He chuckles, low and deep in his throat. “Yeah, that’s it.” He shakes his head, kissing me again.
Sensing that Colt may still need more convincing, I take matters into my own hands. I want to show him that I am ready. I pull my shirt over my head and drop it on the floor. I’ve been shirtless in front of him before, but never without a bra. I reach back to undo it, fumbling with the clasp. Colt’s fingers find mine and the clasp springs free. I chuckle. Yes, he is good at this. He pulls his shirt off over his head, tossing it onto the floor, along with my bra. It doesn’t even occur to me to be self-conscious. I want this with him. He pulls me to him and the contact of our chests rising and falling together is amazing.
“Do you have protection?” I breathe.
“Shh. We don’t have to do this.”
I force his chin up to meet my eyes, glaring at him. “Don’t make me beg.”
He reaches into the nightstand beside the bed and removes a square package, setting in on the bed beside us.
My stomach is a ball of nerves. Seeing that package makes this all more real.
His hands roam up my back, starting at the base of my spine and massaging as he moves up. We continue kissing while I plot my next move, and push down the tingle of nerves in my stomach.
His cell phone buzzes loudly, vibrating on the night stand. At first annoyance flares inside me, then I remember, hardly anyone has his new phone number. “That’s your new phone. Should we see who it is?” I murmur against his mouth.
Instead of answering, his tongue caresses mine, coaxing my mouth open as he deepens the kiss.
The second time the phone buzzes, I reach for it with my free hand, wondering who has his new number. “Bria?” I read the screen.
He stops kissing me abruptly and reaches for the phone. I hold it tight and read the text.
Hey hotstuff. What should I pack for London?
What the hell? Colt reads the text over my shoulder and winces. He didn’t want me to see this. He didn’t want me to know she was going to London with him.
“Bria’s going?”
I wait for him to deny it, to explain it’s just a coincidence. But he says nothing.
“And you hid it from me?”
His face falls, knowing he’s fucked up big time.
My stomach drops.
I reach for my bra and shirt, grabbing them from the floor and struggle with getting my bra on correctly. I’m so angry my hands are shaking. And to think, I was going to sleep with him tonight. Once I finally have my bra clasped, I thrust my head through my shirt, it’s inside-out, but I don’t care.
“Taylor, wait,” he pleads.
I spin around and face him, challenging him to try and explain this.
“It’s not like that, baby.” He reaches for my hand.
I pull it back. “Don’t. Call. Me. That.”
He balls his hand into a fist. “I needed to bring another agent with me, and I needed her negotiation skills to I can secure this deal, Taylor. It’s critical for the school that I land this.”
“I know that, Colt. We’re not disputing that you need to go to London. Or even the fact that Bria is going with you. I know she works here. What I’m angry about is that you kept it from me.”
He drops his head, running his hands through his hair so it sticks up at a crazy angle in the back. “I was going to tell you tonight,” he whispers. “But you kind of distracted me.”
“That’s even worse, Colt. You were going to go through with my plan for tonight – with this hanging over us? This is a big deal for me. How can I trust you now?”
“I’m sorry, baby.”
His phone buzzes again with a new text from Bria. I realize I’m still gripping it in my hand.
You there? It says.
“Here. Your new phone.” I toss the phone at him, and leave the room.
Chapter 12
Colt
Bria is sitting on the bottom stair in the foyer, waiting for me with her head in her hands. I share her sentiment. It’s entirely too early to be up. But we have a six o’clock flight, and need to be to the airport extra early for the international flight.
“I want to say goodbye to Taylor. Wait here for me?”
She nods, barely looking up.
I jog up the stairs to the third floor dorms and peek inside. It’s dark and silent. I stride over to Taylor’s bed and watch her sleep for a few seconds. I don’t know what she’s dreaming about, but a little line creases her forehead, like she’s worried about something, even in her sleep. I smooth it out with my thumb. She blinks her eyes open at the contact. “Hey,” I whisper down at her.
“Hi,” she murmurs. For just a second she forgets she’s mad at me, and that I’m leaving today and she grins up at me, sleepily, happy. I can see the exact moment it dawns on her. Her happy little smile falls and that line etches in between her brows.
“I just wanted to say goodbye.” I bend down and touch my lips to her forehead, right over the crease. “I hate leaving when you’re mad at me.”
Someone in bed next to her turns over, rousing at my voice. Taylor gestures to the hall. I wait there while she gets up and puts on her robe. Then she joins me in the hall. “You didn’t have to get up.”
She yawns. “I just didn’t want you to wake everyone up with your groveling apology.”
“If that’s what you want, you got it, baby. I am sorry, you know that, honey.”
She stays quiet. I know I won’t get out of this one easy. “You want to walk me out?”
She nods. “Sure.”
We reach the bottom of the stairs and Bria is there, slinging a bag over her shoulder. She’s in bright pink sweatpants with the word sexy printed across her behind and her thong peeks from the waistband. I flick my eyes to Taylor. She noticed it too and her eyebrows pull together in frustration. Shit.
“Bria, wait in the car for me.”
She nods and leaves us alone in the foyer.
I take Taylor in my arms, giving her a squeeze. “Please don’t be mad at me. I know I constantly fuck up, and that my past sucks, and I’m not at all good at being a boyfriend, but I want to be. Give me another chance, baby.”
She steps back from my arms, looking up and studying my face. The words hang heavily between us, charged with the early morning hour and the fact that I’m leaving with Bria. She’s quiet. I don’t know if I expected her to forgive me so easily, but the fact that she doesn’t say anything stings more than I thought it would.
Then she presses a soft kiss to my lips. “We’ll talk when you get back.”
I attempt a smile, but it feels wrong. I hate that I fucked this up. I fish my new cell phone from my pocket. “I’ll call you every day. Okay?”
She nods.
“And we can email.” She offers a small, sad smile. I stuff the phone back in my pocket. And head out after Bria, feeling like a total jackass.
Chapter 13
Taylor
I transfer a scoop of scrambled eggs and two strips of bacon from the warming tray to my plate and follow MJ and Logan to our table.
I stab a forkful of overcooked eggs and MJ and Logan exchange a look.
“What?” I grumble around the eggs.
MJ lifts her right eyebrow, which now sports a tiny barbell. “Now that Colt’s gone, you’re going to be bitchy?”
I swallow down the bite of eggs. “No.” Then stab another forkful. I’m going to make the best of it, but my lack of sleep last night after the Bria incident and then waking up at the crack of dawn when Colt said goodbye had left me drained.
Britt hovers near our table, laughing loudly into her cell phone. “You’re just getting to bed? Damn girl.”
Clearly her friends are just as classy as she is. Britt graduated last year and is now an associate agent. Her failed attempts at seducing Colt last year mean she and I do not see eye to eye. “Well good luck dislodging the stick from Colt’s ass.”