However, this was the first time in two years I had brought someone home to have sex with when Jasper was present. He wasn't really aware of the fact that I really did need the whole cottage. I mean, bedrooms got so boring after a while. I liked the openness of taking a man somewhere unexpected.
"You can come out now," I called out to the guy.
He appeared in the living room, tall, red-haired with a lean, hard body and radiant smile. I pointed to a chair in front of the fire, my mouth curving in a smile as I imagined all the things I was going to do to him tonight.
"Make yourself comfortable," I told him calmly and shrugged off my denim jacket. "I'm just going to go get my supplies."
I had to hand it to him. He didn't appear at all rebellious when I came out of my bedroom a minute later with a bag full of sex toys which promised a long, slow torture.
****
Chapter Two
Cole Sawyer
I was having dinner at the breakfast bar while reading a hardcover book which was propped up against a fruit bowl. One of the latest by Michael J Sullivan, Age of Empyre. The dinner, which would normally have taken me fifteen minutes to finish, had taken almost forty due to the engaging storyline of this fantasy.
I'd made casserole tonight at around seven but it was almost nine p.m by the time I could finally sit down to eat the damn thing. Running around after a two year old all day would do that to you.
Letting out a sigh, I took a few sips of water before glancing at my open laptop. My mind drifted away from the gripping events taking place within that book to focus on the little green dot I could now see beside Jasper's name on the Skype chat.
I smiled a little and pressed the video call option. Nine thirty p.m, every Friday, on the dot. He never missed a single call.
Jasper's face appeared on the screen after the call connected. He was seated at a table at the restaurant he usually frequented nearby his cottage in Ireland. It was an old, run-down place with a rowdy group of people but he seemed to prefer it.
"Hey," I said, spooning a mouthful of casserole.
"Cole. What's up?"
He was always so formal with me now. As though we were conducting a business meeting. Jasper Wells had changed so much. And I didn't just mean his appearance which consisted of a grimmer expression and sharper cheekbones due to the weight he had lost. He sported a stubble every day now, neatly trimmed, sexy as fuck and with that hair that was cut short, he looked incredibly handsome.
But what bothered me was the deadened look in his usually glittering dark eyes. A man who was simply going through the motions of life without taking anything in. He was basically my reflection now.
"How was Spain?" I asked him in a low voice. That was where he had told me he was going to be when we spoke last week.
"Hot," he answered curtly. "What's for dinner?"
"Casserole," I answered and watched as he inclined his head to take in my background.
"You painted the kitchen."
I breathed out a laugh I didn't feel. "Yeah, Skye insisted it needed a touch-up."
His expression grew more serious at that. I couldn't help talking about Skye. She was my wife. The mother of my child. The woman I was going to spend the rest of my life with. But Jasper never brought her up in conversation.
It had been two years now and we had come a long way, Skye and I. We had been determined to pick up the pieces of our broken lives after Jasper had left us. Five months in, I'd decided to man up and propose. We were going to do things the right way. She had started to experience post-natal depression a few weeks after the birth and I had needed her to know that we were a family. I was going to be by her side every step of the way. Put a ring on her finger and give her my name if that was what it took.
I had used the money Jasper had given me to purchase a bigger house in the city as well as buy her an art gallery where she could hold exhibitions and conduct painting lessons like she had dreamed for quite some time. When she'd questioned me about it, I'd told her the money was from Jasper.
That was when our problems had started.
"How's Jacob?" Jasper asked me and his eyes softened a tiny fraction.
Jacob Aimeric Sawyer. That was my son's name. Skye had been adamant that we do not call him Jasper so I'd gone with Jacob instead. I liked it. It suited him.
"He drove me nuts today with his constant demand for activity," I grumbled and shook my head. "Little bugger."
Jasper started to smile. "You're good with him, Cole. I've never seen a more disciplined toddler in my life."
I laughed for real this time. "Yeah, he is pretty serious most of the time, I guess. Having conversations with him feels like I'm talking to a grown up sometimes."
I was a stay-at-home dad now. Had been for over a year. Once Skye got used to the idea that the gallery was not going anywhere, she'd thrown herself into making something of it, thrown herself into building a career and becoming successful.
She came
