The Fidelity World: Retribution Read online

  “I see. I’m sorry. Maybe you could tell me more about what you would like.”

  Scooting to the end of the bed, Annie slid her hand up his chest. Cole’s giant hand came down on top of hers and pinned it in place. His eyes were smoldering into hers. She wasn’t sure if it was anger or lust, or some hybrid of the two. She held her ground, determined to see her plan through.

  “Is that why you’re here Annie; to fuck?” he asked her bluntly.

  Annie gasped at his candor, and then quickly tried to hide her shock. A city girl wouldn’t be so taken aback by it, just some stupid country girl pretending to be someone she wasn’t.

  “If that’s what you want.”

  Cole moved her hand off his chest but didn’t release it. With his other hand, he pulled her up off the bed and molded her body to his. He nuzzled his nose against her ear, his warm breath sending chills down her body. All she seemed to be doing was irritating him, but he was setting her entire body on fire.

  “When I touch you, it won’t be out of a contractual obligation. It’ll be because you’re begging me. Believe me when I tell you this, Annie: you will beg me to put my hands on your body. It’ll be good between us, so good.”

  Annie’s body trembled with his words. When she didn’t think she could take anymore, he took her hand and guided it down the side of her face, then her neck, letting it drop just before it reached her breast. The action had been electrifying. Her eyes remained locked on his, and she didn’t even try to hide her desire from him. Her mind knew she had just met him, but her body acted like it had belonged to him for years. His mouth lingered close to hers, and Annie almost groaned in anticipation for him to kiss her.

  “Go wash that filth off your face. I’ll sleep on the couch; you can have my bed.”

  With that, he was halfway across the room as if the past minute hadn’t even happened. Annie’s temper erupted.

  “What the fuck?” She yelled at him.

  Cole stopped in his tracks and turned back around.

  “I do not want to hear you say that word again.” He growled.

  “You say it.” She argued without thinking.

  “The next time I hear that word come out of your mouth, I’m going to fuck you senseless.” He seethed.

  Annie opened her mouth to say something, but then changed her mind. He had rendered her speechless. Her body was begging for her to say the damn word so that he would fulfill his dark promise, but her brain was telling her to tread more cautiously. Cole slammed the door behind him, leaving her alone again. Annie let out a sigh, grateful for the solitude. Instead of worrying about her outbursts, she kept imagining what his perfectly calloused hands would have felt like running down her face and neck instead of her own.

  Chapter Seven

  Cole

  Cole ran his hand over his face as he laid on the couch. He could hear the water running in the bathroom. He had never imagined he would have come home to find Annie passed out in his bed, all laid out in a skin-tight dress. The way her curves had stretched the fabric in all the right places had made his mouth water and his dick stir to life.

  It also pissed him off. Annie was there to help him show the public he was a family man, not to distract him and catch him off guard. After he had left her at his place and went back to work, he hadn’t been able to focus on any of the looming projects he needed to accomplish. After several hours of wasting his fucking time, he left and met Jason for drinks at their usual bar. It hadn’t taken Jason long to annoy Cole into going back to his apartment, and Annie.

  The water turned off, drawing Cole’s attention back to his present situation. Annie’s light footsteps scurried out of the bathroom and back to his bedroom. The sound of his sheets rustling while she made herself comfortable in his bed made his dick harder. He groaned.

  Cole got up and went to the kitchen to grab a beer. He took a long drink and then set his bottle down. He braced his hands on his counter and hung his head down while he tried to concentrate. After he downed the remainder of his beer, he unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged it off. He grabbed another beer and headed to his spot on the couch. He slid his pants off. Normally he would have ditched his briefs as well but considering the run-in he had just had with his very female houseguest, he figured he had better leave them on.

  Cole wished he hadn’t gotten close to her or put his hands on her. Her body felt like his next addiction; one that could cost him everything he had been working for his entire adult life. He couldn’t let her distract him. His grandfather had entrusted Cole with revenging the wrongs that his parents had done, and he wouldn’t let him down.

  He stretched out on the couch, but he knew sleep wouldn’t come to him for a while. He had too many things on his mind. Cole decided to play catch up on the work he hadn’t been able to accomplish when he had been at the office. He grabbed his laptop and spent an hour working through his emails. Once he had responded to the more pressing ones, he switched his focus over to the foundation. The board meeting was fast approaching, and he needed information.

  The business side of the foundation Cole understood. Understanding businesses, knowing how they worked, and if they would be successful, was like standing in his grandpa’s garage fixing up the old Ford pickup truck. In order for the engine to run, every other piece of the vehicle’s structure had to be doing its job. If any part of the system failed to work, the truck wouldn’t run. That’s how a business was; if one person failed to do their job, the entire organization would falter.

  Cole would tear the business apart just like the old truck. After he figured which parts of the organization were working, then he needed to know more about them. What made that person tick? What was important to them? Cole pulled up Barry Allen, one of the board members he had already done his research on. Barry had a wife and two kids, but that wasn’t really what was important to him. When Barry wasn’t working on the foundation with Cole’s parents, he was running his small business down in the Theatre District, where he sold beard oil.

  A chuckle escaped Cole at the thought: beard oil. He shook his head. Regardless of how ridiculous the concept seemed, the man had amassed a small fortune selling the crap to hipsters. Cole rubbed his hand against the stubble on his face. He wouldn’t consider himself clean-shaven, but he had never had a beard. What he could have, was a vast knowledge on what beard oil consisted of, and its benefits. That way he could strike up a conversation with Mr. Allen about something the man was passionate about, and they could share in that passion together.

  One by one he would work his way through the entire board. Then one by one he would work to win them over, gain their trust and earn their respect. The minutes ticked by as Cole studied the board members, and their lives. Exhaustion finally consumed him.

  “Cole?”

  Cole grumbled something in his sleep, and then threw his arm over his eyes. He had no idea what time he had fallen asleep, but he felt it was entirely too early to have to wake up.

  “Cole.” The soft voice said again.

  Then he realized the soft voice belonged to his new roommate, and fake girlfriend. He shot out of bed, slamming his head against hers.

  “Shit!” He exclaimed.

  Annie landed on her butt while she held her hand to her forehead.

  “You’re not a morning person, are you?” She said, with a slight smile.

  “I’m not accustomed to having house guests. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. My dad always said my head was unusually hard.”

  She prodded the red area on her forehead, and her face scrunched up in pain.

  “Come on, let’s get some ice.” Cole said, standing up and offering his hand to her.

  She took it and followed him over to the kitchen. He grabbed two bags of frozen vegetables out of the freezer and gently placed one on her forehead. Annie looked at him like he was a unicorn, which made him even more curious about her past. They both held their makeshift ice packs to their heads for a minute before they burst into
laughter. Cole couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed. Annie finally covered her mouth with her hand in an attempt to stop her uncontrollable giggles.

  “Well, how’s that for a good morning?” He asked.

  “I’ve had worse,” she said, her face falling.

  A glaze seemed to wash over her, leaving in place a timid and neutral expression. Cole much preferred the carefree one he had witnessed a second ago. Deciding to accept whatever natural bruising he was sure to get from their collision, he tossed his veggies back in the freezer and headed to his coffee maker. Annie followed suit, looking uncomfortable as she stood to the side and tried to look anywhere but at Cole’s half naked body.

  “Annie, my home is your home for the next year. You’re more than welcome to do as you please.”

  She nodded, but didn’t move. Cole sighed and turned his back on her, focusing entirely too hard on making his coffee. When he was done, he handed her a cup and then made a gesture toward his single-cup coffee maker to encourage her. She smiled and moved forward. After a minute of coaching, she had successfully brewed her first cup.

  “You Yankees and your fancy coffee pots.” She joked, and then just as fast she covered her mouth as if she had damned him to hell.

  “Where are you from, Annie?” he asked, ignoring her reaction.

  “I’m from West Virginia.”

  “Really? I went to college there.”

  “Why?” She blurted out.

  “Why? Well, that’s where my grandfather went, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps.”

  “Did your mom or dad go there?”

  At the mention of his parents, Cole couldn’t help but grip his coffee cup tighter. Both of them had been entirely too worthless to have ever gone to college. There had been no need; there’s no major for being a human leech.

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…” She stammered, not finishing her sentence.

  “No, you’re fine. If we’re going to do this then you’ll need know certain things. My father did not attend college, neither did my mother. They made their living mooching off my grandfather.”

  She nodded, taking a sip of her coffee.

  “What made you come to New York?” he asked, switching the topic away from himself.

  “I guess the same reason all of us silly, small-town girls move to big cities. We think it’s going to be better; that it’ll change our lives.”

  “And has it?” Cole asked, curious now about the woman standing in front of him.

  “No, it devoured me and spat me back out just like everyone warned me it would.”

  “You look sturdy enough to me.” Cole said, not being able to help himself from looking her up and down.

  She was more beautiful to him in that moment than she had been the night prior, stuffed in the sexy red dress and make-up hiding her natural beauty. Her face was clean and perfect, her curls were askew from sleep, and the shorts she had on let him take in her long, sultry legs. Cole itched to have them wrapped around his waist. He was quick to realize he didn’t have much clothing on to hide his reaction to her; he adjusted his gaze to the countertop behind her.

  “Looks can be deceiving, Mr. Bennett.”

  Chapter Eight

  Annie

  Annie watched as Cole disappeared into his bedroom, presumably to get dressed. She sipped her coffee and tried to figure out what she was going to do with her life. The deposit money from her agreement with Cole had hit her bank account. She wanted to send some to her parents, but she wasn’t sure where she would tell them it had come from.

  They knew she had left Trey, but they didn’t know the extent of Annie’s situation in the slightest. Annie meant to keep it that way. She moved into the living room and flipped the television on. The news popped up, and Annie watched it mindlessly, not really listening to what it was saying. Instead her mind raced with what she could do to fill her time.

  Cole emerged from the bedroom, dressed in a crisp navy suit. The man looked damn fine in nothing but a pair of briefs, but Annie couldn’t help but appreciate his body in a suit as well. The suit fit him perfectly, molding over the muscles she had just had the pleasure of seeing in all their glory. Even if she hadn’t seen him almost naked, the white shirt was stretched in all the right places to give her a pretty good idea. A blush settled on her cheeks when she realized she was devouring the sight of him. She turned back to the television and prayed he wouldn’t ask her what they were yammering about.

  “I have a charity event coming up in the next couple of weeks that you will be attending with me. This will be our first outing together, so we need to work on a backstory,” Cole said.

  “Oh,” she replied. Their backstory hadn’t ever really occurred to her.

  “I’ll be at work most of the day, so be thinking on that. Also, we’ll need to get you some more clothes. There’s a personal shopper over at Barneys, she’ll be able to help you find something suitable for the charity event, plus anything else you may need. Just let me know when you’d like to go.”

  “Could I just wear the red dress?”

  “No, you will not be wearing that dress.”

  “Karen seemed sure that was the kind of dress I should wear now that I’m your official plus one for the next year.”

  “Karen picked that out?”

  “Absolutely, that’s definitely not something I would ever dream of buying, let alone be able to afford.”

  “Interesting,” he commented, moving back into the kitchen, fixing himself more coffee.

  “I’m surprised you don’t have a maid or something,” she said. Trey had a maid and a personal cook.

  “Money doesn’t always mean spoiled, Ms. Longston.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by that.” She hurried, embarrassed to have offended him.

  “It’s no problem. I can imagine coming from West Virginia, things here in the city can seem very different.”

  She snorted in response. Different didn’t even begin to cover what she thought of most of the city.

  “Shouldn’t I go to your dinner meeting?”

  Cole looked taken aback at first, which made Annie think his “dinner meeting” wasn’t actually a meeting. She narrowed her eyes at him. Even though they weren’t in an actual relationship, the thought of him out sleeping with other women while she was stuck inside his home made her see red.

  “I guess I hadn’t thought of it. I’ll let you know.”

  “You’ll let me know?”

  “Yes, I’m not sure if I want you to go. Therefore, I’ll let you know what I decide.”

  “Prick.” Annie muttered under her breath before she could stop herself.

  Cole advanced toward her, his eyes dancing with amusement and shock. Annie wasn’t sure if she should retreat or not, but the stubbornness in her forced her to stay where she was. She squared her shoulders and waited for Cole’s attack.

  “I like your filthy mouth,” he said, shocking her.

  “Umm…” Annie murmured, biting her lower lip.

  “That’s the second vulgarity to escape those perfect lips of yours. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

  Even though Cole had come to stand directly in front of Annie, she didn’t feel threatened. His stance was relaxed, and his eyes still reflected his amusement. She couldn’t figure out why the man was amused that she had just called him a name; a rather vulgar name as he had put it. The years of living with Trey had trained Annie to be more cautious than to blurt something like that out, but something about Cole brought out the worst in her. It also made her feel braver, so she decided to give him a bit more of the sass he seemed to enjoy.

  “When I see her, I do. Why? Do you want me to kiss you with this mouth?”

  He chuckled.

  “We’re going to have to work on your vocabulary before I’ll allow you to kiss me.”

  Allow. Annie wanted to choke on the word. His one eyebrow lifted, and a smirk settled on his face. He was egging her on. As much as she
wanted to respond, she forced herself to keep her mouth shut. This man was still unknown to her. Even if he did seem completely different than Trey, Annie needed to remember all that she had learned. She refused to be a victim ever again.

  Cole once again read her like an open book. He shot her a wink and then moved to grab his briefcase off the table. He disappeared through the door, leaving Annie alone again.

  Her life with Cole continued in that same fashion. Cole would leave for work every morning and return late. Annie spent her days reading or watching television. One day she had ventured out of his apartment she found a local farmers market close by. It had inspired her to purchase everything she needed to grow some of her own plants. She missed putting in a garden with her parents. Growing up she had hated it, but as the warm dirt molded around her fingers, Annie felt homesick. There wasn’t much room on Cole’s small balcony, but Annie made due.

  She had never been an overly healthy eater, but with too much time on her hands Annie had been doing research on the laptop Cole let her borrow, and she was slowly weeding out the junk in his house. It gave her some pleasure when Cole would grumble about the changes, which fueled Annie further in her new hobby.

  Even though her garden gave her a brief escape, she was still going crazy.

  “Is this how the next year’s going to be?” Annie asked, bursting into Cole’s home office one morning, hellbent on gaining some freedom.

  “What do you mean?” Cole asked, while he busied himself gathering documents off his desk.

  “That charity event I told you about is this weekend; I’ll need you to go shopping for a dress today.”

  “I don’t want to go shopping, and besides that’s just one day. I need something to do.”

  “I thought we already discussed that you were going to shop? I’ll also place a call to have some furniture delivered for my second bedroom so that you can have your own room. Sleeping on the couch is getting old.”

  “There’s another bedroom here?”

  “Don’t tell me you haven’t snooped?” Cole said studying her.