Edible (34 page)

“I remember,” she acknowledged as she closed her eyes. “Do you?”

That was when he made his move. Diving into the water, he torpedoed through the heated liquid, and as he came up beside her, he grabbed her waist before she had a chance to evade him. With a shriek, her legs splashed the surface as they went under. Her hands reached out for purchase, and luckily for him, he was the only thing for her to hang on to.

As her palms gripped his shoulders, Cole wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her wet warm body against his own. With a natural ease that showed years spent in the pool, he kicked out behind himself and moved her across the pool to the edge.

When her back met with the cool tile surface, Cole moved in, so his body was pinning her to it. Her mouth, wet and shiny, parted just as her legs did, and he could feel her hard nipples grazing his as she arched her body against him and wrapped those legs around his waist. Keeping his eyes on hers, Cole thrust his cock against the wet scrap of pink, the only barrier between them at the moment.

“I can do this all night,” he informed her as he lowered his mouth to her ear. “You, me, the warm water, and your sexy body…almost naked but still not quite naked enough. And after the way you tumbled me out of bed, the water feels good on my poor aching muscles.”

Cole flicked his tongue against her lobe and felt her shiver. She made a noise so soft that he would have missed it if he weren’t so focused on her.

Yes
, Cole thought,
that was definitely a moan
.

“I could easily keep you here, and I could just continue to…” He paused to rub his body against her. “Grind…” He punctuated the word with his hips. “My…” He gave her another delicious stroke. “Cock…”
Oh Christ, hurry
. “Against…”
Fuck, talk!
“You.”

Rachel could barely remember
how
to talk with Cole practically fucking her against the pool wall. The only thing hindering the process was her pathetic excuse for panties.

Just rip them off!

“Cole,” she finally managed to push out of her mouth as her eyes searched his face.

“Talk to me,” he growled between clenched teeth. “I know you trust me, so talk to me.”

It’s now or never
, Rachel thought as she looked into unwavering, unrelenting hazel eyes.
He isn’t going to budge. If I refuse, that’s it. Whatever we have started will be over.

Licking her wet lips, she relaxed her legs from around his waist and pushed gently against his shoulders. She felt his arm relax as she watched his eyes narrow on her.

“You need to move,” she informed him softly.

“Rachel, let me in, and—” he started.

“No,” she began.

“No? Well, if you aren’t going to—”

“Cole?” she questioned, interrupting him once more even though she knew he hated that.

There was a steady pause.

And then, he replied, “Yes?”

“Not no, I won’t tell you. No, I can’t tell you, not while you’re so close. You need to move,” Rachel told the immense man before her.

It was funny to her. In a moment as intimate as sex, his strength, height, and power were what appealed to her most. Yet, right at this moment, it was what she needed the most distance from.

“You want me to move? Where?” he asked her in a calm voice, an exact opposite to the growl she had heard only moments before.

Rachel looked around and saw they were close to the ladder. Bringing her eyes back to his, she lifted her arm and pointed. “Over there.”

He turned and looked to where she was directing him. Bringing his eyes back to her, he agreed, “Okay, I’ll go over there. But, Rachel?”

Rachel blinked as he started to swim backward toward the agreed-upon spot.

“When this is over, you better be ready. I want to fuck you almost as bad as I want to hear what you have to say.”

“You want to
fuck
me?” Her tongue traced her bottom lip as she stared at him while he rested against the ladder. “That sounds…rough.”

She felt Cole’s eyes on her as though he were touching her from across the pool.

“After wrestling with you in and out of my bed and then in this pool, my desire for a nice slow night of making love has suddenly disappeared.” He moved his arm, so he could run a hand through his hair. “Plus, there’s something extremely sexy about you trusting me, and it makes me want to get close to you.” He paused and licked his lips. “Really fucking close. Now, talk.”

Cole wasn’t lying. He did want her, but first, he wanted words. He needed to know what chased her from her sleep every other night. He kept his eyes on the nearly naked and half-submerged woman pressed firmly against the tile wall. Her dark hair was sleeked back from the water, and even though he could see hints of red through it, this was the first time she looked completely natural. She looked vulnerable.

“I met Ben when I was seventeen,” she started.

“Seventeen?” Cole couldn’t stop himself from commenting. When her eyes came to him, he shrugged. “Sorry, I didn’t realize. Go ahead.”

Looking away from him, she continued, “It was the night I graduated, and Mason and Josh came home from college to see me. The graduation ceremony was over, and I was planning to go to the after-party with them.”

“But you didn’t?” Cole questioned, keeping a close eye on her.

“No, I didn’t,” she replied, shaking her head.

“Why?”

Turning to him, she asked him directly, “Do you promise not to get weird or pissed off?”

Cole was surprised by the question. He didn’t have a clue as to why she thought
he
would get mad at her about something that happened years ago before they had even met. She seemed to need the answer though, so he nodded, wondering what she was about to reveal.

“I…well, I had a huge crush on Josh all the way through high school.” She paused and glared at him, daring him to respond.

He had already suspected that there was history between her and Josh, so it wasn’t that big of a surprise, but it was interesting information just the same. When he remained impassive, she pressed on.

“Well, I was going to go to the after-party that night, but I overheard someone talking…
Lisa
…”

She seemed to hiss that name, so Cole couldn’t help himself. “Who was Lisa?”

She rolled her eyes and then tartly replied, “Josh’s idiot girlfriend.”

Realizing this was not a good time to laugh at her continued dislike of a girl from her teenage years, Cole remained silent.

“Anyway, she started talking about how
amazing
the…well…” Rachel stopped and bit her lip. Then, she blurted out, “You know what I mean.”

“Sex? How great the sex was with Josh?”

Cole couldn’t believe he was having this conversation about his business associate and friend. He would probably never look at Josh quite the same, but it was obviously very important to Rachel, so he tried to listen objectively.

“Yes. I got upset. It’s stupid now, but back then, the thought of her with him pissed me off.”

Although he knew the answer, Cole interjected there, “Does it still bother you?”

She turned so quickly he could have sworn her head almost flew off her neck.

“Definitely not. Josh is like a brother to me. That night still bothers me for many reasons, but none of them revolve around Joshua Daniels.”

Cole nodded, believing her one hundred percent. “So, what happened?”

“Well, I went to a different party. I was determined to forget about the boy who broke my heart, so I did what all girls do to forget.”

“Eat ice cream?” he quipped, trying to keep her from becoming too upset by her story.

“No,” Rachel replied caustically. “I drank way too much.”

Cole felt his stomach tighten as he thought about Rachel at seventeen—alone, heartbroken, inebriated, and meeting this Ben guy for the first time. “And then what?” he urged.

Rachel slid down the wall a little until half of her hair was in the water and her chin was touching the surface. “Then, I met Ben.”

Cole told himself to stay where he was and keep his mouth shut. She just needed a moment, but it was quickly becoming apparent that his patience was running thin. He needed to let her know what he wanted
. And god, I want it
.

Softly, he encouraged her to continue, “Tell me your secrets, Rachel. I need to know you.”

Rachel turned her head to look at the naked man submerged in the water. All she could see were his broad shoulders and head as he leaned against the pool ladder. His eyes were focused on her with such ferocity that she felt he was pulling the information from her through sheer force of will alone.

“Ben was older than me,” she found herself divulging.

“How much older?”

“I was seventeen, and he was twenty,” she confessed.

“He had sex with you when you were seventeen? I’m going to beat this guy’s ass.”

Rachel couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at her lips. “Relax over there, would you? We didn’t do
that
until I was eighteen…a week later.”

Cole showed his teeth in a fierce scowl. “That does not make me want to kick his ass any less.”

“Oh? And how old were you when you lost your virginity?”

“We are not discussing me,” he pointed out in a surly tone.

“Well, maybe we should.”

“Stop stalling, Rachel. Tell me about Ben.”

She nodded and took a deep breath, and suddenly, she wanted to be closer. First, she had wanted distance, but as she thought about the cruelty of Ben, she found herself inching closer toward Cole, closer toward safety.

“Everything started out fine, like normal. When we met, I was trying to forget about Josh, so I flirted outrageously with Ben. I hadn’t dated anyone else, so I pretty much threw myself at him, and he took what I offered…over and over.”

“Yes, I get the point Rachel. Move on.”

As she got closer to him, she could see his eyebrow twitching, and she knew he was exercising immense control and patience.

“Things were great for a while. He was older, smarter, and to me, he was perfect. Plus, he made me forget about Josh until…” She paused, realizing she was now only an arm’s length away from Cole.

“Until?” he asked.

Rachel looked him straight in the eye as she confessed softly, “Until he started to hurt me.”