Page 80 of The Playmaker

“You once said no man is that good. You know, like in your books.”

“I know,” I say, my heart heavy for all the things I want with Cole. “Maybe I was wrong about that.”

“Yeah?”

He takes a turn and we exit the highway. I lean into him, missing his touch. Five minutes later, he pulls up in front of my place and without so much as a word, we both slide from the vehicle and meet on the walkway. I fish my key from my purse and he puts his hand on the small of my back as he leads me inside. The door clicks shut behind us and a shiver skips down my spine when he sets the lock.

He turns me, presses me against the door and his mouth finds mine. His kisses are warm, hard, like he’s been dying to taste me all night, and a thrill races through me. I kiss him back with all the love inside me, and once again, tears prick my eyes.

“I need to be inside you,” he says, and picks me up. “Where is your bedroom?”

“Second door on the right,” I say, and wrap my arms around his shoulders as he moves down my hall.

Once inside my room, he gives a quick glance around and sets me on the end of the bed. He goes down on his knees and I widen my legs so he can crawl in between them. I rake my hands through his hair, and he presses kisses to my eyes, cheeks, and lips. He tastes like sweet wine as he slides his tongue into my mouth for

a deeper exploration.

I tug at his shirt and he goes still for a second. “I want to see you,” I say.

He hesitates, like he’s unsure. Now that I know what the scars are from, does he think I’m going to look at him differently?

How can I not?

“Naked, now,” I demand playfully, not wanting him to get caught up in the tension.

He goes back on his heels, grips his shirt and tugs it off. I touch his body, then cup his face and bring his mouth back to mine. He grips the hem of my sweater and I break the kiss and lift my arms so he can remove it.

He tosses it away, and my bra follows. “You are so gorgeous,” he says as he gently, lightly strokes the underside of my breasts. His poignant touch goes right through me, curls around my heart and holds tight.

I bring his mouth to mine. “Mmm,” I whisper as we kiss, and the sound seems to do something to him. He nudges me until I fall back onto the bed. His smile is slow as his gaze moves over my body.

He unbuttons his pants, but before he kicks them off, he pulls out a condom. “We probably shouldn’t take any more chances,” he says, a reminder that he doesn’t want a family.

Striving to push down all the things I feel for him, I watch as he tosses the condom onto the bed beside me and kicks off his pants. I stare at his gorgeous, battered body as he reaches for the button on my jean. The hiss of my zippers fills the quiet of the room as he releases it, and I lift my hips to make the removal of my pants a little easier for him.

Once we’re both naked, I slip under the sheets and position myself in the middle. He climbs over me, kisses a path down my body, then centers his mouth between my legs to prepare me for him. But honest to God, while this might have started as hate fucking, nothing and no one could have prepared me for Cole.

I move against his tongue then he sheathes himself, and slides into me. I hug him to me as he powers home, taking us both to the precipice, where we struggle to hang on.

I don’t care what anyone says…what we’re doing is lovemaking, and one way or another, Cole needs to understand that. He says he doesn’t want a wife, or a family, but everything in the way he touches me, cares for me, tells an entirely different story.

Tomorrow, when we wake up, I’m going to lay it all on the line, tell him how I feel.

I might be setting myself up for heartache, but how can I just walk away from this, from him?

16

Cole

I am such an asshole. Such a complete and utter fucked-up douche bag that I’d kick my own ass if it were humanly possible.

I shift on the mattress, and brush Nina’s hair from her face as she sleeps quietly beside me. I never should have told her those thing about me. Never meant to shoot off my big mouth, but in the heat of the moment, anger got the better of me and I let loose on her. She didn’t deserve that from me, and I’ll never forgive myself.

I take a moment to mull that over, go over the turn of events since I showed up at her door. Has she truly forgiven me for being a dick to her, or did she go with me tonight out of pity? I saw the sadness in her eyes, the deep-seated sympathy, and that’s the last thing I want to see from her, or anyone. Which is why I fucking keep my painful past to myself, locked deep in the recesses of my brain where it belongs.

After Tabby returned home, we had a long talk, and I didn’t need to hear it from her to know how much I’d hurt Nina. I never meant to, just like she never meant to hurt me. She was only trying to do something nice. She had no idea what we went through as kids.

But now that she does, it’s beyond clear that things have changed between us. She looks at me differently. Oh, she can try to hide it all she wants, but it’s there, in the depth of her eyes.

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