Love Thy Neighbor (Friend-Zoned)(23)

I get a total lady boner. My lady bits are way too happy. So happy it’s crying juicy tears.

Fuck me, please!

He picks me up and plops my butt down on the counter. He puts his hands on the edge and leans over me, forcing me to lean back and take his deliciously forceful kisses. I hold his face in my hands and give as good as I get. My back hits something and it starts falling. Cole tries to grab the fruit bowl but fruit flies everywhere. Laughing hard, Cole moves around the counter and behind me to pick up the apples and oranges from the floor. He comes back around to me, and immediately I know something’s wrong by the look on his face.

What the feck?

He holds a piece of paper in his large hands, a deadly expression on his face, his once warm eyes now colder than ice. I don’t know what it is he’s found, but my hands start sweating. Cole looks scary and I’m suddenly frightened.

I make a move to slide off the counter but he pushes me back. Hard. My shoulder jars and my eyes widen in shock. He looks me in the eye and growls, “Want to explain this to me?” He flings the paper right in my face.

What the f*ck? Where has my sweet Cole gone?

With trembling hands, I take the note and my stomach flips. Of all the damn notes he had to find, it had to be the one Ghost left when he brought me coffee that morning. I have to admit, it looks bad. Cole doesn’t wait for an answer. He snatches the note from my shaking hand and reads aloud in dead calm, “Sorry I kept you up last night. I think you’ll need the coffee this morning. I got you a muffin to say thanks for breakfast yesterday.” He nods slowly. “Looks like someone’s been a busy girl.”

Oh shit! No!

This is not how I planned my evening going. I planned an awesome evening of Cole, sex, sex and more sex. Maybe stopping in-between to eat, but definitely ending with more sex!

The expression Cole is wearing says I shouldn’t lie about this. So I don’t. I try my hardest to steady my voice. “Honey, Asher from next door doesn’t have a TV, so he comes over sometimes to watch with me. That’s what he meant by keeping me up. I swear Cole, it’s nothing to worry about. We’re friends, that’s all.”

Cole looks at me through scorching eyes and answers through gritted teeth, “Don’t. Fucking. Lie. To. Me.”

I pull myself back from him. Voice shaking, I tell him, “Cole, you’re scaring me.”

He leans forward into the space I’ve created for myself and puts his nose to mine. He asks, “This is what you were doing last night, huh? He’s your friend? Yeah, right. How long have you been f*cking him?”

I choke out, “We’re not sleeping together.”

He roars right in my face, “Don’t lie to me!” Spittle speckles my face and I flinch.

Trembling hard, I whisper, “I’m not lying to you, Cole.”

A deafening slap fills the room and before I register what’s happened, I’m lying on the floor with a pounding head, a throbbing eye and an aching wrist.

Cole paces back and forth in my kitchen. He’s visibly upset. He runs a hand through his hair and whispers over and over again, “Fuck.”

I may be hot-headed, but my father taught me a number of things in life. Pick your battles was one of the many important things he taught me. Sure I could use my badass boxing skills on him, but there’s no way I could knock him out, which would leave me with a very angry, unstable man.

Not good.

Cole is twice my size. If I try to fight him, I know I’ll end up badly injured or even dead, so I do what any person in my position would do. Using my feet, I slide myself as far away from him as possible. Distance is what I need right now. My vision blurs as tears fall freely down my cheeks.

I start to hyperventilate. My chest tightens and I feel as though I’m going to faint.

Cole stops in his tracks and looks over to me. His face has softened and he looks remorseful. He starts, “Sunshine, I-”

But I cut him off on a hoarse whisper, “Please, Cole. Just go.”

He places a hand on his hip and nods solemnly, agreeing. “Okay, I’ll go.” He walks over to me. I use my feet to push myself back but hit a wall. I whimper as he kneels down to me. He touches my cheek gently and says softly, “Look at what you made me do, sunshine.”

I lift my face to look him in the eye.

Is this f*cker for real?

It’s hard but I restrain myself from clawing his eyes out. He smiles at me. “We’ll try this again tomorrow, okay?” His hands cup my cheeks and he lowers his gorgeous face to mine, kissing me gently. I don’t kiss him back. My mouth is lax and useless. This makes him angry. Using his thumb and forefinger, he holds my chin in his palm and grips my cheeks hard enough to make me yelp. His rage-filled glare bores into me. He demands, “Kiss me. Like you f*cking mean it.”

Who the hell is this man?

I purse my quivering lips and he lowers his face to mine. I do my best at attempting to kiss him like I mean it. That’s actually quite hard to do when all you really want is to bite through his lip. Seeming satisfied, he pulls back and smiles at me. “That’s better, sunshine.” He sighs as he stands. “I’ll let myself out. You think about what you’ve done. I don’t want a repeat of this tomorrow.”

Never taking my eyes off him, I watch as he opens the door, turns to me smiling, blows me a kiss and shuts the door behind him. The realization that something super bad just happened in my home hits me and I scramble to stand. I steady myself as much as possible and shuffle on wobbly legs to the front door. I lock the dead bolt and chain with shaking hands. Unable to think about anything else right now, I send a text message to Tina.