He’s all of a sudden talkative on the wire. And by talkative, I mean pissed and yelling.”
“Would you quit eating that damn banana for two seconds so I don’t have to wring information out of you? With whom?”
He licks a bit of chocolate off his lip. “There you go again, making me hard.”
“Cole,” I demand.
He takes three steps and invades my space, but he doesn’t answer. He lays a big, wet, chocolate-covered banana kiss on me. It’s deep and intense. Only Cole Carson could kiss me like this and make me wet, and I’m pretty sure my nipples are hard too.
He seals his deep kiss with a smack. “Wendy Sisson. Do you know how good it feels to stack up evidence on my boss and his boss? I cannot fucking wait to waltz into the DOJ with this shit and get their asses thrown in prison. I just need to find the evidence to support what I know because the illegal wiretaps will not fly.”
That is a bit of an issue. “What did they say?”
“That it is happening next week and payment for it has been deposited and if it turned to shit like the hit on Marie did, someone was going to pay. Oh, and if someone comes to the States who he doesn’t want here, that someone is going to get cut. And I don’t think they meant kicked out of the nice-guy club.”
I shake my head. “What in the bloody hell?”
“Exactly. What in the bloody hell.”
My fingers press into his lats. “Why are you in such a chipper mood?”
He reaches down to my bum and picks me up to sit me on the island before stepping between my legs. “Because for the last two days it’s been quieter than crickets and now shit is happening. All we need to do is be ready. And you not only confirmed to me, but also to Abbott, that you’re staying. And Abbs hugged you and she doesn’t warm up to many people. I have no choice but to focus on how full the glass is among all the bad shit.”
I wrap my legs around his muscled arse. “Speaking of, Abbott is waiting for you to tuck her in.”
“That’s why I came home. Tomorrow is going to suck—a black day during a time I was counting on Red getting to know you and you, him. We need to get past tomorrow so we can start a new chapter—the three of us—and figure out what the good life looks like.
I sink into his chest and wrap my arms around his neck. “Go spend some time with Abbott before she goes to sleep. I’m going next door to catch up and study the transcripts.”
With his hands on my bum, he yanks me to him, his cock long and firm in his jeans, pressed tight to my still-wet sex. “I like seeing you work again. Love your brain, baby.”
“You’re just saying that when you really want to fuck me.”
He shrugs. “Yeah, but I still love your brain.”
“Daddy!” Abbott yells from the top of the staircase.
“Coming!” Cole yells and leans in to kiss me. “Go be awesome, sweetness.”
And like him, I smile despite the impending funeral and everything else we’re still waiting to solve.
Chapter 39
Simple Man
Seventeen years ago
Cole
“Not sure you coulda gotten farther away from home unless you went to Alaska or Hawaii.”
I look over at my dad who’s staring out at the Pacific Northwest. He’s right. I might as well be a million miles from home right now.
“It’s only four years.”
And it’s free. I don’t add that out loud because my parents would’ve bent over backwards to pay for school had I not gotten a scholarship.
I didn’t want them to make sacrifices. Did I want to get away from Virginia? Fuck, yes. I started dreaming about it my sophomore year when I put on some muscle and made all-state in baseball as a pitcher. By my senior year, I was top ten overall and heavily recruited.
I worked hard in the gym and on the field. I studied harder. But I had to work the hardest at not getting caught fucking around, doing pretty much everything I shouldn’t’ve been doing. If anyone should give me a scholarship in anything, it’s being covert at getting into shit I should not be getting into. I could skip college and go straight to the pros in the first-round draft.
Instead, I took a baseball and academic scholarship and moved into the dorm. Mom decided I needed about two million