It's Only Temporary - The Complete Collection Read online

  He heard a splash from the pool and walked around the house. The lights were out, the only light coming from the full moon. Bright enough to see by, bright enough to know when she saw him.

  Ginny had said she needed him.

  And he knew Maggie did. She needed him, wanted him, just not enough. Not enough to want him in the daylight.

  He shucked his pants, ripped his shirt off. She didn’t say a word, just watched him.

  He dropped his briefs and walked into the pool, not breaking eye contact with her.

  If she didn’t want him during the day, he’d take the night. He didn’t care. Not right now.

  Cole glided towards her, stopping a foot away. He pulled one dripping, closed fist from the water and held it up between them.

  He said quietly, “You know what I want if I win.”

  She stared at his fist a long time, her chest rising and falling, the water lapping against her black swimsuit.

  She lifted a hand out of the water, reaching for him and whispering, “I always pick scissors.”

  Cole let out his breath, taking that last step, crushing her to him.

  She wrapped her legs around his waist and he said, “Try not to drown me.”

  “Not until I’m done with you, at least.”

  He put his palm on her chest, felt the coolness of her skin. He pulled down the straps of her suit, cupped her breasts. He licked the cool pool water from her skin, the chlorine all he could taste, and he hated it. He wanted to taste her.

  He tugged the suit down as far as it would go and she lay back, floating on the water, her legs still wrapped around him, her suit still halfway on. He slid his fingers under the suit, stroking the smooth skin, sliding his thumb in to stroke her wetness.

  He closed his eyes, slowly torturing his thumb, moving between her heat and the cool water. His cock throbbed, wanting its turn.

  “Faster, Cole.”

  He would go slow if it fucking killed him. He would make this so good for her that come the daylight she couldn’t say no again. Wouldn’t ever say no again.

  He pulled her legs up his chest, bent to run his tongue where his thumb had been, closed his eyes at finally tasting her. She made a small sound as his tongue entered her; she was swollen and wet and hot, and he knew she’d been suffering like him.

  Fucking pride.

  He nipped her and she jerked against him, swallowing her scream.

  She unhooked her legs, pushing him away and ripping her suit off. She threw it out of the pool and took a deep breath. She went underwater, took him into her mouth. Stroked and nibbled and sucked until he grabbed her hair and pulled her up.

  She gasped for air, pressing against him, her breasts tight against his chest, his cock prodding her stomach. She dug her nails into his butt and said, “Fast.”

  He groaned. “Slow.”

  “Fast.” She wrapped her leg around one of his, toppling him.

  They went underwater and she kissed him, fastening her legs around his waist.

  Her hair floated in the water around them, the moonlight glinting off it and he decided he didn’t ever need to breathe again.

  She was going to drown him and he didn't give a shit.

  They sunk to the bottom of the pool, her skin sliding against his, her legs wrapped tightly around him.

  His lungs started to burn long before he was ready and he thought fuck. He wasn’t going to drown before he even got in her.

  He shoved at the bottom of the pool with one foot, pushing them out of the water for a gasp of air before they went back under.

  He shoved again and again, every time they surfaced gasping for air, the change from water to air, the shot of oxygen making him harder.

  Maggie clung to him, gasping with him. Her breath coming just as hard and fast as his.

  He shoved again, hitting the steps with his back on the way down and he grabbed for them, held on, pushed himself up them until he was sitting just out of the water.

  She sank down on him, hot and tight against his cool cock. The water lapped against his balls, she sighed as if she’d been waiting to have him hard inside her, and dammit, he came.

  She fisted her hands in his air, pulling his mouth to hers and he groaned, closing his eyes, thrusting into her. She whispered his name, and came with him.

  When their hearts stopped pounding, when he could open his eyes, he said, “You’re in such a hurry.”

  She was still sitting in his lap, boneless, and she whispered, “Goal oriented.”

  “Is one of your goals to kill me? ‘Cause you just about did it.”

  “Does that mean we’re not going to do it again?”

  “Oh, we’re going to do it again. It’ll just have to be on dry land if you want me to survive it.”

  She hummed at him, not opening her eyes, running her hand down his bicep.

  He stood, lifting her, climbing the steps of the pool and heading to the back door.

  She opened her eyes. “We going to give my sister a show?”

  He stopped, looked down at her naked in his arms. “Tanner, too?”

  “They are married.”

  He put her down, leaving her to wrap a towel around her as he tried to pull his pants up wet legs.

  He finally said, “Fuck it. They’ll just have to enjoy it.”

  She said, “I guess Rosa has already seen it. She won’t be too surprised if she catches sight of you.”

  “Shit. Walk in front of me.”

  He walked right behind her until they got to her bedroom, meeting no one in the dark house. He closed the door behind him, wrapped his arms around her waist.

  He said, “Thanks for not making me crawl in through the window.”

  “You can go out that way. Relive old times.”

  He sat on her bed, a king instead of a double, the furnishings sophisticated and modern instead of childish, and he realized they’d been children the last time he’d been in here. Children who thought they were done growing when they’d only just begun.

  She stayed standing in front of him and he spread his hands across her belly, gripping her waist, looking up at her.

  She pushed his hair off his face. “Did you ever tell anyone about us?”

  He shook his head. “Who would have believed me?”

  “Everyone.”

  He rested his cheek on her skin, inhaled deeply. “No one. I didn’t believe it myself. Besides, who would I have told? You were my only friend.”

  “Is that why this time you’re telling the world?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not telling anyone. They’re assuming.”

  When he looked up, she was fighting a smile. “I guess it’s a pretty good assumption.”

  He ran his hand down her butt. “It is now. And I’m still not going to tell anyone.”

  He’d keep this in the dark for her.

  Besides, who would he tell?

  He pulled her down onto his lap, laid back on the bed with her on top of him.

  She said, “Fast this time. Wild. Crazy.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “That wasn’t fast?”

  “I was fast. You were still thinking.”

  “I wasn’t. I was trying to breathe.”

  She said, “I can tell when you’re thinking, Cole. And you never stopped.”

  “Are you saying that wasn’t good?”

  “It was good. Fun. Just…”

  She looked at him and he said, “Just I was thinking.”

  “You were being careful.”

  He clenched his jaw. “We were in a pool. I didn’t want either of us to drown. Something you did not seem to care about.”

  “No, I didn’t. You wouldn’t have either if you weren’t thinking.”

  “What do you have against thinking, Maggie?”

  She sighed, rolling off him and onto her stomach. He followed her, trapping her against the bed. He said to her back, “Did I ever say I was sorry?”

  “Only every other time.”

  “One more
time?”

  She let out a long breath. “You really don’t have to.”

  “I’m still saying it. I’m sorry. Sorry I hurt you.”

  Sorry for all the times he’d hurt her.

  “It’s only one of many, Cole. Of things we wish we could change.”

  “That’s depressingly true.”

  “And I’ll give you a hint. I don’t like you gentle. I don’t like you sorry.”

  He softly rubbed his stubble up her back and she arched against him. He said, “I had gotten that impression.”

  He ran his hands up her back, pushed her arms above her head. He straddled her, pushing his rapidly hardening cock between her closed legs. “So if I can’t be sorry, I guess I just have to give you what you want.”

  He could see her breath coming faster, her back rising and falling quickly.

  She started to rise and he pushed her back down, his hand on her neck. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Take what I want.”

  She whispered back, “You can try,” and he smiled.

  He sunk his teeth into her shoulder, pushed her legs apart, and took what he wanted.

  Cole was gone when she awoke. But she could still feel him, still smell him.

  She closed her eyes again, wondering for one brief second if she could pretend that had never happened.

  And then crossed that idea off when she realized that would lead to never doing it again.

  She stretched, a little sore, a little worse for wear, and she smiled. He’d finally stopped thinking. Stopped worrying that he was hurting her. Stopped worrying about the consequences.

  She lived by plotting, preparing, manipulating. But there was something to be said for throwing all caution to the winds, living only for now. She’d never been able to do it with anyone but him.

  And she’d take advantage of him until their time came to an end because it was unlikely she’d ever find anyone else.

  She grabbed her phone, thinking Cole was probably in Midland by now and called him.

  He answered on the first ring. “Hi.”

  She smiled at the gravel in his voice. He sounded like a man who had gotten very little sleep.

  “Hi back. You left early.”

  “Self-preservation. It was either leave then or leave never, and I can’t take another day off work again so soon.”

  She tried not to sigh when she said, “And you’re not coming back until Friday?”

  “Early Friday. Really early on Friday. We have a ring to buy.”

  She closed her eyes at the reminder. She said, “Maybe I can distract you somehow.”

  “I don’t think there’s a maybe about it. But there will probably be some time during the weekend that we’ll have clothes on; we’ll do it then.”

  She hummed in the back of her throat. “I think there’s a maybe about that.”

  She smiled into the silence and he finally said, “That’s just mean, Maggie.”

  “I wasn’t trying to be mean, only realistic. It’s going to be five days. Five. Whole. Days.”

  “I’ll see if I can push it to Thursday.”

  They hung up and Maggie dragged herself to the shower, washing the chlorine out of her hair, washing Cole off of her.

  She dressed carefully, hiding the mark on her shoulder, thinking she’d have to make sure she left a mark on him next time to keep things even. She picked a skirt that went below her knees, heels with a t-strap instead of an ankle strap.

  She’d had an idea in the shower. An idea that was part really good, part really desperate, part potentially infuriating.

  She headed for the kitchen to see if Ginny was around to cast the deciding vote on whether she should do it or not.

  Rosa was cooking, and when Maggie kissed her cheek good morning, the woman muttered in Spanish about devils and stupid girls.

  Rosa had been with their family since the girls were young, was family now. She’d been the salve to her mother’s sharp words, hidden cookies after an angry dinner, kisses on scraped knees.

  Maggie and Ginny had loved their mother, always would, but it had been complicated. There was no complication with Rosa, only love, only a woman who spoiled them rotten to balance a mother who expected a lot from her daughters.

  Although since her mother had died, Rosa had taken on the part of disapproving with aplomb.

  And Maggie understood now what her mother had given them. Now that she knew that Rosa could have been replaced every year with someone new. Never allowed to stay long enough to crawl into the girls’ hearts, never allowed to be important to them.

  Maggie’s mother had expected a lot of everyone, herself included.

  Ginny sat at the counter, eating scrambled eggs and bacon. Maggie looked at the bacon and thought of Cole.

  Ginny said, “Late night?”

  Maggie poured coffee. “You didn’t hear us?”

  “We heard you. I thought Daddy was going to wake up and get his shotgun.”

  Maggie smiled sadly. “That would have been horribly wonderful.”

  “Yes, it would have been.”

  Ginny sighed, and they both knew that he was never waking up. If last night hadn’t done it, nothing would.

  Maggie said, “I’m thinking of heading out to Midland this afternoon, making an appointment with Western Oil.”

  “Are you going out to Midland to make a deal or to sleep with Cole?”

  “Both.”

  “That might upset him.”

  “I’m trying to decide if upsetting him is a pro or a con. It’ll tip the scales either way.”

  Ginny eyed her. “What happened to your dignity?”

  “You were the one who said you’d rather be happy. What happened in half a night?”

  “I remembered the last time you gave Cole your heart.”

  Maggie set her cup down, sitting down in the chair hard. “I’ve never given Cole my heart.”

  Ginny raised her eyebrows. “Yes, you did. In high school. I was here when he broke it. Rosa was the one to sweep up the pieces.”

  Rosa dropped a plate in front of Maggie, saying, “I remember it, mija. Even if you don’t.”

  Maggie looked between the two women and said, “I was in love with Tanner in high school.”

  Ginny blinked. Rosa crossed herself.

  They said, “Tanner?”

  Ginny said, “You liked Cole. You were sleeping with him.”

  Maggie sighed deeply. “I liked Tanner. He was beautiful and golden and perfect. Cole was…something else.”

  Ginny slid from her seat, wrapping her arms Maggie and whispering, “I wouldn’t have gone out with him if I’d known.”

  Maggie smiled and patted her back. “Wouldn’t have married him?”

  Ginny pulled back, her eyebrows knitted. “No. I wouldn’t have.”

  “Then I guess it’s a good thing you didn’t know since you love him and I never did.”

  “But you just said–”

  “I should have said I thought I loved him, but I realized a long time ago that I didn’t. You can’t love what you can’t fully see.”

  Ginny still looked unhappy and Maggie said, “Your husband is not perfect.”

  Ginny eyebrows snapped back together, this time in anger. “I know.”

  “I thought he was. And when I found out he wasn’t… It was like the blinders fell off and I could see him for the first time. You always knew who he was, that’s who you loved. I only loved what I thought he was.”

  Ginny didn’t say anything and Maggie said, “Don’t be angry. Tanner is family, he’s my brother now. I love him, I just don’t love him. And that’s a good thing since you’re the one married to him.”

  “What about Cole?”

  “What about him?”

  Ginny looked at her. “Why were you sleeping with Cole if you loved Tanner?”

  “I wanted to. You don’t have to love someone to want them.”

  Rosa crossed herself again, waving her arms around and saying she didn’t want t
o hear this.

  Ginny watched Rosa leave, then turned to Maggie. “You’re a liar.”

  Ginny sat back down in her chair, pushing her breakfast away.

  Maggie said, “You’ve loved every man you’ve slept with?”

  “I’ve only slept with one man,” and Maggie jerked her head back.

  “Only one?”

  “I’ve only ever wanted Tanner.”

  Maggie’s heart hurt a little bit at that. She couldn’t decide if it was happiness for her sister or jealousy.

  “It’s nice that the one you wanted, wanted you back.”

  Ginny chewed on her bottom lip. “Maybe I was blind but all I ever saw was you and Cole. I had no idea you ever even liked Tanner.”

  “I learned my poker face from Mother. You can only see what I want you to.”

  Ginny put her hand over Maggie’s. “Not always. Maybe it wasn’t love I saw on your face twelve years ago but I saw something.”

  Maggie thought about last night, thought about all those nights long ago. “I could probably guess what was on my face. It wasn’t love, but lust probably makes a similar face.”

  “You know you gave Rosa a heart attack. She just kept worrying what would happen if you got pregnant by the devil’s son and what would Daddy do when he found out.”

  Maggie tried not to but the laugh broke free. “Poor Rosa. We owe her a nice retirement, don’t we?”

  “What’s with the we? I wasn’t the one sleeping with the devil’s son where my housekeeper could walk in on me.”

  Maggie closed her eyes at the memory. At the expression on Rosa’s face when she’d found them. The fear, the anger, the sorrow.

  Rosa had chased him away, hissing at him, and Maggie had been surprised to find Rosa was just as scary as her parents when she wanted to be.

  Ginny said, “Why were you sleeping with Cole if you were so in love with Tanner? And don’t tell me it was because you wanted him. No girl sleeps with her first unless she loves him. Maybe since then it’s been different, but not the first.”

  Maggie nodded, unable to argue with the logic. “We made a deal. I’d sleep with him if he’d give the Beaumonts more time to pay.”

  Ginny’s mouth fell open. “You were sleeping with him to… And he…”

  “Yeah.” And Maggie laughed. It all seemed so…inevitable. As if anyone with a lick of sense could have seen that train wreck coming.