AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When we step inside the bar, all heads turn, and except for the music, the whole place goes quiet. Cole seems unfazed as he leads me to the back of the room, pulling out a chair for me to sit at around one of the few empty tables. It seems busy in here for a Monday night and when I look around, I see that Caroline has been in and put up more pictures of her missing daughter.
“Hey, Cole.” A female voice distracts me from paying attention to them and wondering what’s become of her. I look up and see a tall, beautiful waitress fluttering her fake eyelashes at him and it makes me want to tear them off her face.
“I’ll get two beers, please, Iris.” He nods his head before taking the hat off his head, placing it on the table, and running his hands through his almost black hair.
“So, you gonna lay down the ground rules or shall I?” I decide to get things started before we start drinking.
“You can start.” He frowns and tips his head for me to continue.
“Okay. If you’re fucking me you aren’t fucking anyone else.” I feel my cheeks heat a little and I don’t know if it’s out of pride or frustration when I glance my eyes back to Iris who clearly wants to fuck him, if she hasn’t already.
“I’m good with that.” His eyes remain firm and deadly serious as he stares at me across the table.
“Like I said before, this stays between us.” I can’t help wondering how the hell that's meant to happen when he made it very clear back at the ranch that we were going out together tonight, and the fact that we’re in the most public place in Fork River together right now.
“I’m good with that too,” he agrees.
“Those are my only limits.” I rest back in my chair and wait for him to give me his terms and conditions.
“Why are ya here, Red?” He narrows his eyes at me. “And I want the real reason, none of that looking for adventure bull shit.”
“Thatiswhy I'm here.” I laugh.
“We don’t lie to each other.”
“What?” I shake my head in confusion.
“It’s one of my hard limits. We don’t lie to each other. We remain honest and upfront, that way neither of us get hurt.”
“You scared I’m gonna hurt ya, big boy?” Cole stops the smirk from reaching my cheek when he quickly slams his hand over mine.
“No fuckin’ lies, okay? I wanna know why you're here. You can trust me. I won’t tell anyone.”
“I came here because life in L.A. was boring. It was safe and I don’t like to play things safe.” I give him a partial truth at least.
Cole seems to accept my answer and slouches back a little before Iris returns to the table with our drinks. He nods his gratitude as she places them in front of us and then waits for her to be gone before he talks again.
“No catchin’ feelings.” He lays down his next rule and I ignore the fact it puts a bitter taste in my mouth. I won’t even contemplate that it might be a little late for that.
“Not a problem.” I paste on a smile for him.
“And that. That right there, it needs to stop.” He points at my face.
“What?” I laugh at him again.
“That smile you do, you know it fuckin’ grates on me,” he hisses through his teeth, and I roll my tongue around my cheek and lean across the table to get closer to him.
“It only grates on you because you like it so much,” I taunt him a little more.
“Don’t make me break your second rule.” Cole shakes his head.
“What are you talkin’ about?”
“You want this to stay between us, right?” He leans forward so we’re almost touching.
“Yeah.”
“Well, that would be pretty hard to do after this entire bar full of people see me fuck that smirk right off your face right here on this table.” He winks before taking a sip of his beer and relaxing back again.
