Chapter Fifteen
Madison
Hot. So hot.
I skimmed my hands across warm, muscled skin. In the safety of my dream, it seemed only natural for my lips to follow. Mmm. Skin tasting of warm subtle spices. My satisfied moan was answered by a low, sexy murmur.
I paused, thoughts pressing in through the fugue…then hands tangled to dance in my hair, pulling me back to the sensual expanse of skin. So good. My nipples were achingly tight and I rubbed against the fantasy body molded to mine, giving up trying to make sense of my dream.
Hot breath puffed at my hair, the rigid brand of an erection pushing into my belly. I wriggled against the silken smoothness, luxuriating in the feel of hard and soft. I slid down, needing to feel the heat of his cock sliding into my mouth, to hear Cole’s gasp of breath as I pleasured him.
Cole. My eyes sprang open, unable to convince myself it was a dream any longer.
“Madison?” The man in question uttered my name, half-harsh plea, half-question.
Scrambling out of bed, I tangled in the sheets to land on the floor with a solid thud. Pain flared in my hip and Cole’s head popped over the side.
“Get back up here,” he growled wickedly.
“No way.” I tried to scoot away, but he was beside me before I could unravel myself from the bedding.
He scooped me up. “Uh-uh. No. You don’t get off that easy.” His gaze was filled with desire. Hot, burning desire.
My insides melted to a warm gooey puddle, an answering flare of need squeezing the breath from my lungs. Kisses scorched across my cheek, and I couldn’t help but release a small sigh of pleasure as my traitorous body gave in. I couldn’t blame it. After being in Cole’s arms all night, it was begging for his touch. It wanted what it wanted. And it wanted Cole.
“You started, so I get to finish,” he growled, his mouth fever-hot and hungry.
He lowered me to the bed and quickly followed, pushing up my nightshirt, his hands shaking with impatience to get me naked. He settled his lips on by breast, and I let out a gasp as his tongue swirled and danced around my nipple, licking and sucking at the aching peak. First one. Then the other.
This was better than anything I could have dreamed and I couldn’t deny Cole anything as hot, wet kisses landed on my belly. One. Two. Three. On a downward path of rediscovery. My breath rasped embarrassingly loud, but I didn’t care. He brushed work-roughened thumbs across my mouth-softened nipples and pleasure arced like lightning, straight to my sex, soaking my panties. Clever fingers slid over sensitive skin to settle in the hollow of my waist.
“Touch me.”
His husky demand released me from any lingering shackles of self-restraint and I attacked, finding the smooth skin I’d been craving, roaming across the expanse of his chest, finding all of the secret places that had lived in my fantasies. Lips. Tongue. Hands. I couldn’t get enough. I lapped at his nipples, nuzzled at his throat, digging my fingers into that firm, muscled ass as I rubbed against the coarse hair feathering his chest.
Cole abandoned his attempt to tease me and we both got caught in the pleasurable frenzy of skin against skin. He pushed his cock into my mound, imitating the act we were both desperate for. My legs parted on a moan as he slipped his hand into my panties and found my wetness. He ran his finger up and down my slit, drawing moisture up to coat my clit until it was slippery with juices.
I flexed my hips. Inviting. Begging. I wanted him. All of him. Inside me. Now. But I couldn’t formulate the words. My mind was a tangle of desire and heat and erotic need.
Still, Cole understood my silent message. I pointed to the bedside cabinet and his movements became focused as he rummaged inside for condoms, sheathed himself…
“Ready?”
I didn’t answer, just drove my hips upward, groaning with heartfelt enjoyment as the blunt head of his cock breached my entrance. He drove forward, his hard length a pleasurable shock that filled me in one long thrust. I hooked my legs around his hips to lock him in, rocking against him. He buried his head in my shoulder, his guttural moan lost in the curve of my neck.
“Oh, fuck. Yes.” He slid his hand under my ass, tilting me to the perfect position so he could pound the living fuck out of me.
I met every thrust, sweet, dizzying sensations building, layering one on top of another. The exquisite slide of his cock as he drove deep, his soft grunt of pleasure punctuating the slap of his balls against my ass. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, another rush of pleasure would rise up to swamp me, pulling me back under until I was nothing but a swirl of sensation. There was no warning, no time to prepare as an orgasm the size of a Mack truck slammed through me, so intense tears squeezed from my eyes.
“Cole. Oh God. Cole. Cole.” Words formed to tumble from my mouth.
“Yeah. That’s it. Give it to me.” Cole yelled out, ramming his cock deep as he welded his body to mine with the scent of sex and sweat. His head dropped to my shoulder, his chest heaving while he tried to regain his breath.
“That’s what I’ve been waiting for,” he growled, satisfaction brimming in his voice.
I had to agree. This had been coming since the moment we’d seen each other again.
“At least I’m doing something right,” I chuffed out a laugh.
The next moment I let out a squeal as Cole rolled, taking me with him until I was tucked into the crook of his shoulder. He twisted to look at me, pushing back a lock of hair from my forehead.
“More than something,” he said warmly. “I appreciate what you’re doing for Jess.”
Heat stained my cheeks from the unexpected compliment. “Well, it is my first real job.” I grinned shyly. “I want to make sure I do it well.”
Cole blinked. “Really? Your first?” Now he really started to laugh. “I forgot this is all new to you.”
“What? Being poor and at the mercy of others?” I snorted softly. “Hardly.” I looked up at Cole’s puzzled expression. “I didn’t start out as Madison St. James, you know.”
“The Madison St. James?” His eyes flashed with amusement. “I think I’ve heard of her.”
I rolled my eyes, wishing I’d kept my mouth shut. Confessing to unemployment did nothing to make me look better to Cole, and I was struck again by how much I wanted him to think well of me.
“I do a lot of charity work,” I defended my style of living. It wasn’t like I’d swanned around doing late lunches and getting my nails done. Much. “I’m often called on to model clothes and jewelry for auctions, or just turn up as their poster girl. Mother likes me to be available to promote her charities.”
“I’m sure she does,” Cole said dryly. “One must be seen doing the right thing. A pity charity never seems to start at home.” He shifted his arms to clasp his hands behind his head. “So how did she take it when you told her you had a real job?”
I frowned. “Helping Jess hardly qualifies as a job. It’s not like she needs a babysitter.”
In fact, Jess was so obviously not an invalid, I’d begun to suspect Cole had set this up more to help me. And to get me back into his bed…not that I was complaining.
“So you haven’t told her?” Cole queried softly. When I shook my head, his gaze narrowed. “Does she think you’re still with Logan?”
I froze, his dangerous tone causing fingers of ice to drizzle between my shoulder blades. “I have to let her think that, otherwise she’d make me move back to Baltimore.”
“So, you’re still lying.” Cole’s voice was flat. Emotionless.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. To see the disappointment on his face. I sat up and fumbled for my top, the chill in the air palpable.
I’d been fooling myself, thinking I had escaped the confines of my past life. In fact, meeting Cole had doomed me to sit between two worlds—and I didn’t fit into either. I was no longer the pampered princess who barely contributed to society, but it was obvious I didn’t belong in Jess and Cole’s world either. I wasn’t real enough. And I still had ghosts in my past that needed to be exorcised.
“What would you know?” Bitterness nipped at the back of my tongue. Cole would never understand. It was easy for him to lie here and judge me. He had his sister who cared about him. No one expected his every action to be about making the family look better. He was loved for who he was.
“I know more than you could ever guess, but I was hoping you were different.” The bed dipped and shifted as Cole got up and disappeared into the bathroom.
The shower hissed and I lowered my head to my hands. Even if I wanted to change my life, I couldn’t. I’d made a promise to my mother that I wouldn’t jeopardize the life she had. Despite her tough exterior, she was fragile underneath, and I didn’t want her back on that knife-edge, where she’d claimed she would rather not exist at all than live in squalor and poverty. There had been times when I had come home from school, terrified of what I might find…
Sharing myself with Cole had only complicated things. I’d wanted the opportunity to reignite the spark of desire that tripped into flame whenever he was near. But instead of being able to let my guard down and enjoy a morning of sensual pleasure, I had never felt more alone.
Worse still? I couldn’t find it in myself to regret one moment of it. Why else had I clung to the dream of being in Cole’s arms, knowing full well it’d been anchored in delicious reality? Cole might not like who he thought I was, but for those times he treated me as someone to be adored, I wouldn’t change a thing.
He barely glanced up when he came out of the bathroom. I put on my robe, sifting through my closet for the day’s outfit, while he moved around with practiced economy. Packing his bag.
Leaving.
When he finally did turn to look at me, heat flared between us for a moment, then cooled as his stare settled on my face.
Needles of ice danced down my spine and I opened my mouth, wanting to say something—anything—to dispel the distance that had sprung between us. Need must have shown in my face, because even as his remote demeanor tore me to shreds, his hard expression faltered. Softened.
He gathered me roughly in his arms and kissed me hard, fast. “Look after Jess,” he said, letting me go just as abruptly as he’d grabbed me up.
“Will you come back here?” I couldn’t stop from asking.
We both knew I meant more than just coming back to Wellsford. Back in my bed…in my life?
God, if my mother could see me now—practically groveling at the feet of someone like Cole Langford.
“I don’t know.” His voice was raw. He stopped mid-turn to give me one last look.
Then he left.