He sighed and glanced at the clock. He was ill at ease. He was fucking nervous, and that pissed him off. He felt like he was preparing for some kind of goddamn test that he didn’t know the answers to.
Lucas was a cagey bastard, and he’d caught Cole completely and utterly off guard with his proposal. It had been on the tip of Cole’s tongue to refuse. It enraged him on Ren’s behalf. But then he remembered those damn rules. Or rather that there were no damn rules in the lives that he, Lucas and Ren had chosen. Only those they made themselves.
And then, when his anger and surprise had abated, he knew that there was no way in hell he could walk away from this kind of opportunity. He wasn’t entirely certain what Lucas’s motives were in offering Ren to him on a silver platter, but what Cole did with the chance was what mattered.
He had another chance to make Ren love him. To make up to her all the pain he’d caused her. To show her the man he’d become.
He’d become more focused. Intense. He had a harder edge now and that might scare the shit out of her. He wasn’t the same young man who adored her beyond reason and was a hesitant participant in their experimentation. He wasn’t even sure he could be that man any longer.
It was a choice he agonized over. Show her the truth and take the chance that she’d never come back to him. Or lie to her and withhold the true part of himself forever.
Neither held any appeal but he knew he couldn’t lie to her or himself. Lucas had warned him of the consequences of such an action. Ren would suffer no pretenses and he was fiercely glad of it. He wanted honesty between them.
He had two weeks. Two weeks to win back the woman he’d never stopped loving. And at the end of that time, he had to hope like hell that she’d choose him because he couldn’t face losing her a second time. The first time had changed him irrevocably. This time would destroy him.
Ren sat between Lucas’s knees as the limousine slid down the highway to God only knew where. Lucas had been cryptic on details and very explicit on how she was to dress and what she was and wasn’t to wear.
She was on her knees, legs apart, the folds of her silk skirt fanned out on the floorboard. The top she wore had a plunging neckline that emphasized her full breasts and barely covered her nipples.
It was an outfit put together with access in mind. He wanted unfettered access to her.
He was distant though. And preoccupied. Whether it was business or something else entirely, she wasn’t sure, but he seemed restless and cagey and she knew from experience that he was harder and rougher when he was in such a mood.
He slid his hand down the middle of her chest and then impatiently pushed aside the material covering her breasts. He thumbed her nipple idly, almost as if he couldn’t quite decide what he wanted to do with her.
It was unusual for Lucas to show clear indecision and she wondered what could possibly be occupying his mind that he was so distracted.
Abruptly, he slid his finger between the band of her collar and her skin and yanked forward until she was leaning against him, her belly pressed to his crotch. He kissed her. Hard.
She felt …branded. Like he was proving all over again that she belonged to him. His teeth bit into her lip, drawing blood, and then he licked over the tender area, sweeping the blood away and onto his tongue.
She wanted to ask him what bothered him, but knew that particular boundary between them shouldn’t be breached. He was private, and if he wanted her to know, he would tell her.
As he pulled away, he held her face in one hand, his grip firm as he stared into her eyes. He looked as though his control was barely leashed and that he might toss her down and take her roughly.
Her breath caught and held with anticipation. Her body tingled and came alive. Her clit pulsed and ached. Her breasts tightened, her nipples hardening.
“How well you know me,” he murmured.
He stroked his hand over her cheek and then over the lip he’d nipped, soothing away the slight ache. His features hardened, and she shivered at the sudden infusion of darkness into his eyes.
“Get up on the seat. On your hands and knees.”
She rose up on her knees, crawled over his left leg and onto the long seat he was slouched in. Her palms sank into the sumptuous leather and her knees pressed just at the seam between two sections of the seat.
She felt him move behind her. A cool rush skittered over her ass as he pushed her skirt to her waist and allowed it to bunch there.
“There are two things I want tonight,” he said, the rasp of arousal deep in his voice. “My mark on your ass and my cum inside your body when we arrive.”
She almost asked where they were going but held her tongue. He wouldn’t have liked that slip. She shifted restlessly, aching for his hand against her bottom.
The slap, when it came, startled her and sent her forward. She braced herself against the seat and pushed back, begging silently for more. He loved when she did that.
