Claiming Sarah (Ace Security #5)(61)

“And about the other shit you just said? Everyone has baggage, angel, and I love you regardless. In less than a week, you aren’t going to live so far away. In fact, all you’ll have to do is roll over, and I’ll be there next to you. And we’re going to figure out this situation with Owen. It sounds like he needs to be in some sort of group home where they can supervise him, and if that’s the case, Ace Security will make sure he gets the help he needs. Okay?”

“Okay,” Sarah agreed. What else could she say? Cole made everything seem as if it was going to work out without any issues. She hoped so.

“Okay,” Cole repeated. Then he kissed her once more, a short and hard kiss that was hardly satisfactory, but probably safer considering they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

“Call or text me in the morning when you leave for the hospital,” he told her.

“It’s going to be early,” she warned.

“I’ll be up. Besides, even if I weren’t, hearing from you is a hell of a way to start my day.”

Sarah licked her lips, and Cole groaned. He gave her neck a small squeeze, then stood back. “Go on. Before I haul your sweet ass inside and have my wicked way with you.”

She had a feeling he wasn’t kidding. Sarah wouldn’t have minded that, but she knew he had work to do. Keeping her eyes on his, she nodded and walked backward toward the garage—she’d found no gifts from Owen on her stoop when she’d pulled in, thank God. She unlocked the garage door and turned to wave at Cole.

He grinned at her, lifting one finger from his steering wheel, and backed out of her driveway. She watched until she couldn’t see his car anymore, then finally entered her house.

It seemed extraordinarily large and empty. She knew it was because she’d just spent the most amazing couple of days with Cole. He was larger than life and seemed to fill all the lonely cracks inside her. For the first time, Sarah realized that the house she grew up in, the house where she’d first learned what true love was from her dads, didn’t feel like home anymore. Simply because Cole wasn’t there with her.

“It’s time,” she whispered as she looked around. There were boxes stacked haphazardly around the living room and kitchen. The Realtor was calling a company to come in and professionally stage the house once everything was out. It cost a bit more, but it was worth it so she didn’t have to worry about moving more than once. She could box up all her stuff now and have it done.

Knowing she had a lot of work ahead of her, especially if she was going to tackle the boxes in the attic, Sarah took a deep breath. Stuffing her phone in her back pocket, she headed for her bedroom. She was almost done in there, had a bit of sorting to do in the master bedroom, then she’d see how much crap there was in the attic. She’d pretty much already planned to open all the boxes up there, quickly check what was in them, then probably donate most of the contents. If she hadn’t used that stuff in years, there was no need to keep it.

Feeling good about the task ahead of her, excited that with every box she packed up and sorted, she was closer to moving to Castle Rock and starting her new life with Cole, Sarah couldn’t help but think about all the places she was sore where she’d never been sore before.

Cole was an energetic lover. He’d done things to her, and with her, that she’d never experienced. And he hadn’t been kidding when he’d said that he was addicted to her. Every chance he got, he was inside her. Sometimes fucking her hard, sometimes slow, but every single time, he made sure she orgasmed before he did, planting himself as deep inside her as possible.

Sarah stood in the entrance to her bedroom and put a hand on her stomach. She could be pregnant right this second. She wouldn’t be surprised. She had no doubt Cole’s little swimmers were incredibly potent.

Closing her eyes, she smiled. Maybe things wouldn’t work out. Maybe Cole would decide that she wasn’t the woman he wanted, after all, but for this moment, today, she was his, and he was hers. Deciding to worry about the future another day, she dropped her hand, opened her eyes, and headed for the nearest half-empty box. The sooner she got everything packed up, the sooner she could start her new life with Cole.



It was later than she’d hoped before Sarah was ready to start on the mess in the attic. She had gotten distracted in Mike and Jackson’s room. She’d found some papers she hadn’t ever seen before. They were hidden in a shoebox high on a shelf in the closet. Since Mike had loved shoes and had owned what seemed like a million pairs, she’d simply thought the box held one more. But the second she pulled the box off the shelf, she knew it didn’t contain shoes.

She’d ended up sitting on the floor of the master closet, crying and trying to read between her tears. The box held mementos her dads had kept of her. The letter saying they’d been approved to be foster parents. The first Father’s Day cards she’d given them. Her report cards from elementary school. Even the paperwork from the school when she’d gotten detention for fighting with another girl.

Sarah remembered that day clearly. The spoiled little brat had made fun of her for having two dads instead of a mom, and had wanted to know if she was going to be a lesbian because her dads were gay. Sarah had hit her. Curled her fingers into a fist and hit her in the mouth. She’d been ten. It had hurt, and she’d had to write an apology letter to the little girl, which wasn’t fair since she hadn’t been the one in the wrong, but her dads had sat her down and told her that there would always be people who were mean-spirited and ugly inside, and it was harder to stand up and be the better person.