“Oh, come on. You’re beautiful, and everyone who meets you knows it.”

  Jen put her hands up. “I do not have a self-esteem problem, I’ll promise you that.” She laughed. “But other than being super polite, he gives me a wide berth.”

  “Well, next time I’m out there, I definitely want to ogle with you.”

  “You sure Coach Dread will let you ride?”

  Damn it. I sighed. “Probably not until after everything is over, but I’m coming for sure to have a look see.”

  Jen laughed. “I love it, we’ll make watching a spectator sport.”

  “Exactly.” I took a sip of my rum and coke and glared at it. That did not taste like sugar. And there was no sugar cane. When the waitress passed by, I said, “Excuse me, I ordered a Cuba Libre with the sugar cane.”

  “Oh, yeah, I’m sorry, the guy at the bar bought your drinks and had me change it. He said you’d like this better this way. I can bring you your original order though.”

  “W-what guy?”

  The waitress pointed out two dark-haired men sitting at the end of the bar talking to a couple of blondes. First, sizzle that always went through me in Cole’s presence made the hairs on my neck stand up. Was I always going to be so aware of him? Second, raw fury lit up my veins like the Olympic torch. At the switched drinks, of course. Not because he was talking to some girl. Hell, what did I care? He was a free man.

  I worked to keep her voice even. “Please bring me my original order, and I’ll pay for the drinks. I know this is a pain in the ass for you.”

  “No, it’s okay. I’ll be right back.”

  Jen leaned over to get a better view. “What’s the matter?”

  “What’s always the matter? Freaking Cole.”

  “Oh, my God. He’s here?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be right back.” I picked up my drink and marched over, still unsure of what I was going to do or say. But either way, he was going to regret screwing with me.

  I sidled right up to him, gently nudging aside one of the blondes. If ever there was a time to channel Cece, this was it. “Cole, sweetheart. It’s so good to see you. I’m sorry I had to cancel our date.”

  Dylan grinned at me when I nodded at him.

  Cole wore a patently false look of surprise for a moment before he smirked. “Echo—”

  I didn’t let him get too far, though. Instead, I planted a kiss right on his lips. The change in his body was instant, as his hands wrapped around my waist and his body went rigid. All it took was the gentle parting of my lips, and he was delving in to take control, to own me, to possess me. Right in front of everyone.

  With a gasp of breath, I backed away, and watched with a certain glee as he seemed to struggle opening his eyes. “Oh, and sweetheart, thanks for the drink.” Then I did the unthinkable. Something I'd never done in my life. I poured that drink directly on his head.

  Dylan howled with laughter, and the two blondes stumbled back out of the line of fire. Cole—well, with his narrowed eyes, clenched teeth, and ticking muscle in his jaw, I sensed a murder coming on.

  “Bye, Dylan, it was nice to see you again.”

  Instead of heading back to the table, I detoured to the ladies’ room. At least he wouldn’t be able to follow me in there. Jeez, what the hell had I been thinking? I was never impetuous. I never acted out. Hell. I’d never poured a drink on anyone in my life. Ever. Not even in drunken college days. He was—

  He grabbed me from behind and dragged me into a darkened hallway that probably led down to the cellar. “What’s the rush, Echo?”

  “Let me go.”

  But he didn’t release me. Instead, he gently, but firmly took both my hands and pinned them over my head with one hand. Then he bracketed my body with his, as his thigh slid between mine.

  The eruption of heat in my body was instant and explosive, and my knees wobbled. You will not arch your body into his. You will not arch your body into his. You will— Oh, hell. With one shift of his thigh, I rocked my hips, seeking his leg. Seeking the friction.

  He leaned close to me, even as his hip met my rocking motion. “Do you have any idea how incredible you taste?”

  What was I supposed to say to that? His voice was low and seductive, and stole all ability to think or stand. He slowly released my hands and then pressed his palms into the wall on either side of my head. “Was the kitty a little mad I switched her drink?”

  “Screw you, Cole.”

  “You know, princess, you'd think you’d get more inventive with your comebacks.”

  “This is my night off. If I want to have fun with a friend, you can’t stop me.”

  “No, you’re right, but I can try and control your sugar intake. You sure you’re mad about the drink, though? And not the pretty girl I was talking to? Because, as you know, blondes are my type.”

  “You can do whatever you want, I’m not interested.”

  His devilish grin broadened as he lowered his head. His lips didn’t quite touch mine, just ghosted a hint of a kiss over them, as his thick, stiff erection pressed into my thigh.

  Oh, God, if he would just move his thigh, then maybe I’d get some relief. Just some friction was all I needed. I was already so damn close. But then, his warmth was gone and frustration tightened my muscles.

  He grinned, the expression superior and mocking. The son of a bitch knew exactly what he’d done to me. “I’ll see you in a couple days, Echo. Try and get some rest.”

  16

  Cole

  Knowing I had to talk to Echo and actually talking to her were two different things. I shouldn’t have dicked with her on Friday, but I’d still been smarting from my conversation with Rory. And, well, I liked seeing her back up. But we needed to talk. I needed to apologize for the other night, at least. I’d been fucking with her, just because I could.

  But in my defense, she’d been fucking with me, too. Regardless, that wasn’t a good excuse. I’d stewed over what Jen said long enough. I wasn’t quitting, and so far, they weren’t firing me, so Echo and I needed to come to some kind of truce.

  Once my decision was made, I waited for the right moment to broach the subject with her but no time felt right. I did, however, make an effort to be more encouraging and less harsh in my criticisms of her technique, her times, her adherence to the proscribed diet. Today. Fighting with her, while fun, would get us nowhere. Or it would get us fucking against the nearest available surface.

  If she noticed or appreciated my efforts, she said nothing to me about it. Her times in all the events continued to improve. I even succeeded in helping her shave two seconds from her 200-meter average. But it was pretty clear to both of us that it was time to decide what events she’d devote herself to for qualifiers. Up until now, we’d been waiting on Boston to decide.

  Her grandfather’s influence had been enough for the marathon’s organizers to agree to allow Echo to move from the general start to the women’s elite running group, so she’d been pushing to devote more and more of our training time to the marathon, even though she hadn’t wanted to compete in the event to begin with.

  Today, we were working at the Coulter estate. She needed to get some terrain running in, if she was really doing the marathon. With me following in a golf cart, she ran the charted territory at a quick clip. Then, at the six-mile mark, she went down in a sudden heap.

  “Fuck. Echo.” Panic and adrenaline spiked my blood. I picked her up gently before putting her in the cart and driving her back to the house.

  “Do you think you can make it to your room?” I asked as we passed through the entryway.

  “No,” she grimaced. “It’s up a flight of stairs and at the other end of the house. Just…help me into the sitting room, it’s right off here.”

  I got her seated on a sofa, and while she piled pillows beneath her knee, I took a quick look around the room. Large, with a fireplace as its focal point and a small bar off to one side.

  In addition to the sofa, there was a matching loveseat, and a few chairs around a coffee table. Expansive windows looked across the drive and front lawn. Smaller windows looked off to the garage along the eastern-facing edge of the house. There was also a set of doors leading into the dining room. I could just see the gleam of the polished tabletop.

  She lived in a whole different world.

  Echo’s groans of pain brought me sharply out of my silent appraisal. I wanted to find it over-the-top or ostentatious, but the house was disconcertingly inviting and…cozy.

  “Here,” I told her, pulling over one of the chairs and sitting so I could easily reach the tense muscles of her leg. With the pads of my fingers over her smooth skin, I could feel the knots and systematically pressed and rubbed them until they started to ease. “Your folks aren’t home, I take it,” I said.

  She shook her head. “They had an appointment in La Jolla and Mom wanted to get some shopping done for the trip to Boston. I don’t know why. It’s not like we’ll be gone for long. Ahh,” she groaned. “That’s much better.” She sat up straighter and began flexing her leg, back and forth, until she was able to hold it straight while she rolled her foot at the ankle, working out the last few kinks.

  I didn’t want to let go. Because you are a glutton for punishment.

  “I, uh…I’ve been meaning… There’s something I wanted to say for a while, but it’s never seemed…” I stopped and started. She set her leg back down on the sofa, and I continued examining the muscles up and down her leg, pausing every now and again to knead a particular spot. “About when we met. The second time, that is. When we officially met…I should apologize. You know…with giving you a hard time about it all.”

  “You mean when you accused me of lying to you, and sleeping with you, in order to make you look bad?” Her voice was flat, but direct. She was clearly more comfortable being direct with me than with her family.

  “Yeah, I know I didn’t handle it well, and…well, in the last few weeks, I’ve realized that…it’s not the kind of thing you would do. Not the lying about who you are and sleeping with a complete stranger part because you definitely did that, but doing it specifically as a means to…undermine me…my position as your coach…whatever,” I rambled, suddenly aware of just how high up her thigh my hands had traveled. Oh, hell. Heat flooded my veins, and I fidgeted in my seat. Clearing my throat, I added, “I’m afraid I let my frustration…affect the way I coached you—especially at first. And I’m sorry for that.”

  She shook her head as she picked at her sleeve. “You don’t have to apologize,” Echo muttered. “It was awkward for both of us, and we both said things that were…well, some of them might have been true but we didn’t necessarily need to say them. And as for you letting…what happened between us…affect how you coached me, I think I’ve shown that I can handle myself. I didn’t ask to be coddled or given any kind of special treatment—”

  “That’s just it,” I interrupted. Shit, this was harder than I thought. “I didn’t treat you fairly. It had nothing to do with ‘special treatment’, and everything to do with the fact that I wanted to make you miserable, like I was.”

  “Well, if I was miserable with my training it had little to do with you,” she insisted.

  “I’m trying to apologize and be the bigger person here.”

  “And I’m saying that there was no need for any of this. We were doing just fine before when we didn’t talk about what happened. But no,” she tried to pull her leg away, but I held on. “No, you had to go and bring it up and now it’s out there, and—”

  “Good God, do you ever shut up? I don’t remember you being this chatty when we—”

  “Yeah, well, we didn’t exactly do a lot of talking that night, did we?”

  “Probably a good thing, because apparently we would have just wound up arguing.” The heat of her thigh on my hand coursed from my palm, up my arm, and then raced through my body.

  The memory of how her smooth, bare skin had felt beneath my hands that night had my fingers itching to ride a little higher, to slip beneath the waistband of her running shorts and feel the warm slickness of her once more.

  She glowered at me, even her pupils dilated. “If you weren’t such a—”

  First, I knew I shouldn't have done it. Second, I knew it wouldn’t help. Third…well, fuck third. I needed to taste her again. I helped myself up and pressed my lips to hers to shut her up. She responded immediately, her lips parting. Her fingers clutched the back of my head, holding me steady as her tongue slipped into my mouth.

  Holy fuck. I perched at the edge of my seat as Echo rolled slightly towards me, causing my hand to ride farther up her thigh, the inviting heat between her legs obscured only by a few thin layers of fabric. Her body arched toward me.

  I should stop. Fuck that. I needed to pull back. Hell no.

  She dug her hands into my shirt, pulling me forward, making that little mewling sound. An electric charge ran through me and my cock jerked. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. If I kept this up, I’d have her on my lap, and screw getting caught.

  With a rough growl I tore my lips away and eased back. “Shit.”

  “We can’t,” she gasped.

  “Of course not,” I agreed, clearing my throat. “I’m…sorry. I don’t… I don’t know what just happened.” I turned away from her and stood.

  Cock hard, and aching with frustration. Brain, a mess. Emotions…all over the fucking place. “I should…I should go.” I needed to get the fuck out of here, so I could think. Because right now she was too close. Too soft.

  “Go? You…you can’t go.”

  I froze. Was she…did she…want me to stay? Because, fuck, I wanted to stay. I couldn’t think straight. I was entirely too aware of my throbbing cock. And if I didn’t chill out, the whole house would be all-too-aware.

  “My parents,” she added. “Remember? They were meeting us here today to make travel arrangements for the marathon.”

  Fuck me. I’d been summoned. Something my brain kept trying to forget. “Right… Boston. So what time were you expecting them home?” I asked calmly, my voice sounding to my own ears as though I were growling at her.

  She was not for me.

  “The appointment should be over in about a half-hour, and it’ll take them at least as long to get back here,” she estimated.

  “Appointment?”

  “A…uh…business appointment,” she said quickly, flushing. “They’re touring one of the…manufacturing sites for…something at the store. I wasn’t paying too close attention to anything they were saying, apart from the time. I was supposed to be running, so…” Her voice trailed off.

  So we were here for at least an hour, alone together. “Right, I need a minute. Restroom’s through here, isn’t it?” I said, pressing forward without waiting for her to confirm. I needed a minute to cool down.

  If I could just breathe, take a break from her scent, I’d be fine. You’re delusional. Nothing was going to get Echo out of my system. It was a futile effort designed to torture me.

  17

  Echo

  I knocked on the bathroom door. “Cole, can we just talk?”

  “Jesus Christ, Echo, can’t a guy get a little privacy?”

  I had zero idea what I was doing. My IT band still throbbed some, but he’d helped me work out the kinks. At least those kinks anyway. Right about now, I had other things on my mind. Other…needs. What just happened in the living room—it was the one thing that had felt like mine in weeks. It was also, unfortunately, the one thing I felt like I couldn’t have.

  “Look, I’m sorry. Can we just talk about this? I don’t even know what just happened. I just—could you just—”

  He dragged open the door. “What? What do you want from me, Echo? I don’t want to play this game anymore. I’m your coach. That’s it. I don’t need you dicking with me.”

  “I’m not. I swear, I just have zero experience with this, and I don’t know what to do.”

  He dropped his hand and stalked back into the bathroom. “Are you fucking serious right now? Look, Jen said that maybe that first night that wasn’t your plan. But the other night, at Living Green, you meant to do that. That kiss you gave me, you were dicking with me. And here’s the worst thing. I knew you didn’t mean it, but that still didn’t stop me from wanting you. All night. Hell, all weekend, it’s all I could think about. How you fucking taste, the way you move, the way your muscles clamp around my thighs.”

  My breath caught as my gaze flickered over his body, eventually landing on the bulge in his jeans. Wow.

  Need pulled low in my belly. I wanted him. I’d always wanted him. The two of us are a bad idea. I loved how I felt with him. He doesn’t want to want you. I wanted to be the strong, confident woman I was the night we met. You will regret this. For once in my life, I didn’t care.

  With a deliberate step forward, I pushed into the bathroom and locked the door behind me. “You want me to help you with that?”

  His entire body shook on his exhale. When he spoke, his voice was rough, but pleading. “Echo, you keep looking at me like that, we’re going to do something about what you’re staring at.”

  “Good, we’re on the same page.”

  His brows snapped down. “Don’t play with me. I’m not—”

  Taking another bold step, I pressed my fingertips to his mouth. “You talk too much.”

  Cole’s eyes darkened, even as his gaze narrowed and a shiver ran through me. “What do you want from me, Echo?”

  Smoothing my hand over his rock-hard abs, I whispered, “I want to feel something other than worry or exhaustion for five minutes. I want to feel something that’s mine.” I reached for his buckle. He groaned low and squeezed his eyes shut.

  “Shit, Echo.”

  I hesitated, the uncertainty washing over me. He didn’t want me, after all? I pulled my hand back. “Do you want me to stop?”

  His dark gaze bore into mine. “Fuck no.” Reaching for me, he slid his hands into my hair, clamping his hand on the back of my neck. The kiss he gave me wasn’t teasing, it wasn’t a question. It was a statement about possession. His tongue slid into my mouth, and heat bloomed in my core, making me desperate.