The Billionaires Love Curves Finale - a BBW BWWM Billionaire Romance (5 page)

Chapter6

Lacey turned the key in the lock when she returned to Cole's apartment the next day. Cole was standing in the hall.

“I know,” he said.

“Know what?”

“I know Nate Horwood was at the restaurant last night.”

“I thought you would have found out by now. But Cole, I had no idea he'd be there and I left as soon as I saw him.”

Cole was quiet.

“Cole, I'm tired, have you had breakfast?” She walked past him to get to the kitchen. She poured a tall glass of water and stood drinking while Cole stared at her.

“Anything you want to say?” he said finally.

With the glass in her hand, she walked past him again to make her way to the living room.

“Well?” he demanded.

“Cole, like I said. I left when I saw him. I can't read his mind and know where he's going to be. And he can't read mine either. It was just pure coincidence.”

“And was he trying to get at me through you?”

“I told him to get lost and he did. It's as simple as that.”

She stood looking at him and the silence was unbearable.

“Look, Cole, I'm still a bit sluggish after all that food and drink. I'm going to take a long soak and maybe we could have brunch if you've not had breakfast?”

“I'll tell you what, I'll make you one of your fruit salad things,” he said, suddenly brightening up.

“I'll serve it to you in the bath.”

“Wow, that's really nice of you, Cole, thank you. You haven't done anything like that in a long time.”

“I know, and I want things back to the way they were. I've been too uptight. Let me run the bath for you.”

He rushed out of the room and she heard the taps running, so she went to the bedroom to take her clothes off.

Cole held her hand and led her to the bathroom.

He left her alone while she leaned back and sunk her shoulders beneath the soft white bubbles. Steam surrounded her face and the aroma of lavender and jasmine filled the large bathroom. The sunken bath in the corner of the room was enormous. The room was all white with a classic 1930s mirror in the opposite corner to the bath. There were hidden speakers in the ceiling through which Cole had started transmitting Lacey's favorite soft music.

She closed her eyes and smiled to herself.

Life wasn't so bad after all. She had been waiting for the day Cole would return to the person she began to love. He used to be thoughtful, kind and was always making her laugh. But in the early days of their couple dating, he had been neglecting his work a lot and now work was all that seemed to concern him.

He wasn't giving Lacey the attention she deserved and was making unreasonable demands on her. Maybe that would change now.

Little by little, the knots in her brow and in her shoulders relaxed. She started to feel like her old self again. There was a tap on the door and Cole came in with a tray.

“This is all I could come up with. We don't have much food in the apartment.”

He presented a tray. On it was a small vase with a lily in water. There was a bowl full of strawberries and a tall glass of Prosecco.

“I'll be drunk all over again,” Lacey said.

“Good.”

She took the glass of Prosecco and sipped it as Cole began taking his clothes off.

“What are you doing?” she giggled.

“What do you think I'm doing, I'm joining you.”

He got into the bath and started feeding Lacey strawberries, each time she took one into her mouth he'd kiss her lips. When she had finished eating, and had drunk the rest of her drink, Cole leaned over her and sank his tongue deep into her mouth. She had missed him making love to her like this. Lately it had been very formulaic, he had not shown the imagination he usually had. She thought he had just been going through the motions.

He kissed her breasts, his face slightly below the water and then his head was immersed sending

waves of pleasure through her body as his tongue caressed her between her legs.

Coming out of the water, he pulled her gently onto him as he sat back at the other end of the bath. There was enough space for her legs to separate and kneel at either side of his body, lowering onto him and feeling more pleasure as she took him inside her.

His mouth was around her nipples as she pulsed with delight, the bubbles melting, the water lapping at her back, almost spilling over as she moved faster and faster, coming to a heightened state of intense and extreme ecstasy.

Cole called her name as he came, letting his head fall back against the edge of the bath, grabbing at Lacey's thighs and anchoring himself as deeply inside her as he could.

Eventually, they lay side by side in the large bath, just breathing long and heavily until their bodies were still and weak.

The water began to get cold and Cole helped Lacey out of the bath. He took a deep, soft towel and gently dried her body, passing the towel over her back, down the backs of her legs, parting them gently so the towel could be worked up between her legs. He moved it in gentle motions to the point of making her come again. She did, arching her back and smiling at the sensation. This was Cole back to his normal self. She could love a man who made her feel this good.

In the corner, she caught sight of their bodies in the tall mirror. In her own face she could see happiness again.

“Lacey,” Cole said, standing behind her and wrapping his arms around her body as she continued to look at herself in the mirror. She was smiling.

“Yes, Cole.”

“Wouldn't it be wonderful if right now you were becoming pregnant?”

“What?”

“I mean, we haven't made love like that in a long time. I could feel you loved me and I felt so much love for you. So, what better way to make a baby than through such a perfect act of love?”

She was quiet, just looking at the way her face changed in the mirror. There was that liar's face again and all she could think of was the fact that she had Plan B pills in her purse and maybe she ought to take one now – just to be on the safe side.

“Lacey?” In the mirror she could see Cole was staring at her now. “You haven't said anything. You all right? What do you think? Wouldn't it be wonderful?”

“Yes, Cole, that's a wonderful thought.”

“So why so serious?”

“I wasn't serious. I was just thinking about what you said earlier. You said we haven't got any food in the place.”

“Yeah, so?” He turned her around to face him.

“Well, you made me brunch and I'd like to return the favor.” She put her arms around his neck. “How about if we have a long lazy Saturday afternoon and later, I go down to the store, pick up a few things and cook you a nice meal. Now that's something I definitely haven't done in a while.”

“Well,” he said, carrying her back to the bedroom. “I can handle that.” He lay her on the bed, brushing her purse and her clothes off so they fell on the floor. He lay on top of her.

“Cole, we should get dressed now.”

“There's no rush. Just in case you didn't become pregnant, I figured we could try sealing the deal.”

*

Before leaving the apartment to go out to the store, Lacey saw that Cole was pouring himself a whiskey.

“Okay. I'm on my way out. Is there anything you particularly want to eat tonight?” Lacey asked him.

“Surprise me,” he said.

She kissed him and left with lots of ideas of what she would cook later that night.

It was only a few blocks away and half way between the apartment and the store, Lacey remembered she hadn't taken the Plan B pill. She tutted at her forgetfulness but she had had a full on day with Cole and it wasn't surprising it slipped her mind.

She made a mental note that she should try to remember when she got back.

It was a Saturday evening and the store was busy. There was no rush. This was a perfect opportunity for Cole to catch up on a game on the television. She wandered in and out of shops she didn't really need anything from but was just curious about.

In her time of dating Cole, she very rarely shopped for food for him. This was a bit of a luxury and a novelty at the same time. It also made her think that she had never once cooked for Nate. All they ever did was go out to eat. Maybe once or twice he had cooked her breakfast but that was about all.

Thoughts of Nate came to her mind. She remembered that this was the Saturday night that Nate attended a special gala event and she would have been going with him had they still been dating.

But straight after that thought, it occurred to her that she wouldn't have gone as a date, not a proper one since there would be people from Holden-Taylor there. Sure, she would have attended but she would only have been permitted to lurk in the background, never getting a chance to hold Nate's hand or even to sit next to him.

She shook her head, trying to clear it of those distant memories, happy that those days were over now.

After shopping, she made her way back to the apartment, carrying the bag of groceries and singing to herself the way she used to. But something dark and gloomy cast a feeling of foreboding over her the closer she got to the building. It was like a sixth sense, but what she was sensing was not clear to her.

She got out of the elevator and the strange but dark feeling was still with her, and she began to walk slowly to the apartment door. Just outside the door was the security guard that Cole had added to the surveillance team that followed Lacey everywhere. This was not the problem, because she was used to them now. They had been in the background, somewhere, when she was shopping and she was used to ignoring their existence and just getting on with her life.

She nodded to the guard outside the door, unlocked it and went in. The first thing she noticed was the complete silence, not just in the entrance hall but throughout the whole apartment.

Lacey made her way straight to the living room. The television wasn't on as she'd expected it to be and on the coffee table was an empty whiskey glass and a large amount of Cole's special reserve of whiskey had been consumed.

“Cole,” she said and looked around the big room. Maybe he was sunk into one of the enormous chairs facing the window where she and Cole often sat with the music on, staring out onto the New York skyline.

There was a feeling of chill in this room, despite it being a summer night. Having said that, it was evening and becoming dark outside as well as inside. None of the lights were on. In the whole of the place.

Lacey made her way to the kitchen but did not put the bag down, for some reason. She still held it in her arms, maybe for protection against something she could not see but could only feel. She looked around the kitchen.

“Cole?” she said again. “Are you here? Where are you? Are you playing a game with me, because if you are, it's not funny.”

The apartment had been in deathly silence when she first arrived, but then she heard movement in the hallway. Her immediate thought was of the kidnap attempts that Cole had talked about but that was crazy, because there was security all over the place. The guy right outside the front door was still there, so no one could have gotten in.

“Cole,” Lacey repeated. “Is that you? I'm not playing with you, now.” She turned her head to one side because she thought she saw a shadow in the corner by the refrigerator. But there was nothing or nobody there.

Her head came whipping back in the direction of the kitchen door when it suddenly burst open and there stood the dark figure of Cole. He was breathing heavily and not moving from the threshold. In the dim light, she could see that he beamed down a look of sheer disgust and anger in her direction.