Bound Temptations: Stories of Temptation and Submission (15 page)

"Cole."

He tensed at the sound of
that voice. Shit. He'd been ignoring the phone calls all night.
Turning around, he met Mara's icy blue eyes. "Hello,
Mara."

She shifted her eyes to look
past him. When Rocki went to tug her hand away, though, he squeezed
her fingers gently. And wouldn't let go.

"So you are here. I had a
call from a friend who said she saw you." Mara stared at him,
something hard and cold lurking in the depths of her gaze. "Why are
you here?"

"Right now, I'm getting
ready to take Rocki home." He glanced down at Rocki and smiled. "I
need to close the door, sweetheart."

“
Sweetheart?" Mara gaped at
him. "Sweetheart?"

Cole didn't look at her,
just waited for Rocki to ease her legs into the car. "You
good?"

"I was better about ninety
seconds ago." She groaned and rested her head against the back of
the seat.

"Me, too." He shut the door
and looked back at Mara. "Goodbye, Mara."

She caught up with him
before he'd rounded the front of his car, her nails digging into
his arm. He really, really hated it when she did that. He'd thrown
his coat into the back seat when he'd brought the car up and other
than his sweater, nothing separated his skin from those acrylics
she loved so much. Stopping in his tracks, he looked down at her
hand and then looked back up at her. "I'm getting tired of telling
you that I don't care to have you digging your claws into me, Mara.
Let go. Now."

"Why are you here with her?"
Mara snarled, and she just squeezed tighter.

"I'm taking her home. She
had surgery and she needs to be at home...not sitting here
listening to you have a tantrum." Out of patience, he twisted his
arm out of her grasp.

She tottered on her heels
and slammed a hand against the car. "She had surgery and called you
to pick her up? That's fucking pathetic."

"No." He smiled at her. "She
didn't call me. I was there when she got hurt because we're seeing
each other."

"Seeing..." She shook her
head. "Seeing each other? You're seeing her? Her?" Mara turned her
head and shot Rocki an ugly look through the windshield. "You left
me for that cow?"

Fury twisted inside him, but
he didn't let it show. Continuing his way around the car, Cole
opened the door. "No, Mara. I left you because I don't love you...I
don't even know you. Rocki had nothing to do with it."

"So you just suddenly
started dating her right after you broke up with me?" Venom colored
her voice, thick and heavy, just as it froze her eyes, just as it
made her pretty face seem cold, almost alien. "You want me to think
you're actually interested in her?"

"I don't care what you
think," Cole said tiredly. "But interested doesn't even touch on
what I feel for her. It doesn't even come close."

He slid into the car and
shut the door. Mara continued to stand there, glaring at him. When
she didn't move, he sighed and put the car into reverse.

"Well, that was
fun."

"Wasn't it?" Rocki had her
eyes closed. "It was my fault, ya know."

"No. Hell, no, it wasn't.
Apparently one of her friends saw me and called her, told her I was
here, but it wasn't your fault." He gave her a dark look as he did
a three-point turn in the broad drive. A quick glance in the mirror
showed him that Mara was still there. Still glaring at
them.

"Sure it is. I was just
thinking earlier than I couldn't handle any more problems
today—that I wouldn't. So what do we get? Problems." She reached
over and covered his hand with hers. "You know...I think I'm pretty
interested in you, too, handsome."

He twined their fingers.
"That's good. Because I'm thinking I want to keep you around for a
while. A long while."

"Hmmm. We're rushing things
again, aren't we?"

"Damn straight."

Chapter Ten

For most of the day, thanks
to the painkillers, Rocki slept like the dead.

That was just fine with
Cole. Between the insistent calls from Mara-he ignored those—and
his own rather demanding calls to Clayton, he figured the last
thing she needed was his aggravation waking her up. It didn't seem
much of anything would wake her, though.

But the day was wearing on
and Mara's calls were getting more insistent. When the texts
started coming, he groaned. "Wonder if Rocki's a drinker," he
muttered as he nabbed his iPhone and read the little bubble on the
screen.

Baby, we
need to talk. Please call me
.

He deleted it on the way
into Rocki's kitchen. And, oh yes...there was alcohol. Spying the
bottle of Patron, he wondered if she'd be pissed. He ignored it and
just mixed himself a Jack and Coke.

He had managed exactly three
swallows when the next message came.

Cole, you're being childish
ignoring me like this. Either call me or

I'm coming over there. I do
know where that woman lives.

"Aww, shit." He pinched the
bridge of his nose. "What?" Shooting the sky a look, he demanded,
"Just what did either of us do to deserve this?" Then he dialed her
number. This was ending. Now. The last damn thing she wanted to do
was hassle a damn lawyer.

"I've had it," he snapped
the second she answered. "You hear me, Mara? I've had it. You and
me, we are over."

"Baby...please. "

"You didn't hear me. That's
fine, I'll say it again. I want to make sure this is absolutely
clear. We are over. It doesn't matter if you've thought about it.
It doesn't matter if you realize where we went wrong. It doesn't
matter if you're sorry. Nothing matters. We are over. Do you
understand that?"

There was a long pause, and
he wondered, if maybe, just maybe, she had gotten the point this
time. But Cole should have known better. Just like always, Mara
only saw what she wanted to see. Mara only heard what Mara wanted
to hear.

"Cole, listen...when I say
I've thought about things, I really mean it. I thought about it a
lot. I wasn't fair to you. I had been neglecting you while dealing
with everything with the store and you felt lonely. You went
someplace where you could get the attention you needed. That's what
all of this was about. I can forgive you. It's okay."

He closed his eyes. "How
magnanimous of you. That's great. We're still over. Now, will you
stop calling me?"

"How can you be like this?
We were together for years. Doesn't that mean anything to you?" Her
voice was husky soft. "Don't I mean anything to you?"

Shit. "Mara, can we just not
go there?"

"See? You do still care.
That's why you don't want to talk about this. You still love
me."

"No." The last thing he
wanted to do was hurt her. Yeah, they had been together for a
while, had some good memories during those years.

Although he didn't love her
anymore, those years did matter to him. But Cole knew Mara—if she
thought, for even an instant, that they might have a chance, she'd
keep hounding him. "Mara, I don't love you. I'm sorry. I don't know
when it happened, but I don't think there's been any love between
us for quite a while. And once you get past your wounded pride, I
think you're going to realize that you don't love me
either."

"This is about her, isn't
it? That bitch. Were you cheating on me with her?" Mara
snarled.

Aw, hell. "No. I didn't
start seeing her until the week after I broke it off with
you."

"A week. Wow. You waited a
week. You dump your fiancée, and now you're shacking it up with
that cow. You fucking bastard—"

"That's enough. You will not
talk about her like that."

"Why not?" Mara laughed.
"Seriously, Cole. I would've thought you had better taste. She must
give a really good blow job or something. But that's okay. You'll
get bored with her sooner or later. You'll get over this freakish
fluke and you'll want me back. Maybe, if you're lucky, I'll take
you back. If, and that's a really big if, baby. I hope for your
sake it's sooner rather than later. That bitch doesn't deserve
somebody like you. Don't make me wait too long."

"Yeah, you keep holding your
breath on that, Mara. Here's something to chew on—this isn't a
fluke. I think I'm falling in love with her. Do us both a favor,
don't call again." With anger pulsing inside him, he ended the call
and tossed the phone down. He bent over the counter, his fists
braced on it.

He had known that wouldn't
be fun. He'd been right.

I think I'm falling in love
with her ...

Eyes closed, Rocki leaned
against the arched entryway that separated the hallway from her
kitchen. The brick felt rough against her bare arms, too rough, but
she welcomed it. It reminded her she was awake. And fairly
clearheaded. So what she had just heard wasn't just a
narcotic-induced hallucination, right?

All these years...a smile
curled her lips. She had spent years wondering whether anybody
could ever make her heart roll over in her chest again. And it had
just happened.

Pushing off the wall, she
took one slow step. Then another. Her legs wobbled a little at
first but then steadied, and by the time she was halfway across the
kitchen, she felt almost normal. Except for the stupid brace thing
on her arm, and the pain throbbing there. And of course, her heart
was racing. She was also shaking something awful. But it was that
exciting kind of shaking—the sort of shakes you got right before
you got on a roller coaster.

Terrified and excited, all
rolled into one.

Then Cole lifted his head.
She stilled as he turned around, his whiskey-gold eyes meeting
hers.

Catching her lip between her
teeth, she stared at him. Fire burned in his gaze. Fire, need...and
worry. Then he blinked, and everything disappeared, hidden behind a
cool, blank mask. "Hey there."

Hmmm. So that's how he was
going to play it. Cool and calm, hoping she hadn't heard? Not
likely. "That was an interesting phone call."

"Ahh...you
heard?"

"I did."

"How much?"

Rocki smiled at him. Closing
the distance between them, she leaned against him. Carefully, she
rested her injured hand on the counter beside him and wrapped her
other arm around him. "Oh, I heard enough. Tell me, did you mean
that? Or were you just trying to get her to leave you
alone?"

"You know, a lot of people
would pretend they hadn't overheard a conversation that was clearly
intended to be private." He tapped her on the nose with the tip of
his finger. "Even if they are going to eavesdrop."

"Yeah. I figure if I'm rude
enough to eavesdrop, then I'll be honest about it and not bother
pretending I didn't overhear. And you're sidestepping the
question."

"No, I'm not. I'm just
trying to figure out how to answer it without scaring you off." He
stroked a hand up her back, curved around her neck. "I really,
really don't want to do that, Rocki."

"Maybe it hasn't occurred to
you yet, but I don't scare that easily. Give me some credit,
Stanton." Man, she loved the way he touched her, loved the warmth
of his hands. Loved the way he looked at her—it wasn't just like
she was beautiful, although she really appreciated that. He looked
at her like she was something special, somebody special. He made
her feel like she mattered. It made her heart turn over. No, he
wasn't scaring her at all. Easing closer, she pressed her mouth to
his. "Now answer my question. Did you mean it?"

"Yeah, I did." His free hand
closed around her waist, his fingers kneading the muscles at the
small of her back. "I know we've joked about rushing things. And I
know it's early. I'm not getting ready to pop the question or
anything. I just...hell, Rocki. You do things to my head that I
can't even describe. From the moment I first laid eyes on you, I
haven't been able to stop thinking about you. The more I'm around
you, the more I need to be around you."

Then he groaned and slammed
his head back against the cabinet behind him. "And that's probably
not what you need to hear right now, considering what happened
yesterday. I swear, I'm not going all stalker on you."

"Cole, trust me. I've had a
stalker—I know what they are." Smiling, she rested her head on his
shoulder. "Besides, didn't we already talk about this? If we start
feeling like we're moving too fast, then we'll slow down. Right
now, I think we're moving along just fine."

The hand massaging her back
stilled. "We are?"

"I think so." Easing back,
she lifted her head to look at him. "Everybody kept thinking that
all these years, I never got serious about anybody because I was
still mourning my husband. I do still miss him—and you need to
understand that part of my heart will always belong to him. But
I've never gotten involved with anybody else because I haven't met
another guy who could make my heart flip over." She reached up and
touched the tip of her finger to his mouth. "Until you. I took one
look at you and everything stopped—I was aggravated as hell about
it, because you were taken. But I'm not kidding. One look,
Cole...and everything just stopped. And it feels right. If it feels
right, how can it be too fast?"