Page 77 of Bad & Bossy

“Nothing, baby,” he said, the words coming too easily as he pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I just haven’t seen you for a little bit. I’m fine now that you’re here.”

There was an emptiness to him, to his words, that I couldn’t shake. He was lying. I could feel it in every bone in my body. I didn’t know what to do as I held his face in my hands, his fingers still struggling to lay his belt buckle flat, his cum still dripping down my thigh. It didn’t feel right. Something was off.

It felt like last year.

My heart hammered in my chest. “Cole,” I breathed. “Have you?—”

“No.”

How did he know what I was going to say? “You didn’t let me finish my sentence.”

“I didn’t need to,” he grumbled, his eyes darting from mine as he pulled his face from my hands.

Chapter 27

Cole

Iwanted to fucking cry.

The look in her eyes, the way she’d stared at me with so much worry and fear behind them.

And I’d lied to her.

Lied to her so easily, just like I lied to everyone else, just like I lied to myself.

I should tell her. I knew that. I knew it as surely as I knew my last name, knew it like I knew I was an alcoholic—a no longer recovering one. I needed to tell her, I needed to apologize, beg her to forgive me for caving. I needed to tell her that I need help, I need to go to a meeting or go back to rehab or whatever the fuck the next step was.

But I couldn’t. The words wouldn’t come.

I knew she’d drop it because she cared. She’d let it go on the possibility I was telling the truth and how pressuring me could be a trigger, and that’s what I counted on.

But that look in her eyes haunted me.

“Let’s get you cleaned up,” I sighed, opening a drawer of my desk and whipping out a handful of unused napkins. I separated them into two piles with my shaking hands, one for between her legs since I’d obliterated her underwear, and the other for the smeared makeup.

She leaned back against the edge of the desk, her eyes focused far too intently on me as I dabbed a napkin against my tongue for moisture. I hoped she couldn’t smell it as I swiped under her eyes gently, picking up the little crumbles of mascara that had broken free from her lashes and smeared against her cheek. She still looked beautiful, fucking heavenly even, but I’d taken her too hard.

I probably shouldn’t have without speaking to her about it first.

But time blipped and I lost it, and before I knew it, my belt was around her forearms and her face was pressed into the glass. I couldn’t rewind and fix that without answers.

“I’m sorry,” I breathed, and her eyes narrowed just a hair. “I shouldn’t have fucked you like that without talking to you first.”

She shook her head. “It’s fine. Honestly. I like it when you’re rough with me,” she chuckled, the beauty and magic of her laughter not quite hitting the way it used to. “Just, maybe next time, let’s not do it when we have an event we’re supposed to be at going on downstairs.”

I huffed out a laugh and nodded.

————

I didn’t even have a moment to walk her back to Lottie, Hunter, Grayson, and Penny before I was grabbed by Damien Horsted.

“Cole! Been looking everywhere for you,” he said, his overgrown graying mustache damp from where it rested on his mouth.

I clutched Dana’s hand, ready to pull her into the conversation so I didn’t have to go it alone, but she gave me a small smile before releasing it and shooting off toward our friends. Dammit.

“Damien,” I said, forcing a grin as I shook his hand. The bald patch on the top of his head had gotten wider since the last time I saw him, and I made a mental note not to mention that if I had any chance of securing him as an investor in the new product line. “Apologies, we had a work issue I needed to address so I stepped out for a moment.”

One fluffy brow rose as he glanced at the back of Dana’s form blending into the crowd. “A work issue?”

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