Broken Barriers (Barriers Series Book 4) (21 page)

She didn’t hear or see me since she was turned away from me, facing the sun. I quickly pushed the kayak onto the sand and stuck the paddle inside it. With just a few, long, heavy steps, I neared her enough to know I desired her even more. Cole sat there with her earbuds in her ears and her tablet in her hands. A slow smile spread across my face as I heard her singing some song that had infiltrated the airwaves since
The Hunger Games
movie was released. Her head angled as she rubbed her legs together in a sensual way.

I wanted to have those long legs wrapped around my waist and to know what it felt like to touch every inch of skin that covered her body. I focused on how absolutely fucking perfect she was, and yet she had no idea what she did to me. A warm breeze blew against my face, and the subtle scents of vanilla and pear mixed with sunscreen teased my senses. I tried to stay away from her since I didn’t want to hurt her any more than the last guy, but dammit, if all my thoughts hadn’t been fixated on something revolving around her the last couple of weeks.

I quietly took two steps behind her. Cole didn’t sense me hovering over her as I reached down and yanked the tablet from her hands. She gasped and nearly fell out of her chair, but I reached down and held it upright. Her head shot up along with her sunglasses as she jerked the earbuds from her ears. Her hand fell flat against her chest as she stared at me and panted frantically.
“Drew! You scared the shit out of me!” Cole shouted before rising to her feet. “Give me back my tablet, please.” She cleared her throat as a slight redness spread over her cheeks. I chuckled to myself as I read what was on the screen.

“He slides his legs between mine and pushes my knee up farther before slowly sliding between my lips. He thrusts and my body accepts him like a missing piece. Every hard inch buried deep, rocking me from the inside.”

Whoa! “Holy shit.” I smirked and raised my eyebrow at Cole, realizing why her legs were rubbing together. “Cole Porter, you little vixen, you. You like smutty sex books.”

“What? It’s not like you haven’t fantasized about women before?” Cole instantly went into defense mode. She crossed her arms over her barely-covered chest. Little did she know that only enhanced her cleavage, causing me to stare more. My eyes had a problem deciding between her eyes or her chest.

Make up your mind, you idiot.

Too late. Cole shook her head and huffed as she caught me moving my sights from north to south and vice-versa. “You’re such a guy.” She quickly grabbed her tank top and tossed it over her head. I pouted internally as her once succulent breasts that were just there for my pleasure had now been covered because…well, I was a guy, and yes, guys liked tits. All versions of them.

She walked a few determined steps forward and reached out her hand, silently gesturing that she wanted her tablet back. I decided to play with her a little while longer. I held the device well above her grasp with one arm and read aloud another section that caught my eye.

“His hand moves to my swollen, heated lips and he starts to stroke. Long, slow circles around my clit, twisting the slick flesh around and around.”

“Drew Daley! You’re an ass!” Cole shouted and slapped my shoulder. I held out my hand, keeping her at a distance as I continued to read to myself.

“Well…well…well.” I handed the tablet back to her. She snatched it and quickly turned it off before folding the cover over and tossing it into her bag. As she was bent over rummaging through her bag, she had no idea she was now gracing me with a perfect view of her butt.

Blood rushed to all the wrong places, and a slight pulsing sensation shot through my veins. I groaned silently as I felt my cock throb just a little, and I immediately had to stop looking at her. I was wearing only my swim trunks, and if I got a semi in them, I was fucked.

Cole stood up straight and returned with her hands full of plastic bags filled with a light yellow liquid and a straw sticking out of each one. Lemon slices and ice shuffled around as she pressed her fingers on a bag before handing it to me. “Adult lemonade slushy,” she said. “Or you can use it to cool down your sunburned shoulders.”

She laughed before my eyes peered down to see just how red my skin had become. My finger poked my shoulder and it changed from white to beet red almost instantly. Yeah, figured. It looked pretty bad, but she was trying to change the subject by distracting me with other topics of conversation. “Oh, no, you don’t,” I told her. Her eyes narrowed. “You will not get me liquored up and try to change the topic off of smutty sex books.” I stepped closer. She slowly raised her eyebrows and licked her lips before her tongue snaked out to pull the straw into her mouth.

Fuuuuck.

I immediately wrapped my hand around the bag Cole handed me and sucked away at the refreshing concoction, instantly regretting my decision to think of anything besides her tongue enclosed around that long…stiff…straw. The cold frozen lemonade suddenly struck without warning. Immediate brain freeze hit me like a ton of bricks. I squeezed my eyes shut and smacked my palm against the throbbing in my forehead. I continued to drink, but my throat groaned as the freeze started to wear off.

“See,” she said. My eyes relaxed and slowly rose to see Cole stepping closer. “Karma’s a bitch, isn’t she?” She chuckled and smiled cockily at me. “Oh, c’mon, Drew. You can’t honestly tell me you don’t have some secret sexual fantasy. So what? I read smut.” She shrugged her shoulders and took another sip of her drink. “I’m pretty sure you have some hidden sexual desires.” She tapped her finger against her lips, trying to think of mine.

Little did she know what I would have liked to do to her on this beach.

“Hmmm.” Cole thought. “Let’s see if I am close.” She inched closer. “I bet you are the type of guy who likes to be in charge in the bedroom.” My lips curled upward with the straw still in my mouth. The damn vodka was starting to work its way into my system now that the brain freeze had gone away. My body relaxed almost instantly.

Cole’s eyes widened with excitement as she thought she was going to guess my secret sexual fantasies. I hated to disappoint her, but I was really just a vanilla sex type of guy. Sure, I’d dabbled in the occasional handcuffs and blindfolds and sex out in the open, but spanking and tugging hair were about as wild and crazy as I got.

Cole took another step closer and lifted her head. She narrowed her bright blue eyes as she tried to see the secrets behind my eyes. I arched my brow as the frozen drink slurped through the straw. “You don’t strike me as the dominant type of guy, but I’d guess you have some fantasy about having sex in public or with a stripper or something.”

I choked on the last few sips of my drink and keeled over as I tried to catch my breath between coughs. Shit.

“Oh my God,” Cole exclaimed. “I’m right, aren’t I?” I stood up straight and stared at her as she backed up a couple of steps. Her feet shuffled in the dry sand, her mouth agape as she attempted to piece together the puzzle. “Which one is your fantasy?” she asked softly, almost ashamed in a way.

I didn’t tell her about Katie. I was actually rather shocked that Everett had not spilled the beans about that night at the strip club, but I could tell she was trying to process it in her head. I licked my lips, not knowing quite what I needed to say, but I had to say something.

As I was about to say some nonsense, Cole beat me to the punch. “Are you a Dom? You are, aren’t you? I thought those guys only existed in books. So, you’re into the whips and chains and stuff?” Cole rambled a mile a minute. She acted nervously trying to say anything, even though she had the whole thing wrong.

“Cole,” I interrupted quickly. “I’m not a Dom. I fucked a stripper.”
Oh, no.
The words rolled off my tongue before I processed them in my head. “Wait. No. It’s not how it sounds. Well, it is, but it’s not.” I moved closer, but she took a couple of steps back. She looked surprised. “Cole…talk to me.” Thoughts in my head began to scramble. I needed to pull myself out of this hole, and quick.

She cleared her throat as her eyes dropped to look at her fingers fiddling with her drink. She raised the drink to her lips and sucked back the remainder of the lemonade.

“Cole.”

“Yeah.” She looked up at me.

“The stripper. It’s hard to explain. She was someone I knew from my past, but somehow she is now a stripper. That’s all. It wasn’t a random hook up.”

“How long ago was it?”

Shit. I paused for too long and ran my hand over my burning skin. My eyes dropped to the ground.

“How long ago did it happen, Drew?” she asked again. I sensed the pain in her voice.

I released a long breath before tilting my head back up and pulling my sunglasses off the top of my head. I gazed into her eyes, knowing I was about to land a punch to her gut. “A little over a week ago.” I watched as the words sank in. The drink pouch dropped from her hands, landing in the sand at her feet with a thud. She had no idea. How could she? Her legs grew unsteady, and I rushed over to her side, dropping my own drink and sunglasses in the process. “Cole.” I softly grabbed her elbows to steady her. “Cole, listen to me. I’m not perfect. I never claimed I was. But, I’ve only ever been honest with you, and I don’t want you to think less of me because of this. Yes, okay, I’ll admit it wasn’t a wise decision.”

“Drew.” Cole firmly stated my name.

“Katie and I had this
thing
a long time ago, but things happened, and I kept trying to push my past from my mind, and one thing lead to another when I saw her. I ho—“ Cole’s hand covered my mouth, and I instantly stopped rambling.

Cole’s face inched closer to mine. “Stop…talking.” She rolled her eyes at me, her hand lowering from my mouth.

“You aren’t mad?”

“Drew, why would I be mad? Sure, it’s a little shocking, but who doesn’t have a past? We all make mistakes. Me included. I have two older brothers. Trust me, I’ve seen it all, but I’m willing to forgive and forget about your lack of better judgment on one condition.”

“Cole, you know I’ll do whatever you ask.” I pushed a little closer to her, my hand sliding along her neck. My fingers gingerly played with the strings holding up her bikini top. She was weakening at the simple touch. I lowered my eyes and leaned down, placing my lips over her ear. I smelled her body spray mixed with sunscreen, and it did things to my senses that I barely withstood. I wanted to pull at her bikini strings and let gravity take its course, but I held back. My tongue licked at my lips as my breath against her ear made her body quiver in anticipation. “Cole.” She moaned as her hands softly wrapped around my bare waist. “Cole, tell me what you want.” My voice deepened with wanton desire.

“You.” Her breathy voice was just above a whisper against my cheek, and then she retreated from my grip. Her warm hands no longer flushed against my skin. “I... mean,” Cole stuttered. “You…I...” She couldn’t find the words and grew frustrated with herself. A deep growl sounded from within her throat. I placed two fingers over her lips, shushing her. Her soft eyes stared up at me, and my heart pounded against my chest. My fingers skated down her lips, pulling her bottom lip, intensifying my desire to lick that lip.

“What’s the one condition, Cole?”

“A date.” Her voice quivered. “I mean, not like a date-date. Like spend the day helping me with something away from here.” I stepped back and rested my sweaty hands on her shoulders. As a result, her nervousness dissipated, and she relaxed with just my touch. Why she was so nervous, I had no idea. If anything, she was the one who threw my head into a turbulent mess.

“That doesn’t sound like it’s really a
date.
What do you need help with?” I willed her to answer without apprehension.

“I need to do a photo shoot at a farmers’ market that I always go to for fresh supplies for the café, but it’s a bit of a drive, so you’ll be forced to spend the day in the car with me.”

“If that’s the
one condition
, then the way I see it, I’m getting off pretty easy.”

“Well…I need someone to run the Trouvaille stand while I take the photos. Soooo…”

“So, you want me to run your market stand?” My voice rose a little higher with skepticism. She couldn’t be serious. “You can’t be serious? What if I screw that up and ruin your business?”

Cole
quickly kicked off her flamingo pink flip-flops and tossed her sunglasses onto her chair. “Drew Daley.” She stepped around me, walking backward toward the wooden dock. While her eyes scanned my body, her finger pointed up and down at me. “Pretty sure if you have all that going on, the ladies will eat you up in a second.”

I glanced down at my reddish chest and still barely-there six pack that was glistening in sweat. I let out a deep laugh before looking up at her. “Cole Porter, are you saying you think I’m hot and sexy?” She raised an eyebrow and shrugged a shoulder. I took a couple of steady steps in her direction despite my feet sinking in the sand, and
the grin on her face grew larger. “Cole,” I drawled out her name. “You like me, don’t you?”

She shrugged her shoulders again and waved her hand at me, brushing that idea aside. “Ehh…you’re all right.” She turned quickly and took off running down the dock. Her bare feet stomped against the wood beneath her as she pulled her tank top over her head. It fell behind her, and as she reached the end of the dock, she cannonballed into the water. I laughed at everything that happened.

I was all right. Did she seriously say I was just all right?

The moment I saw her surface and swim farther, her laughter refreshingly cast itself over the water. “Say you’ll go on a real date with me!” I shouted at her.

“Why would I want to do that?” she answered, treading in the water.

“Because, the way I see it, you have two choices: go on a
real
date with me or I’ll spend every waking moment making sure the entire town knows you have a crush on me.”

“Who said I’m attracted to you?” she yelled.

“You can try to deny it all you want, but I know you are.” Her mouth hung open as her arms treaded water, and with that, I kicked off my sandals and sprinted down the dock. I leapt off the end and tucked my legs underneath me before hitting the water. It had been so long since I had cannonballed into the bay. The invigorating water shot chills up my spine, immediately cooling my body temperature.