7
Fail to Rise
Roxy
A dull knock thumps against the door, rousing me from a blissful dream where I’m floating on a surfboard with Cole’s arms around my waist. I’m having such a great time, I’m laughing my head off.
The thumping continues, and both Cole and I let out a simultaneous groan.
“You’d better get it,” he gravels it out.
“I think you’d better get it. I’m half naked, remember?”
“I like you half naked.” He leans up over me and gives his signature sexy grin, all for me.
More thumping ensues. It’s obvious they’ve moved beyond polite to pissed.
“I dreamed we were surfing.” I wrap my finger around his inky, dark hair. “I want you to teach me.”
His eyes widen with surprise. “Done.” Cole dips a quick kiss over my lips before jumping to his feet and opening the door.
“Who are you?” An all-too-familiar female voice shrills through the air. “Roseanna?” Mom bursts in like a hurricane, and I scramble to cover myself with the blanket beneath me.
The Chinese boxes go flying. Rice and Kung Pao Chicken rain through the air all over her patent leather Prada shoes.
“Holy mother of God!” She lances the silence with her horror. “Are you naked?”
“No!” I wave my hand as if I were trying to stop a runaway train. “I’m totally covered.” I flash her a quick glimpse of my black lace dress, and she cringes.
“Lingerie?” She gags a little when she says it. “Tell the boy to leave.” She shields herself with her hand, not that it’s necessary considering Cole is fully dressed. I’m pretty sure I’ve never been so glad not to have had sex in all my life. God knows what my mother would do if she found us both naked.
“I’ll go to my room,” Cole says it low, and I close my eyes because I’m pretty sure I haven’t told my mother about—
“His room?” Her clear green eyes bug out until they look like marbles. “Oh, Roseanna.” She bows her head a moment.
“Cole, it’s fine, come here.” I wave him over, and he slinks back reluctant. “This is my mother, Rue. Mom, this is my roommate.” I swallow hard and give Cole a nervous smile because I’ve never said what I’m about to say next. “And my boyfriend, Cole.” Not that Cole and I have crossed that bridge yet, but I don’t see why not since Mom, here, is already having a myocardial infarction. Why not make it official?
A guttural groan emits from her as if her fingernails were being plucked from her one by one.
“Please tell Cole I’d like a word with you alone.” She massages her eyelids as if she were battling a migraine, and I bet she is.
“He’s standing right here. You can tell him yourself.” I glance to Cole, embarrassed he gets to witness my mother’s lunacy firsthand.
“I’d rather not.” She does a circular walkthrough of the kitchen.
Cole leans in. “I’ll give you two a sec.” He gives Mom a slight wave. “Nice meeting you.”
“He’s not the one for you.” Mom’s eyes sharpen over mine, and my blood boils because, for one, Cole has barely left the room.
“How would you know he’s not the one for me? You don’t even know me.”
She sucks in a breath. Her black wool coat drapes to the floor, and her peach power suit peeks from beneath, giving it a Halloween effect.
“I know you full well.” She tips her chin while slapping her leather driving gloves over her palm. “I came by to put in an order for the Valentine’s benefit.”
“Really?” I give a little hop, momentarily forgetting all the bullshit that just transpired. “That would be amazing! Business has been picking up slowly, but something this big would be the break I need. What are you thinking? Chocolate? Vanilla? Red Velvet! Or I can do a variety and have all these cute Valentine-themed decorations. Oh my, God, I can’t believe this is happening to me.” I slap my hand over my forehead because it all feels too good to be true, first I have a decent guy in my life for once, and now this?
She crimps her lips. “Compose yourself. It’s not happening. I’m revoking the offer unless you move out of this den of perversion and distance yourself from that boy. August Johnson has a son five years your senior who just graduated law school—”
“Get out,” I say it low at first with my voice shaking, my muscles trembling.
Her eyes sharpen in on mine. “What did you just say to me?”
“I said, get out.” I can feel that suit of armor strapping itself to my back, flexing over my chest like a seatbelt. “I don’t need to do the Valentine’s benefit.”
She blinks back as if she were genuinely surprised. “You yourself said it would change everything.”
“It doesn’t change you. I’m not interested in your terms, so you can go now. I’m not interested in August Johnson’s son either. Cole is the best person in the world for me because, for one, he believes in me. He has faith in my business and in me as a person.”
“Of course, he does.” She walks abruptly toward the exit. “He sees you as his ticket out of this dump. We’ll need about sixteen dozen cupcakes should you change your mind.” She dusts her judgmental gaze around the apartment and smirks. “Something tells me you will.”
Crap.
Why couldn’t she just give me the Valentine’s benefit without any strings?
Cole comes out of the bedroom with that is-the-coast-clear look on his sexy face, and I open my arms.
“Can I ask what happened?”
“I chose you.”
I land my lips over his and pour out all of my affection for him and the room, Whitney Briggs, and all of the drama that goes along with it—my mother—they all disappear.
A week sweeps by with Cole treating me to dinner, making me dinner, helping me create new combinations for my cupcake catering business.
“You should make a flyer with all the unique flavors you have to offer.” He winces at an oncoming car as we wind our way down the side of the mountain.
Cole has the night off, so he offered to take me to a beach he likes to visit when he’s clearing his mind.
“That’s a great idea. Maybe you can help me with that.”
“Already on it.” He reaches over and warms my knee with his hand. “I found some cool graphics you can check out and see if you like.”
“That’s what I like best about you, you’re always willing to pitch in. Speaking of pitching in, I wanted to ask if you’d be willing to help with the baking competition. It’s just a couple of weeks away, and I’m down a body—Laney has the chance of a lifetime audition in L.A., and she can’t miss it.”
“I’d love to.” His brows tweak as the moon pours in through the windshield and washes his skin a blue alabaster. “I’d do anything to make your dreams come true.”
My heart thumps in my chest. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anybody as much as I want Cole Brighton.
“That’s what you do for the one’s you care about”—he steals a quick glance—“you support them.”
My face fills with heat at the thought of anyone caring about me. I don’t think I’ve felt this much affection, this much love, since my grandmother passed away.
Cole pulls off the highway and takes the road down to the dunes where we meet up with a giant sign that reads, closed to public.
I wash my gaze over his features. His stubble has grown in, and his dark hair has blue streaks throughout from the night shadows. I don’t know about Cole, but my feelings have multiplied in such a short time, I’m almost afraid for myself. In all those years I was with Aiden, I thought I was in love. But compared to what I feel now for Cole I’m wondering if I ever even liked Aiden.
I give a little laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
I bite down on my lip. I’m pretty sure bringing up ex-boyfriends, no matter how douchy they are, is bound to set the evening on a shitty trajectory.
“Nothing.”
“It’s something.” He parks on the overlook, and we watch as the Atlantic Ocean washes and wanes under a pearlescent moon.
“God, this is gorgeous.” We unbuckle ourselves, leaning to take in the view.
“I think you’re gorgeous.” He slides over, and I meet him in the middle. The heady scent of musk emanates from him, intoxicating me to the brink of sexual deprivation.
“And I think you’re cute.” I hedge in ever so close, trying to control my breathing. Cole Brighton is hotter than a grease fire, and he has my body shivering and quivering in all the right places. My mouth goes in for the kill, and I bite his lower lip playfully. Cole has kept true to his first-base policy all damn week, and I’m aching for some relief. Oh, hell, sometimes if you want something you need to go out and get it.
I pull him into a pressured kiss, swinging my leg over his hips until I’m straddling him with my knees.
Shit. I chose a crap night to wear the tightest yoga pants known to man, constructed from way more spandex than should ever be legal. I feel like a stuffed sausage in these—not to mention the fact they’re sticking to my thighs, thick as sealskin.
He gives a hard moan, and I take it as a green light. My fingers pull off his sweatshirt, and I run my hands over his smooth, rock-solid chest.
“God, I’m going to roll my naked body all over this piece of art tonight.” I run my tongue up to his ear and spin a little circle in it until he shudders beneath me.
“What happened to taking it slow?” He rumbles with a dry laugh because I think we both know slow is reserved for the chess club and virgins.
“I think we’re about to get really good at baseball.”
“We just glided by first.” He pulls me in by the back of the neck, and his tongue goes off in my mouth like a hungry river snake. Cole runs his warm hands up the back of my sweater, inching his way toward second base.
And that’s exactly when I remember I’m wearing a sports bra.
Gah! I’m so freaking stupid. He’s going to think I have a uniboob, or worse that he’s encountered the flatlands of Hollow Brook County. God knows the only thing this contraption is made to do is shrink and compress. It’s the equivalent of dousing his penis with ice water—neither fair nor flattering.
“Second.” He pulls back and gives the hint of a wicked grin, his eyes hardly slit open. His fingers clasp over the girls, well, the spandex that’s currently holding the girls hostage, and he closes his eyes.
“Shit,” he seethes, sucking in a breath through his teeth. “You’re so f*cking soft.”
And well supported, but, thankfully, Cole has decided to let my spandex sins slide.
“Um, so what’s third?” I ask trying to defuse my budding anger over the fact I chose to dress head to toe in workout gear on a date.
“Anything you want it to be.”
I pepper kisses over his face while my fingers run wild through his hair. That’s the first thing I noticed about Cole Brighton, his jet-black glossy hair. Swear to God, I’m going to run my feet through it one day, and, if it didn’t require some serious contortion, I’d do it right now.
My fingers work spastically to unbutton his jeans. I bounce back to gain clearance for the boxer raid that’s about to take place and accidently honk the horn with my ass.
“Excuse you.” He pumps a quick smile.
“Not funny.” Way to pull us out of the moment. It’s like my yoga pants are out to get me. “Shut up and f*ck me.”
“God, I love it when you talk to me that way.”
“Close your mouth and do it.” I take a mean bite out of his ear, and he lets out a roar.
“Yeah, that.” A dull laugh thumps through his chest. “Guess what, cupcake?” He spikes his hands into the back of my yoga pants, and a few stitches snap in his wake. It sounds like a series of mini firecrackers are going off in my crotch. “Sorry.”
“I’m burning the demon-wear as soon as we get home.” I run my tongue over his lips. “You were saying?”
“Mmm…” He moans right over my mouth. “I plan on inflicting a little pain of my own, starting with your—”
A beam of light flashes right at us followed by a volatile knock.
“Police! Open up.”
Crap.
Let me guess, I butt dialed 911.
Cole
My fingers clench over the steering wheel as I white knuckle us all the way back to Whitney Briggs. I’ve gone twenty miles over the speed limit all the way home, and I’m shocked that not one of Hollow Brook’s finest bothered to pull me over.
“It’s going to be so much better back at the apartment, anyway,” Roxy laments as I glide into my favorite parking spot and run over to open her door. “I probably would have thrown out your back with all the things I was planning to do to you.”
We walk briskly through the damp night air as our breath crystalizes around us in a plume of smoke.
“Hot damn.” I’m all about releasing some primal urges. My blood supply happens to be traveling south at the moment, so I’m a little short on words. I haven’t had sex in weeks. My balls ache just thinking about it. But tonight isn’t about sex, and everything in me knows it.
I pull her in by the waist, and we land under the lamppost with its spray of light illuminating the mist like a million dancing particles.
She hops up on my hips, and I grip her under the thighs.
“I just thought of something,” I whisper.
“That you’d rather I ride you in the parking lot?” She attacks me with her tongue, and I laugh with her right there in my mouth. Something tells me Roxy Capwell is going to be a wild vixen in bed, and not one ounce of me is complaining.
“No.” I pull back and take her in with her dark hair, her porcelain smooth features, her lips full and throbbing. I take a breath. “I just…” a part of me doesn’t want to fess up. I’m afraid maybe it’s the bad boy in me that’s supercharging her batteries, and I’m half afraid to wipe off that sheen. Then I launch right in, no holds barred. “I just realized that I’ve never been so turned on, so physically excited, so outrageously ready to explode.” I touch my nose to hers a moment and close my eyes. “I guess in a way it sort of feels like the first time.” Nice. Why don’t I tell her I have a secret vagina she can scout out later, too?
“Cole,” my name whispers from her lips. Her features soften. She’s letting down her armor, and it only makes me want her that much more. “I feel the exact same way.”
Great. Now that we’ve established we’re at the like-a-virgin phase of our relationship, maybe we should go for broke, or at least I should.
“I think I’m in love with you.” Everything in me loosens. It’s as if I’ve been holding up a five hundred pound weight over my head these last few weeks, and getting those words out is the only way to feel some relief.
Her eyes sparkle with tears, and she’s quick to blink them away.
“I know I’m in love with you, Cole Brighton.” She lands those luscious lips over mine, and I walk us backward into the apartment building with my heart soaring right out of my chest. This is incredible—something that I would have never believed was possible unless I experienced it myself, and am I ever glad I’m experiencing it myself.
I bump into a body, and someone yells, get a room as they head outside.
Rox and I share a laugh without ever moving away from the magical kiss we’re locked in.
It takes everything in me not to have my way with her in the elevator. Her legs lock tight around my waist until she’s rising above me, climbing me like a pole—our lips never breaking contact.
We stumble out into the hall, and I get us to the door.
I fumble with the key and spin Roxy as we crash into the apartment with a bang.
I’m ready to haul her to the couch and freeze.
Baya and Bryson sit on one sofa, Laney and Ryder on the other.
Roxy and I look at each another before she engages in a rather unceremonious dismount.
“Look who’s here?” She scratches at the back of her hair, and her cleavage ripples from the low V in her sweater amping me up that much more. It’s becoming apparent that my hard-on gives a rat’s ass that a peanut gallery suddenly morphed into our living room. The train has already pulled out of the station. It’s go-time whether or not anyone tries to stop it.
“Pipe burst in our bathroom.” Baya shrugs apologetically. “They said it might take a couple days to fix it. The carpet is ruined.”
“You mind if we crash?” Bryson gives me a look that says dude, so sorry for your boner.
“Not a problem.” I’ve had plenty of sex with people in the next room. I’m a pig that way, but something in me doesn’t want my first time with Rox to be like that.
Her brother shoots me a look that says your balls are going to die. “Looks like I might need to crash, too.” He looks from me to Roxy.
Shit. I know all about the big brother baseball bat he’s ready to beat me down with.
“It’s not like that,” I say in a lame attempt to defuse his temper, but we both know it’s exactly like that.
He jumps up and knocks his chest into mine before slamming me to the wall.
“You think I’m an idiot?” He spins me around and bashes my face into the door jam. “Explain these marks to me. In fact, why don’t you tell the whole damn room what they mean, and look at my sister while you do it!” He turns to her. “Which row do you want to be on, Rox? Because that’s all you’ll ever be to him is another notch on his wall. Is that what you want?” His voice echoes around the room like a boomerang.
“Hey”—Bryson plucks him off me—“chill out, would you?”
“Don’t tell me to chill out.” He struggles free from Bryson’s grasp. “If this were Annie, you’d react the same way.”
Bryson shoots me a look that says he’s right. Bryson’s kid sister is a senior in high school, and something tells me both he and Holt will burn off any idiot’s penis with a magnifying glass if they try to get it anywhere near Annie.
“Look, I’m not a monster.” I hold up my hands.
Roxy comes over and wraps an arm around my waist. “He’s not, Ryder, so you can put away your testosterone and take it down a notch. Did I ever once give you crap about who you dated? No.” She roars in his face, and he blinks. “I supported you! You’re the only person in our family I thought I could count on to have my back. Well I guess I was wrong.” She steps in close. “And, by the way”—she sneers into him—“I’ll be sleeping in my own room while Baya and Bryson are here, so you can put away the chastity belt. But after that”—her lips curl, taunting him in the process—“where and with whom I choose to sleep is my business.”
Roxy heads into her bedroom and slams the door.
“Nice work, moron,” I say before heading for the hall and Ryder pulls me back with a violent yank. “Look, I happen to really care about your sister.”
He glances at the scoreboard. “I see how you care about girls. The only moron in this room is you. Keep it in your pants because if I find out you took advantage of her, I’m going to break some bones.”
I glare at him a moment. I should shake his hand, tell him it’s cool, assure him that I would never hurt his sister, but I’m too pissed over the fact he just threatened to snap my limbs in my own damn apartment to do any of those things.
Instead I launch my fist over his jaw and send him crashing to the floor.
Maybe he’ll think twice before he threatens me again.
I head off to my room.
Alone.