I was surprised to learn Carter and Emma were staying at The Mauricio, so we all rode back together. Emma and I got out first, while Carter waited for Cole. Ken held the door open for Emma and me as we stepped inside the lobby.
“We stay here sometimes,” she told me. “The first was a year ago. We used the fourth floor, and Carter said Cole had residents here as well. I was told not to talk to them, because he keeps his presence here a mystery, so it’s nice knowing you’re here.”
“Yeah. Same here. You know, if you’re here long, we could have lunch together or something?”
Interest sparked in her gaze. “Your days are free?”
I nodded. We were alone in the lobby. I turned to glance behind us, but Ken had closed the door.
“Carter’s nervous about you,” Emma said. “You’re close to Cole. It’s obvious how much he cares about you.” She glanced sideways at me, a lingering look. “Cole’s not as guarded as he is. I think he wanted to hash some stuff out before we go up for a nightcap.”
I nodded. That made sense.
My gaze lingered on the closed door, though.
Emma touched my hand lightly, drawing my attention. “We’re here for another few days. After what happened at the stables, Carter wants to make sure everything is fine. So if your offer is genuine, I’d love to meet for lunch one day.”
“It is, and my days are wide open. I’m not working.”
“Yeah?”
I was sure she and Carter knew about Liam, and about his death, but I was about to explain my lack of day job anyway when I heard the elevator ping its arrival. I’d just started to explain to Emma when I heard my name—and I turned to see Sia standing there.
The world tilted sideways for a moment.
Jake came up behind Sia, and they looked between Emma and me.
Sia said again, “Addison?”
I was frozen. My two worlds were colliding, and I couldn’t say a damned thing.
“I—” I choked out. That was it.
Emma looked between us and understanding dawned over her face. She swung around, holding her hand out to Sia. “Hello. I’m Emma. You’ll have to excuse me. I was coming in and saw—” She pretended to ask me, “Addison?”
I nodded, grateful.
“I saw Addison’s shoes and stopped to ask her where she got them. I’m so sorry if I held your friend up. We started talking about restaurants around here. I asked her for a recommendation.”
“Oh.” Sia drew closer, some of her curiosity satisfied. “Did she mention Gianni’s?”
“Gianni’s.” Emma’s eyes lit up again. We could hear Carter and Cole coming in from outside, and she said hurriedly, “Yes. Actually I knew about Gianni’s already. My friend owns the restaurant.”
“Your friend?” The door opened and her gaze passed over us to the two coming in. Sia’s eyes widened dramatically. So did Jake’s.
Emma jumped in, raising her voice. “Yes, my friend Cole.” She turned to them. “You guys are here. I’ve been entertaining myself. I ran into Addison, and she recommended your restaurant, Cole, for us to eat at tomorrow.” She paused. “Have you met Addison or her friends?”
Cole didn’t skip a beat. He held out his hand. “Hello, Addison.” After we shook, my grip a little shaky, he held his hand out to Sia and Jake. “The both of you look familiar.” He pretended to mull it over before he gestured to Jake. “You were at the fundraiser a while ago. That was almost a month and a half ago, I think? Carter, you were with me.”
Carter sidled up next to him, shaking Sia and Jake’s hands as well as they stood there, slack-jawed.
“I don’t think we were introduced, but I remember,” Carter said. “You were with Mahler.”
“Yeah.” Jake blinked a few times, closing his mouth. “I, uh, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Carter.” He pointed to Cole. “And this is Cole.” Emma moved next to him. “And you already met Emma.”
“Yes.” She clasped his arm, pulling him toward the elevator. “It was nice to meet you all.”
Cole lingered as the other two stepped inside the elevator. He was waiting for my signal. With Jake and Sia’s attention still focused on them and not me, I nodded briefly. Cole nodded back and followed his friends.
In silence, we all watched as the elevator went up. It stopped on the fourth floor.
“Whoa. Carter Reed stays there,” Jake exclaimed. “That was, wow. I mean, maybe Carter Reed owns this building? You think? He was in the Mauricio family, too.”
Sia didn’t respond. She’d turned back to me. “You look pale. Are you okay?”
“Huh?” Jake frowned.
She ignored him. “Addison?”
“Oh.” Jake shook his head, raking a hand through his hair. He stepped back to give us space.
Sia asked again. “I called you earlier. We’re going to a get-together. One of Jake’s colleagues is celebrating his birthday. Do you want to come with?”
She asked me to come along.
Because I was alone.
Because they ran into me in the lobby.
All the guilt from yesterday rushed back to me, doubling because, yet again, I’d lied to her face. I couldn’t do it, not anymore. Sia deserved better, and I let out a deep sigh.
“Sia,” I started.
“Yeah?”
Please, don’t hate me. “I’ve been an asshole friend.”
A half laugh came from her. She shook her head. “What are you talking about?”
“I’ve been lying to you.” The words were hard to say. I felt like I’d swallowed bark, and it was coming back up, scraping the insides of my throat.
“Okay.” She cocked her head to the side. “What are you talking about, though?”
I looked to Jake. “Can I talk to her? It might take some time. I have a lot of groveling to do.”
He glanced between us and asked, “Do you want me to wait?”
“No.” She waved toward the door, adjusting her hold on her purse. “You go ahead. This could take a while. Is that okay?”
“You’ll call me?”
“I will. Go and have fun. I’ll let you know if I get a car to come on my own.”
He bent down, giving her a quick kiss. “Okay.” He gave me a confused look. “This will take a while, huh?”
“I’m afraid so.”
And it did.
When we got to my floor, we sat down, and I told her almost everything: The first time I met Cole. The night she stood me up, how I went to the running track to find him again. How I’d been scared, but how I’d wanted to see him for an entire week, and that night, I finally had the courage to try. I told her about seeing him in the back elevator, and that I’d slept with him the first time we had dinner.
“I didn’t care, Sia.” My hands twisted together, pushing down on my lap. The harder I pushed down, the more the words poured out of me. “I was so beyond caring. I wanted to feel something other than grief. He made me feel better. For that night, I was alive. That was the first night I didn’t have a nightmare.”
I kept going. I told her how he’d come late the next night, how his friend had died and he’d flown out the next morning for the funeral preparations and business. That I didn’t see him for another month, and I’d thought it was over until I saw him again at the event with Jake.
Once I was done, she sat, quiet. I waited. A heavy cloud hung between us. I couldn’t say a thing. I could only hope she understood in some small way. I prayed for it.
“I see.”
I winced. Her voice was quiet.
“The night your house was broken into?”
“I was with him.”
“Okay. That’s the only part I wasn’t sure about.”
I heard her wrong. I must’ve. “Huh?”
And she floored me when she shrugged. “Hate to break your illusion that I’m completely oblivious and an idiot, but I knew something was going on long ago. A best friend would have to be daft not to know something’s up. I knew you lied to me. Hello. You told me you were going to be at your house, then I’m the one telling you it got broken into? I was more relieved to know you weren’t hurt than pissed you lied to me at that moment.”
I could only blink at her.
“And all the other stuff?” She snorted. “Like I’m not going to notice that every time we go to Gianni’s, we don’t get a bill if you’re with us. Even Jake stopped talking about it. He knew it was you, but we just hadn’t asked about the connection. Or that suddenly you always order the car when we go out, and it’s always the same car, always the same driver. I have to be observant for my job,” she said with a shrug. “I thought you were seeing the driver, not Cole Mauricio himself. That’s the only part I didn’t pick up right away.”
I sat up in my seat. “You thought I was seeing Carl?”
“There were two guys, right? I knew it was one of them. I didn’t catch their names.”
“Jim’s the other one.”
“Carl’s cuter.” She grinned. “My personal choice for you.”
Carl…
My throat started to swell up. I swallowed, clearing it, and changed the topic. “When did you know it was Cole?”
“I didn’t until the other morning.” Her voice quieted again. She bit her lip. “I was worried about you. I saw a car go around the corner and turn into the lot. I was watching from Jake’s floor, and I thought maybe it was you. Turns out I was right. That’s when I saw the two of you together. You guys looked so beaten down, but there was something to how you moved with each other. You moved as a unit, and then he touched your hip, and I knew he was the guy you were seeing. You guys looked like death warmed over.”
She’d known. She’d known something almost the whole time, and she’d known who Cole was… “That was why you didn’t bat an eye when the house was broken into. I’d told you I was going to check on it the night before.”
She nodded. “It didn’t seem right. But I figured you’d tell me when it was.” She leaned forward, taking my hand. “I get it, Addison. I really do. He’s the first guy since Liam, and considering who he is—I really do get it. I wouldn’t have said anything either.”
I started crying. I didn’t know why. Maybe it was relief from unburdening myself, or maybe because I wasn’t going to lose my best friend after all.
“I’m sorry.” I waved my hands in front of me, fanning myself. “I hate crying.”
“I know.” She held my hand again. “I’m scared for you. I’m worried. I’m concerned, but he’s the guy, isn’t he?”
She wasn’t asking if he was the guy I was dating. “Yeah.”
“Then I’m happy for you.” She squeezed my hand, shaking my arm in the air as she pretended to squeal. “The head of the Mauricio family. Holy fuck of all fucks, Addison!”
I gave her a choked laugh. “I met the hit man for their family tonight—if he’s still their hit man, I don’t know.”
“Yeah.” She grinned, her eyes wide. “Holy fuck, indeed.”
I laughed again, and once I started, I couldn’t stop. I didn’t know what I was laughing about, I was just laughing. And Sia joined in. A slight chuckle, then more, and finally she was laughing almost as hard as I was. We sat at my kitchen table, holding hands and crying together. We must’ve looked crazy.
But I didn’t care. Not one bit.
I had my friend back, and only now did I realize how much I’d missed her.
Cole slid into my bed.
I woke as soon as I felt the covers lift. The cold hit my naked back, but his warmth soon replaced it. The feel of his body against mine, and I rolled over, a hmmm on my lips. I didn’t open my eyes.
“Hey,” he murmured, dropping a kiss to the side of my mouth. He wrapped an arm around my waist, his hand sliding over my hip. “Hmmm back. I like this.” I was naked for him. His hand moved down my leg and back up to my breast. “A lot.”
I shifted, sliding one leg over his and the other between his legs. I pulled him close so he was pressed against me. I laid back, my head resting against the pillow, and looked up at him. “I figured. It’s my present for you.”
He pinched my nipple, then rubbed his thumb over the tip. “Happy early birthday to me. I should always leave you alone with your friend.” He leaned close, sniffing. “You guys had a few drinks, huh?”
I rested my arms on his shoulders, keeping him over me. “We did, and it was glorious.” A yawn slipped out. “I told her everything, Cole.”
He stiffened before dipping his mouth to my shoulder. I felt his lips move over my skin as he asked, “Everything?” His hand dropped to my hip and tightened there a moment.
“Not the stables. Not what happened.”
His hand relaxed, sweeping over the outside of my leg before coming back up on the inside. My pulse picked up. My blood warmed, and soon lust pulsated through my body. Would I always want him this way? I lifted myself, locking my legs around his waist and pulling him down at the same time.
Cole’s eyes widened, but he pushed back, a satisfied smirk on his face. He rubbed against me, letting me feel how much he wanted me, too.
Yes. I silently answered my question. As his lips came down to mine, and I switched our positions to straddle him, I knew that my need for him wasn’t going away, at least not any time soon. And with that in mind, I rested one hand against his chest and took control. This time, it was about what I wanted.
Cole could dominate me next time. I shivered in anticipation.