“What’s the matter?” She asked, taking in his weary appearance.
“Did I wake you?” He asked, looking her directly in the eye.
“No.” Sierra took a step back so he could come inside. “I couldn’t sleep.”
“Me either.” He admitted, thrusting his hands into his pockets and strolling toward the window.
Despite everything that happened over the course of the last few hours, the pain that Sierra now felt deep down from Luke’s abandonment, one look at Cole and all negative thoughts vanished. The man had a body to die for, his broad back rippled with strength, and she could see the flex and give of his muscles beneath the thin fabric of his t-shirt. Tanned arms flexed with restrained energy as he turned to face her.
Sierra took a step forward, realizing exactly what Cole had come to her for. The same thing she realized she now wanted from him. Comfort.
“I want you, Sierra.” Cole said, a flash of insecurity fluttered on his handsome face before it was masked with a deep, dark hunger.
Sierra understood the vulnerability, and she suspected that he wouldn’t want her to know exactly how much Luke’s abandonment had affected him, as well. Standing before her, Cole’s emotions were masked entirely, but she figured they were weighing heavily on his mind. Neither of them could control Luke. Neither of them had the ability to help Luke understand that he couldn’t blame himself for so many things that were out of his control.
The feelings.
The need.
Just from the amount of time she had been around him, Sierra knew that Luke thought he could control everything, every situation, but then when he realized he was just as human as the rest of them, he panicked. Based on the concern reflected in Cole’s beautiful deep blue eyes, Sierra accepted what Cole already had. Luke wouldn’t be back tonight.
Unlike Luke, Sierra wasn’t going to walk away. Not from him and not from Cole. She needed to reassure Cole. He’d taken a chance coming to her room and if the words Cole had said that morning rang true, he wasn’t going to back down either.
Taking a step closer, she gauged his reaction, but he didn’t move. His eyes locked with hers and Sierra held her breath, waiting for that moment when he might push her away. Instead, he took a step closer and her heart pounded harder.
“Make love to me, Cole.” She whispered.
In an instant, Cole was on her, his hard body pressed firmly against hers, the feel of his erection pressed between her legs. Sierra latched onto him, melding her lips with his, relishing the comfort that she found in his arms. Without hesitation, he managed to rid her of her clothes, along with his own, claiming a condom from his back pocket before he had her flat on her back.
“I can’t be easy, Sierra. I need to be inside of you right now.”
“Please.” She whispered, pulling his head down, and when their lips touched once again, she realized just how much he had been holding back.
“I need to feel you.” Cole stated, pushing up from her as he opened the foil packet and sheathed himself before aligning his body with hers once again, driving into her in one hard thrust.
“Oh God!” Cole was buried to the hilt, filling the empty, lonely spaces that Luke had left when he had walked out on them earlier. And suddenly Luke no longer mattered because Cole was here.
Sierra pulled him closer, the weight of him on top of her felt like heaven. When he tried to pull back, she held him closer, wanting to feel all of him against her. Then he was kissing her again, gripping her hands and lifting them above her head as he drove into her over and over again. As her body tightened around him, he slowed his pace and then pushed back, allowing her to gaze deep into those all seeing, all knowing eyes.
“I need you to love me, Cole.” The words were out before she could stop them, and the look on his face nearly broke her heart.
“Always, Sierra.”
Chapter Fourteen
Sierra was happy to be home. Four days in Vegas was more than she could handle and considering the circumstances, she thought she had managed to hold herself together pretty well. When she and Cole had woken up Saturday morning, he’d excused himself to his room to shower before returning to walk with her to the conference. It wasn’t until then that he told her Luke had flown back to Texas, although she was pretty sure he had known it when he had come to her during the night. She had been glad he waited to tell her because the news broke her heart all over again.
Granted, the edges of her heart were still cased in anger and fury at the man, but the net of it was that he’d hurt her. Badly. The things Luke made her feel, both with the way he buried himself deep inside of her body, and eased his way into her heart weren’t normal for her. And because the man was just as out of control as she was when they were together, made it nearly impossible to think that he could have walked away so easily. Although that was awfully pretentious – or maybe just naïve – considering they hadn’t been in any sort of committed relationship before they had finally done the deed.