Wrong Side Girl (The Girl Series Book 1) (17 page)

Our dining table was filled to the max with eight people around it. Dinner was delicious and conversation was constant and filled with laughter. Katie and Chris entertained us with tales about their last vacation to England, where apparently they’d had some difficulties conversing with the locals, believe it or not. You would think that English would be English no matter where you were in the world, but according to them you needed a dictionary if you wanted to understand any of their slang terms, like ‘dog’s bollocks’ meant something great, or how when someone said, ‘have a butcher’s’ at something meant to go and look at it. Marie, Sophie, and I were in tears the more Katie and Chris got into it.

Sophie was Daniel’s girlfriend and she and I bonded over Cole’s mother’s hatred for us. The stories she told me about how she had been treated by her were kind of intimidating. Daniel had refused to ever have anything to do with his aunt again for any reason, that’s how bad it was. I wasn’t looking forward to ever officially meeting her as Cole’s girlfriend.

“Don’t worry, Liz. What can she really do to you? Cole will have your back and she won’t go up against him, especially now that he is actually richer than them,” she tried to reassure me.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you know, because his grandfather left all his money and assets to Cole instead of his own son when he died last year. Shocking, but apparently, he never liked his son or his daughter-in-law very much, but Cole he was close to. So he left everything to him.” That was news to me. Wow. I just stared at Sophie, not knowing what to say. Her eyes grew big at the realization that I hadn’t known any of this.

“You didn’t know, did you?” she asked, concerned now. I shook my head at her. I wasn’t sure what to make of this. I didn’t care about money, Cole knew this, and neither did he. We had that discussion when he wanted to buy this house. So did it really matter that he was even richer than I thought? Not really. But he could have told me. I hadn’t been able to go with him to his grandfather’s funeral last year, but I had known he had been very upset. His grandfather had always supported him and taught him the life lessons that his father had been too busy to teach his son. They had been close; I knew that, even though they had only seen each other a few times a year because he lived in California. When Cole was fourteen, he spent his whole summer break there. It had been the longest and loneliest summer of my life. But when he came back, he had told me how awesome his grandfather was. How he was different from his own father and that he wished he could live with him all of the time. That thought had terrified me.

But I hadn’t known that he had left all his money to Cole. That must have caused some serious tension with his parents. I couldn’t imagine they liked the idea of being skipped over in favor of their son who was so different from them and whom they didn’t like very much. I wondered why he hadn’t told me about it. I would have to ask him about it. But not now when we had a house full of guests.

Determined to put his family out of my mind for now, I gave Sophie a small smile to let her know it was okay and changed the subject.

Daniel and Sophie had to leave right after dinner. They had promised his parents, who also lived in Boston, to stop by their house for dessert and a nightcap. Sophie had her arm hooked through mine as we followed Cole and Daniel to the door.

“You okay after what I dropped on you earlier?” she asked in a low voice that only I could hear.

“I’m fine. It’s not really a big deal. Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay. Let’s get together soon. I have a feeling we’re going to be great friends.” I would love that. Sophie was great and lots of fun. It would be nice to have another girlfriend. I didn’t have too many of those. We made arrangements to meet up for coffee the following week.

“Glad to see you finally got your shit together, bro,” I heard Daniel say when he gave Cole a man hug. “You’re lucky nobody snapped her up before you came to your senses.”

“Believe me, I know exactly how lucky I am,” Cole replied after he released Daniel and looked at me. Daniel nodded. When he hugged me, he whispered in my ear, “He’s been in love with you all his life, you know?” Yes, I was starting to believe it. Cole had said it when he came to apologize after our fight and again when he took me out to dinner; Katie said it tonight; and now Daniel. “I love him, too,” I whispered back. Daniel gave me a squeeze before he let me go, but held on to my shoulders, studying me closely. “I see it.” Then he turned to get Sophie’s coat and Sophie moved in to hug me goodbye.

Katie and Chris left shortly after. They were going home to Katie’s parents for brunch the next day, so they had to get up kinda early in the morning for the drive out to Ashford. After some more TV for the men while Marie and I cleaned up the rest of the dishes and shared some more wine in the kitchen, our last two guests called it a night as well. Marie had had too much to drink, so Steve volunteered to give her a ride home. She would come and get her car tomorrow.

I was undressing in the bedroom when Cole came upstairs after closing down the house. Too tired to worry about my clothes, I dropped them on the floor, crawled to bed in only my panties, and collapsed on my stomach. Soft kisses on my naked back made me shiver and I sighed contentedly.

“Tired, baby?”

“Mmh.”

“This is what I’ve been thinking about all day. Having you naked underneath me to do with whatever I please. Completely at my mercy.” One of his hands was joining the action and wandered up and down my side, lightly touching the swell of my breast before it went down and over my hip to my ass, all the while his lips kept slowly and softly exploring my back. His hands felt like magic on my skin, making every single cell of my body come alive with need. His fingers found my sex and started playing, gently gliding through my folds. I tipped my ass slightly up to give him better access. He chuckled.

“Never too tired to play. Always so hot for me. I can’t get enough of you, Liz.” His words in that low raspy voice turned me on, and I started circling my hips with the movement of his fingers. Then one finger entered me, left me again, and went back to circling, spreading the wetness his movements caused. I moaned and pressed into his finger. A few minutes of playing and he already had me where he wanted me.

Needy and ready to take him.

I started to turn around to face him, but his body came down on mine, keeping me in place.

“No, baby. I want to play a little longer. Be good and don’t move.” He lifted up off me. I stayed where I was and was immediately rewarded with two fingers entering me, stroking lazily a few times, then leaving me again to press and circle. His other hand moved my hair over my shoulder so that his mouth could explore the back of my neck with soft kisses and gentle touches, driving me absolutely crazy. I wasn’t very good at submitting, so we both knew I wouldn’t be able to hold still for very long. The feel of his jeans against my almost naked ass was unbelievably sexy when he leaned into me, letting me feel his hardness against my backside.

“Cole,” I whispered. I wanted him so badly that the need of feeling him inside me made my body shiver.

“Shh, baby, soon. Just a little longer. I love your back, your ass, your neck,” he whispered, his lips on me, fingers playing, hips gently thrusting against me. I clenched my fingers in the sheet and held on, breathing hard. Finally, I could feel his other hand between us at his jeans, unzipping them, pushing them down, and then he was there, rubbing his hard cock through my folds, coating it, before he slowly entered me from behind, inch by slow inch, holding me in place with his weight on top of me, so all I could do was wait for him to give me all of him.

Torture.

Slow torture until finally he filled me completely.

“God, Liz. Every time. You feel so good every time I take you. Gripping me so tight. I’m gonna take you slow, baby, so slow. Gonna drag it out until you can’t take it anymore and beg me to fuck you hard. You feel this, baby? This is you and me. Perfect. Absolutely perfect.” He took me slowly, making love to me, pushing in a bit then pulling back out, back in a little more, then grinding, in a bit more, back out. Over and over and over again. I could feel his body shaking above me with the effort of holding on to his control. His mouth kept at my back and my neck, making me shake and shiver all over while he kept slowly thrusting and grinding. I wanted to push back into him, demanding more, but his hips held me firmly in place.

“Liz, baby,” his breathing was labored now, his voice growly. I couldn’t take it anymore.

I started begging, “Please, Cole. I need more.”

He thrust in a little harder and faster but it was nowhere near hard enough.

“Cole, please!”

With almost brutal force he slammed into me, hard, fast, driving me up to climax with a speed that left me reeling. His hands were pulling my hips back to meet his thrust for thrust. After only a few minutes, I was there, and my sex started spasming around him. I knew there was no chance of holding it back and I came on a loud groan, bucking my hips against his until he groaned my name with his own release.

He dropped his weight on top of me for a few seconds, breathing hard, then rolled off me and took me with him so I ended up on top of him, front to front. We stayed like that for a while until both our heartbeats slowed down. I slid off his torso until I was lying pressed to his side, my head on his chest, his arm around my shoulders, our legs tangled, and fell promptly asleep.

Lizzy

“Let’s play hooky,” I said against his neck, where my mouth was busy exploring. It was Monday morning after Thanksgiving weekend. We hadn’t left the house in three days. It was glorious and I didn’t want it to end. I was sitting naked in Cole’s lap. He was already dressed and ready to go to work and had pulled me in his lap for a goodbye kiss.

“I wish I could. But I have important meetings first thing this morning and one of my projects is starting up today and needs my attention.” His hands were lazily running up and down my naked back.

“Let’s compromise then. You can be late.” I kept kissing and licking his neck while my hands were loosening his tie and unbuttoning his shirt. He grabbed my hands with his to stop me.

“Sorry, baby. I can’t. I’ll make it up to you tonight.” He kissed me long and deep and lovingly.

“I’ll do that thing you like so much,” I gave it one last try and pulled out the big guns when he ended the kiss. His body stilled under mine. Heat burnt in his eyes. Then he closed them and dropped his head so that his forehead rested on my shoulder.

“God, honey, you’re killing me. I’ll be running around with a permanent hard-on all day thinking about that.” He tipped his head back to look at me. “That calls for punishment tonight, baby.” I shivered. I liked his idea of punishment. It always ended in an amazing orgasm for me. Cole felt the shiver and his eyes got heated again.

“I see you like my punishments,” his voice had turned sexy growly. All I could do was nod before he crashed his mouth to mine and gave me a kiss filled with lust and anticipation.

“Hold that thought. I’ll try to skip out early so we can play.”

“Okay,” I breathed.

Then he gently pulled me out of his lap and deposited me in the bed, pulled the covers over me, kissed my forehead, and he was gone. I cuddled into the blanket, smiling to myself, and fell back asleep until my alarm went off an hour later.

My desk was a mess. I had a ton of messages and files piled up high in front of me, and had no desire to pick up the phone and start my computer. My head was still with Cole and all the things he would do to me tonight. It was ridiculous, really. I had always made fun of all those couples that couldn’t spend a few hours apart without calling each other, and look at me now. Cole had left me in bed only two hours ago after three full days of being in that bed with me and all I could think of was the way he touched me. It wasn’t just about the sex. I wanted him close all the time, to hear his voice, make him laugh, smell his musky scent, have him hold me in his arms.

I was like a lovesick puppy.

Disgusting.

A knock on the door snapped me out of my reverie. Marie came in carrying more files and envelopes. Looked like today would be a day of being stuck behind my desk, catching up on paperwork. I sighed in resignation and held my hand out for the files and mail. Marie dropped them on the already threateningly high pile in front of me, making it almost topple over.

“What’s with the grumpy face?”

“It’s Monday. I hate Mondays. And looking at all of this, I’ll be stuck in my office all day.”

“Yeah, that’s probably true. You’ll have to come out of your torture chamber after lunch, though. The tutor wanted to talk to you about something.” That was never good. This Monday was shaping up to be even worse than I thought. I hoped Derrick wasn’t going to quit. He had only been with us for a couple of months and the kids were just getting used to him. From what I had seen, he was doing a great job. Didn’t take any shit from the kids, had a firm hand, but wasn’t too strict to make the kids not want to come back, was patient, and had no problem explaining things a hundred times until the kids got them. I thought the kids liked him and things were going great. If he quit, I would have a hard time finding a replacement.

“A courier dropped off an envelope for you early this morning. It’s at the bottom of the mail pile. I’ll go get you a coffee and then leave you to it,” Marie told me before she disappeared only to come back two minutes later with my coffee, then she left again and closed the door firmly behind her.

I was looking through the pile of mail first and organized the letters according to priority: one pile for budget forms and updates, one pile for bills that needed to be paid, one pile for correspondence with foster homes. The last envelope must be the one Marie mentioned was couriered this morning. It was a letter-sized brown envelope with my name written in Sharpie, no return address, no indication whatsoever of where it came from.