Bastard’s Baby(120)
I watched as she turned away resolutely and marched right through the front doors, blending in with the crowd and disappearing inside.
“Think she can handle it?”
“Probably,” I said.
The plan was pretty simple. Cole and I were both known to the people inside, or at least we were probably known. If one of them were blackmailing us, they’d definitely want to keep a huge distance.
But Lacey was different. Nobody knew her, nobody knew what she wanted, and that meant she was free to look around and maybe ask some questions.
The event happening inside was definitely something upscale and fancy, and fortunately Lacey had dressed for the part. She looked totally stunning in a floor-length dress, her hair pinned up in a complicated swirl, her makeup on point. I’d seen her get cleaned up before, but she looked particularly incredible tonight.
I leaned up against the wall off to the side, away from the entrance, and Cole joined me.
“I guess now we wait,” I said.
“Any ideas on how we pass the time?”
I gave him a look. “We could play I Spy.”
“Okay. I spy a naughty girl in need of punishment.”
“I spy an asshole.”
“That’s not how you play.”
“Maybe, but it’s true.”
He grinned at me, shaking his head. “When are you going to get over this whole denial thing?”
“There’s no denial here, Cole, just an asshole and his stepsister.”
He moved closer, our arms practically touching. I snuck a look at him out of the corner of my eye. His clothes clung to his muscular body, making my heart flutter. He caught me looking and smiled bigger.
“There it is,” he said. “That look.”
“What look?”
“Like you’re about to throw yourself at me. Mouth parted slightly. Makes my cock hard.”
“Anything makes your . . . penis hard,” I mumbled.
He laughed loudly at that, getting a few stares from people walking from their cars. “Penis? Are you joking?”
“Cut it out. People are staring.”
“No,” he said, turning to me. “You have to say it.”
“Say what?”
“Cock! You have to say cock.”
“No way. Cut it out. People can hear you.”
“Penis is about the least sexy word in the entire world. Say cock, sis, or I’ll keep getting louder.”
I glanced around us, my heart hammering in my chest. I was bright red and I knew it, but I couldn’t do anything about it. “Okay, okay. Cock.”
He moved even closer to me. “There you go. Not so hard.”
“I thought you were always hard around me?”
My joke eased my tension. He smirked. “Oh, I most certainly am. Have a feel.”
“Feel yourself.” I turned away from him, crossing my arms.
He leaned back up against the wall. There was a short silence between the two of us.
“She’s going to be fine,” Cole said softly.
“How do you know that?”
“I can just tell. She’s probably a lot more resourceful than you realize.”
I smiled to myself, shaking my head. I had no clue how he managed to go from making dick jokes one second to practically reading my mind the next, but he somehow managed it.
He always managed to make me feel completely off balance. It was almost a dizzy feeling. He could go from incredibly intense to completely joking and light within seconds, but for some reason I absolutely couldn’t get enough of that. He kept me guessing and was always surprising.
People tended to think that fighters and MMA-type guys were just muscle-headed idiots, but Cole was completely unlike anything I would have imagined. Sure, he was a cocky asshole, but that probably just came with the territory. There was a whole world of something else down underneath his exterior, but he rarely gave me glimpses.
“You have to stop doing that,” he said, cutting into my thoughts.
“What?”
“Pouting like that.”
“I’m not pouting.”
He shook his head. “You’re definitely pouting.”
“I’m just worried about Lacey. That’s all.”
He came closer again, and this time I didn’t back off. “Worst case scenario, she gets thrown out. She’s going to be fine.”
“Maybe, but we shouldn’t have brought her into this.”
“Are you always like this?”
“Like what?”
“Worried.”
“I’m not ‘like’ anything, Cole.”
“You sure are, Alexa.” His breath was warm on my neck, and I knew I should push him away. We were back in the shadows next to the door, not directly in anyone’s sight. I knew nobody would notice us.