I?” Edna grinned, all mischief and mayhem. She’d been scheming since well before Sadie was even born, and she pitied the poor fool who was Edna’s next victim. “I was actually out lookin’ for Mac. You seen your cousin around here anywhere?”
Sadie shook her head. “No, I haven’t.” Actually, she hadn’t seen her cousin Mackenna in quite a while—not since her job duties had turned her life upside down. “Was she here tonight?”
“She was supposed to meet me for a carriage ride, and Fred’s over there waitin’.”
Sadie furrowed her brow. “You and…Mac…were gonna go on a horse-drawn carriage ride?” she asked, unable to suppress the skepticism in her voice.
“Yes, sugar. What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing,” Sadie said quickly. “Not a thing. I’m sure friends enjoy it all the time.” None that Sadie had ever seen, considering how romantic the ride was—or so her guests always told her—but who was she to judge?
“My thoughts exactly. But my friend bailed on me, so why don’t y’all go on and enjoy it? Fred can bring you back to the inn since there’s a nip in the air. Feels like snow’s comin’.”
“Oh no. No, that’s fine. We’re fine. We’ll just—”
“Nonsense. It’s right here, and it’s already been paid for. You wouldn’t want me to waste my money, would you, sugar?”
“No, of course not, but—”
“Then y’all go on and use it. I won’t take no for an answer.”
Somehow, without Sadie noticing, Edna had maneuvered them toward the horse-drawn carriage and now not so subtly shoved Sadie in that direction.
Fred, the coachman, lifted his top hat at their approach and stood. “Give me a sec. I’ll be right down to help y’all up.”
“I got it,” Cole said as he gripped Sadie’s waist and lifted her into the carriage as easily as if she weighed nothing more than a sack of flour. To be clear, she definitely weighed more than a sack of flour.
Sadie squeaked in surprise, spinning around in time to see Cole slip Edna some cash before climbing into the carriage alongside her.
She glanced between him and Edna, who strolled away with a grin on her face. “Did you just give her money?”
Cole lifted a single shoulder as he sat, pulling her along with him and settling her flush against his side, draping the thick wool blanket across their laps. “Didn’t seem right that she paid for this when we’re gonna enjoy it.”
She narrowed her eyes at him and ignored the flip of her stomach. “Did y’all plan this?”
“Sadie, if you haven’t learned by now that I’m neither that subtle nor that romantic, then you haven’t been payin’ attention.” He placed his arm along the back of their seat, the warmth of his body seeping into her even through the layers separating them. He leaned down so their faces were merely inches apart, their breath intermingling in clouds between them. He smelled like chocolate and peppermint, like Christmas and winter nights, and she wanted to melt into him. To lay her hand against his stomach and press their lips together. To enjoy this ride as if it were truly a romantic date. “If I want something, I just come out and say it.”
Caught in the magnetic pull of his gaze, she leaned closer to him, unable to stop herself. When she was a mere breath away, her eyelids drifted shut as Cole wrapped a hand around her head, his fingers delving into her hair. He held her jaw, tipping her face up to meet his, before lowering his mouth to hers. He groaned into the kiss, and Sadie barely held back her gasped surprise at the contact. They were still in the middle of town, seated up on a pedestal for everyone to see, and he was kissing the breath from her. He swiped his tongue against hers, and she reveled in the contact, inching her hand along his thigh under the blanket until she cupped his hard length and smiled as he groaned into her mouth.
“You’re not playin’ fair, firecracker.”
“Who said I had to play fair?”
He leaned down until his mouth brushed her ear, ghosting his lower lip along the sensitive skin. “Just so we’re clear, if you weren’t wearin’ jeans, I’d already have my fingers deep inside that perfect pussy. I’d make you come before we got back to the inn, too, wouldn’t I? Because I know exactly how you like it.”
She shuddered as he pressed his hand to the seam of her jeans, teasing her swollen clit with his words and light touches