Page 4 of To Have and To Hold

Then he heard Ambra’s response through the phone as Coco had put it on speaker. An image flashed in his mind of the day he met Ambra when Michael had hired him to prepare a romantic dinner. The woman was tall and stunning, but even though she had been half naked, she hadn’t stirred him in the way that Coco was doing right now fully clothed.

“I’m really sorry Coco; I didn’t know that Michael would come after you that way. I—”

“You picked a real SOB to tangle with, Ambra. But a man in love will do crazy shit,” Coco interrupted, her voice now sounding irritated. She lifted her fingers to her nose and gave it a little squeeze, as if trying anything to relieve a headache. He recollected about the headaches she used to get in school and how he would massage her neck and shoulders as he rained kisses down her neck to make her forget the hard day she’d hadat school or a knot in her neck from her head bent from studying that would trigger them.

“He’s not—”

Coco lowered her hand and Colin watched as she rolled her eyes to the ceiling for patience as if Ambra could see her and continued, “Uh huh. Even I saw the sparks at Zahara’s wedding.”

“Coco, he is not in love with me. The Brooks family is just wired a little differently than most, and I know they can be bastards—”

He turned, suddenly feeling eyes on him. A security guard stood by the elevator, eyeing him suspiciously. Colin moved away from the glass door, flushing slightly, knowing how it must look with him practically pressed against the glass, caught like a peeping tom gawking at a woman in her office. When the security guard moved to pull his walkie-talkie from the belt on his hip, he knew that was exactly what he thought. Colin nodded in greeting and pointed at the door, then tried pulling on it to only feel resistance and realized Coco had it locked. He rapped lightly to get her attention, while giving the security guard an innocent smile and the guard paused from calling, watching him now with a cautious expression.

“Hold on a sec.” He heard her say, then turned back to the door at the sound of heels striking the marble floor. She didn’t see him standing there at first because she was focused on the phone, automatically unlocking and pulling the door open. She finally glanced up and a look of surprise crossed her features before it twisted to anger.

Her eyebrows snapped down to a furrow. “Oh hell no. What do you think you are doing?” Coco seethed.

“Moving my things in,” Colin said sardonically and reached by the wall near the door, tugging his favorite chair next to him.

She gave him a look that said, “Are you serious,”before trying to block him when he took a step across the threshold. She snapped, “You and that thing you call a chair can go back out to the dumpster where you both belong!”

Feigning a hurt expression but trying not to laugh as he continued to walk past her efforts to bar his entry. “My shares in your company says otherwise,” Colin gloated.

“I—hey, don’t come any closer. Girl, hurry up and come back. I am going to need someone to bail me out of jail.” She growled into the phone before hitting the end button. Furious, she shoved her shoulder into his chest, leaned her hips away from him, and dug her feet into the ground, but the marble floor caused her to slide. She almost fell down his body to the floor, but he released the chair to grab her arm, pulling her back up and against him.

She tried to pull her arm away and he was about to let go when he heard “What is going on here? Release her now.” A heavy hand fell on his shoulder, which he shrugged off and turned with her to face the security guard from outside. “Should I call the police, Miss Hunt?” The guard raised the walkie-talkie again.

“Yes, please call the poli—” He pulled her even closer, and Coco stopped mid-sentence. After a pause, she tugged again on her arm, pressing her hand on his chest to push against him.

He released her but then quickly snaked his arm around her waist.

“Now, Honey, I know that you are still mad at me over last time but is this any way to greet your fiancé? Especially since I’ve been away for so long,” He drawled his words for emphasis.

She paused in her struggle and threw her head back, leaning so far that her back was arced over his arm.

“Fiancé? You issa madman or wuh? Yuh piece ah idiot!”

He felt his body stir at the low huskiness of her outraged voice, but grinned because when she was thrown off or upset, she would speak with an island accent that he found out later was Bajan dialect, as her family was from Barbados and clearly, she still did it. He found it cute even though he could not make out a lot of the words she would drop on his head when she was mad at him, like now.

“Yes, your fiancé, darling, the one who also has shares in your company.” He leaned over and gave her a kiss on her cheek. “If you don’t play nice and tell him to go away, I will keep these shares for a lot longer than I planned to.” He whispered against her cheek before pulling back and smiling down at her. Coco glared angrily back at him, her eyes spitting fire before she fixed her angry expression and began to smile along with him.

She cleared her throat. “It’s okay, Ken. This is my fiancé, Colin. Who likes to play around too much. Let me go now,darling.” Her voice now sounded like she’d eaten shards of glass. Then she gave him a punch in the arm, pretending to be a playful fiancé. That stung, but he didn’t release her, just pulled her tight against him.

“Behave.” He muttered against her cheek as he rubbed it against hers, hoping the beard he now sported felt like a stinging bristle against her skin.

“Are you sure, Miss Hunt?” He could hear the guard shifting on his feet as the soles of his shoes scraped against thefloor. He squeezed her tighter and began to rain kisses along her jaw.

“It’s Coco, Ken. It’s okay to call me Coco. You don’t have to be so formal.” Coco said over his shoulder, as he moved to bring her closer to him and inhaled the fragrance she was wearing when she was finally flush against him.

She lifted her hands that had been resting on his arms when she failed to keep their bodies apart, and raised them onto his shoulders, where she began to rub them in affection like a dutiful fiancé, then slowly dug her nails in.

He groaned.

“Okay, well, yes, let me go and continue my rounds. Looks like you two have a lot of catching up to do.” He heard the security guard say before pivoting on his shoes that continued to squeak on the floor.

“Leh me go do! Before I cuff ya down!”She hissed in his ear.

“What?! Never mind. Is he gone?”

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