Page 41 of Tempted Hearts
Cole held the door open for me. We entered the staircase, my room a floor up from the lobby. I had no idea where his new one was. I breezed past him, and Cole sucked in a breath.
I couldn’t resist.
As the door closed behind him, I whispered, “And that’s another one.”
His hand was on my waist before I could even register the touch. One second, I’d been walking in front of him. The next, Cole pulled me back a step, trapping me against the wall. His hands gripped my wrists, pinning them above my head.
My heart was slamming against my chest, the movement so unexpected that my brain took a second to catch up to my body’s response, and I stared into his eyes, through those glasses that suddenly felt like the only barrier between us.
Besides his hands on my wrists, we weren’t touching. But if Cole leaned forward an inch, we would be. I waited for his move. Waiting for him to kiss me. Didn’t even consider he wouldn’t.
“This is a dangerous game,” he growled out, his voice low and mildly threatening.
“Why?” I tossed back, not heeding his threat.
His fingers tightened around my wrists. Such delicious pressure, especially because it was so unexpected from a guy like him.
His breath hit my cheek.
Cole was so close I could feel the tension coming from his chest and shoulders.
Then something shifted in his expression. Restraint.
“Juliette…” he whispered, like it was a warning to himself.
He let go.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Like he was dismantling a bomb.
“We can’t,” he said, stepping back until the space between us felt colder than the night air. He took another step, then another, until he was clear of me entirely.
“Goodnight,monella.”
And he was gone, back through the door to the lobby, leaving me pressed against the wall, wanting, of all things, Cole Fucking Ford.
17
COLE
I still had her room key.
Standing at Juliette’s bedroom door with that knowledge—one that had followed me into sleep and pulled me out of it more than once—I still never considered using it. Wanting her was one thing. Violating her trust was another I’d never cross. But the thought of her in bed as I slipped into the room, Juliette seeing me. Pushing down the covers. Giving me permission to ravage her.
And ravage her I would. Nearly had in that damn stairwell.
Get it under control, Cole.
I knocked.
Waiting for Juliette to open the door felt like the longest minute of my life. She opened it, but there was no censure in her expression. Just the same smile, after a quick assessment of me, as I’d been getting since “new Cole,” as she put it, returned.
Determined to keep “old Cole” from making an appearance, the armor Parker accused me of wearing locked firmly in my bedroom closet, I smiled back.
“I have a surprise for you. Do you have a bathing suit?”
