Hate Fuck Part Three (7 page)

I never thought it would be my boyfriend, walking into his apartment building with his ex-girlfriend, their heads close together.

But of course it’s not that simple. Of course he doesn’t just disappear inside and I go running off into the night, because there’s this thing between us. A magnetic connection.

Cole’s head snaps up and he looks around.

I’m right here
, I think, frozen to the spot. When he finds me, his entire face darkens and he strides toward me, scanning behind me for my shadow.

“You’re not in New York,” I say as he reaches me and slides his hands up my arms to hold me just below the shoulders.

“What’s wrong?” He rakes his flecked amber gaze over my face, then around me, his jaw flexing as he takes stock of the fact that I’m alone.

“I was…”
Coming to cry myself to sleep in your bed
seems like a silly answer now. “Nothing.”

“Where’s Scott?”

“I assume still at my place. I went out the fire escape.”

Cursing under his breath, he yanks out his phone and taps a furious text message. Then he slides the other hand over my shoulder and cups the nape of my neck, like he’s going to move me toward the building.

Nope.

I stand my ground as he starts to move, and his arm snaps straight. He doesn’t let go of me, he just turns back and stands there, having a stare-down with me.

“Hailey, come on.” He scowls.

“Look, you’re busy. This was a mistake.” Not because I don’t trust him, but because I don’t want to know what’s going on. He’s clearly in the middle of something—and for my own sanity, I’m not going to think for a second that it’s personal. “I’ll go back home. Really, it’s fine.”

“Fine is the last fucking thing it is. Scott’s lucky if he doesn’t get fired for not noticing that you dodged out of there, and what the hell were you thinking?”

I swing my hand up between us and swat his arm away from me. He just rolls his eyes and snags my hand, entwining our fingers—which also serves to yank me closer to him. I can feel his heart beating quickly through his dress shirt, and I resist the urge to pet him comfortingly. That might give him the upper hand.

Ha.

Who am I kidding? He always has the upper hand. All I can do is hold on for dear life.

He huffs a frustrated breath and shakes his head, his gaze burning me. “You were
kidnapped
one week ago. Ditching your guard is not an option.”

“You told me you were
out of town
and I was just coming here to sleep in your fucking bed,” I spit back at him. “And I got to your building, so obviously it was fine.”

His lips tighten as he searches my face, looking for…I don’t know what. “Come upstairs.”

“No, I don’t want—”

“You said if you could do something to help, you would.”

I frown at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Come upstairs,” he repeats, turning and sliding his arm around my waist. Point, Cole, because while I tense up, I let him propel me toward where Penny Kristoff is standing.

She smiles at me. I manage something that approximates a grimace in return. Ugh. I try again, this time channeling my inner Amelia Dashford Reid. Having a soulless socialite for a mother has some advantages.

Without another word, Cole guides us through the lobby and up the ornate staircase.

We stop on the third floor and walk silently across plush carpeting. The hallway is lushly decorated, with gorgeous wallpaper and expensive light fixtures. His apartment is a corner unit, and it’s surprisingly big. And modern. Cold, sleek furniture decorates the space, an interesting contrast to the traditional lobby and hallway.

Also in the space are Tag Browning and another blonde who looks a lot like Penny. Well, let’s be honest—all thin, beautiful blondes look the same to me. I shove back that little bit of self-loathing and glance at Cole. Is this an orgy? I regret not discussing hard limits before, because if I’m going to have group sex, I don’t think I want any skinny blondes involved. Which probably isn’t fair to them, but I’m feeling kind of fragile.

“What’s going on?”

“Hailey, meet Clara Forrester. She’s an artist from New York who spent some time with Gerome Lively a few years ago. Clara, this is my girlfriend, Hailey. And that’s Penny, the agent I mentioned who will help us.”

Agent?

I whip my head to my left and glare at Penny. She gives me another bland look.

I feel like an idiot, and maybe I am, because I open my mouth and the stupidest shit comes out. “So…this isn’t an orgy.”

Tag chokes on his gum, and Clara shoots her eyebrows straight into her hairline.
 

Cole keeps talking like I didn’t say anything at all. “Penny’s here to talk you through your options for extended protection.”

“I’m sorry,” I say, wincing in Clara’s direction, but Cole is practically shoving me out of the room.

“What the hell is going on?” I burst out as soon as he shuts the door behind him. I look around. So this is Cole’s bedroom. More modern stuff. No piles of laundry. It doesn’t smell nearly enough of him.

I hate it.

“It’s a long story,” he says as he jams his hands in his pockets, shoving his jacket out of the way. He hangs his head for a moment, looking at the floor, and when he glances up again, his face is ragged—there’s more emotion in his eyes and around his mouth than I’ve ever seen before, but it’s not all good. “How much of it do you want?”

“I don’t know,” I say quietly. Only a few feet separate us, but it’s too much. I step into his space. He keeps his hands in his pockets. I ignore that and touch him anyway, finding some comfort in the tensing ridges of his abdomen. He holds ever-so-still, heat radiating off him, as I wiggle my fingers up his torso. When I’ve grounded myself in the reassuring solidity of his tall, broad, and delicious body, I grab a fistful of his shirt in the middle of his chest and scowl. “Let’s start with the fact that Penny is an agent of
what?
”

“She works for the Department of Justice.”

“As…”

“A Federal Marshal.”

“She looks like a socialite!”

“She’s that, too.”

Processing that takes a minute. I breathe in his sweet, spicy cologne, remembering how it used to drive me crazy. It still does, but now it’s also…there’s this promise with Cole, that he’ll always be there for me. He’s going to piss me off and hurt me by accident, but he’s always going to try to make it right.

“So she’s not just an ex-girlfriend.” I release his shirt, and like a shot, one of his hands is out of his pockets and wrapped around my wrist. Holding me to him.

“I should never have called her that,” he says roughly, dragging my hand to his face. He presses a kiss to my palm and closes his eyes.

“But you did.”

“I did. Just to you.”

“Why?” I already know, but I feel like we need to recap this, just in case I’ve been dreaming all this time.

“To push you away.”

“It didn’t really work well, did it?”

He laughs and shakes his head, still pressing his face into my palm.

“But she’s still in your life.”

“This is the first time I’ve seen her since that night at the opera. It’s only because I needed to introduce her to Clara.”

“So your relationship before was just professional?” He freezes, and my stomach flip-flops uncomfortably. “Uhm, forget I asked that.”

“No.” His jaw clenches against my fingers, and he opens his eyes, fixing that bright amber gaze right on me. Unwavering. “I want you to know.”

“Why?”

Cole just stares at me. “Because I love you.”

I blink up at him and burst into tears.

—nine—
 

Cole

“Fuck me,” I mutter under my breath. Shit, I suck at this. “Is that bad?” I bend at the knees, bringing us face to face as Hailey furiously wipes away the tears on her cheeks. “Hailey?”

“I love you too, you asshole.” She glares at me and it’s the best thing in the world.

I laugh and pull her close. “That would be more believable without the last bit.”

The tension I’ve been holding in my chest eases as she slides her arms over my shoulders, burying her face in my neck.
 

“You love me?” she repeats, her words muffled as she burrows deeper into my skin. That’s okay. It’s where she belongs.

“Yeah.” I clear my throat. “Didn’t really know how to say it. Never have before.”

She shakes her head at me.

“What?”

“That’s how you make everything right. You make me melt, Cole.”

I can’t help but grin. Damn, I like the sound of that. I like how she kisses my throat and along my jaw even better, and when she finds my lips with hers, I don’t care that there are people on the other side of the wall. I’ve got decent insulation. I push her lips open with the tip of my tongue, just a tease because we’ve still got stuff to talk about, but enough to remind her of our conversation this morning, and how I kissed her neck and pulled her hair.

From the way she’s curving into me, I know she’s thinking about it too. I want to ask her if she’s wet, and if she remembered my promise to take her at the first opportunity.

Instead, I nip at her lower lip, then suck on it gently to sooth the sting—and then I pull back.

“Hey, keep doing that,” she breathes, and fuck, but I want to.

“Still got stuff to talk about, beautiful. Gotta air it all out, get it out of your head.”

“I didn’t think…when I saw you and Penny. I didn’t get all jealous.” She pauses. “Okay, just a tiny bit. But I knew you wouldn’t.”

“I wouldn’t.” It needs to be repeated.

She hesitates, then asks, “Are you still close?”

“We’ve never been close.”

“But you dated, for real. Had sex.”

“Dating was mutually beneficial. I could trust her. Sex was functional. Fun, even.” She scowls at me, but I’ve got a point to make. “I’m not going to lie. The occasional thirty minutes of banging or watching each other bang other people was a half-way decent way to pass time.”

“Thirty minutes?” Her eyes go all soft. She gets my point.

God, this feeling in my chest…the tension has been replaced by something so much bigger. It’s hot and and uncomfortable and I think I like it. “At the most.”

“Damnit, Cole, tales of your exploits aren’t supposed to melt me.”

I stroke a finger down her nose and over her lips, taking my time. “Do I need to spell out how what you and I have is different on every level?”

“No.” She’s still pouting, but her eyes have gone all warm now.

“Do you want me to anyway?”

She nods, and I slide my hand back into her hair, gathering it in my fist. I give it a tug that gets my blood racing again, and hers too, from the look on her face. She licks her lips, leaving them wet and juicy, and I want to drag her onto her knees and slide my cock over them. Instead I hold her close and try to explain how what we have and how we have it is so much more than anything I’ve ever had in the past. “Physical release, then leave me the hell alone. That’s all I ever wanted until I met you. Then I spent six months running scared from how you made me feel, what you made me think. Now I’m all in, because when I’m with you? I just want more. Always. When I take you fast, it’s just so I can do it again. When I take you slow, it’s because I can’t get over how good you feel. Taste. Sound. I don’t want to miss any of it and I never want it to end, so I stretch it out. And it’s still not enough.”

“Because you love me…”

I nod roughly, leaning over her, backing her up until she bumps into my bed.

Hailey Reid in my bed. Fuck, I fought this for so long. Such an idiot.

She nuzzles my jaw, my stubble scratching her cheek, and she makes a whimpering sound that takes my half-chub to a full-blown, aching erection. “I love it when you do that.”

“What?”

“When you’re heavy,” she whispers, opening her mouth against my cheek. She licks me, tasting my skin, and it makes me press against her even harder. “I can’t explain it.”

“I love it when you lick me,” I grunt, working at the button on her pants. “Don’t need to explain it. It’s just…”
right
. Fuck, I’m such a sap for her.

And she’s fucking soaked for me.

“Your ex-girlfriend is in the next room,” she hisses as I slide my fingers between her pussy lips, but she still rocks into my touch. Because we can’t help ourselves.

“Want me to stop?” I don’t. I just slow my strokes, coating my fingers in her juices. Spreading them around.

“We should. Don’t you have to go out there?” She gasps as I rock my fingertips over her clit. “Seriously, Cole…”

“You think I’m not serious about bending you over my bed and fucking you?”

She giggles, then moans again, pressing her lips together to keep it inside. “Noooo…”

Fucking taunting me. I drag myself up and look down at her, splayed out on my bed, her jeans open and her shirt sliding up on the pale skin of her belly.

She looks like the university student she was mere months ago. In my suit and tie, I feel like the big bad wolf, older and more grizzled than my thirty-one years, and while I know we could do this—in another moment, would both get off on the semi-publicness, the secret moment—I don’t want to.

Because I’m not such an asshole that I can’t remember she was scared tonight, and my first responsibility is to protect her. “You feeling better?”

She nods, slowly, her golden brown hair spread out beneath her on my bed.

“I should have told you I was in the city. I just didn’t know how long we’d be here tonight.” It’s already close to midnight, and I don’t know what Penny’s plan is for moving Clara to a safe house.

Hailey slides her hands over her mid-section, her fingers teasing at the open space where I just had my hand. My blood, already simmering, starts to boil. “You have to go out there.”

A statement. She’s not wrong.

“Yeah.”

She hooks her thumbs into her jeans at the waist and wriggles them down her hips, revealing her basic black underwear. Never seen anything hotter. “Then go do that. I’ll be waiting here when you’re done.”

—ten—
 

Hailey

Cole’s in the living room for an hour, maybe more. I doze off to the drone of voices, curled up in his bed. There’s no part of me that wants to be involved in whatever plan they’re doing. Keeping a witness safe, that’s all I need to know.