Edible (10 page)

That was when her mouth snapped shut, and her eyes widened.

“I haven’t even begun to play with you, Rachel. Want me to start?” Cole asked as he lifted his arm and threw his shirt on the pile of clothes behind him.

He was now naked from the waist up.

Oh my fucking god.

Yes, Rachel admitted, that kind of language was not usually her style. But as she stood across from Cole, who was now minus every last scrap of material covering his upper half, Rachel felt justified in her choice of words.

The man is a fucking god.

If she thought he had been dangerous with clothes, removing them had just made him lethal. Underneath that carefully put together suit was a whole new beast, a beast covered in tattoos and—
Are his nipples pierced?
Fuck!

Suddenly, her mouth was dry, and her palms were sweaty as she was confronted with something she had definitely not seen coming.

Okay, okay. I can do this. He is still the same man he was five minutes ago.

The problem was she had been having enough issues dealing with this man. Throw in all of this, and she was…
yep, fucked.

“I asked you something,” he said.

His voice penetrated her insane thoughts, and finally, it brought her out of her stupor as she stood in what she could only guess was shock. Running her eyes all over him, Rachel couldn’t find any words. She was too busy looking at everything he had just uncovered.

“Rachel?” he queried again, taking a step toward her.

Brain, kick in, run. Brain?

“Are they both pierced?” she blurted out before she could help herself.

“Would you like to take a closer look at them?”

Shaking her head back and forth, she knew that answer. For her sanity, the only logical response came out of her mouth. “No.”

He chuckled deeply as he continued forward.

Nowhere to go. I have nowhere to go. Damn wall.

“I think you do,” he told her. “You even want to touch them, maybe even lick them.”

Rachel could feel her clit throbbing incessantly between her thighs as her brain continued thoughts all on its own.
A wolf! That’s a goddamn wolf on his right pec.

Closing her eyes, she tried to block out everything, but all she could see were tight, hard rippling muscles, tattoos, and silver.

The tattoo of a wolf on his chest smacked her between the eyes, but there was so much more. He also had some writing on his forearms and down his left ribs. Not to mention, he had what looked like a sterling silver bar through each nipple.

Had
not
seen those coming.

“Rachel?”

Looking up at him, she finally found her tongue. “I’m fine. You’re, uh…”

As she trailed off, she watched a very—yes, she was always going to think it now—wolfish grin appear across his mouth.

“Not as I appear to be?”

Suddenly, everything fell into place, all his clues and frustrating riddles. Before she could say anything, the wall was flush against her back, and he was close to being against her front.

“You promised no touching,” she reminded him, feeling more panicked than ever before.

This
man,
this
stranger, who was now directly in front of her, was definitely a man she had no chance or hope of ever controlling.

“I’m not going to touch you,” he promised, leaning forward. “But I am going to kiss you.”

And before she could protest, his mouth was pushing hotly against hers.

Yes
, Cole thought as he pressed his lips to hers.
Gotcha.

Swiping his tongue against her bottom lip, he felt a scorching jolt of arousal as she immediately parted for him. Instead of pushing his tongue straight in to tangle with hers, he took a moment to trace her ripe, succulent mouth. He could feel her shaking as she stood with her back pressed against the wall, but she wasn’t backing down either. She wanted him, but she was stubbornly clinging to her resolve.

Nipping her bottom lip, he soothed it once more with his tongue, teasing her, playing with her. When a small moan escaped her, Cole couldn’t help his own groan. Keeping his arms firmly behind his back, he lifted his mouth from hers and moved it to her ear.

“I can’t touch you, Rachel, and
god
, I want to. I want to undo these sexy leather pants and slide my hand inside. Or maybe, I could lick the skin that’s peeking out between the laces, but I can’t. You said no.”

Flicking her right lobe with his tongue, he bit it gently, causing a second shudder to rack through her body.

“You like how I look, don’t you? Unexpected at first, but now that it’s sunk in, now that you know, I bet you’re wet from just thinking about playing with my piercings.”

Nibbling his way along her jaw back to her mouth, Cole looked directly into her eyes. “They aren’t the only piercings I have either.”

As her eyes glazed over and her breathing accelerated, he lowered his mouth to hers, making another promise. “Maybe if you let me touch you, I’ll let you see the other one, too.”

From the words that were coming from his mouth, she was panting now, and he could see her breasts rising and falling rapidly. He wanted to fuck her so badly, and he was positive his cock had never been harder.

Obstinate as ever though, she shook her head.

“No? Okay then.” He crushed his mouth down onto hers.

Pushing his tongue deep into the warmth of her mouth, he felt her suck on it immediately, and he almost lost his own footing. Like a piece of his candy, she sucked him in deep as she tilted her head to the side, angling their mouths, so he could get even deeper inside her.

Growling in the back of his throat, he fisted his hands behind him as she continued to take what he was willingly giving for now. As he kept his hands away from her, he felt her arms reach down between their lower bodies.

At first, he was certain she was about to touch him, and he just hoped he could rein in his reaction. But as she moaned against his lips, he realized he didn’t feel her hands on him. He leaned back to glance down between them, and what he saw made him feel as though she had cut him at the knees. The little minx had one of her hands grinding down hard between her thighs while she looked him over as though he were her latest dirty magazine.

“Stubborn, stubborn woman. Just say the word,” he muttered, lowering his head. Pressing his mouth to hers, he promised, “Say the word, and I will make you come with my hands
and
my mouth.”

“No. No touching.” She panted desperately as her hand rubbed against herself.

“Fine then. Show is over.” He abruptly removed his mouth from hers and turned, making his way back to the pile of clothes.

He quickly got dressed, and when he turned to face her, he was shocked to find her in the exact same spot with her hand burrowed between her thighs. As he headed toward the door, he took a good look at her and arched a brow.

“I suggest you lock the door after I leave. It’s late, and you wouldn’t want anyone to come in and find you with your pants around your ankles and your fingers deep inside yourself.” Gripping the handle of the door, he nodded once. “Have a good evening, Rachel. It’s been interesting.”

With that, he walked out into the night.

Rachel pushed through her front door and slammed it shut. Leaning back against it, she rested her head on the wood and closed her eyes.

Cole had been wrong. She hadn’t taken care of herself after he’d left. Oh, she had been tempted, but knowing he’d suggested it grated on her nerves.

So now, she was standing in her apartment at two in the morning, frustrated and alone.
Pulling out her phone from her bag, she then dumped it onto the floor. As she moved straight to her bedroom, she checked her phone for any messages.

Four missed calls. No surprise they’re from Mason, Mason, Josh, and—yep, I knew it—Mason.

Sighing, Rachel ran a hand through her hair and hit play to listen to the voice mails.

“Rach, just calling to make sure you got home okay. Call me.”

Shaking her head at Mason checking in on her, she hit delete and listened to call number two.

“Rach, call me.”

Kicking off her heels, she trashed another one of Mason’s messages and hit play on Josh’s message.

“Mason told me to call you to tell you to call him. So, please, Rach, call him. It’s one forty-five in the morning. You know he’ll worry until you do.”

Looking at the photos on her dresser, she focused in on the one of her and Mason at his wedding. She had to laugh a little.
Surely, one day, he’ll quit worrying, right?
Playing the final message, she felt her heart warm at Mason’s concerned voice.

“Okay, Rachel Langley, I know you’re an adult, but it is now one fifty in the morning, and you left at eleven fifty. Shh, Lena…she knows I hate that she has to catch a taxi so late at night...I know she’s an adult.”

There was a pause, and she could hear him sigh and rustle. It was probably from the bed he was lying in.

“I am not going to sleep well until you text me. I’m worried. Love you.”

She typed a text to both her brother and Josh.

I’m home, safe and sound. I was not mugged, accosted, or taken by a sex addict (I should be so lucky). GO TO SLEEP. —R

Standing, she unzipped her leather pants and peeled them off her body
. I thought I would be doing this in front of Cole. Guess not.
Apparently, that man had decided on a different agenda. It was a pity he hadn’t filled her in on it before she got herself all worked up.

Once she was naked, she slipped between the sheets, closed her eyes, and immediately drifted off to sleep.

“Turn around,” his voice commanded in her ear.

Obediently, Rachel turned, so she was facing the wall in their bedroom.

“I got a little gift for you today,” he said as he unzipped his jeans.

He had called her earlier and told her she should be naked by the time he got home because he needed to fuck her. At first, she had been hesitant, especially after their argument last night, but she knew if she didn’t do as he suggested, the evening would be that much worse.