No.No.No.She agreed that it’d be just sex, one night only!She’d promisedherselfshe wasn’t going to fall for a manfirstever again.And here she was, ready to make pie crust from scratch after she’d promised him—after he’dmadeher promise—nothing but a one-night stand.
She needed to stay calm.These extra warm, fuzzy feelings she was having could just be the lingering remnants of all the great orgasms she’d had.Shecouldstick to the agreement.Sure, Cole was unexpectedly kind.Brave.Protective.Smart.Kind of grumpy, but also ridiculously hot, funny in a dark, dry kind of way.But that didn’t mean she wasfallingfor him.
Oh, who the fuck was she kidding?She’d been halfway in love with him since he gave her that damn road safety kit.She’d been lying to herself that what she’d been feeling for him ever since was just lust and a minor, almost insignificant little crush.It was time to face a very inconvenient truth.
She was falling in love with Cole Clayton.
Oh, Lord.This was bad.A few good days, a dozen or so fantastic orgasms, and she was ready to throw herself at him, prepared tobeghim to love her back.She’d broken her one and only dating rule and broken it a big, messy, irrevocablystupidway.
If she kept going down this path, she’d be proposing marriage to him in no time with a beautiful golden pie crust.He’d respond with confusion and a gianthell no.The imagined humiliation and pain that scenario caused forced a little cry of dismay from the back of her throat.
Cole practically vaulted over the marble kitchen island and was at her side in three strides.“Talk to me,” he said.“What happened?
She swallowed hard as his gaze swept over her, searching for blood, burns, and missing limbs.“I’m, uh, what?”
“You made a noise.Where are you hurt?”
Wasin her heartan appropriate answer?Should she tell him she’d just hurt her own feelings by letting her innate sense of romantic whimsy take over her life—again?“I, uh, just remembered I forgot to buy fresh rosemary for the chicken.”
One brow lifted.He didn’t believe her.She could see it all over his face.But she’d bedamnedif she was going to tell him the truth.“You’re shaking,” he said quietly.
Yep.Like a fucking leaf.And it was frankly just rude that he’d not only noticed but said something about it.“It’s nothing.”
Cole took her hand, turned it over, traced his thumb over the pulse point pounding in her wrist.“Sounded like you were hurt.”
“I actually thought a giant spider had run across your shoe,” Tenley said from the other room.“That’s forsurethe noise I make when a spider gets too close to me.”
Cole ignored her, repeating, “It sounded like you were hurt.”
The concern in his voice made something twist low in her belly.He sounded…shaken.Because of her.Because he thought?—
She took a deep breath.This wasn’t helping her delusions of romantic grandeur.“There was no need to come running.I’m not hurt,” she said, staring hard at their joined hands because if she looked at his face, she might do something stupid.
“Side effect of the job, I guess,” Cole said.“I hear that sound, I come running.”
Tenley snorted.“Sure.Yeah.The job.I’m sure everyfakehusband acts like Captain America rushing in to save Bucky Barnes when hisfakewife makes a tiny sound of distress.Not weird atall.”
There it was again.That squeeze in her chest.That stupid, swoony feeling that hadnothingto do with a lack of fresh rosemary.“You don’t have to do that.”
“Yes,” he said simply.“I do.”
The intensity in his eyes waskillingher.It should be illegal for a man who’d insisted on a one-night stand agreement to look at anyone like that.
Tenley moved into the kitchen and leaned on the island, resting her chin in her palm.“If this is yourpretendrelationship, I can’t wait to see what you’re like when you both admit how you actually feel.”
Cole took a step back and the loss of his nearness hit herwayharder than it should have.“Tenley?”he said, his eyes still on Hadley.
“Yeah?”
“No one likes you.”
She chuckled.“Yeah.I get that a lot.”
On a normal day, Hadley would’ve loved the shit out of their brother/sister-type banter.But with the revelation that she was firmly in the middle of a one-sided romance that was supposed to be a one-night stand, she wasn’t having much fun.“Can you go back to talking about the mission?”
Tenley waved her off.“Break in, plant the sleeping bugs and the acoustic tool, search for any proof our guy is a sleeper agent.Easy peasy.So simple even a boy could do it.I’mwaymore interested in whatever it is the two of you have going on.”
Cole ignored her—again—and sighed.“You’retrulyOK?”he asked Hadley.
