't looking around.
And it's not until he takes the sharp turn about ten feet in front of me that I realize this is a trap.
I slow. Eight feet. Six. If I turn that corner, he's waiting for me.
Two feet.
I take a deep breath, ready for whatever Cole has in mind, and step into an almost empty hallway. Definitely empty of Cole and his raging energy.
Spinning, I ignore the hurt slicing through my chest. He's playing a game with me, and it's not one I'm up for.
Trevor has our coat check tickets.
Maybe I don't need my coat. I step into a nook and pull out my phone. I'll just text him and beg off. Whatever. I don't care what he thinks, it's not like we're going to do this again.
I b.u.mp into the wall as I step back, but then the wall gives way in a smooth, swinging motion, because it's a door. Cole's on the other side, and he tugs me into the dimness of another concert hall.
Before I can protest or yell at him again, he has me pinned against the wall, his mouth on mine. Teeth clas.h.i.+ng, tongues sparring, I pour as much anger into this kiss as he does. Maybe more, because I hate how good he tastes and how perfect his hands feel, one gripping my wrists and holding me against the wall. The other is tracing my collarbone, making my nipples tight from five inches away.
”I'm going to do a lot more than kiss you. Tell me to back away and I will.” He devours my mouth again, making every cell in my body pulse. I lazily consider the fact that he's not actually giving me a chance to tell him anything, but his tongue is like a magic wand that makes me wet and wanting. ”But you don't need to. No one will ever know. It'll be our dirty little secret that I know how sweet you come on my hand.”
I swallow a moan as Cole jerks the bodice of my dress down, freeing one of my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He cups it from below, his thumb teasing at my nipple in a way that makes me want to beg for his mouth right there.