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“I was determined not to know you, yet here I am. How did you slip past all the walls I put up?” Rachel asked him curiously, almost like she didn’t really expect an answer.

“Is that what I did?”

Pushing his shirt apart to his shoulders, Rachel leaned in to press a kiss on the wolf. From there, she confessed, “Yes.”

Then, she felt one of his hands come up to cup her cheek, urging her to look at him. “I just went where you allowed.”

For some unexplainable reason, Rachel felt tears welling in her eyes.
What the hell is going on?
He was making her think about things she had long left behind. He was making her
want
things she had decided weren’t for her. As he stood before her, showing her an even softer side to a man she wasn’t sure she fully understood, she took a chance. She gave herself completely over to him.

“I’m scared.”

“Of me?” he questioned cautiously.

Shaking her head, she closed her eyes as she admitted, “I’m scared of how you make me feel.”

As her confession left her lips, he reached out both hands to cup her face, and he leaned down to press a firm kiss to her mouth. There were no tongues and no open mouths involved, but the emotion behind the move rocked her to her soul.

When he pulled back from her, he told her, “Take off your clothes, Rachel. I want you in my bed.”

Rachel ran her eyes over his face. “But I thought you wanted to swim?”

Shrugging out of his shirt, he threw it over the trunk. “Like you, I’m capable of changing my mind. I want you naked and in my bed, and I want it in the next two minutes.”

“Or?” she pushed.

“Rachel?”

“Yes?”

“There is no or,” he informed her as his serious eyes met hers. “Just do it.”

Cole followed her movements as he undid his pants and took them off.

There was no way he was letting this opportunity slip through his hands. She was finally opening up to him, allowing herself to admit to things she might not have acknowledged only days earlier.

This is the right time. I can feel it.

She’d taken off her shirt, bra, and pants, and she was about to remove the sexy scrap of pink lace covering his favorite secret when he stepped toward her. He caught her hand as her fingers slipped into the top of her panties.

Her eyes came up to his in question. “I thought you wanted me naked?”

“So did I,” he mused.

He pressed the pads of his fingers against the lace and pushed them down between her thighs. Her mouth parted, and she sighed as he slid his fingers back and forth over the wet material covering her.

“But I really like these, especially the color.”

As a soft whimper escaped her lips, she managed to ask, “You like pink?”

Cole touched her again through the damp material. “Yes, Rachel, especially your sweet pink pussy.”

He watched her eyes close as her whimper turned to a moan, and she grasped onto his wrist, holding it where it was, as she pushed her hips against his teasing fingers. Cole allowed her a moment of self-pleasure before he pulled his hand away from her and brought it to his mouth.

He licked his fingers and then firmly told her, “My bed. Get in it.”

Her lust-glazed eyes moved down over his body to where his cock was pointing at her.

“Now, Rachel,” he demanded.

Quickly, she moved around him and climbed up onto his bed. When Cole felt somewhat in control of his body, not to mention his emotions, he turned to see her waiting for him exactly where he wanted her.

Walking around to the side of the bed, he got in and positioned himself next to her and turned her over to her side. She rolled to face him willingly, and as he moved in closer, her eyes looked down his body. He could tell she had different ideas as to where this would go, and he had a feeling his intentions were going to piss her off.

Reaching out to her, he ran the backs of his fingers over the curve of her breast, and then quietly, he urged, “Talk to me.”

Huh? What? Talk? Is he insane? He has to be because talking is
definitely
not on my mind right now.

“Talk?” Rachel finally pushed out of her head and mouth.

Cole tweaked her nipple and nodded. “Yes, talk. I want to know about you.”

Rachel tried to get her brain to catch up, but with all of him…well, naked and hard in front of her, she was finding it really damn difficult. “You want to talk?”

She watched as an amused look crossed his facial features.

“Yes, talk. You know, it’s where you open your mouth and let words fall from your tongue. Are you familiar with that activity?”

Rachel felt her spine stiffen at the smart-ass remark. She was about to push herself up and out of his bed, but her face obviously gave her away because his hand whipped out and firmly gripped her hip.

“Uh-uh, no, you don’t.”

“Let me go, Cole.”

She let out a shocked gasp as he pushed against her hip, and she found herself flat on her back. He followed her over and wedged his body between her thighs, propping himself up above her with his elbows by her head. She turned her head away from him, already feeling too vulnerable tonight, but the all-too-knowing jerk flexed his hips and brushed that delicious cock against her sensitive mound. After that, she couldn’t help but look up at him as she arched to meet him.

“Talk to me,” he cajoled.

Rachel shook her head on the plush pillow. “I don’t want to talk.”

His eyes dropped down her body to her heaving breasts and then came back up to hers. “That’s a shame because talking is all that’s available to you right now.”

Rachel’s eyes widened as she glared up at him. “That’s not true. You’re ready to—”

“Ready to what?” he questioned.

As he pushed against her again, she lost her train of thought.

When he seemed to realize nothing would come out of her mouth, he answered for her. “Ready to fuck?”

“Yes!” she whined.

“I am ready, Rachel. I’m more than ready to slide between your thighs, but first, I want to talk.”

Shifting underneath him, Rachel was about to reach down and take what she wanted, but then he pressed his body flush against hers. All of a sudden, she could feel every inch of his hot skin as he effectively trapped her hands between their stomachs.

“Cole! Please,” she pleaded, deciding she wasn’t too proud to beg.

“Talk. To. Me,” he demanded in that infuriatingly calm tone of his.

Pressing her head back into the pillow, Rachel glowered at him, and she had to admit that the sheer strength in his arms, holding the top part of his body away from her, was fucking sexy. His tight abdomen and erection were twitching and throbbing against her aroused skin, and as his focus remained solely on her, Rachel found it hard to think, let alone talk.

But she managed through as she said, “You’re a jerk.”

He chuckled and nodded once. “That might be accurate, but I’m the jerk you want, so talk.”

Gritting her teeth, Rachel finally relented, seeing it as the only way to get him inside her anytime soon. “Fine. What do you want to talk about? The weather?”

“No. I want you to tell me about Ben.”

As that name left Cole’s lips, it ricocheted like a gunshot through the silent dark room, and he felt Rachel stiffen right before her body kicked into flight. With more strength than he thought she possessed, she pulled her hands from between their bodies and pushed up to shove against his shoulders.

“Get off me,” she demanded.

Cole had known she would flip out when he told her what he wanted to talk about, so being obstinate as ever, he braced himself and remained where he was.

“No. Talk to me.”

“Cole,” she warned.

He looked down at her with one thought:
I’m not moving, so if you want me to get off, make me
. Just as it entered his mind, she maneuvered herself, so her thighs were parted and wrapped up tight around his hips. Before he knew it, she pushed and rolled as she slapped at one of his arms, making him lose his balance.

He fell down on top of her with a grunt before he gripped her shoulders. He rolled with her until they tumbled across the sheets and fell off the edge of the bed, landing with a loud thump on the floor.

Jesus, that’s going to leave a fucking mark.

She landed on top of him with an oomph before she began squirming all over him as she tried in vain to get away, but Cole wasn’t letting her go anywhere. He just hoped her knees didn’t connect with anything that would leave permanent damage. Holding her wrists, he struggled with her as he pulled her arms around behind her back and twisted his legs over hers, pinning her in place, flush against him.

“Let me go!” she spat at him as if she were a trapped animal.

“No,” he growled, holding her tight against him.

Ignoring the throbbing in his ass, back, and head, Cole leaned up, so he was nose-to-nose with her. Again, he demanded, “
Who
is Ben?”

Her blue eyes narrowed on his with as much heat as the center of a flame as she tried to glare him to death. “Why? Are you jealous?”

If he hadn’t been so worked up, he might have found some humor in her accusation, but as it was, he found himself losing the control he relied on to keep him in check. “Do I seem jealous, Rachel? I’m fucking pissed off that I am lying on this hard fucking floor! But I’m not jealous.”

Tightening his grip on her wrists, he continued in a softer tone, “I want to know why you yell his name out at night right before you wake up. You scream like the devil is chasing you.”

He noticed she took a quick breath before she turned her head away.

“Was he the one who hurt you?” Cole pressed cautiously. “Was he the one that made you afraid to be touched?”

The silence in the room was deafening as he made himself wait
. Give her time, man. Give her some fucking space.

But on the heels of that thought came
, Fuck that! I’m in her space now, and she is not getting rid of me.

Cole waited for her to say something, anything, but it turned out that no words were needed. As she turned her face back to him, he could see tears in her eyes, and he felt his chest tighten.

Releasing her hands slowly, Cole wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her down until her cheek was resting against his chest. He felt her back shake beneath his palms as she silently sobbed against him.

“Shh,” he coaxed against her dark hair where he pressed a kiss. “It’s okay.”

He let his legs relax from around hers as she snuggled in closer to him and rested her palms against his chest. He could hear every deep breath she took, and before he knew it, his hands were gently smoothing down her back to try and soothe her.

“Talk to me,” he encouraged again. He couldn’t quite understand why it was so important to him, but somehow, he knew it was vital.

“I don’t know what to say,” she finally replied.

Cole continued to stroke her naked back, running his fingertips over her mantra—
Pride, Strength, Hope, Love—
and for the second time tonight, he thought that this woman needed to be his permanently.

“Just start at the beginning and tell me what happened. Nothing you say will make me think any less of you, and nothing you did will make me look at you any differently. But maybe if you tell me what he did to you, you will see
me
differently and realize that you are safe here. I am not him, and you do not need to be scared when you close your eyes at night.”