Cole: The Wounded Sons, Leah Sharelle [the reading list .TXT] 📗

just until we have spent some time alone getting to know each other better.” Without being under the microscope of Creed, I added silently.

When Cole suggested we stay out of the limelight while we began our relationship, I had to admit I jumped on the idea. It puzzled me why Creed would think Cole pursuing me was a bad idea, bad enough to ask his son not to do it. The thought that I might not be good enough for Cole or was some kind of unneeded problem, in Creed’s opinion, could mess up my recovery. So, spending time with Cole away from prying eyes was more than perfect.

“Any timeline from the hot, sexy soldier when you will be announcing your coupling?” Thayer asked, twisting her upper body to look at me.

“Coupling? Seriously, Thay, you slay me with the things you come up with,” I giggled, smacking her lightly on her jean-clad bottom. Today, Thayer was dressed in denim shorts that were one step away from indecent, a leather corset vest, and on her feet, her trusty black military-style boots. My bestie definitely danced to her own beat, and her band was way out there.

The sound of a motorcycle pulling into the drive interrupted whatever Thayer was about to say. My heart kicked into overdrive as I jumped off the bed and raced to my wardrobe for some shoes appropriate for riding on the back of Cole’s beast of a Harley.

Rooting around my small selection of foot attire, finding only flats and high heels and one pair of dodgy sneakers, my frustration levels grew until a shoe hit me in the back of my shoulder.

“Ouch! Thayer!” Reaching down for the boot that just assaulted me, I turned to chuck it back at her when the other one came sailing towards me.

“Wear these, trust me when I say you don’t want an ankle burn from the exhaust pipe. Hurts like a bitch and scares like a motherfucker.” Pointing at her bare ankle, Thayer showed me a faded welt just above her ankle bone.

“You’ve been on the back of a motorbike?” I asked, amused and slightly impressed.

With the grace of a three-legged dog, Thayer rolled off the bed and hit the floor with a thud, her head hitting the edge of my bedside table as she fell.

“Thayer!”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she muttered, struggling to her feet, rubbing at her forehead. “Yes, I have been on the back of a bike, no I do not want to go into it. That guy was not one of my finest choices, believe me.”

“I can’t believe I am asking this but, what happened?” The question was out before I could stop it, Cole was here, and I didn’t have time for one of Thayer’s convoluted stories, but as it always did, my curiosity got the better of me.

“Well … you see,” Thayer started, her hands on her curvy hips and that look she always got on her face when she was about to tell me more than I needed to know. Groaning at my momentary brain malfunction, I dropped to my butt and started to pull on the shoes. Might as well make use of the time it was going to take to hear this.

“I had just turned eighteen, and I wanted to lose my virginity in the worst way, so I went to that pub on the highway, you know the one just outside of town? Anyway, that was before the cops shut it down for illegal whatever it was.” Thayer waved her hands in the air, then began pacing, not waiting for me to confirm or deny.

“So this big dude, I’m talking well over six feet and muscled like you wouldn’t believe, you remember that wrestler, Big Sexy Kevin Nash? Think him before he did Magic Mike … now I was scared shitless, I’m talking about to vomit all over my boots scared.”

Hearing my front door opening then closing, I hurriedly finished tying the boot laces, eager to get this story over and done with so I could start my weekend with Cole with as little scarring from Thayer’s story as possible.

Cole only got a tiny taste of Thayer the other night, enough to give him the impression she might be nuts and in need of an intervention.

“You asked him for sex?” I interrupted her just in time to stop her from describing what she had eaten that night and what her vomit might have looked like had she upchucked all over her shoes.

“Ahh, duh! I did and he turned me down! Flat out refused to pop my cherry but offered me a ride home on his bike. Turned out he was an undercover cop on a drug bust, and he threatened to have me arrested for soliciting!”

“No way!”

“Way, and to make things worse, he was married. His wife saw us on his bike and followed us, driving so close behind us, blaring the car horn at us, and flashing her lights. It turned out he never told her about his undercover work, leaving her to believe he was cheating on her. With me!”

Shaking my head and scrambling to my feet, I chuckled at the indignant expression on Thayer’s face.

“Only you, Thayer,” I laughed. “Only you could have so many crazy things happen to you and still only twenty years old.”

“Tell me about it,” she huffed, “I would have been the only woman arrested for prostitution with my hymen still intact!”

A deep chuckle from the bedroom door broke my shock, whipping my head around to find Cole standing on the threshold of my room, dressed in all black. He looked sinful as always, but it was the amused grin spread across his face that ruined the dark and dangerous look his clothes suggested.

“Ummm, should I ask?” Cole hedged, looking between Thayer and me, his lips twitching.

“No!” Thayer and I both yelled at the same time, then dissolved into giggles.

“Seriously, Rambo, trust me when I say you don’t want to know,” I assured him, zipping