Chapter 22
Naked, Dina examined the faint tinge of blood on her face and body in the master suite bathroom mirror. A slight discoloration on her forehead and a yellowish-dark color on her cheek displayed some of the abuse she experienced because of a man she had a short conversation with online.
She was such a fool to let Monique convince her to enter the chat room, but this wasn’t her friend’s fault. It was no one’s except for the assholes who captured and held her against her will. A sharp pain pierced through her chest, leaving her unsettled and wishing to see Monique, the one constant in her life over the last year.
By now, her best friend would know she was okay, thanks to Vince checking on Monique at the hospital. Cole had told her in the police car on the drive over to the hotel Monique had been injured during the tornado. He assured Dina she was okay, but still, she’d rather see for herself.
She turned on the marble bathtub’s spigot, plugged the drain, and dumped bath salts into the water. Immediately, she thought about Cole in the other bathroom, taking a shower. He had been so sweet to act quickly on her wishes not to go back to her apartment tonight. Her home had nothing to do with the kidnapping, but she wanted a place to escape from reality. Within minutes of calling his assistant, a suite at the Ritz hotel near Central Park, was waiting for them.
From the marble bathtub, panoramic view, and gorgeous furnishings, Cole had given her what she needed. He provided a room, bathed in luxury and fantasy of a home away from home.
She loved it. She loved him.
The rest of her clothes tossed in the pile, she slid into the bathwater, hoping the warmth would ease the deep tension buried in her muscles and would remove the gross residue on her body. Even after Cole had held her close, kissed her, driving her into oblivion with his mouth, the feel of Wyatt still marred her skin, his foul scent stuck in her frontal lobe.
She grabbed a washcloth, lathered it up, and washed her arm. Muscles that never caused her a problem smarted. More soap on the cloth, she went after the other arm, memories of what happened inside the house and trailer flooded her. On the street, going all balls and guts on the man she believed hurt all those women, she stomped Dread’s foot and backfisted him in the face.
She gently touched her bruised knuckles that’d connected with his nose as her mind kept the replay tape going.
The shocker came next. The fraction of the second when her captor’s gripped lessened. She swung her hand downward, colliding with his balls, and at once grasped his hand holding the gun. She’d twisted it so the barrel pointed at his chest. His eyes widened, followed by smugness crossing his features. She braced herself for the abuse her face and body would receive.
The next move he made, she couldn’t have fathomed in her most creative state.
He’d sneered, released the gun, and said, “You think you got balls, go ahead.”
No thoughts had raced through her head, no debating right or wrong, only the images of the women he had taken played like a movie reel.
She pulled the trigger.
Numbness ran rampant through every inch of her system and she had an out of body experience. She watched herself standing over a murderer while she held the gun that had killed him.
The memory rushed over her like a steamroller. She shifted her attention to her leg, washing faster…harder, then the other, scrubbing harder and harder until her skin stung and she had to stop for concern of taking the top layer off.
Sweat broke out across her skin, her heart thudded in her ears, and she tried to suck in deep breaths through her gasping sobs.
She took a human life.
Tears pricked her eyes and her body went limp.
****
Cole showered, knotted a towel around his waist, and stepped out of the bathroom adjacent to the foyer, hoping Dina was done.
Not finding her, he poured two drinks, sat on the couch, and sipped the bourbon while waiting for Dina to emerge. The rich liquid nipped at his taste buds. Perfect.
He gazed at the New York City lights, flickering in the picture window opposite him, seeking out solace. The beautiful landscape did nothing to take the edge off. On a stressful work day, he found comfort by watching the colorful scenery to put order to the project he worked on.
Not this time. From his antsyness and the depletion of his adrenal glands, he was tired and shaky, as if a Mack truck had run over him. Another gulp of whiskey, the fluid burned his throat and eased some of the tension.
His thoughts flicked to the beads he left in the bathroom. Ever since their encounter on the street, he’d carried them with him. The slight weight in his pocket had become a part of his daily wardrobe as much as he wanted Dina in his life. It was only fitting the beads were with him when he talked to her. Given what they’d just gone through, he hoped the intimate conversation he planned wasn’t too soon, or the wrong timing.
An odd sensation tickled the back of his neck. He twisted toward the open master bedroom door and quickly decided to check on Dina. After gathering the beads off the vanity in the bathroom, he grabbed the two glasses and headed into the bedroom, expecting to find her asleep. If so, he’d snuggle up to her and wait until she woke to talk.
The bed hadn’t been disturbed. He went to the bathroom door, shifted both glasses to the palm of one hand, and knocked. When he didn’t get an answer, he knocked again. “Dina!”
No answer.
The doorknob twisted easily under his hand and he peeked inside.
She reclined against the back of the tub as if asleep. He thought about leaving to give her privacy, but he had the niggling sense something was off.
Kneeling on the floor beside her, he set the glasses and beads on the floor. “Dina,” he said, lightly caressing two fingers to her arm. “Sweetheart.”
The stillness and paleness of her body sent a panic through him comparable to a blazing fire. “Dina, wake up!” He didn’t raise his voice but spoke stern and loud enough to get some sort of reaction.
Still, she lay in the tub of hot water comatose.
With each passing second, his thoughts worsened to the unthinkable. Pressing two fingers to the pulse point in her neck, he held his breath.
She jolted awake, backhanding his arm. Her other hand hit her chest. Water splashed over the sides of the tub. A long moment passed before her eyes focused on him. “Geez, Cole,” she gasped. “You scared the hell out of me!”
Relief washed over him in waves, knocking him onto his butt. He chuckled, the laughter rolling out of him in such a way he couldn’t control.
A smile lifted the corner of her lips a little before spreading across her face, enhancing her beautiful features in a radiant glow, but underlining distress remained behind her eyes.
Understandably so.
“I brought you something to help you relax.” He adjusted his towel, handed her a whiskey, grabbed the other glass, and propped a shoulder on the side of the tub. As much as he wanted to climb in the tub and wrap his arms and legs around her, his gut said give her a chance to talk. So, he asked a mundane question, hoping it would open the door for her to say what was on her mind. “How are you?”
She startled, searching his face as if she hadn’t considered how she was, recovered with a slight nod, and sipped her drink. “I killed a man.” Tears filled her violet eyes before she faced forward and gulped the rest of her drink.
Cole’s heart nose-dived to the floor. The fear and anguish in her voice tore at his gut. If the Caffeine Junkie was alive, he’d hunt him and beat the shit out of him. Cole swallowed some whiskey and sucked the moisture off his lower lip. He wasn’t a violent man, but the protectiveness he felt for Dina had him doing things he’d never considered.
Words couldn’t relay the thoughts spinning around in his head. Remorse, sympathy, neither identified his reactions, so he did the most natural act, the universal behavior to let someone know they’re loved. He leaned over the edge of the tub and kissed her, a simple one, just lips touching one another, showing he cared, and then eased away so she could talk. At least, that was his plan. He hadn’t counted on the strong magnetic connection surging through his soul that made it difficult for him not to haul her into his arms.
Dragging in a long breath, he squelched his desires. From his experience with his late wife, he understood all too well, the guilt associated with tragedy.
He lowered his glass to the floor, added hers, and cupped her cheeks. Clarity for the right words to say struck. “You’re a remarkable woman.”
She covered one of his hands and rested her head in his palm. Her eyes bright from tears turned grateful. Slowly he leaned over, pressed a kiss to an eyelid, the other, went lower and brushed a kiss on the tip of her nose before easing back and locking gazes with her. “What you did today was just.”
She covered his other hand with her free one. “No,” she said, her words spilling out on sniffles. “I don’t feel that.”
The nose-dive his heart did moments ago didn’t compare to the foot stomping on it. “Sweetheart.”
She scrambled out of the bathtub, water splashing over the sides and soaking the bathmat, floor, his towel, and picked her way into his lap, knocking his towel to the side in the process. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she buried her face into his neck, sobbing.
Tears pricked the back of his eyes. A hand on the back of her head and the other on her naked back, he squeezed her tighter against him. Grief vibrated out of her in sobs and shivers. He wished he could shoulder the anguish for her, but no one could. In order to heal, she had to go through this to get to the other side.
To some, they’d describe his dream woman sitting in his lap naked without him pursuing her as sweet and more intimate than sex. He guessed it was, but he despised the agony racing through her.
He kissed the top of her head and whispered words of encouragement and support. For a long stretch of time, they stayed like this until the coolness in the air brought goosebumps to Dina’s skin.
She eased back, gazed into his face, and wiped the moisture from under his eyes. He’d been so absorbed in her pain he hadn’t realized he’d cried right along with her.
“I’m so sorry, you went through this,” he said, wiping her tears with his thumbs.
A flash of emotions crossed her face, and then, she sent him a mischievous smile. The uncertainty that had underlined her actions disappeared. The lines etching her face from worry smoothed out. And instead of dim, sad eyes, they sparkled.
He released a sigh, glad to see Dina had returned to him with the same glow and ambition she always had, and noticed she wasn’t the only thing coming to life. How his shaft had stayed uninterested during the time she’d needed him to just hold her was beyond him.
Her gaze traveled down his chest, lower to the surprise resting against her hip before returning to his eyes. He craved her, on the bed, anywhere, everywhere, but with her bruises and scrapes, they’d best move. “The bed?”
****
Cole watched Dina lift off his lap. He didn’t scan her body, like she thought he might since she stood in the center of the bathroom floor naked. He studied her face as passion, compassion, and something else she couldn’t place crossed his gorgeous features.
She didn’t do the same. She perused his full package. From his dark, wavy hair, over his eye-catching blue-grays, down his long, dreamy torso, and lingering on the exquisite shaft she not long ago had an intimate relationship with, before the mind-boggling allergic reaction.
“No peanuts?” She smiled.
In a fluid movement, he stood and oh my God, him erect, his shaft erected, her nipples erected, everything erected.
He shook his head, slowly, keeping his gaze locked on her as if he saw something there no one else had. She’d never felt so vulnerable in her life.
“Would you explain something to me?”
His deep voice combined with the sexual undertones of his hot gaze spread warmth over her entire body. “What?”
“Explain why I want you so damn bad, I can’t think of anything else, but you? Explain why I want to take you until you cry out my name?”
Dina’s gaze drifted over his chest then lower, watching the fluid movements of his body. “I want you, too, only you.”
The hunger in Cole’s eyes was undeniable. He invaded her space, buried his hands in her wet locks, and slid his tongue into her mouth. A thirst for more hit, she pressed her sensitive nipples into the hard planes of his chest and her hips brushing his magnificent warm, hard flesh. She let the delectable sensation wash over her as her tongue mingled with his.
“I’m going to love you until what happened is forgotten,” he said, his voice a provocative, raw gravel. “Until the past is behind you.” He kissed the spot beneath her ear, her neck as his hands traveled lower, stroking, caressing fondling her breasts and teasing her nipples.
Going crazy didn’t begin to describe the out of control sensation consuming her body. The fantasy man she watched from afar was here, with her. The sexual diva within begged for him to touch every inch of her body. She threaded her fingers through the hair on the back of his head and nudged him toward her breasts.
Feather kisses brushed across her right breast, the valley between them. He moved to the left one, loving it as he had the other breast. His touch and allure had her arching her back, giving him access to more of her. His tongue flicked over her nipple and she thought she’d explode.
Not able to take anymore when there was so much more to do, she said, “Love me.”
“I thought you’d never ask.” His hands traveled to her back, squeezed her rear before he slid them upward, caressing her skin as he went, leaving goosebumps in their wake.
A hand under each of her shoulders, he lifted her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and straddled his waist, feeling his long erection beneath her butt. Muscles bunched under her hands as he carried her out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.
The ache of want deepened when he lowered her to the fluffy comforter that covered the mattress. Finally, they would do what they’d toyed with since that magical moment on the street.
“Oh, crap! I’ll be right back.”
Dina leaned up on her elbow and looked over the end of the bed at Cole’s firm backside, enjoying the ripple of the muscles as he moved away from her. She stared in the main living area, mystified at his abrupt departure and snickered when he returned, holding up small packets.
“You came prepared.”
“I had them in my pocket since we planned to spend the day together in your apartment.”
She arched a brow. “Pretty presumptuous of you.”
“Was I wrong?” He tossed them on the nightstand and crawled up her body, kissing his way up from her ankle.
The heat radiating off his body and the thrill of finally connecting tightened her throat. “No.”
His lips landed on her knee, thigh, and oh, right there, the landing strip. “You’re so beautiful,” he said, smiling up at her before continuing his tour of nipping and licking to her stomach, breast, then to the other, sucking it into his mouth. When he reached her mouth, he braced his hands against the mattress.
Panting and squirming, she said, “Cole.”
“There’s no going back, Dina. I want you…in my life…always.”
Her breath hitched. She hadn’t dared to hope he would feel so deeply, not yet, not the way she did for him.
“Tell me, Dina. Is this what you want?” Love and sincerity reflected in his heavy-lidded gaze.
She wanted this, them together, him, forever. “Yes,” she said around the thick ball of emotion lodged in her throat.
The expression she couldn’t name moments ago shined deep within his eyes…belonging.
“I want you.”
She grabbed a condom and ripped it open with her teeth.
His heated eyes blazed, sweat pebbled his skin. She thought he trembled as she slid her hands between their bodies, grasped his hard length, and unrolled the protective raincoat over him bit by bit.
“Go any slower, honey, and I won’t last.” His heavy, thick voice sounded like he was buried a foot under.
This was it, the moment she’d waited for. Eagerness and excitement snapped and sizzled around her as he exquisitely sank into her, filling her with scrumptious pressure and producing a squeal from her lips.
“So, goood,” he said, his eyes closing on an eye roll of ecstasy before opening them and pressing his forehead to hers. “I’m afraid if I move, it’ll be over too fast.”
Her heart expanded. “We have all night. There’s plenty of t—”
His mouth swallowed the rest of her thought in a gentle kiss that quickly grew hungry, urgent, and demanding. He moved his hips, sliding almost out, breaking the warm comfort of his body, and yet teasing her with the tip.
She clutched his shoulders, felt his muscles bunching as he held his upper body off her, and nudged him to move.
His hips came against hers. The tug low in her belly, begging for release, demanded more. She met him stroke for stroke, urging him to move faster, deeper, to satisfy the craving deep within.
Pleasure spiraled and tightened low in her stomach. Cole groaned, gripped the headboard, and cupped her hip, moving faster.
The room spun, her body clenched. For a long moment, she soared through space as an earth-shattering release exploded, and his name ripped from her lips. “Cole!”
His eyes rolled back in his head and his body shuddered. The ecstasy crossing his features filled her with so much excitement happy tears sprang to her eyes.
He eased his chest atop hers, his forearms taking his weight against the mattress, and buried his face into her neck.
To think if the Caffeine Junkie had gotten his way, she wouldn’t have ever had this moment. The ball of emotion welled in her chest so tight she squeezed Cole, needing his warmth, his strength, to get her through, and breathed in his scent.
For a long time, they stayed snug against each other, letting their bodies cool and their minds process the strength of their passion for one another.
“I’ve never experienced anything like it,” he said, rolling onto his back and pulling her with him, tucking her into the crook of his shoulder. “If I didn’t have a condom, would it have been okay with you?”
She didn’t know what she expected, but that wasn’t it. For him to ask her thoughts about a child after what his late wife had done shouldn’t have surprised her, yet it did. Propping her chin on his chest, she asked, “Really? You want a family?”
The pads of his finger drew circles over her back. “With you, I do.”
The pressure in her chest from the emotions bubbling up inside made it hard to breathe, and diminished her ability to form a sentence.
“I’ll be right back.”
Dina watched Cole walk into the bathroom. A second later, the toilet flushed, and the spigot turned on.
The completeness she felt with him, the feeling she’d missed something in her life, rushed over her. Her inner soul had craved more for years. She hadn’t known what it was until now. She thought if she worked more, climbed the ladder, opened her own business, she’d filled the void.
But it hadn’t.
Having dealt with a failed marriage, a dysfunctional family, her best guy friend skipping town, she should have realized her soul didn’t care about how much she had in the bank account or how high she climbed on the ladder—she missed family, a place to belong. The same expression she believed Cole had in his eyes.
He returned with something in his hand and knelt beside the bed, his blue-gray eyes gazing at her. “Dina, I want to marry you. I know it’s soon, but I want you forever.”
“I’m so glad,” she sighed, laughing. “I didn’t mean to respond that way.”
He chuckled against her lips, kissed her deep and long before easing back. “Your answer was perfect.”
“I haven’t had time to buy a ring, but I have something else I’ve carried with me.” He arched an eyebrow. “I hate departing with them, but I’ll make an exception.” A playful sexiness rolled off him.
Having no idea what he referred to, she remained quiet.
He held up his closed hand and turned it over. His fingers opened. Her turquoise worry beads dangled from his fingers.
“Where’d you find them?”
“On the street.” He grasped her left hand and wound the beads around it, looping the end around her ring finger. “I came back. You were gone. I had no idea if they were yours or not, but I sensed they were, so I pocketed them.”
A few minutes passed as the weight of why he hadn’t had a chance to tell her sank in.
Cole rose, stretched out beside her, and curled her in to his arms. “What do you say we pick out a ring tomorrow?”
Her cheeks hurt from smiling so much. “I say yes!”
“I love you, Dina.”
Her world had come full circle. She’d gone through hell, but landed with her feet firmly planted in her own little heaven. “I have never loved anyone so fast or so deep.”
“There’s something I’ll never get tired of hearing.” He smiled and kissed her nose. “I’m in love for the first time in my life. I’ll like calling you Mrs. Dunbar.”
“Who says I’m changing my last name to Dunbar? I’m thinking about changing it back to my maiden name.”
Cole’s momentary shocked expression had her busting out laughing.
“Independent woman.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “Let’s see if I can convince you to take my last name.”
“How?”
“Easy. This time I haven’t eaten peanuts.” He waggled his eyebrows and slid down her body.
Dina sighed. “Call me Mrs. Dunbar.”