Chapter 19

The morning-after walk of shame was a new thing for Penelope, but luckily, she didn’t have to do it alone.

Cole wouldn’t hear about her walking home on her own, and since she refused to consider a cab on what was looking to be a gorgeous early-summer Monday morning, he walked her back to her place.

“I don’t know how I let you talk me into this five A.M. wake-up call,” Cole grumbled as he held the door at Starbucks open for her.

She stepped out onto the sidewalk and took a sip of her latte. “You know exactly why we’re doing this. I need to get home in time to shower before work, and someone refused to let me go home last night.”

“Tiny, the day I willingly let a naked woman leave my apartment after a world-class blow job is the day you should just euthanize me.”

Penelope started to tell herself not to blush at the memory of last night, only to find…she didn’t feel like blushing at all. She felt…like doing it all over again. Many times.

Next weekend, she told herself. You can do it next weekend.

Although, truth be told, her oh-so-smart plan of only having sex on weekends was starting to feel a bit silly.

What would be so wrong with doing this on a regular basis? The baseball games, followed by chatty family dinners. Followed by sex and cuddling and talking long into the night.

Followed by Starbucks runs and…

Holding hands.

Cole casually reached for her hand as they started their trek across Central Park back toward her place. She glanced up at him and he winked.

She could fall for this man. She could so fall for him.

“You’ve got your thinking face on, Tiny.”

“You make that sound like it’s a rare occasion,” she said.

“Let’s just say I like your sexy face better. Or your sports-watching one, where you bite your lip when the score gets close. Or basically, any of your looks that aren’t going to end up with you telling me we can’t have sex again for five days.”

And that, right there, was the problem.

For Cole, this was all about sex.

Sure, he liked her. She didn’t doubt that. But when she broke their rule and fell in love with him, it would be a disaster.

If, she mentally corrected herself. If she did that.

“Cole—”

He sighed. “Don’t do it, Tiny. Let’s just walk quietly and enjoy the rarity of having Central Park all to ourselves.”

They didn’t have it quite all to themselves. There were a handful of runners. An elderly couple. But for the most part, it was deserted, and lovely, with nothing but the rising sun and the blossoming trees, and—

Julie Greene?

A slim blond woman decked out in aqua running gear came to a stop before them, slightly out of breath.

Yep. It was definitely Julie of the Stiletto crew.

“Cole? Penelope?”

Julie glanced between the two of them in confusion. Then she gave Penelope a subtle once-over, and her confusion turned into a slow, sly smile, no doubt making the assumption that the hugely oversize T-shirt Penelope was wearing was Cole’s.

An assumption that would be correct.

Julie’s husband rounded a corner, paused slightly when he spotted them, then came to stand beside Julie.

“Good of you to catch up, sweetie,” Julie said, reaching over and patting his ass.

Mitchell gave her a look before reaching out and shaking Cole’s hand in greeting.

“You lapped her, huh?” Cole asked, jerking his chin at Julie.

Mitchell gave a slight smile that softened his otherwise harsh features. “A gentleman never tells.”

He didn’t have to. The fact that Julie was red-faced and panting, while her husband looked like he could run to California without breaking a sweat said it all.

Julie waggled a finger between Cole and Penelope. “So Penelope’s mussed hair tells me what you guys were doing last night, but what the heck are you doing this morning?”

“Some people like to get up early,” Mitchell told his wife.

“Nobody likes getting up early, Mitchell,” Julie retorted. “Nobody with a soul.”

“I’m walking Penelope back to her place,” Cole said, as though it were the most natural thing in the world for him to accompany her from his place to hers in the early-morning hours. “She refused to take a cab. Something about fresh air and sunshine, blah blah blah.”

Mitchell nodded at Penelope approvingly and Julie rolled her eyes.

Penelope finally managed to unstick her tongue from the roof of her mouth. “Cole and I were just—we only sometimes—we—”

“Are having rather fantastic sex,” Cole completed for her.

“Cole!”

“What, like they didn’t know?” Cole said, pointing his coffee cup toward Julie and Mitchell.

Sure enough, Julie was grinning happily, and Mitchell gave her a little wink.

“It’s not serious,” Penelope heard herself say.

“Definitely not,” Cole said in agreement.

“Of course it isn’t,” Julie said soothingly. “Mitchell and I weren’t serious either.”

Then she not so subtly reached up with her left hand and scratched her nose, causing the diamond on her fourth finger to catch the light.

Cole narrowed his eyes slightly. “Well, Jules, I need to get Penelope home, so we’ll just leave you to your speed-walking, shall we?”

“I was running,” Julie said.

“Were you, babe?” Mitchell asked. “Were you really?”

Julie huffed and turned to Penelope. “Mitchell here is a running freak. I tag along sometimes, because he buys me a donut after.”

“I buy you a donut even when you don’t come running,” Mitchell said.

Julie patted her hip. “Which is exactly why I need to run some of the time. Calories burned, et cetera. Anyway, Penelope, we should grab lunch later. If you don’t have plans?”

“I’d like that,” Penelope said.

“Careful, Pen. She wants to interrogate you about how massive my dick is,” Cole said.

Penelope met Julie’s eyes and wiggled her eyebrows. “Are you free later today? Lots to talk about.”

Mitchell and Julie laughed, and Penelope glanced up to see Cole looking down at her. He wasn’t quite smiling, but his eyes were warm.

Which made her warm.

This whole thing was getting highly inconvenient.

Mitchell had his hand on Julie’s back, nudging her forward. “We’ll let you guys get going. Come on, Jules. Still have four miles to go.”

Julie’s mouth dropped open. “We do not. You promised we were only going to run five miles total.”

“We are,” Mitchell explained patiently. “You’ve only run one mile so far, so—”

“One mile! That’s all I’ve run? I married a monster!”

“See you later, Jules,” Cole called over his shoulder.

“If I’m even alive!” she called back. Then she sped up into a reluctant jog, cursing her husband in quiet, heartfelt oaths.

“I like her,” Penelope said, watching Mitchell and Julie run off.

Cole nodded. “Me too.”

“Do you think she’ll tell everyone else about, you know…us?”

“Oh definitely,” he said, taking a sip of his coffee as they resumed walking.

“You don’t seem to mind.”

“Why would I mind? We’re two healthy adults engaging in casual, consensual sex. I can’t think of a single reason why that should be a secret.”

“You make it sound so easy,” she muttered.

He looked down at her. “Isn’t it? What am I missing that makes it more complicated?”

Oh nothing. Just the itty-bitty, minor fact that I think I’m falling in love with you.

But she couldn’t. She’d promised.

Not just him, but herself. No more falling in love with men who don’t love you back.

She’d played fast and careless with her heart once, and the darn organ still felt like it had a hole in it.

Never again.

If she and Cole were going to do this, they stuck to the rules. Colleagues during the week, sex on the weekends if they felt like it.

And she definitely felt like it.

It would be enough. It had to.

But then he took her hand again and launched into a new idea he had for a spread on the top college football recruits, and Penelope decided to give herself the rest of the walk home to pretend that it could be like this every day.

It was the happiest ten minutes of her life.