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“Ha! Got ourselves a little one-man justice league, huh?” cackled the dark-haired man.
Over his shoulder I could see one of the blond men getting back up to clock him from behind and I rasped out, “Cole!”
He swiveled around at just the right moment to catch the guy’s arms with his hands and shove him hard. The guy stumbled backward several feet and fell to the ground with a grunt. Then Cole took on the second blond guy who was running at him full-force. With a quick duck he managed to dodge the assault, spin around, and kick the guy in the side. I heard a sickening crunch and the guy went down, curled up and clutching his ribs. The dark-haired man went barreling toward Cole and made contact with a smack, trying to wrestle him to the ground with sheer weight.
They fell tangled to the concrete, pummeling each other with violent punches. I sobbed and tried to wriggle loose, but the stringy-haired man gripped me tight, bruising my arms. He looked up and down the street and then threw me over his shoulder and took off running, leaving his cohorts behind to handle Cole. I kicked and screamed, hitting his back with my fists, without any apparent effect. I watched as Cole struggled to get free of the dark-haired man, and just as I began to lose hope entirely, he elbowed the guy in the face and broke loose to pursue Stringy.
“MACKENZIE!” he cried, sprinting toward us. He was leaner than the stringy-haired man, but he was much faster, and he overtook us before long. Realizing he couldn’t fight back with me over his shoulder, Stringy threw me down and turned back to swing a heavy arm at Cole, who evaded it by mere centimeters. Still, I knew Cole was far outmatched by this titanic hulk of a man, and I scrambled to my feet, thinking maybe I could help somehow. My eyes darted around in search of some kind of weapon. Shaking, I picked up a palm-sized rock from the concrete rubble in the road nearby and pelted the back of Stringy’s hideous head. He turned around with murderous eyes and lunged for me. I shrieked in terror and fell backward. Just before Stringy could reach me, Cole kicked him hard in the backs of his knees, causing the huge man to buckle and fall. I rolled over and got quickly to my feet, looking to Cole for guidance in the split second before Stringy could recover.
His lips mouthed the word, “RUN.”
And so I ran, faster than I ever had, back toward the direction I came from, and Cole fell in step behind me. Taking my hand, he said, “My bike is just around the corner. Stay with me! Keep up! Just a little farther now!”
I felt dizzy and nauseous as we bolted down a cross street and I saw a dark grey motorcycle waiting about a block away. My legs shook and I felt just about to collapse, but Cole deftly scooped me into his arms and kept running at the same pace. As my eyes rolled in my head, I managed to look back and see that Stringy couldn’t be more than ten paces behind. The blood rushed loudly in my ears and I began to lose consciousness as we approached the bike. Cole straddled the motorcycle, pulling my arms around to his chest.
“Stay with me. I’ve got you, but you have to hold onto me, Mackenzie. You can do it, just hold on!” he reassured me urgently. With what strength I could muster, I dug my fingers into the thin material of his T-shirt and pressed my aching cheek against his back. There was a loud, thrumming vibration as he started the engine. I felt Stringy’s fingertips barely graze the back of my neck before we peeled out into the street at an almost-certainly illegal speed. I could hear, distantly, over the roar of the engine, the stringy-haired man yelling obscenities. His voice receded as we sped away. We rode on for what felt like hours, but was probably about fifteen minutes, until we slowed to a halt outside a vaguely historical-looking building with a dark green awning. Cole hopped off the motorbike and once again scooped me into his arms to carry me into the building, stopping only to swipe a card at the entrance. I closed my eyes for a moment and then opened them in an elevator, staring up at Cole’s strong jaw line, his full lips.
I closed them again and didn’t reopen them until I felt him lower me onto a soft surface.
A bed. His bed? I wondered idly. He disappeared for a few minutes and returned with a glass of water and an aspirin. I took both eagerly and sat up straight, my head swimming. He sat down in front of me, peering into my face with wide, glassy eyes. We sat this way in silence for awhile, as I sipped the water gingerly and he stared at me. Finally, he spoke, and his voice was so gentle, so soft, that it shocked me.
“I am so sorry,” he started. “This is all my fault. I wanted so badly to save you that I pushed you into danger. I am so, so sorry, Mackenzie.”
I didn’t respond, feeling suddenly so at ease. A warm, comforting relief washed over me. Suddenly, our conversation at the coffee shop didn’t seem to matter very much anymore. That was a problem for another day. Right now, in this moment, even with my aching cheek and my racing heart, I was oddly at peace. Cole took the water from me and set it on the nightstand, then leaned close to my
face to inspect the damage.
“God. Did they hit you?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper. I nodded. “Damn it!” he swore, and punched the side of the bed so that it rattled. He turned back to me and swiped a hand over his face.
“You were just in time,” I said quietly. He perked up at the sound of my voice in a way that was almost childlike, it was so endearing. Cole’s eyes, just the exact shade as the shallow waters of the Pacific on a sunny day, passed slowly over every part of my face. He reached up to take my cheek in his hand, carefully, as though he was terrified of hurting me. I didn’t wince at the pain throbbing in my cheek. Instead, I leaned into it, into his palm, and closed my eyes.
I heard him gasp lightly, and then another hand rose to caress my chin, my brows, my cheekbone. I opened my eyes again just as his thumb hovered over the curve of my lips. I breathed raggedly, my heart galloping in my chest.
“Mackenzie,” he murmured. Before I could think better of it, my lips pursed to gently kiss his thumb, and I watched the color drain from his face and his jaw tighten.
“Cole,” I whispered, “please.” I couldn’t put a word to what I was asking for, what I was begging for so earnestly, but it was there, and it hung suspended between us in the air. For a long minute we sat this way, paralyzed with the depth of what we were fighting for and against all at the same time. Finally, his hands moved slowly back to brush through my hair, and then he pulled me close and pressed his lips against mine. An electric thrill shot through my veins, loosening my muscles, seizing at my heart. Scarcely brave enough to move, I opened my mouth and moved closer, exhaling into the kiss. His fingers tangled in my hair and held me there a moment, then fell to my shoulders. He caressed my neck, running a soft fingertip along my collarbone and down across my breast. I shivered and took his face in my hand, stroking the stubbly outline of his jaw, then eagerly reaching to tug at his shirt.
Suddenly he dropped his hands and broke away, recoiling as though I were some kind of venomous snake. There was something akin to horror in his eyes, but I glanced down and saw the bulge at the front of his jeans. “We can’t,” he mumbled, shaking his head slowly. “It would ruin you, Mackenzie. I can’t let you do this—I can’t let myself do this to you.”
“I know what I want,” I replied, unzipping my hoodie and dropping it over the side of the bed. Before he could protest, I slipped my tank top back over my head and let it fall, as well. He stared at me open-mouthed, nostrils flaring like he was preparing for a ten-story plunge.
“You’re… confused, lost. It’s not right.” He breathed heavily, his eyes raking down the length of my almost-bare torso. I took his hand quickly and moved it to my breast. He looked to be in physical pain, and I worried that maybe I just wasn’t good enough. I dropped his hand and looked away, feeling the heat rise in my cheeks. “I was supposed to protect you—from them, from everything. I didn’t think I’d have to shield you from myself,” he said bitterly.
“Cole,” I said, my voice quavering. I tucked a loose tendril of hair behind my ear. My braid was fraying and falling apart, so I tugged the hair tie away and let it fall loose and wavy around my shoulders.
“God,” he breathed, “you’re just so fucking beautiful. I shouldn’t feel this way.”
“What way?” I asked, moving ever so slightly closer. My heart skipped a beat.
He sighed, shaking his head. “I shouldn’t want this.”
“I want this, too. More than anything,” I said emphatically. “Please.”
Cole groaned as I leaned into his chest, inhaling deeply the scent of him, soaking in the radiant warmth of his skin. I slowly reached back and unclasped my bra. His fingers hesitantly eased the straps down my shoulders and tossed the bra into the little pile on the floor. Shaking, unsure of myself, I began to massage his erection through his jeans, and he flinched into my touch hungrily. Looking up at him, I saw that his eyes were clouded, soft. He paused for only a second before capturing my lips in another kiss, pressing his tongue into my mouth.
“I want you so bad,” I moaned against his lips. He took hold of my arms and pushed me flat on the bed, throwing his shirt across the room unceremoniously. He kissed a line down the side of my neck and I felt a thrum of pleasure down my body as he reached my nipple with his mouth, taking the other between two fingers. He fumbled to remove his jeans, then mine, tugging them down my legs until I could kick them off. He stood in his black boxers, his chest heaving as he stared down at me, taking me in with his eyes. When my hand trailed down to lightly massage my pussy through my underwear, he made a vaguely animalistic groan and straddled me, pinning my arms above my head, then bending down to kiss me deeply. I wrapped my legs around his waist, pushing up to grind against his erection. The friction was heavenly, utterly delicious, and I gently bit his lower lip. He gasped and laughed quietly, grinning at me inches from my face.
“I know you’re a virgin,” he crooned, his voice raspy.
