Operation: Endeavor (When The Mission Ends) (19 page)

“You’re insatiable, but you need sustenance if you plan to keep this up.” She pushed him up against the headboard, but gently caressed his ever-present erection before setting the tray of food on the bed. “Besides you don’t want your breakfast and most importantly your coffee to get cold.”

Maybe he’d misread her. “Coffee?” He perused the tray.

She grinned at him as she handed him his cup. “I thought that might pique your interest.”

“Sweetheart, nothing competes with you for my interest this morning, but I’ll make do with coffee and breakfast…for now.”

She crawled into the bed on the other side and snagged some juice and toast off the tray. She cleared her throat. “So, this was nice.” She gestured toward the bed, looking somewhat embarrassed.

“Nice? Is that all?” His eyes sparkled as he teased her.

She flushed bright red and he almost felt bad for giving her a hard time. He reached over and tilted her chin up so he could kiss her. “I thought it was nice, too… really nice.”

They ate in silence for a few moments and he tried to take measure of where she was mentally this morning. He couldn’t see any obvious signs of regrets, but he got the feeling that something was off with her. He wondered what was going through her mind. Her expression became serious as he watched her eat.

“Do you have to go into the bookstore today?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I have to finalize the details about the book signing. With everything else going on, I haven’t been giving it the attention it deserves.” She chewed on her lip for a bit. “We never heard from them again, do you think it’s over?” He knew exactly who she meant by
them
.

He shook his head. “I don’t know. It just doesn’t feel right. That was too easy. I’m also curious about what’s going on with your buddy, Damon.”

“I’ll touch base with him later today and see if I can feel him out about what’s going on.”

“Okay. I’ll take you into the bookstore. Then I’ll take the Bus to get the window fixed. I don’t want you leaving the store today. Just wait for me and I’ll come pick you up. I also need to talk with Cassie…”.

She interrupted and he noticed that her face had paled. “Listen, Colton, while this was really fabulous,” she waved her hand in between them, “it doesn’t make you responsible for me. I’m still a big girl and can take care of myself. Just because we slept together doesn’t mean I need a keeper.”

“No,” he said slowly, “it doesn’t. But the fact you’ve been targeted twice in a week does.”

“There’s no reason to believe there’s still a threat. We haven’t heard anything in at least twenty-four hours. I’ll be fine.”

He gritted his teeth but didn’t get a chance to answer.

“Tell me if it’s none of my business,” she began, “I know a little bit about your marriage from Cassie, but you never talk about her. What happened with Dianna? Was that who called earlier?”

He grimaced. He hoped she hadn’t heard him. His failed marriage was certainly not something he wanted to think about after a night filled with amazing orgasms. “We had unrealistic expectations from each other.” He really didn’t want to say anything more. His desire for a family had overridden any common sense when it came to his ex-wife. He’d been unable to see she just wanted the prestige of being a pilot’s wife. She didn’t understand the sacrifices his job involved, for both of them.

For his part, he’d been looking for someone to come home to and a family to call his own. He wanted to recapture that magic he’d known before his parents died. They’d been a family. A full unit. All of them against the world. Dianna seemed like a good fit until they actually got married. Then he realized he honestly knew nothing about her. It only took them six months before they mutually agreed they’d made a mistake.

Penelope nodded her head at his brief statement and a chill settled on his spine. Her eyes were suddenly devoid of all emotion. She finished off her toast, brushed off her hands, and leaned over and gave him a short kiss. “Well this has been fun, but don’t have any expectations from me. I’m not someone you can fit into the mold you see for your world. I’m responsible for me and only me. Thanks though for the fabulous use of your incredible body.”

Colton recoiled at the swift kick to his gut. “Now wait a minute…”

But Penelope didn’t give him a chance to say anything more as she bounced up and flung her hair off her shoulders. Her voice rose an octave or two as she airily said, “You understand, we probably shouldn’t do this again. We don’t need any confusion about our friendship if we want to continue living together. I’ll get myself to work today. No need to worry yourself. I’m not your responsibility.” Then she breezed out of his bedroom and into her own.

Colton sat there stunned and wondered where the morning had gone so wrong.

* * *

Penelope sunk to the floor of her shower. The water hadn’t warmed up yet, but she barely noticed the cold water flowing over her body. It didn’t compare to the shattering of her heart. She could never get involved with someone who spoke to their ex that way. She’d learned a little something over the years. She knew better than to get involved with a dominant man. That way only meant heartache and pain for her. She needed to cut her losses now.

Unrealistic expectations is what he’d said. Yes, like wanting her to agree to his every demand. She heard the way he’d talked to Dianna. He was in full control and commanding her to do his bidding. The sheets weren’t even cold before it started with Penelope. He wanted, no demanded, she do things his way without any chance for discussion.

What was it about her that made others think she couldn’t do or think for herself? She thought Colton understood. She thought he knew the real her and the fact he didn’t, hurt.

Cassie tried to warn her that she and Colton weren’t a good fit, but Penelope just
couldn’t believe that could she? She ignored all the warning signs and fell for him anyway…body and soul. But regardless of how her heart was breaking, she knew she could never give Colton what he needed. He needed to be in charge and that wasn’t something she could ever submit to. She couldn’t mold herself around someone else’s needs. It was better to end things now than to get her heart more embroiled in their liaison. Breaking it off now would just save further heartache later.

Her body still felt the lingering effects of their incredible night of passion, and she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to recover from loving Colton. Right now she would be okay if she could just figure out how to live with him and return to their platonic friendship without this ravaging pain ripping through her chest.

Colton pulled his motorcycle over to the side of the road so he could make a phone call. He’d been riding around aimlessly for over an hour and was still no closer to understanding where he’d gone wrong this morning. After an amazing night and some startling revelations this morning, suddenly he faced a future without Penelope in it. The knot in his gut grew tighter. He couldn’t accept this, but he couldn’t fix it unless he could figure out what he’d done wrong. There was one person who might be able to help. He listened to the phone ring.

“Hey big brother. What are you doing calling me so early? I thought you were a man of leisure. Shouldn’t you be sleeping in and enjoying these days of freedom?”

“Hey Cassie. I need your help. Do you have any classes in the next hour?”

“No, I’m free. Is everything okay?” He could hear the concern in her voice.

“Yeah, everything’s fine… well, sort of. I just need some advice. I’ll explain when I get there. Do you mind meeting me at The Mocha Mermaid?”

She hesitated for a moment before answering. “Sure, I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Colton beat Cassie to the coffee shop so he went ahead and ordered her non-fat latte. He’d just gotten their drinks when she walked in the door and he didn’t miss the flash of panic as she looked at the baristas working behind the counter.

Damn, he hadn’t been thinking when he suggested they meet here. Three months before, the stalker who kidnapped her worked as a barista here.

He enveloped her into a hug as she reached the table. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I already have our coffees. Do you want to take them somewhere else?”

Her laugh sounded brittle, but she admonished, “Don’t be silly. He’s not here. I know that. He’s dead and I shouldn’t let the memory of him keep me from my favorite coffee shop. He wins if I let his memory affect me that way.”

“Have you been in here since then?”

“No, but thanks for pulling me back. I needed the push. I love their lattes and this place is too convenient for me to stay away.” She turned her gaze from the counter back to him, searching. “So what’s going on with you? I’m guessing this might have something to do with Penelope. Am I right?”

He grimaced. “How’d you guess?”

“You two were looking awfully close Saturday night and you do live together. It’s only safe to assume that things might have progressed since then.”

“Progressed and then regressed.” He stopped. How did he explain the situation to his little sister without getting into his sex life? Maybe this was a bad idea, but as one of Pen’s closest friends, she had to have some insight as to where her thought-process was.

He rubbed his hand over his face and thought about the conversation that fell all to hell this morning. He looked at her. “Yesterday was great. Actually better than great. We connected. We spent the whole day together and it was fucking fabulous. Well, except for maybe dinner with her parents.”

Cassie stopped him, her eyes wide. “You had dinner with her parents? How did that happen? I can’t imagine Penelope taking you there by choice.”

“No, we were out all day and when we got home there was a message on the machine from her mother saying we were expected for dinner, both of us. I’m guessing she wanted to check me out as the new roommate.”

She chuckled. “I bet that was exciting.”

He rolled his eyes at her before shaking his head. “Yeah, not so much. I don’t understand how parents can behave that way. Aren’t they supposed to love unconditionally?”

“Unfortunately, Pen got the short end of the stick when it comes to parents. But we’re getting off track. What’s the issue?”

“After we left her parents’ house, we went out and talked for a long time which naturally moved to other things.” The blush rose up his cheeks. God, this was embarrassing.

Cassie rolled her hand. “Yeah, keep talking. I understand what ‘other things’ means. So I’m not seeing an issue here yet, unless,” she paused and eyed him with a certain amount of dread pouring through her gaze, “…unless you had some sort of performance issues.” Now she was beet red, too.

“Cassie! Fuck, no, that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about. Fuck, why, if that was even the issue and believe me, it’s not… Why would you think I’d choose to discuss that with you? Shit.” He sunk his face into his hands wondering when he’d lost control of the conversation and if it was too late to just say ‘forget it’.

“Okay, okay. Calm down. We’re both going to need bleach for our brains after this talk.” She reached over and pulled his hands off his head to get his attention. “Okay so everything went fine there. Why are you freaking out?”

“Because this morning, she totally freaked out on me and I have no idea what I did wrong. It seemed fine at first. No awkwardness like I expected.” He shook his head remembering back on this morning. “She brought me breakfast in bed and we were just eating it and talking.”

“What were you talking about?”

“Our plans for the day. Me taking the Bus in to get it fixed after I dropped her off at work. Mundane, boring things.” Cassie nodded, but a frown formed between her eyes. He continued. “Then out of the blue she asked me what happened between Dianna and me and why we got divorced.”

“Okay, what did you tell her?”

“I told her that we had unrealistic expectations from each other, which we did. That doesn’t seem so earth-shattering to me. It was like this wall went up for Pen though. She started acting all breezy.  She thanked me for the use of my body, but we probably shouldn’t do it again. All of a sudden, instead of the brilliant, confident, intelligent woman I’d spent the last two weeks with, suddenly there was this flighty, airy, party-girl that I always thought Penelope to be.”

Cassie winced. “Aw, Colton, what did you do?”

“Wait a min….”

“Let’s back up. When you were discussing your plans for the day, was it a discussion or were you telling her how things were going to go?”

He frowned at her as he tried to figure out what she was getting at. She interrupted him before he even got a chance to answer.

“Never mind, I know the answer to that question. You did what you always do. You dictated to her how the day was going to go. Didn’t you learn anything from your visit with her parents last night?”

“I learned her mother doesn’t care one bit about her feelings or wants.”

“Bingo. She was raised under that extremely controlling thumb of her mother always telling her how to act, how to dress, how to think.”

“I know, but…”

“There’s no ‘but’ here. Someone telling Penelope what to do is a major hot-button for her. I know you already realize Penelope is smart, but you probably don’t realize just how smart she really is. She has an IQ of over 170 and made a perfect score on her SAT’s. By the way, she didn’t tell me that. Her mother did. What did she do with all that brilliance? Do you know what her degree is in?”