Broken Barriers (Barriers Series Book 4) (25 page)

“Drew, you can’t be serious?”

“Oh…well, well, look who’s all shy now.” I egged her on as I laced my fingers behind my head. My eyes narrowed on her as she focused solely on me.

Once Cole stood, I expected her to deny the whole thing, but as she left the room, I heard her frustrated sighs before she yelled back from the room down the hall. “I swear to God if you tell anyone about this I will poison the next batch of muffins you get.”

“Sweetheart, that’s not a bright idea, really. You don’t want people to know I died after eating a muffin from Trouvaille!” I shouted back to her from my soon-to-be official lap dance chair. I contemplated bronzing the chair after the dance. I heard her grumbling, and I snickered at her frustration. Actually, I couldn’t care less about her proving she ever learned any of it. She made such a big deal about the secret that I couldn’t help but have a little fun with her. She was just too damn loveable not to play around with. Plus, there was the fact that I had to wear a pink ruffled apron today. That had yet to be forgotten.

A door shut down the hall and the click-clack of what could only be high heels hitting the wooden floor resonated behind me. “So help me, if you make one single comment about this,” Cole announced as the clicks and clacks moved closer. My ears perked, as the sound got louder until she stood in the doorway. I choked on the lump that was stuck in my throat. I took a huge gulp and quickly caught my breath while I rapidly blinked, thinking I was dreaming. My eyes scanned the vision in front of me, and I was lost for words.

Knee-high black leather boots with at least a five-inch heel took painfully slow steps across the living room to the phone dock station on the mantel. My eyes followed her sultry hips that were only covered by black leather boy shorts. My entire body scorched like lava as my arms fell heavily from behind my head and my mouth hung open. I looked like a panting dog waiting for a friggin’ treat. Her tight magenta lace halter-top was see-through in all the right places and was only covering her breasts.

Cole thumbed through her phone until the sound of seductive drums and orgasmic
oohs
and
aahs
bounced across the room. Her hand pulled the band from her hair, and I watched it cascade down her exposed back. She slowly shook it out and ran her fingers through it, teasing me as she lifted it off the back of her neck. Cole gave one glance over her shoulder and licked her lips. I was down for the count before the show began. The referee slammed his palm against the matted floor and called the match as I watched my opponent hop with raised fists in the air. I didn’t care about the loss at this point. Everything that was set to happen sent an instant message to my cock, and he was replying, “Oh, hell yes” before she had taken off any clothing.

Cole sauntered over. Her hands started moving down over the swell of her breasts. She stilled for a second, only to push one hand lower, swaying her hips until her hand was flat over her core. She snapped her hand back, slapping her ass once before pushing my knees apart and closed as she twisted and gyrated against every part of my body. My eyes didn’t know where to look. Her barely-covered tits hovered close to my face as she slid her whole body down to the floor in front of me. She pushed to her feet, turned, and graced me with an eye-level view of her ass as she moved her hips like the fucking Amazon River. Then the famous stripper shake happened, and I almost exploded in my boxers. She snapped her back up quickly, and the moment her heated core ground against my crotch, it was all I could do to not have my way with her on her coffee table. Hell, it was all I could do to keep my dick from getting any harder, but dammit, those long legs and heels. Oh God, the stiletto heels. Sweat beaded on my forehead, but my fingers were too busy gripping the edge of the seat. I would have wiped it off, but I was afraid of my hands doing very bad things to Cole as she bent over again, giving me possibly one of the best views I’d seen of a woman’s ass in quite a long time.

This was a million times better than the strip club. I needed to grab a frequent flyer card, because I planned to reserve more of these on a regular basis.

She turned and trailed her fingertips over my knees, up and under the hem of my khaki shorts. The pounding in my ears matched that of the beating in my chest. Her eyelashes batted quickly. While her blue eyes played tricks with me, a hint of a shy but devilish grin splayed across her face before she dragged her fingers further from my barely confined cock. With a wink and a bite of her lower lip, she stood up as the music faded, and then she strolled away. As her hips swayed with each click and clack of her heels, my eyes slowly blinked with a heaviness weighing them down.

What the fuck just happened?

Shit. I heard Cole chuckle, and I knew I said those words out loud. Her shoulders moved with her soft laughter as she grabbed her phone off the docking speakers.

“That good, huh?” she teased as she peered over her shoulder. I pulled at the zipper of my crotch and pushed at the fabric to allow some additional space for my hardened length. “So, now that you know I was telling the truth.” Cole shut off the speakers and twisted back in my direction to face me with her arms folded over her chest tightly. My eyes fluttered up to her halter-top, and just as I was about to point something out to her, she silenced me. My lips formed a thin line as I kept my mouth shut. I leaned back in my seat and waved for her to continue as I pulled my foot up over my knee. My fingers laced behind my head again, my expression nonchalant as I pretended to listen to what she had to say. As hard as it was to avoid staring, I managed to maintain eye contact.

“Like I was saying, now that you know I was telling the truth, and I’ve proven to you that I’m on the same level as any stripper at those clubs you go to, I’ll trust you to never mention a word of this to anyone…
any
-one.” She slowly stressed the word. “Got it?”

I cocked my head to the side and shrugged my shoulders. As I lowered my hands to my lap, I pulled on my ankle that rested nervously on my knee. I continued to openly gawk at her chest, but the more she talked about keeping this ‘contained’ and ‘under wraps,’ the less I was able to not stare south of her eyes. Once she crossed her arms over her chest, she somehow managed to pop out her right boob from her halter-top. Ultimately, this allowed her bright pink nipple to ever so slightly stare me in the face, kind of like the one-eyed snake liked to do on occasion. How ironic.

I held up my hands in surrender. The laughter I had kept ‘under wraps’ let loose, and Cole stared back at me. “Cole, I tried to tell you a while ago, but the fact that you haven’t noticed it yet is enthralling to me at this point. Most girls can sense when one or both of the twins decide to hang out there.” She was still clueless after my subtle…okay…not-so-subtle attempt to tell her that her boob was hanging out. My eyes zeroed in on her chest before she dropped her gaze.

Within seconds, Cole expelled a shriek and took off shuffling her heels down the hall and into her bedroom. The door slammed shut, and the only sounds around me were the low hums of the appliances and the whooshing of the ceiling fan.

My fingers scratched the scruff under my chin as I placed the chair back at her wooden writing desk. My own wood was no longer a situation in my pants. Seconds ticked by and still no sign of Cole from behind the closed door. I angled my head around the corner and saw the soft light filtering from under the door.

With three long strides, I stood outside her door and softly tapped with the back of my hand. “Cole? You coming out?” I leaned my ear against the door and barely heard a sound. I thought perhaps she was changing, but then I wondered if I had the right room in the house.

I leaned back to see if there were any other doors on the first floor, and I only noticed one, but I saw Cole grab some stuff from behind that door this morning. I knew it was a closet before I even looked. No other doors, so she had to be in there.

A sinking feeling anchored in my chest, and I felt bad now for laughing at her in her exposed state. After replaying what happened in the living room in my head, I could have handled that better than I did, especially after she basically gave me a full-blown lap dance to trump all previous lap dances.

I knocked again and waited for something, anything. My hand hovered over the doorknob, wanting to go inside, but I thought better of it. I retracted my hand and leaned in closer to listen for any sound that would let me know she was okay. What sounded like muffled sniffling was heard only when my ear touched the door. God, I wished I could go back and change how I handled things.

“Cole.” I paused and hoped to hell she opened the door. No luck. “Cole, please don’t cry.” I pulled my ear back and stood there nervously twisting my bracelet. I honestly didn’t know what I was supposed to say at this moment to make things better, because I had never actually been in this situation before.

Women had never been ones to run away from me. Okay, that sounded bad in my head. I never had to chase after women until recently, and well, when I didn’t fight hard enough, I lost it all. Not this time. No. This was it. I stopped walking away right then. I was not making the same mistake twice in my life. “Cole, open the door.” My voice was more demanding.

“Go away, Drew.”

I let out a long sigh of relief. My hands rested on the edge of the doorjambs. “Cole, I’m not leaving, so you may as well open this door and show me you’re okay.”

“Think you’ve seen enough of me already today!” she shouted from the other side of the heavy white door. My sweaty hand gripped the brushed nickel door handle, twisting it this time, only to find it unlocked. The door swung open easily.

My eyes looked around the dimly lit bedroom, and I was in awe. It was as though I had walked into an entirely different house. Everything about it screamed Cole
.
It smelled of sugary sweet vanilla, like the smell of a freshly baked waffle cone at the ice cream stand in the summer. The scent alone made me smile as it transported me to my childhood when Sam and I rode our bikes to the stand in town.

The light gray walls were decorated with smooth black-framed black and white photographs of a landscape I had seen before. The three individual prints were lined up over her bed. The middle print pulled at my heart for more than a second. The blurred silhouette of a man stood in front of a sunset in the distance. I cast my glance elsewhere as memories of the sunset in California passed across my mind. I didn’t want to be reminded of that night again. Not right now, anyway. I dropped my eyes, forcing the flashback to the place it belonged in my head. I glanced back up and took in her white pinned-fabric headboard that was flush against one wall, while a glass chandelier hung from the ceiling. The evening sunlight filtered through the wooden slats of her blinds, and the last of the daylight shone against the wall on the other side of the room as it reflected through the dangling teardrop-shaped glass of the chandelier.

A small TV rested on top of her bureau with some DVDs next to it. The lights were dim but bright enough for me to see why she would never want to leave her oasis in here. It was safe and comforting—her happy place. On the opposite side of the room, one window sat in the center of the wall, covered by sheer white curtains. A small striped plush chair and ottoman were positioned in front of the window where I saw her tablet sitting on the cushion.

Cole lay on her back on top of one of her comforters with one of her fifteen gray pillows pulled over her face. Why didn’t women just have two pillows on a bed? Seriously, was there a point to all of them? I walked in further, despite feeling like I was intruding on her personal space. My knees brushed against the side of her bed as I caught sight of a few small-framed pictures on her nightstand next to some paperbacks. The authors were all unfamiliar to me as I read the names on the spines. Bodhaine, Whitney, Gallow, and Daltrey
were aligned perfectly in a stack. Once my eyes focused on the cover of the top book, I knew she was not taking those out in public. Those were the types of books she read on her tablet. I scratched my fingers along my scruffy jaw. A few colorful hairbands, silver charm bracelets, and her cell phone lay next to her girlie romance books.

I tilted my head to make sure Cole’s head was still buried beneath her pillow. She had wrapped her arms so tightly around it over her head that I was surprised she could even breathe. I gently reached forward, grabbing the overly worn paperback on top and flipped it open to the title page. The Daltrey guy had signed the book.

Thank you for your guidance – Al Daltrey

What on earth? My eyes perused the words written on the first few pages, and I was beyond shocked. I held back the laughter that beckoned to be let loose. As I continued to read the words, I made a quick glance at Cole. Yep, she was still under the pillow. I went back to reading. Even just the book title alone would be considered an award-winning porno if ever it hit the big screen. I flipped the book over in my hand to read the synopsis before returning to the random page I was reading.

Just as I was about to find out what this Chloe character could do to satisfy her new husband, Cole’s arm flew off the pillow and slammed into her mattress, startling me after I had been sitting in silence for a few minutes. My head snapped back, and I watched her grow aggravated with herself. Her other arm pulled the pillow over her face as I adjusted myself on the edge of the bed. A muffled growl rumbled from beneath the pillow, and Cole shook her head from side to side. I replaced the book on top of the stack with her other paperbacks. I almost pulled the next book off the pile in the process.
The Humping Games
for some reason rang a bell in my head. I couldn’t place why, so I just let it be.

“My boob literally was just hanging out of my top, wasn’t it?” she muttered into the pillow, her voice laced with unbelievable shame.

“Yup.” My body relaxed, and I leaned back, allowing my hand to press against her gray quilted comforter. My outstretched arm held me up. I watched Cole and controlled my laughter since she was embarrassed about the whole thing.