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I make fast work of taking a shower, keeping my hair tied up high on my head so it doesn’t get wet. Stepping back out into our room, I see Cole splayed out on his bed, flicking through the tourist guide that was on the nightstand, and I feel a little less guilty when I notice his eyes follow me across the room.
Keeping the towel wrapped around my chest I start to slowly unpack my things. I’m fully aware that his glance keeps shifting between the book in his hand and me, and I have to admit I like how it feels. This man may have broken my heart but, try as he will, he can’t fight the connection there is between us. I delve into my bag and pull out one of my thongs, laying it out on the bed before I retrieve the matching bra.
Cole continues to pretend he’s not looking, but each time his eyes abandon what he’s trying to read so they can focus on me, I feel the victorious smile on my face grow wider.
“What you playin’ at, Red?” His attention is fixed hard on the book now.
“Me? Nothing, just getting myself ready.” I take a risk and let the towel drop to the floor, exposing me completely and getting rewarded with his full attention. He places the guide back on the nightstand and turns on his side towards me, propping up his head with his hand and letting his eyes slowly roll over my body from head to toe.
“You like the view, Cole?” I ask, wondering what I’m expecting to achieve from this.
Cole’s made it clear that him and me are not gonna happen. But the way he’s looking at me like he wants to devour me at least makes me think he’s as mad about that fact as I am.
“Put some clothes on.” He narrows his eyes like his patience is about to run out.
“What’s the hurry? Ain’t like you haven’t seen it all before.” I let my hair out and turn around, resting my shoulder against the wall and looking out the window.
“Get back from the window.” I glance over my shoulder and notice that he’s not looking so casual anymore, he’s sitting up on the bed and actually looks a little furious. “I mean it, Savannah, get back.”
“We’re four floors up, who’s gonna see?” I shrug back at him before getting back to my observing.
I feel him approaching from behind me, and when his fingers tangle into my hair and tug it from the root, that all-familiar tingle spreads over my skin and makes me moan.
“I know what you’re doin’,” he whispers harshly into my ear. “And nothin’ would please me more than to press your hot little tits up against this glass and fuck you with the whole city watchin’. But that’s not what I came here to do. Now help me be a gentlemen and quit the fuckin’ games.” He releases me and backs away, leaving my body tethering on the edge and desperate for more of his touch.
He returns to his bed and when I turn around, I smile when I see him sitting on the edge of it with his head low and hands linked over his knees. I take my time shimmying into my panties and fixing my bra before I move to stand right in front of him. His head slowly lifts and once his eyes are fixed on mine I smile at him again.
“You should know by now that the last thing I want, is for you to be a gentleman.” I turn my back on him and feel his eyes burnmy skin as I throw on one of the other dresses I brought with me, then heading for the door I open it for him.
“Let’s eat.”
Cole looks out of place in the hotel restaurant where we’re mainly surrounded by men in suits. There's the odd hook up happening too but Cole doesn’t seem at all interested by all what’s going on around us as he tucks into his steak.
“Do you get out of town often?” I attempt to make conversation with him while we eat.
“No. Home is home, I got everything I need there.” He shrugs before taking a sip of his red wine.
“So, you gonna tell me why you agreed to come with me?” I ask the question that's been going round and round in my head since last night.
“Because I’ve been a dick to you, and I figured this could be my way to make up for it.” He refuses to look up from his plate as he answers.
“I don’t understand you, Cole…”
“You don’t understandme?” He laughs cruelly “One minute you're blushing in an elevator tripping over your words, and the next you're stripping out of a towel and exposing yourself to the whole damn world through a window.” He drops his knife and fork with a clatter and looks up at me like I’ve angered him.
“Maybe that’s because I feel more comfortable around you when things are like that. I don’t like what happened between us. I don’t know how to be around you anymore, but I do know that we’ll always have that sexual pull between us. That’s something not even you can deny.”
I can tell my words get under his skin by the way he clenches his jaw and grips his cutlery a little tighter after he picks it back up, but I’m not done yet.
“I wish I could understand why you put so much effort into making people believe you're a bad person when in real?—”
“I am a bad person, Savannah,” he talks over me again. “Worse than you could ever imagine. Don’t make the mistake of doubting that.”
“Then why do I feel so safe when I’m around you?” I question him, picking up my wine glass and taking a drink.
“Because you know I’d never let anyone hurt you,” he whispers.
“Wrong again.Youhurt me.” Cole closes his eyes and takes a breath as my words sink in. “I feel safe with you because I know that deep down in your black twisted heart, you care about me. You wanna protect me from the world and everything in it and right now you're trying to protect me from yourself. And what is hurting me more than anything, is that you don’t trust me to know my own mind and make my own decisions. You can tell yourself that what you're doing is for my benefit, that you're doing some greater good by keeping us apart, but what you're really doing is denying me the chance to be happy. Think about that.” I decide I’m done with dinner and pick up my purse, leaving Cole to sit and finish his steak by himself.
