Total pages in book: 183
Estimated words: 174715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 874(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 874(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
He looks over at me. “Exactly. I hated that man but somehow the world was right when he was here for me to hate, up close and personal.” He takes my hand. “As for him opening the box, how very him to try to get between us, even after his death.”
I squeeze his hand. “He’s not coming between us, Cole. One thing I can tell you about me is that despite my misgivings about my father, after his death I saw the devotion between him and my mother. They had good and bad times, and they worked through them. I’m not a fair-weather person.”
“If you were a fair-weather person, sweetheart, you wouldn’t have made the sacrifices you made for your mother. And in his own way, my father loved my mother, too. It’s just not my way.”
“And that means what to you? Because if you mean you wouldn’t have let your mother get attacked the way your father did, he couldn’t have stopped that. Not the way you’ve described it happening.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he says quickly.
“You couldn’t have stopped my attack either. Is that the problem? You’re comparing yourself to him? Us to them? Because if you are, we’re in trouble.”
“Making sure I am not like him is the opposite of trouble.”
“Not if that means you are holding yourself and us to standards we can’t possibly keep.”
“By that, you mean what?” he asks.
“The only way to stop that attack was to have never taken that case.”
“If I think a case is dangerous, I need to pass it on to someone else.”
“And think about what that might mean. Would another attorney have gotten that innocent man off? Would another attorney have gotten Royce Walker involved and linked the cases to help catch a killer? How many more would have died? My attack was nothing.”
He cups the back of my neck and drags my mouth to his. “Your attack should never have happened.”
“But it did and I’m okay because you were right there to save me.” I touch his jaw. “And we saved other lives together. I should never, never have suggested I resign. I love what we do together.”
“Me too, sweetheart. Me, too.” He brushes his lips over mine. “I told you. I’ll get by all this. Give me space without stepping away.”
“That’s a confusing statement.”
He lowers me to the couch and settles on top of me, the soft rug tickling my legs while his breath whispers against my lips. “I love you. Is that confusing?”
“No. No, it’s not.”
“Just in case I didn’t make that point clear, let me show you, not just tell you.” He drags his shirt over my body, and then his mouth comes down on mine, and he is kissing me, a gentle caress of tongue against tongue, a kiss that is a seduction. His lips part mine and drag over my cheek, down my neck, and his hands caress my nipples; his tongue follows. And when he slides between my legs, his mouth on my belly, he lingers there, tenderness in the way his lips caress the delicate skin. His mouth travels lower, but he doesn’t lick that most intimate part of me. He kisses my thighs, my knees, every part of me it seems, before yes, he licks me there, but this is not about sex. This is about making love and he doesn’t linger, doesn’t make me shatter under his mouth.
He presses inside me, kissing me, rocking with me, and we don’t rush. We just feel what it’s like to be us, to be married, to be in love. And it’s a long time later when we lay on the couch with my head on his chest, his heart thundering under my ear, when I realize why tonight was so different. He faced a demon tonight, we faced a demon tonight: His father. And that must have been the biggest, or even the entire army of demons, because his demons were not with us. I had Cole. Just Cole, the man I love.
The next day, Cole and I laugh as I end up in a red silk blouse under my black skirt and jacket, and he’s in a black suit with a red tie. He proclaims us a “power couple” and we head to the office in good spirits. We’ve barely settled into his office with Ashley to review a variety of agency business that Cole will be going over with Reese tonight, when Reese’s secretary, Maria, pokes her head in the door.
“Flower delivery, Ashley.”
Ashley, who is looking lovely in a floral print dress, frowns and gets up. “I have no idea who would send me flowers. We all know my love life is about as toxic as it gets. Let me just eye the card. I’ll be right back.” She stands and exits, and I look at Cole. “Is there any news on her ex?” I whisper. “So much happened, I never really got any details on that situation.”