Chapter Twenty-four
Madison
Something wasn’t right.
I lay in Cole’s arms, the heaviness in my chest growing to the point of suffocation.
Ever since leaving me to see Marcus, Cole had changed. He’d gone from being relaxed and attentive to having a hard edge. I couldn’t think of any other way to put it.
What had happened? I’d asked him, of course, but he’d brushed off my concerns, stating nothing was wrong.
Jess called it Cole’s hero complex.
“He’d never believe we could do anything to help,” She’d said when we had a minute alone. Jess had noticed something was up with her brother too. “Don’t worry about it. He’s been like this all week.”
Which made it worse as far as I was concerned. I’d put his remote attitude down to the fact we’d been in different cities, but maybe there had been more to it that he’d been hiding. Or maybe he really did resent my working for Logan?
I’d had an amazing time with Cole at the empty lot. I had thought there had been a connection, a moment when his defenses had dropped and it was just me and Cole. Nothing else.
Then had come the phone call, and now Cole seemed tense and unhappy. I didn’t know what to do about his mood change. In the past, I could have ignored my uneasiness and pretended everything was okay. But this was Cole. I wanted him to trust me enough to share his concerns.
I stilled my fingers from drawing restless circles on his chest. “Are you still upset about me working with Logan?” I asked into the silence. “I-I want to talk about it if you’re angry.”
Cole stiffened beneath my touch, then relaxed into an exaggerated shrug. “What’s there to talk about? You needed something—you went to one of your own. Birds of a feather, and all that.”
Hurt tightened its grip on my chest. “Birds of a feather?” I twisted my head to look at him. “Why do you us so much?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
Cole folded his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. I closed my eyes, trying to drag in a breath despite the feeling my chest was being crushed.
“Then help me understand. Tell me what I’ve done wrong.”
“It’s not that you’ve done anything wrong.” Cole huffed out an angry breath. “It’s that you’ve done nothing. You have no idea what it’s like…” He shook his head. “You treat ordinary people like they’re nothing. Less than nothing. Money is power. Rich people use it to get what they want, with no regard for anyone else.”
His cold tone cut me to the quick and I rubbed at my arms, beginning to realize the true depth of his loathing. For my kind. I’d thought we’d been growing closer, but even after spending time in my bed, in my home, entrusting me with the care of his sister, Cole still counted me as one of the bad guys.
I fought past the sting of rejection.
“You have more power than I’ll ever have,” I argued. He had power over me. The power to hurt. “People like Logan and me are stuck in our parents’ world. We have less choice than anyone. Less power. At least you can stand up for yourself. For Jess.”
“Because I had to,” Cole said harshly. He threw me a dark look as he got off the bed. “You have no idea what my life has been like.”
“Then tell me,” I said. The tenuous hold between us stretched to snapping point. One wrong move and everything would break.
Cole ran a hand through his hair, his eyes flicking around the room. “Langford may be my name, but it isn’t my family.” He paced. Short, angry strides. “They paid for me to go to school so I could take the fall when Thomas fucked up. The golden boy.” His lips twisted bitterly. “Who’s going to listen to the poor cousin, right? They believed every lie he fed them. Money talks. Sheep listen.”
“So, what did you do?” I believed Cole spoke the truth. Or what he thought was the truth. To be honest, from what I knew of Thomas, he seemed too boring to have ever done anything wrong. But there had to be something behind Cole’s prejudice, if I could just get to the bottom of it…
“What could I do?” Bitterness nipped at Cole’s words. “I was thrown out of school. Back to the gutter I crawled out of.”
“That’s horrible.” I shook my head, but what he said didn’t surprise me. I’d seen how ruthless some of the prestigious families could be when it came to protecting their name. And I could also understand why he had so little respect for his moneyed family—but surely he could see I wasn’t like that. I searched the closed set of Cole’s face, looking for a small spark of softness that would tell me he saw me differently.
My breath froze in my lungs when I met only hardness.
Was he ever going to get past my name and see me?
I took a deep breath and raised my chin, refusing to let Cole relegate me to a closed box and stick a label on me. He was the one who’d compelled me to be real the night at the hotel. He’d stripped me of everything I’d known. Forced me to look at myself. Really look at myself. I wasn’t going to let him shut me out and put up a smokescreen. Not now.
Determination forced me to my feet. I would show him what it meant to face the truth. I caught him as he moved past, stepping in front of him, wrapping myself around him and pushing past the softness of his lips with my tongue.
A fierce yearning shook me. A longing to prove to Cole he wasn’t alone, even if it was me he fought. I slid my hands into his hair, tugging him closer, pouring every ounce of feeling into the kiss.
“Fuck.” With a groan Cole yielded, crushing me to him to take control of the moment with demands of his own. “Why can’t I resist you?” His words were almost tortured as he swept his tongue into my mouth, his pelvis driving against me so I could feel how much he wanted me.
“I need you. Inside me.” I pushed his pants past his hips, raining kisses across his chin, his mouth, his chest, anywhere I could reach. With my own future blurry, Cole was the only thing tethering me to reality. With him, I never had to think about who I was, or who I should be. I just was. I wanted that for him too.
He was angry, his movements bordering on rough as he pushed me back against the bed, gripped my wrists in his hands and held me still. His kiss was a punishment and I welcomed the hard dig of his tongue, the sense of possessiveness. Possession. With a growl he flipped me on my stomach, his cock nudging my ass as he lay over me, blanketing me.
I wriggled against him, a moan pushing past my lips, soaking into the sheets beneath my cheek. My sex pulsed with anticipation, the wetness slick between my thighs.
“Be still,” he growled, breathing hard. He flexed his hips, his cock riding the crease of my buttocks and he growled again. “Shit.” With a curse, he pushed himself away and grabbed a condom from the drawer. Then he pulled me up so I knelt in front of him. He shoved his leg between my thighs, spreading me wide. “Are you with me?”
“Yes.” My breath hissed out as I shoved back against him.
It was all the invitation Cole needed. Positioning his cock at my drenched entrance, he spread my cheeks with one hand, coating the pucker of my ass in creamy wetness.
“I want you to come. Hard.” His cock slid deep inside my pussy, his thumb pressing against my anus at the same time.
His pace was unrelenting. Demanding. Hard, fast thrusts that allowed no time for breath or thought. Pleasure and pain, the feeling of fullness so exquisite my brain shut down and I gave myself over to him. His harsh grunts became a litany, the slap of flesh setting the tempo as his thumb and cock pumped in and out, building me higher.
“Oh, fuck. Madison.” He gritted out my name, his rhythm stuttering. He drove deep, hips bucking against me as he took his pleasure.
I came with him, screaming out his name, squeezing my eyes shut against the tears as something yanked free from inside me. Unbound passion…lust…sympathy…
Love?
Maybe not love. But something close to it. I loved Cole’s honesty. The way he never shied away from anything. He faced life full on, giving everything of himself for those he thought were worth it. Jess. Marcus. The people involved in his development. I wanted to be someone like that to Cole.
He twisted to lie on the bed, flinging his arm out to invite me in.
“I’ll prove to you I’m not like them,” I said, settling against him as the sweat dried and our bodies cooled. I closed my eyes, saying the words I knew would change everything. “I will go to see my mother on the weekend.” My mouth went dry. “I-I’m going to tell her everything.”
Cole grew still beside me. “Are you?” He sounded surprised. And there was a touch of wariness too.
“Yes.” My resolve hardened. I was going to face my fears and do something I should’ve done a long time ago.
Come clean with my mother.