In person, Poppy Carrie was an impossible mixture of normal and extraordinary. She turned up wearing jeans and boots, a cream cashmere-silk sweater, and Audrey Hepburn sunglasses—nothing about her at all screamed "famously beautiful person." However, looking at her for too long made it hard to breathe. She had this dreamy, summery English loveliness, with corn-gold hair and eyes like freshly turned earth, and a shy scattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. There was definitely a trace of Harper around her cheekbones and in the generosity of her mouth. She had come from LA, accompanied by her boyfriend, Colt Dawson, a six-foot-something hunk of weathered manhood who had a ranch in Montana and worked with horses for Hollywood. They had apparently met on the set of Madame Bovary. Cole quickly gathered this information from frantic internet searches, hoping to find something to say to Colt as they sat together in the waiting room, giving Nik
She stared at Poppy—so composed in her cashmere, with her tea. “You don’t seem like an angry person.” “Therapy. And”—she gave a slightly wry smile—“Colt, oddly enough. She understands wild things. Sometimes he just takes me out into the middle of nowhere, and I screams until there are no screams left. Then we lie in the bed of her truck and watch the sun set and the stars come out.” “That sounds way better than therapy.” “And there’s always action movies.” She made an absolutely ferocious face and mimed firing what I presumed was an automatic weapon. “Eat this, motherbitches. Very cathartic. Especially if you have an unholy vendetta against blue screens.” Cole burst into rapturous applause. “And the award for best motherbitches goes to…” “Now you know why I’m an actor, not a writer.” Poppy put down her gun. “But you are, aren’t you? Nikki said you were a journalist?” “Well, I’m working on it.” Cole was doing it again. She took a breath a
The next day, Cole said goodbye to Harper, made sure it wasn’t stupid o’clock in England, and rang Bellerose. He answered quickly, just like always. “Hello, Cole.” “Knitted anything cool?” “I sincerely wish I hadn’t told you that.” “Do you make your own yarn and stuff as well, or do you buy it?” “My yarn is none of your business. Now, is there something you need?” Cole couldn’t quite contain an eager squeak. “I’m ready to come home.” “Aiden will be delighted. When would you like the jet?” Oh dear God. She was never going to get used to being able to order a plane like a pizza. “As soon as possible?” There was a pause. Presumably Bellerose was… actually, she had no idea. Calculating stuff? Organizing things? “You will be departing at nine a.m. tomorrow. Be at the airport in good time.” “Yay. Thank you.” Since Bellerose couldn’t see her, and she was in a city where nobody knew her, she skipped abo
"Come on,” Aiden said, releasing Cole at last. Once again, her body decided that the best place for her was in a wobbly heap on the ground, but he grabbed her hand just in time and pulled her, along with her case, toward the exit. Into the waiting—oh fuck—limo. And onto his lap. Where they kissed again. Again. Again. Forever. As the streets of London unraveled around them in ribbons of gold. Finally, they stopped. Mainly, she thought, for breathing purposes, rather than any particular desire to separate their mouths. “I’m going to put a collar round your neck,” Aiden murmured, “and chain you to my bed.” Thankfully Cole knew how to interpret this. “I missed you too.” She thought he might laugh. But, instead, he pulled her against him so tightly that she flailed and squeaked like a squeezy toy. “Oh Cole.” “It me,” she wheezed. “My Cole.” He pressed his face against the crook of her
“God. I do,” Cole wailed. “I really do. But I feel incredibly weird about being the reason you’re not going to do something that would help people who… well… need help.” No answer from Aiden. Unless you counted the way his fingers curled tightly against his knee. She felt awful from about six different directions at once. “You can see where I’m coming from, right?” “I can.” He reached up and flipped on the intercom. “Change of plan, Lloyd. To the Sheldrake. And quickly, please.” Wait. What was happening? She slithered along the seat as the limo swung round. Was he going to make her sit in the car like a puppy while he went to a society party? She opened her mouth to say, well, she wasn’t sure what, but Aiden looked so forbidding that all her words dried up on her tongue. And so they just sat there in the worst silence. Great. She’d spoiled her own homecoming. But Aiden was kind of being a dick too. Not that mentioning it to hi
“Uhg, Raph.” Kelda rolled her eyes. “He’s such a goodie-two-shoes.” “He’s a divine LightDuke,” Logan laughed as he dialed the contact number Raph had given them after their battle with Azar. “You don’t get much more pure than that.” “Oh, please,” the blonde waved her hand in front of her face. “I know Raph, and he’s anything but pure. Yet I’m the one who got kicked out of the Army of the Divine, and he’s the one who was promoted. Same crime, different punishment.” “If I didn’t know any better, sister, I’d say you’re still bitter,” Abina chuckled. Kelda lifted her slender hand and ran her fingers through Abina’s dark hair lovingly. “Maybe just a little, but there’s a silver lining to everything. If I hadn’t fallen, I would never have met you or Beth or Logan.” “I think I got all the blood cleaned off,” Rafe shivered as he returned through the hole where the patio door had been. “I even used those little water jet thingies in the shower to make s
Cole couldn’t help but wonder which of his houses was home. And if she’d ever get to see it. “Do you have any pizza preferences?” she asked instead. “None at all,” Aiden replied. “Do you even like pizza?” “Probably.” Her rummaging had miraculously failed to turn up some sexy yet sophisticated lounge wear. Mainly because she didn’t have any. “What do you mean probably?” “I mean…probably. I haven’t had it for a long time.” “You don’t have baths. You don’t eat pizza.” Cole compromised on her CHILL OUT Olaf the Snowman trousers and her I DON’T CARE I’M A UNICORN T-shirt. Okay, okay, it wasn’t a compromise. It was all she had. “What on earth are you doing with your life?” “Well,” Aiden said mildly, “I’ve been quite busy at work.” Wandering out of the bedroom, she found him already waiting for her. She’d seen Casual Aiden before—at Kinlochbervie when he’d come to get her back—but it was stil
And, for Cole, watching him was better than watching the movie. It wasn’t what she would have pictured at all. But, then, doing something like this with Aiden had always been a daydream she’d never really believed would happen, so her imagination had been hazy on the details. She guessed she had been expecting his usual careful detachment: an elegant man bathed in the silver light of a screen. What she got was a boy’s wide-eyed wonder. A delight in TIE fighters, Wookiees, and lightsabers that might have started as affection for his father but was now entirely his own. And he was sharing it with her. The pizza came and went, and he barely noticed. And, once she’d got rid of the box, he let her rearrange the duvet over them both—for maximum coziness—and squeezed right up against him. She even got to wriggle her hand into his. She didn’t think she’d ever liked Star Wars quite as much as she did right then. She felt half drunk
“Hey now,” Cole protested. “He offered me money and the apartment.” “Like you were going to take it. How long was he with you? Did he know you at all?” “We were kind of in the middle of an argument at the time.” “Right. But it’s been over a week.” It had. And Cole had told herself she wasn’t hoping for anything. Except she must have been. Because now she felt silly.Ellery kicked the tree moodily. “Stop feeling sorry for him. I expect he’s feeling sorry enough for himself. Or Lancaster’s found him a new whipping girl.” “Don’t.” “Sorry.” “Did you really come all the way to Kinlochbervie to say ‘I told you so’?” “No.” She pulled her hood up and disappeared into its shadows. “I came to ask if you want to live with me.”Cole nearly fell off the swing. “Live with you?”“Yeah. Thought I should move out. Do some shit with my life or something.” “What sort of shit did you have in mind?”She kicked the tree again. And then, apparently finding
Everything hurt. The hours seemed like wild horses. Dawn broke around Cole. She spent most of the day on the sofa, crying herself out of tears, watching the sky turn tauntingly through shades of silver and gold. She tried to be brave, to be strong, to be less pathetically embarrassing. But her inner Scarlett O’Hara was AWOL—tomorrow being another day seemed like scant consolation. And while she sometimes tormented herself with idle fantasies of Aiden coming back, of sweeping her into his arms, full of sorrow and declarations of eternal devotion, she knew it wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t sure she could ever bear pain like this again. Later… later… later… Her phone bleeped. And, like a fool, she scrabbled for it, wrecked with hope and fear and hope. It was Harper: “I MOVED MY FOOT!!!!!” **** She slept and didn’t sleep, and the hours sped and sluggished by. And finally, she rang home. Hazel picked up. “What’s wrong?” she said before Cole even had a chance to speak.
Cole swayed exhaustedly where she knelt. “Well, I'm not. And I don't How many times is you going to ignore me telling you that I love you? Because I do. I really do. And you can think all these awful things about yourself if you must. But nothing—nothing, do you hear me—will make me believe them.” “You can’t love me. You don’t know me.” “You mean, because I didn’t know about this? That’s only because you lied to me about it.” He paced restlessly, up and down that pristine room. This lost creature in Aiden Crux's skin. “I didn’t lie.” “I asked you outright. In Kinlochbervie.” “No. You asked if someone had hurt me. And they haven’t.” “Oh fucking hell.” She rubbed her hands against her burning eyes. “I could have hurt you. Don’t you realize how completely fucked it feels looking back at all the times I’ve pushed you on sex stuff with no clue about what happened to you?” “Well,” he drawled, “I did warn you that I’m a cruel
Cole glanced up. “I'm not. I mean, it wasn’t fun. But I trusts you. With the worst of me, as well as the best, and all the squishy ambiguous bits in between.” “Thank you,” he said, unexpectedly grave. “I hope to always honor that trust.” “As I will for you.” He didn’t respond. “So, y’know”—Cole nudged him gently—“your turn.” It took a long time, but he did eventually speak. The words coming slowly and painfully, like razor blades from his lips. “If I tell you, you’ll know what Eleanor said about me is right. That I’m sick and twisted and I ruin everything that’s good.” “She only said that because she was angry.” He shook his head. “No, she said it because it’s true. You see, she learned who she was when she was fourteen years old.” “What happened when—wait. When your father died?” “After that. When she seduced his business partner. His best friend.” Cole genuinely had no idea what to say. To
Cole pulled off a truly Ellery-worthy eye roll. “One cigarette a month is hardly going to kill him,” she said. “Is that what he told you? And you believed him?” Natasha asked. Now that she thought about it… he did tend to reach for his cigarettes once they’d sexed. And he’d smoked after dinner. And during Star Wars. And just now in the gCole. Oh fuck. Fuuuuuck.Natasha shook her head at her. “You poor, sweet girl. You don’t know him at all, do you?” “I… I’m in love with him,” she said, her voice barely audible. “I can see why you’d believe that. Aiden can be quite dazzling when he chooses. But you don’t understand anything about who he is. Or the damage you’re doing to him.” She tried to reply, to protest, to defend herself. Defend him. Defend them. But she had nothing. Aiden had de-clawed her with his secrets. Left her powerless and alone. “You deserve better,” Natasha went on softly. “He’s using you like his cigarettes. You
“I love it when you hurt me. I love everything you do. And everything you are,” Cole said. And that was when Aiden turned and drew her into his mouth. It was the teeniest bit awkward—he even nicked her slightly with the edge of his teeth, suggesting maybe he didn’t do this all that often. He certainly hadn’t with her before. Not that she’d minded. He made her come just fine. But…wow. He could have been actively terrible and she wouldn’t have cared: Aiden Crux was sucking her pussy. No teasing. Only his tongue sliding tight round her, his mouth soft and hot and perfect.Ohfuckohfuckohfuck. She was…Aiden was… Cole turned her head into her shoulder in an effort to muffle her noises. Which were at least as loud as when he’d been torturing her nipples, and probably even less dignified. Pain was one thing. She could take pain. But she was pleasure’s bitch. Hone
His fingers closed around her through her dress and squeezed until she bucked and moaned. Some of the anguish faded from her face, the tight lines of her brow and mouth yielding to desire, and something tender she might have called hope. “Don’t move,” he whispered, as he stepped away. “Okay.” Her heart thumped as eagerly as a puppy’s tail. She loved the anticipation that came with his commands. And she loved pleasing him. Of course, her nose started itching almost immediately. But she was determined and ignored it and held still as he had told her to. Aiden circled the pillar, leaving her standing there like Andromeda. Well, Andromeda if she had a massive erection. Then he drew her hands behind her and she felt the cool brush of silk against her skin.It encircled her wrists. Pulled taut. Oh my God. His bowtie. He was bondaging her with his own bowtie. She made a noise of surprise and exciteme
He didn’t quite flinch but he got that look: the closed down, I am a million miles away from you look I knew all too well. “I’ll leave you to enjoy it.” And, with that, he…went away. Again. Cole bit down on a gasp of frustration. She wanted to kick him in the shins. He couldn’t just fix what was probably years of hurt and misunderstanding with a single, and very small, gesture. Also, the fucker had barely spent five minutes with her. But she pushed all that aside and turned her very best and sparkliest smile on Ellery. “So what happens next? Do we all die of the plague?” Ellery sneered at the room. “Mm, here’s hoping.” “Wow, that’s the last time I RSVP to an invitation from you.” “I don’t mean it.” She sighed and with the air of a small child being forced to eat Brussels sprouts added, “Thank you for coming.” “I didn’t know you played the violin.” Ellery shrugged. “I’m brilliant. When I’m not rusty.” “
“What do you look for?” Cole asked. “The thing nobody else sees,” He replied, propping his hip casually against a piece of furniture she didn’t have a name for—something ornate and impressive, probably a credenza or vitrine or whatever. “Society photography comes down to one very simple principle. Anyone can take pictures of Kate Middleton and Lady Gaga. The trick is getting a picture of Kate Middleton with Lady Gaga.” “And have you?” “Not yet. But she’s a long way from dead, and hopefully so are they.” Cole laughed. In a strange way, the woman reminded her a little bit of Aiden. The same conviction, the same merciless drive, although focused and expressed very differently. She guessed it was becoming pretty apparent she had a type.But mainly Cole was grateful. Now, when she looked across the room, she met smiles. Flashes of recognition in other people’s eyes. She knew faces and names. She could have joined some of the conversations. Instead of drifting around pathetically. Stil