Moments later, she came apart for him. He swallowed her screams with a kiss then exploded deep inside of her.
They stayed connected on the stairs both trying to catch their breath. Jade ran her hands down his back. She smiled because it was damp.
“I’m going to assume that smile means you’re more than a little satisfied, even though our first time was on a staircase.”
“Cole, I wouldn’t have cared if we were in the back seat of your car.”
“We can arrange that.”
“As long as you hold me, I don’t care.”
He nuzzled her neck. “I plan to hold you and make love to you, a little slower, a couple more times before this night is out.”
Cole was still in a semi-state of arousal when he picked Jade up from the stairs and wrapped her legs around his waist. Jade held on tightly as he carried her up the stairs to his bedroom. “What about our clothes. Olivia is going to know what happened between us.”
“Do you really care?”
She put her head on his shoulder trying to snuggle even closer. “No…not really.”
Chapter 21
Cole and Jade made love several more times throughout the night before finally entwining their legs with one another and falling asleep in each other’s arms sleeping.
Neither of them heard the front door open or Elise walking into the house. She had a copy of them made the night of the dinner party. Quickly, she shut off the alarm when she entered. It was still very early and his housekeeper, Olivia, wasn’t scheduled to arrive for another couple of hours.
It didn’t take seeing Cole’s clothes mixed with Jade’s at the bottom of the staircase for her to know that everything had changed. She could feel it in the air the moment she entered the house. It was only a matter of time before the two of them hooked up. She couldn’t manage to get him in the mood to make love to her the night before, after he swore up and down that it didn’t have anything to do with Jade.
Had Cole listened to her none of this would have happened. She saw this coming a mile away. Elise looked down at the mess of clothes they’d left on the floor. She bent down and picked up Jade’s black bra. “Cheap trash.” She was enraged. There was no doubt in Elise’s mind what she would find if she went up those stairs, but she still had to see it for herself.
Elise took off her shoes and crept up the stairs walking very softly. When she arrived at Cole’s bedroom, the door wasn’t closed all the way. It was cracked. Delicately, ever so carefully, she pushed it open just a bit more.
Even knowing what she would find, Elise still wasn’t prepared for it. The anger that bubbled up inside of her seeing Jade’s naked body, barely covered with a sheet, wrapped around Cole’s made her want to kill them both in their sleep. She needed to think. Instead of losing it on them, Elise backed out of the room and tip-toed back down the stairs. She turned and took one more look up at Cole’s bedroom before walking out of the house. When the door closed, it woke Jade up. She lifted her head slightly from Cole’s arm. “What was that?”
Cole was still partly asleep. “Hmmm...”
“Did you hear something? I thought I heard the front door close.”
“You’re hearing things. Go back to sleep.”
Jade looked at the clock on the table next to the bed. It read 6:33 am. “Doesn’t Olivia usually come around nine or ten?”
“Mmmhmm.”
She could feel that someone had been in the house. A moment later, Jade heard the sound of a car driving away. She sat up and pulled the sheet around her to cover her naked body. “Cole, someone was here.” He heard the car too. He got out of bed and went over to the window. By the time he made it over, all he could make out were the backlights of Elise’s car. “Damn.”
Cole turned back to Jade. “Okay. So, she was here, but that doesn’t mean she was in the house.”
“I heard the door close.”
“She doesn’t have keys, Cricket.” He was back to calling her that. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
“Cole, I know what I heard.” Her voice was strained. “What are you going to do?”
He got back in bed. “I’m going to hold you and go back to sleep.”
“You’re not taking me seriously! Your girlfriend just came into your house while we were sleeping. Even if she didn’t make it up here, we left our clothes downstairs.”
“I broke up with Elise yesterday.”
Jade turned around in his arms. “What?”
“You’re not going to let me sleep are you?”
“Not when you just dropped a bomb on me like that. What happened?”
“If I tell you what happened, will you tell me why you’re so jumpy at the least little sound?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. After you left for your interview, Elise was pissed at what she called our connection. I told her that, while nothing had happened between us, my feelings for you had changed. At the time, I didn’t know if you felt the same way. Of course, she was pissed and rightfully so. I told her that I wanted her to be happy, but I didn’t think I was the guy who could make that happen. She called me quite a few names, slapped me across my face, and left. End of story. Now, it’s your turn.”
“Kevin.”
Cole sat up. She had his full attention.
“When I would run away from Kevin, I was always very careful. I had to be
