“Going somewhere, firecracker?”
I slapped my hand over my heart, trying to catch my breath and curb the wave of adrenaline shooting through me, as I looked up into the mesmerizing slate-gray eyes of Cole Taylor.
“Fuck, Cole,” I choked. “Couldn’t you have knocked?”
“So you could hightail it out the back? I don’t fucking think so.”
I went to reach for my bag, but he kicked it away across the carpet.
“Cole, stop it!” I cried, rushing over to it.
His large hand grasped my wrist, stopping me. I tried to jerk free, but he was too strong. He leaned down, grasped my hips and dropped me in the middle of my queen-size bed. As I scrambled to right myself amongst the over-abundance of pillows arranged neatly on top of the purple silk sheets, he climbed on, crawling up my body until he straddled me. With barely any effort, he had me incapacitated, his big hands confining my wrists, his inked arms a formidable barrier encompassing me, his thighs trapping my legs.
“I hate you!” I screamed, bucking beneath him in a fit of frustration.
“If only that was true. It’d make things easier on both of us.”
I stilled. “Is that want you want?”
He squeezed his eyes shut.
When he opened them again, all I could see was pain. “Don’t drag me down that road again, Tasha.”
How could I not? “I’m sick of being stuck in this… limbo.” I blew out a breath. “You either want me, or you don’t.”
His free hand slid deep into my thick, raven hair as he leaned in closer, his eyes boring into mine. “You know how I feel about you. But, you also know that, after what you did, it’s made it impossible for me to bring you into my life, to make an official claim on you.”
“I explained things to you and you accepted it.”
He leaned in closer, his gaze drilling into mine. “Slade wants your help,” he said, blowing past my comment entirely. “That’s why I’m here.”
“I can’t.”
“I haven’t even relayed the details yet.”
I turned my head to the side. “You made a wasted trip. I can’t, no matter what it is.”
“What are you so afraid of, Tasha? I’ll protect you. You know that. Fuck, if you cooperate with him, Slade will protect you with everything at his disposal.”
“Like he was able to protect the love of his life?” I snapped vehemently, his comment about protecting me hitting a nerve. Didn’t he get that it was the other way around? I was protecting him.
As usual, Cole snapped to Slade’s defense immediately. “He was utterly blindsided back then. Way younger and inexperienced. He’s been through a lot, done a lot, since then. He’s no fool. The guy knows his shit. No one’s been able to come at him and live to tell the tale since.”
“Too little, too late,” I muttered.
His eyes narrowed, hating the dig at his almighty president, the disrespect I was demonstrating. Talk about an extreme case of hero worship. Slade Mitchell really could do no wrong in Cole’s eyes. The asshole had him wrapped around his little finger. And, damn, Cole Taylor was a hell of a formidable soldier to have at his side. His reputation was something else. He was as much revered as he was feared. I didn’t doubt that Slade had been well aware of that when he’d brought him into the Steel Titans fold.
“Fuck,” I groused. “Just get off me and get the hell out.”
He didn’t move or give an inch.
“Cole!” I cried, thrashing beneath him and trying to break his hold. It was useless. He was an impenetrable force. All power and hard muscle.
“Stop moving,” he ground out.
I took him in. His jaw was tight, his body majorly tense. His expressive eyes were flashing in warning.
Oh.
Instead of doing what he asked, I ran with the opportunity he was unwittingly offering up, making the decision to poke the proverbial bear, rather than to sate it. I had to get him off me. I had to get him out of here.
I held his heated gaze as I undulated beneath him. His breath hitched as my pussy rubbed against his dick. His rock-hard dick.
“Tasha,” he cautioned.
I grinned.
And then I played to his weakness, sweeping my tongue over my top lip, slow and sensual.
“Fuck,” he groused.
My plan to push him far enough so that he’d bolt away backfired spectacularly when his mouth crashed against mine.
I choked from the sheer ferocity of it.
His hands left my arms and sank into the depths of my thick hair, grabbing fistfuls of it.
He tugged it roughly as he ground against me, grunting and rutting like an animal and delivering a hard, punishing kiss.
I was so overcome by the explosion of intensity, that I lost myself to it for a good few moments, my good sense leaving me when I needed it the most.
Against every protest from my body, I managed to get a hold of myself, pressing my hand to Cole’s chest and easing him back enough to break our kiss. “This is a bad idea.”
He scoffed. “Bad idea?” He licked my neck, making me moan out at the delicious feel of his hot tongue teasing my skin. “That’s what we’re all about, firecracker.”
God, it’d been weeks since I’d held him against me, weeks since his talented hands and mouth had tended to my body, weeks since his impressive cock had satiated me in the way only he could. I wanted him so badly. I craved that connection with him. I was desperate to lose myself in him, to forget that it could never really be, that we could never really be. It was a fantasy of another life, for versions of us that weren’t caught up in our twisted worlds, worlds that couldn’t reconcile one another.
He was right. We were a bad idea. When we came together, when we were wrapped up in one another, consumed by our hunger for each other, it always felt so right. But to the outside
