Learning to Forgive (The Learning Series) (43 page)

When we pull up at my house, the guys get out of the car and follow me up the walkway. I open the front door, and Jim shouts out at me. “Hey, Kitty Kat! You smarten up and change your mind?”

Tremors travel throughout my body. The man totally creeps me out. At Jim’s words, Drew and his friends growl in anger. Unaware that I have company, Jim walks around the corner, but stops short when he sees the three guys behind me.

“Who the fuck are these guys?” Jim yells at me.

Drew steps in front of me as a set of arms wrap around my waist and pull me back. Hulk steps up next to Drew.

“I'm her fucking brother, shithead, and I take it you're the fucker who tried to put the moves on my little sister?”

Jim registers the threat in Drew’s voice, and his face pales at my brother’s words.

“Kat, go upstairs with Cole and pack your shit! Pete and I are gonna have a little chat with Jimmy boy here.”

Drew doesn’t turn to look at me, and Cole gently guides me towards the stairs. As if floating on a cloud, my brain doesn’t register what is happening around me.

When we reach the top of the stairs, Cole whispers, “Where’s your room, Kitten?”

His voice brings me out of my haze. With his body pressed right up against my back, his heat radiates through me and heads straight to my throbbing pussy. I want to turn around, fuse my mouth to his, wrap my legs around his waist, and devour him, but I’m frozen in place. As if sensing what I’m feeling, Cole turns me so that we’re face to face. I look up into those gorgeous blue eyes, and my brain goes fuzzy. I can’t breathe right. His eyes darken, and at that moment, I realize that we’re in a shitload of trouble because he’s just as attracted to me as I am to him. This is so not good.

I shake my head to clear the fogginess from my brain, turn around, and head towards my room. Cole closes the door behind us. I pull a suitcase out of the closet and start tossing my clothes in it while Cole sits down on my bed to watch me. The desire burning in his eyes distracts me from what I need to be doing.

“Fucking stop looking at me like that, asshole!” I yell in a low tone so that they don’t hear me downstairs. “I can’t hook up with you, no matter what my body is saying to me. My brother would fucking flip.”

“Your brother won't say shit. He answers to me, not the other way around. When I want something, I go for it, and Kitten, I want you, so I will have you.”

“Stop calling me Kitten. My name is Kat. K.A.T. Kat. Got it?”

“Well, you're Kitten to me, and that’s what I'm going to call you.”

I go back to packing my bag. Cole checks out my underwear as I toss it in my suitcase. I roll my eyes, but don’t say anything else to him because this sexual tension in the room is getting to me. Since we’re quiet, the elevated voices and sounds of the fight drift upstairs into my room. Something tells me that Drew and Hulk’s fists are talking more than their mouths are. I can’t say that I'm sorry Jim is getting his ass handed to him. I wish I could be the one to do it, but I wouldn’t be able to beat a man twice my size.

When all the clothes I’ll need are packed, I make my way to the bathroom for my toiletries and cosmetics. I certainly can’t live without that shit for a week.

My thoughts travel to Cole, the arrogant bastard who’s made himself at home in my room. I can’t even explain what draws me to him. He is the opposite of everything I’ve ever wanted in a guy. I’ve always said that I would never be with a controlling man like the ones my mother always chooses. I like being in charge of myself, and don’t want to give it up for anyone. With Cole, I have to, but somehow it seems different with him. This bastard is being groomed to run the Knight Family business, so he doesn’t take shit from anyone. If I’m truthful, that is part of what attracts me to him. I think I
need
him. He can even me out, put up with my attitude, yet keep me in check at the same time.

The look he gives me is intense, almost as if he knows who I am. At the same time, I feel as if he’s my other half. It sounds crazy because I’m only fucking eighteen. It’s probably nothing more than lust and hormones, but it seems like so much more right now.

I finish in the bathroom and walk back into my room where the sight of Cole lying comfortably on my bed stops me. He smirks at me. I take in his lean, toned body and, once again, find myself wanting to jump him and scream for him to fuck my brains out.

I start to grab my bags, but Cole jumps up and takes the suitcase from me.

“I got it, Kitten.” Jesus, even his smile can stop traffic. “Let’s head out. Things are quiet downstairs for now.”

When we make our way back downstairs, Jim is laid out on the sofa in the living room while Hulk and my brother sit there watching him. Jim looks as though it may be a few days before he recovers from the beating. Drew looks up when we walk in the room.

“Got everything you need, Kat?” Drew calmly asks me.

I nod, not finding any words and too overwhelmed with all the emotions swirling through me.

Drew turns back to Jim. “Now, don’t forget, Jimmy, you will be gone when my mom comes back next week. And if I find out you’ve come near my mom or sister again? Know that I will kill you.”

Well, ok, who knew my bro could scare the piss out of people. I think now is a good time to get going.

“Right, then off we go. Come on, Drew and Hulk,” I squeak out. My erratic emotions are messing with my head, and I just want to get the hell out of here.

When we get out to the car, Cole places my bag in the trunk. I’ve never been to Drew’s place because he doesn’t want me to be around the shit he does. He’s breaking his own rules to keep me safe from that asshole.

I’m so lost in my own thoughts that I fail to hear the three guys talking until Cole says, “She can share my bed.”

“That’s my fucking little sister, man. She’s still in high school, for Christ’s sake.”

“I’m eighteen,” I blurt.
Yeah, don’t think that was helpful
. Cole gives me a knowing look. Then it hits me. “Wait, you live together?”

A big, shit-eating grin covers Cole’s face. “Yes, Kitten, the three of us share a house.”

Well, fuck me sideways. I’m in big trouble now. How will I avoid Cole for a whole damn week if he lives there, too? It’s not possible.
Fuck! Maybe I should check into a hotel
. Yeah, that’s a good idea. Who am I kidding? Drew wouldn’t go for that shit, but damn, I can’t be in the same house as Cole. He’s already declared that he wants me and that I can share his bed with him. Um, hell no. I can’t be involved in this shit.

I don’t know what to do. This is new territory for me. I have
never
had a guy turn me inside out like this. I usually can take ‘em or leave ‘em. I'm no virgin, but I’ve never been with a guy who makes my body hum by just standing next to me. I’m so in over my head here. I have no doubt Cole is experienced. His lifestyle and good looks almost guarantee that he is going to rock my world. I haven’t figured out yet if that’s a good or bad thing.

Times like this, I wish I had a mother that I could go to or even a girlfriend who has my back. Nope, the only girl I talk with at school will not be the one I can talk with about this shit. Number one reason is that Cole is her older brother. Also, we don’t actually talk outside of school. These feelings are going to send me to the loony bin.

When the car stops, we are parked in the driveway of a nice home, nothing fancy, but not a dump either. This is where my brother lives? A fucking middle-class neighborhood? Are you fucking kidding me right now? I step out the car, knowing that when I walk in this house, my life from this point forward will never be the same.