“Don’t tease me, Dani. You’ll kill me.”
“As appealing as you make that sound, I want what I can get out of this, too.” She planted her hands on his thighs, leaning forward and letting him get an eyeful of her cleavage. Then she lowered herself to her knees.
Cole untucked his soft, plaid shirt and tore it open. Thank goodness for pearl buttons. Dani sucked in a gasp when he rolled himself out of the sleeves. How she’d missed his broad chest and the patch of sandy-brown hair. She spread her hands across his firm pecs, loving the way his chest rose beneath her palms. She trailed a finger down his centerline, stopping to trace the contours of his abs. A woman could get lost following those lines. Dani had, many, many times.
When she reached his belt buckle, the metal clattered. She unbuttoned his jeans and drew down the zipper. Cole raised his hips and let her tug his pants down his legs. She placed her elbows on his thighs again, leaning forward and touching him through the fabric of his black boxer briefs. He closed his eyes halfway and dropped his chin to his chest, a deep groan escaping his throat. She loved feeling how hard he was from her touch. She loved knowing that she could still do this to him after all this time.
She pulled the waistband down and took him in her hand, lowering her head and drawing only the tip into her mouth. She stroked and sucked, swirling her tongue round and round. He dug the fingers of both hands into her hair, curling them into her head, raking them through her tresses. She wasn’t about to let him reach his peak this way. She just wanted a reminder that she could drive him crazy if she wanted to.
She gently released the suction of her lips. His eyes opened only partway as he looked at her. “You are wearing entirely too many clothes.”
She stood and Cole scooted to the front edge of the couch, bracketing her legs with his knees. She looked down at him, watching as he untied the bow at the side of her wrap dress. The reaction he had when the dress fell open was so good she almost wished she had a camera to capture the moment. The lust in his eyes? The craving? It was off the charts. The bra and panties she’d opted for, made of the finest French lace, were clearly adding to the appeal. Dani loosened the other tie and let the dress fall to the floor.
Cole rose from the couch and stepped out of his boxers. He was towering over her, even when she was still wearing heels. All that hard manly muscle pressed against her was enough to send her over the edge. She’d forgotten just how easy it was to want Cole Sullivan.
He wasted no time reaching around and unhooking her bra and dragging it down her shoulders. He gripped her rib cage with both of his hands and rubbed her nipples with his thumbs, sending a ribbon of pleasure shooting down her torso and into her thighs. He lowered his head and drew one firm bud into his mouth, swirling his tongue in circles. She watched him as he nearly sent her over the edge with the simplest touch.
She placed her hands on his waist and felt the raised skin of the scar along his right flank. He jumped a bit and so did she. They looked at each other and she saw it in his eyes—an unspoken acknowledgment of their traumatic past. The accident. The breakup. Everything that ushered in the last five years, one of the most difficult periods of her life, despite the beauty of becoming a mother. This was a mistake. She could not let Cole in. Not like this.
She pushed away from his chest and scrambled around, plucking her clothes from the floor as humiliation washed over her.
“What are you doing? Do you have some place you need to be?” he asked gruffly.
“This is a mistake, Cole. A huge, massive mistake.”
“You need to work on your pillow talk.” He was just standing in front of the couch—completely naked, no less.
She was not going to let visions of his physique get in the way of her quick escape. She grabbed her fancy undergarments from the floor. What had she been thinking putting these on when she got dressed? She knew where she was going. Cole didn’t deserve French lace. He didn’t deserve to see her in a potato sack, as far as she was concerned. She gave him everything once—her heart, body, and devotion. He threw it all away.
A bundle of clothes in her arms, she tore off down the hall to the powder room she’d used when she first arrived. She couldn’t even look at her own reflection in the mirror. She was too embarrassed and furious with herself. She’d probably spit right into the glass. She sat down on the toilet to pee and stepped into her panties. So much for telling Cole to stay away—she’d swung in the opposite direction, let him take off her clothes and climbed right onto his lap. How dumb could she possibly be?
A knock came at the door. “Dani. Come on. Stop being so dramatic.”
Speaking of dumb, what was Cole thinking, accusing her of being dramatic? “Go away. Go upstairs to your room or something. I don’t want to see you again.” She flushed the toilet to drown out anything he might say in response. Unfortunately it didn’t work.
“I want to make love to you, Dani.” His voice was louder now, like his forehead was pressed against the door.
“No. You want sex. It was supposed to be a meaningless hookup. Remember? You promised me this would mean nothing.” Now that her bra was hooked, she made quick work of wrapping herself up in that stupid, stupid dress. She was going to have to throw it away or drop it at the dry cleaner’s and never pick it up.
“Come on. Are you just going to leave me like this?”
Dani grumbled and made a cursory glance in the mirror, just to remove the smudges of mascara from beneath her eyes. She didn’t want him to see her looking like a raccoon. “I’m coming out.”
“Good.”
She stormed right past him, down the hall and back into the living room to locate her shoes. “This was wrong...coming here was a huge mistake. I don’t ever want to see you again. I don’t want to talk to you. Nothing.” She worked her feet into her pumps and made the mistake of looking at him. He was standing there in nothing more than his boxers, still sporting the erection that she was not going to make go away.
He flinched at her words, but they were the only thing that made sense to her right now. “That’s a tall order. You just moved back to town. We’re bound to run into each other.”
Of course that had been exactly Dani’s thinking when she’d come over here. Now it didn’t seem like such a convenient argument. “You do your Cole Sullivan things, running around catching bad guys and raising cattle with your big perfect family, and I’ll do my thing. Hopefully we won’t see each other at all.”
She marched to the front door and breezed right through. She would’ve closed it right behind her if Cole hadn’t stuck his leg in there and muscled it open. Down the driveway she raced, but she could sense Cole behind her. Get to the car. Just get to the car.
She opened the door and climbed into the driver’s seat, but this was one hell of a time to have long legs and be driving a convertible. She had to contort her body to get into it.
“Dani, stop.”
“Cole, have you lost your mind? You’re out here in your underwear.”
“Do you honestly think I care about that right now? You come to my house all hellfire and brimstone, and I kiss you and you melt right into my arms. What is going on? I thought this could just be two friends having fun. Getting reacquainted. Apparently not.”
“You act like you did nothing wrong, Cole. You broke up with me, remember?”
“You don’t know everything.”
She turned the key and revved her engine. “I know enough. Good night, Cole.” The car jerked ahead a few feet when she let go of the clutch, but then it stalled out. “Dammit,” she mumbled under her breath. So much for her dramatic exit.
“Guess I’ll see you around town.”
“I hope not.” She turned the key and the engine