Dirty Rich Cinderella Story: Ever After: Lori & Cole Read online

  I stop in front of her, but I don’t touch her. “Ready to go inside, Mrs. Brooks?”

  “Not without some rules.”

  My lips twitch. “What rules would those be?”

  “If you spank me—”

  “I’m going to spank you, Lori.”

  “If I say you can.”

  “Okay. Am I going to spank you, Lori?”

  “I haven’t decided.” In that grab for control, she gives me her back and swipes her keycard to open the door My hand comes down on the handle, my body framing hers, my knee in front of her leg, blocking her entry. “Once we go inside, your pretty little ass is mine, unless you say no now.”

  She rotates and faces me, her hand settling on my cheek, her soft fingers rasping over my newly formed stubble. “Except,” she says, “I know you’ll always let me say no, even if I wait until we’re inside.” There is such tenderness in her eyes and voice that she undoes me. “Which is why the answer is yes. You can spank me, Cole. Because I married you for ten million reasons that include trust.”

  If I wasn’t so damn hard I was about to break before those words, I’d be so damn hard I was about to break now. I’m not sure where that puts me now, besides needing inside the room. I take the key from her and swipe the card again. She rotates, her beautiful backside brushing my cock, and the minute I push the door open, she’s inside the room, but she doesn’t get far. I’m a step behind her, my reach long enough to catch her hand and pull her back to me, and by the time the door is shut, she’s against it and I’m in front of her, my legs caging hers.

  “I married you for ten million reasons too,” I assure her, reaching for her zipper and pulling it all the way down, while I go down on a knee in front of her just long enough to lick her clit and hear her gasp before I’m back on my feet, turning her toward the wall to pull away her dress and bra in one quick swipe, to leave her in only her thigh highs and heels.

  “One of those reasons,” I say, “is your perfect ass.” I smack her cheek in a tease of what is to come, and on her yelp, I turn her to press her back against the door. “The other,” I continue, “among the too many to count,” I clarify, “are your stunning breasts.” I reach up and tease her nipple.

  She swallows hard. “You married me for my ass and my—”

  “Stunning breasts,” I say. “The whole package, sweetheart. You’re the whole package for me and that makes me a damn lucky man. Don’t move. Understand?”

  “Yes, Mr. Brooks. I understand.”

  My lips quirk. “I really love these rare moments when you just do what I say. Too bad I can’t get you to listen with your clothes on.” I toe off my shoes.

  She laughs. “I could say the same of you, only you don’t even listen when you’re naked.”

  I pull my shirt off and press my hands to the wall next to her, my gaze raking her naked body before I look at her and say, “Of course I do. When you say ‘harder, faster, more’ I don’t ever deny you, now do I?”

  “I don’t suppose you do,” she whispers, breathless. I really love this woman breathless. “Face the door and don’t even think about turning around.”

  “Is this when you—”

  “I’ll warn you. Do it.”

  She turns and I don’t immediately move. I let her wait. I make us both wait, the sound of her breathing and my breathing the only whispers in the room. Seconds tick by until she whimpers, “Cole, damn it, you’re killing me.”

  I drag my finger over her shoulder, goosebumps lifting in its wake. “Don’t turn,” I warn before I step back and finish undressing, and the sight of her in her heels and thigh highs, her backside waiting on my hand has me ready to bend her over the bed, spank her, fuck her and start over. I reel myself back in, wanting to show her just how much of an escape we can be together. On some level, before we go back to the states, I need her to know this. A need that claws at me in ways I can’t understand and I don’t question.

  This is about more than a spanking. This is about that need to possess her that defies reason and won’t be ignored. We won’t be sleeping this last night in Paris.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Cole

  I walk toward Lori and go down on one knee again, my hands at her ankles. She tries to turn and I flatten one palm on her lower back. “Move before I tell you and I’ll spank you without warning. I might not even fuck you after. And you’ll still like it.”

  “You wouldn’t,” she gasps.

  “Wouldn’t I? Move and you’ll find out that answer. Are we clear?”

  “Crystal,” she says, that defiance I love in her overtaking her voice. “Just remember—what goes around comes around. You’re next. Maybe not tonight, but soon.”

  I remove my hand and step close, but not close enough to touch her again, my hands pressing to the wall just outside hers. “Then I guess I better make your punishment worth mine?” I reply, my lips near her ear, my throbbing cock so damn close to the sweet wet heat of her body.

  “I guess you better,” she dares to challenge.

  I smack her backside, firm but not hard, and when she yelps, my lips quirk, and my cock twitches. Damn, I love this woman. I don’t give her time to recover from the shock, returning to her ankles, once more and my teeth scraping her pretty little backside. She arches her back, and I run my hands up the front of her thighs, my lips pressing to her lower back. I shift to her side, my lips at her hip, one hand on her belly and one on her backside.

  “What comes next, Lori?” I ask, my teeth now scraping her hip.

  “Apparently you spank me,” she whispers.

  “No apparently about it.” I rub her cheek and give it another gentle but present smack, the fingers of my other hand sliding into the wet heat of her body at the same moment that she yelps again. “That’s not a spanking,” I say. “You know that, right?”

  “Yes,” she pants out. “I’m aware, that you’re taunting me.”

  I smack her backside again and slide my fingers deep along the seam of her body. She moans and arches into my hand. “Does that feel like a taunt?”

  “Yes,” she whispers. “Yes, it does.”

  “Not pleasure? Because if it doesn’t feel good, I can stop.”

  “You’re evil, Cole.”

  “And you like it.” I nip her hip and lave the offended skin before I push to my feet, my hands caressing a path over the porcelain perfection of her back and belly, until one hand is between her shoulder blades, while the other gently teases her nipples. She arches into the touch, and the instant she reacts, I turn her to face me, pressed against the wall, my hands back on the surface by her head, but I ensure we do not touch anywhere despite the fact that I want to touch her everywhere. I want to feel her everywhere.

  My gaze rakes over her perfect curves, a slow inspection that has my body humming with how much I want her. “You’re so fucking beautiful,” I murmur, my voice low, rough with everything she makes me feel and want. No woman has ever made me feel anything like this.

  “And this makes you want to spank me?”

  “I am going to spank you and I’m going to do it because we both like it. I do. So do you.” I push off the wall and back up. “Go to the bed and get on your hands and knees.”

  Her beautiful eyes spark with shock. “What?”

  “You heard me. Go to the bed—”

  “I heard. You want me to—”

  “Yes. Now. The sooner you do it, the sooner we can fuck, and make love.”

  “Fuck or make love?”

  I grab her and pull her to me, cupping her head and kissing the hell out of her. “Both,” I say. “We can do both. That’s who we are now.”

  She smiles, and her hand settles on my jaw. “Yes. That is who we are and—”

  “And what?” I press.

  “I like it.”

  My heart warms with those words. My heart has warmed in ways I didn’t think possible with Lori, and it does so because of Lori. “I want you
to like it,” I assure her, walking backward and turning her until she’s standing in front of the bed, my hands on her shoulders, erection at her hip, as I lean in and whisper. “Now do as I say.” I lean in and kiss her. “On your hands and knees.”

  She reaches down, strokes my cock and then goes down on her hands and knees, clearly reminding me that she can test my control. With anyone else, I would not like this at all, but they are not her. With her, with my wife, I fucking love this challenge. I go down on a knee beside her, my hand, running up her belly and teasing her nipples before one palm settles at her backside and the other settles between her shoulder blades. I rub her backside, deep caresses, her soft, raspy breathing filling the air. Over and over I warm her skin, readying her, my fingers sliding into her sex, stroking her until she’s so damn wet, she can be no wetter, waiting for that moment that finally comes.

  “Are you going to warn me?” she asks.

  “This is your warning,” I say, and then smack her backside hard and fast two times, and then I shift and enter her, driving deep. I pull back and spank her again, driving into her, pulling back. I spank her again. I drive in again.

  “Cole,” Lori cries out, pleasure and need etched in my name that leaves no room for me to ask where she’s at right now, what she wants, but still, I roll to my side, pulling her back to my chest, cupping her breast. “How are you right now?” I ask, my lips at her ear, needing to know she’s with me, in this, fully aroused. “Are you with me, Lori?”

  “How can you not know that answer?” She reaches behind her, grabs my hip and presses against me. “Does that answer your question?”

  I lean around her, kissing her, our bodies grinding together as I do, and it’s just not enough. I thrust into her, and she pants and covers my hand on her breast. Her body arching into the next pump of my cock. And the next. And the next. We are wild, frenzied, and I need her closer. I pull out, and she’s turning to face me even before I can do it for her. A moment later, her hip is at my hip, and I’m driving into her again, our lips colliding, tongues stroking, that extra edge of intimacy, shifting the energy, taking us from fucking to making love.

  We go from wild, frenzied need, to a slow simmering burn as I stroke hair from her face. “Do you know how crazy you make me? How absolutely and insanely in lust and love I am with you?”

  “Good thing since you just married me,” she says, her hand settling on my face. “And good thing I feel the same and—” I kiss her and there are no more words. We rock together, sway together, touch and kiss, and slowly shudder into release. We ease into relaxation and I roll Lori to her back, leaning over her. “Tell me you liked that.”

  “You know I did or you wouldn’t have kept going.”

  “First thing that comes to your mind. Don’t think. Just answer. What were you thinking about when I was spanking you?”

  “I wasn’t,” she says. “I was just in the moment.”

  “Good. When you feel like the world is spinning and about to fall from under your feet, you come to me, and we’ll escape. We’ll make it stop spinning.”

  “Are you saying the world is spinning? What is going on?”

  “Nothing but what I’ve already told you about the trial chaos. And nothing that won’t go on over and over, and in different ways.”

  “I know. I get that.”

  “But the hell you went through is fresh for you and you’re about to call your mother, who you almost lost not that long ago. I just want you to know that as you call her, as we go back to the real world that I can’t promise you that world will never spin. I can’t even promise, that I won’t need you to steady it for me sometimes. But know this: I’ll do the same for you. I promise you that we will steady it together.”

  “I know that,” she says. “I said ‘I do,’ remember?”

  “You did and I’m going to remind you of that many times and ways tonight. Call your mother.” I kiss her hand. “But don’t put any clothes on.” I kiss her and push off the bed, walking to the door to find my phone before returning to the bed to offer it to her. She sits up and shivers.

  “I think I need a shirt.” She gives me a coy look. “You can take it off me after.”

  “And I will,” I promise, moving back to the door to grab my shirt, which I drape around her. She shoves her hands into the sleeves and I help her roll them up, listening as she chats with her mother, laughing with joy at several things her mother says. When finally the chat is over, Lori’s smile fades as she hands me back the phone. “What was bad enough that you felt they needed to leave the city, Cole? What haven’t you told me?”

  Tension rolls down my spine. “They didn’t need to leave the city,” I say. “But I know you. You’ll worry if your mother is in the line of fire. I wasn’t going to let you worry like that.” I stand up and pull on my pants.

  She scoots to the end of the bed. “You just put your pants on when I asked that question,” she says. “As if you’re preparing for some sort of battle. And you did so right after you gave me the spinning world talk.”

  Fuck. This woman knows me. I go down on one knee in front of her, taking her hand in mine. “It’s normal. The chaos after a trial this big is normal.”

  “And yet, your reaction doesn’t feel normal.”

  Because you’ve been threatened, I think. I’ve never had my wife, and the woman I love, threatened. But this time. I have. This time there are threats against Lori that I am not about to tell her about in full detail until we’re home, security is in place, and her mother is close by. And if Walker Security does their job, there will be nothing to tell when we get home.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Lori

  Cole is still on his knee in front of me, tension radiating off of him. I reach out and run my fingers over the stubble of his jaw. “Talk to me. We’re supposed to share everything now, remember?”

  “We do, Lori. I’m also supposed to be the person that makes you feel safe and protected.”

  “I didn’t marry you to feel safe and protected, Cole.”

  “But it’s a need you have and if you’re denying that, I’ll just claim it for you. That need is why you didn’t trust me at first.”

  “Cole,” I breathe out, this man delivering so many feelings in me so very easily. “God, I love you, husband, but I don’t need you to make me feel safe and protected and yet you do. Because the thing about life is, that when you have someone you know will endure the bad with you and make it better, you do feel safe and protected. I do—”

  He presses his lips to mine, his hand at the back of my head, and there is tenderness and passion in this kiss. There is love. There is just so much. When his lips part from mine, he strokes my hair behind my ear. “Just move a little closer to me if the ground feels like it’s falling. Okay?”

  “Yes, but I need to say something that I fear is at work here. My father is why I didn’t trust you at first. He was my hero that was flawed. I’m still accepting that but I don’t want you to think that I need you to be perfect. I’m afraid I’ve made you feel that way.”

  “No,” he says. “I get it. I know the hell he left you to clean up.” He kisses my hand. “Perhaps we’re dealing with my demons now, not yours.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means I have you now. I’m not going to let anyone take you from me.”

  Realization hits me, Cole was far more alone when we found each other than I was. His parents are gone. He has no siblings. And yet this man was all in with me from the beginning. I made him fight for us. He did. So very perfectly.

  He pushes off his knee, and sits on the bed beside me and takes me down on the mattress, the two of us lying side by side, facing each other. “Here’s what I’m going to say to you before we head home. I’m going to be a bulldog about protecting you. You’ll call it controlling. You might even be right. We’ll fight. And we will talk, and then fuck it out. Deal?”

  My lips curve, tenderness filling me at ju
st how honest he’s been with me. “The best deal ever.”

  ***

  It’s almost twenty-four hours later, near sunset, when our plane touches down in New York City but that sexy encounter with Cole that turned tormented has been lingering in my mind. Actually, I’m pretty sure the entire encounter was driven by torment. I even believe that spanking was driven by his need to escape, not mine, or maybe both of us needed the escape.

  Cole has remained edgy, his mood darker than usual, despite him touching me often, despite gentleness and love in his eyes when he looks at me. He’s still fretting and while I don’t deny he’s told me the truth about what awaits us here in the city, I think he’s got a gut feeling gnawing at him. And the man has an incredible gut feeling or he wouldn’t be the all-star attorney that he is. Which is exactly why the minute we’re taxiing on the runway, I dial my mother. “How are things?” I ask, fearful that trouble in the form of protestors or who knows what else might have found her.

  “Glorious,” she says, a smile in her voice. “This place Cole rented for us is incredible. He really shouldn’t have done this. He’s too generous, honey.”

  My heart warms with the knowledge that Cole has gone all-out for my mother, though it’s not surprising to me at all. “He is,” I say, my eyes meeting Cole’s, his warm with a mix of affection and curiosity.

  He arches a brow that says, “I am what?” no words needed. Often, Cole communicates with me with no words needed and I love this about him and us.

  I smile and cut my gaze, intentionally leaving him guessing. “I need to go, mom,” I say, “but call if you need us.”

  “Us,” she murmurs. “I love the way you are an us with that man.”

  “Me too, actually,” I say, amazed that she has latched onto the same word that I have, and about how much my life, and hers, has changed in less than a year.

  “Love you,” she says.

  “Love you, too.”

  We disconnect as the plane pulls into the hangar. “I am what?” Cole asks, taking my hand.