Once again, I find myself eating ice cream out of the carton while sulking over Cole Ryder.
The man is a hazard to my waistline.
It’s probably a good thing I have no intention of ever seeing him again.
Suddenly, there’s a knock on my door. I smile.
Amelia said she’d come over as soon as she could get away from work.
Setting my ice cream down, I wipe my eyes and pad across the room. I’m glad my sister is here—
Standing in the doorway is a sexy hockey player.
His hair is still wet from his shower and his gaze is so intense I can feel it in my bones.
Erika
I thought you were someone else. Go away, Cole.
I try to shut the door but he stops it easily with one hand.
Then he shoves his phone toward me with the other.
Cole
This isn’t what it looks like, Erika.
Cole
I didn’t give our pictures to TMZ, I promise you.
Erika
Are you telling me your brother did it behind your back?
Cole
No, Case would never betray me.
Cole
I never even sent him the pictures. I thought I did, but…
Cole
Please, just read this so you at least know I’m not lying.
If it’ll get him to leave, then I’ll read whatever he wants.
I take the phone and look at the screen and see a message thread between Cole and his PR manager, Linda.
It starts with the pictures he took of us last night.
The further I read, the more the knot in my chest begins to loosen. According to the texts, Cole accidentally sent them to her.
Then she took it upon herself to share the good news of our relationship with the public.
When I finish reading, I hand the phone back and let my brain work through this new information.
It’s possible that the conversation was fabricated to make Cole seem innocent…
But that would be a really elaborate ruse.
And what I see in Cole’s eyes isn’t deception. It’s sincerity and regret.
Cole
I messed up, and I’m so sorry.
Cole
I can fix it however you want. Linda can tell them to retract the article.
Cole
She can tell them to post a correction that we’re just friends and were out having fun.
Cole
Or you can tell them that you kicked me to the curb for being an egotistical, shallow asshole.
Cole
Whatever you want to do, I’ll make sure it happens. No mistakes this time.
Erika
I don’t know, Cole.
Erika
This whole thing is a recipe for disaster.
Erika
And dating me isn’t going to be easy either.
Erika
Not once my dad is on the presidential campaign trail next year.
Cole
Hey, I don’t care about that. In life, nothing worth having is easy.
Cole
And if you still want me to leave you alone, I will.
Cole
But if you feel even a fraction of what I feel for you, I hope you’ll let me stay.
Cole
Because I want to be with you, Erika.
Cole
No matter how we spin this, I don’t want it to mean that I lose you.
Damn it, he’s going to make me cry if he keeps this up.
I can’t send him away, not after all of that.
Somehow, in the short time I’ve known him, I fell in love with Cole Ryder so fast it made my head spin.
Fisting the front of his T-shirt, I pull him inside and kiss him.
He doesn’t miss a beat, kicking the door closed behind him as he takes control of the kiss.
I think we both need the physical connection, to feel that tangible tether to one another.
In seconds, we’re ripping off our clothes as he walks me back to my bedroom.
Our mouths fuse together in their own hot embrace.
We drop to the mattress in a tangle of limbs.
And then I lose all sense of time as we explore new heights of pleasure with our bodies…
Afterward, as we lay in my bed, sated and basking in the afterglow of our first time together.
I prop my chin on his chest and look up at him.
Erika
So what do we do now?
He places a tender kiss on my forehead.
Cole
Whatever you want, it’s up to you.
Cole
Say the word and I’ll tell Linda what I need her to do for me.
Could this man be more amazing?
Smiling, I tell him what he’s been wanting to hear from the first time we spoke.
Erika
How about taking me on that fantasy date?
