Page 4

Colin approached the glass doors of his ex-girlfriend’s company, his favorite work chair gripped in his hand as he pulled it behind him.

His heart kicked up a beat when he heard Coco’s husky tones talking on the phone, her slight accent coming out when he heard his name said in irritation.

He grinned. Things were about to get interesting because Coco was unaware that her life was about to change in unexpected ways if he had anything to say about it.

The shares Michael dropped in his lap were an unexpected surprise that he was using to his advantage. He now only had eleven more months to woo Coco and get her to marry him.

His hand was on the handle when he spotted her sitting against the receptionist desk, her cell phone cupped in her hand and her head tilted down as she spoke.

He took her in, admiring her unconventional beauty.

Coco was sporting blond braids that she had pulled in a high ponytail, exposing her dainty ears with teardrop gold earrings, and on her neck sat a gold choker necklace.

He ran his gaze her cute button nose, her high forehead, her round face and cheeks.

Glancing down, his breath caught as he fixated on her bountiful breasts, encased in a fluorescent pink business dress that fell to just above her knees.

The bright color complimented her darker skin.

The dress was molded perfectly to her cinched waist and even though she was sitting on it, he could visualize her firm but ample buttocks that he remembered getting to grip when they were dating in high school.

Her physique was almost the same but a little fuller now with age.

His eyes shot to her plump lips that were too big for her round face but that he remembered loving to suck on them.

He shook his head as past memories of their brief time together rushed in, before he’d broken up with her in high school.

His gut clenched as he recalled how he decided to end it between them and told her since she would not put out, he wanted to continue playing the field.

He could not forget her expression of hurt and shock when he ended the conversation by saying, at least he did this before he ended up cheating on her instead, and he finally broke it off.

Like that would make it all palatable to her.

He had been an utter ass in high school.

He frowned when he suddenly heard her say.

“Hi Ambra, it’s Coco.”

Then he heard Ambra’s response through the phone as Coco had put it on speaker.

An image flashed in his mind of the day he met Ambra when Michael had hired him to prepare a romantic dinner.

The woman was tall and stunning, but even though she had been half naked, she hadn’t stirred him in the way that Coco was doing right now fully clothed.

“I’m really sorry Coco; I didn’t know that Michael would come after you that way. I—”

“You picked a real SOB to tangle with, Ambra. But a man in love will do crazy shit,” Coco interrupted, her voice now sounding irritated.

She lifted her fingers to her nose and gave it a little squeeze, as if trying anything to relieve a headache.

He recollected about the headaches she used to get in school and how he would massage her neck and shoulders as he rained kisses down her neck to make her forget the hard day she’d had at school or a knot in her neck from her head bent from studying that would trigger them.

“He’s not—”

Coco lowered her hand and Colin watched as she rolled her eyes to the ceiling for patience as if Ambra could see her and continued, “Uh huh. Even I saw the sparks at Zahara’s wedding.”

“Coco, he is not in love with me. The Brooks family is just wired a little differently than most, and I know they can be bastards—”

He turned, suddenly feeling eyes on him.

A security guard stood by the elevator, eyeing him suspiciously.

Colin moved away from the glass door, flushing slightly, knowing how it must look with him practically pressed against the glass, caught like a peeping tom gawking at a woman in her office.

When the security guard moved to pull his walkie-talkie from the belt on his hip, he knew that was exactly what he thought.

Colin nodded in greeting and pointed at the door, then tried pulling on it to only feel resistance and realized Coco had it locked.

He rapped lightly to get her attention, while giving the security guard an innocent smile and the guard paused from calling, watching him now with a cautious expression.

“Hold on a sec.” He heard her say, then turned back to the door at the sound of heels striking the marble floor.

She didn’t see him standing there at first because she was focused on the phone, automatically unlocking and pulling the door open.

She finally glanced up and a look of surprise crossed her features before it twisted to anger.

Her eyebrows snapped down to a furrow. “Oh hell no. What do you think you are doing?” Coco seethed.

“Moving my things in,” Colin said sardonically and reached by the wall near the door, tugging his favorite chair next to him.

She gave him a look that said, “ Are you serious ,” before trying to block him when he took a step across the threshold. She snapped, “You and that thing you call a chair can go back out to the dumpster where you both belong!”

Feigning a hurt expression but trying not to laugh as he continued to walk past her efforts to bar his entry. “My shares in your company says otherwise,” Colin gloated.

“I—hey, don’t come any closer. Girl, hurry up and come back.

I am going to need someone to bail me out of jail.

” She growled into the phone before hitting the end button.

Furious, she shoved her shoulder into his chest, leaned her hips away from him, and dug her feet into the ground, but the marble floor caused her to slide.

She almost fell down his body to the floor, but he released the chair to grab her arm, pulling her back up and against him.

She tried to pull her arm away and he was about to let go when he heard “What is going on here? Release her now.” A heavy hand fell on his shoulder, which he shrugged off and turned with her to face the security guard from outside.

“Should I call the police, Miss Hunt?” The guard raised the walkie-talkie again.

“Yes, please call the poli—” He pulled her even closer, and Coco stopped mid-sentence. After a pause, she tugged again on her arm, pressing her hand on his chest to push against him.

He released her but then quickly snaked his arm around her waist.

“Now, Honey, I know that you are still mad at me over last time but is this any way to greet your fiancé? Especially since I’ve been away for so long,” He drawled his words for emphasis.

She paused in her struggle and threw her head back, leaning so far that her back was arced over his arm.

“Fiancé? You issa madman or wuh? Yuh piece ah idiot!”

He felt his body stir at the low huskiness of her outraged voice, but grinned because when she was thrown off or upset, she would speak with an island accent that he found out later was Bajan dialect, as her family was from Barbados and clearly, she still did it.

He found it cute even though he could not make out a lot of the words she would drop on his head when she was mad at him, like now.

“Yes, your fiancé, darling, the one who also has shares in your company.” He leaned over and gave her a kiss on her cheek.

“If you don’t play nice and tell him to go away, I will keep these shares for a lot longer than I planned to.

” He whispered against her cheek before pulling back and smiling down at her.

Coco glared angrily back at him, her eyes spitting fire before she fixed her angry expression and began to smile along with him.

She cleared her throat. “It’s okay, Ken.

This is my fiancé, Colin. Who likes to play around too much.

Let me go now, darling .” Her voice now sounded like she’d eaten shards of glass.

Then she gave him a punch in the arm, pretending to be a playful fiancé.

That stung, but he didn’t release her, just pulled her tight against him.

“Behave.” He muttered against her cheek as he rubbed it against hers, hoping the beard he now sported felt like a stinging bristle against her skin.

“Are you sure, Miss Hunt?” He could hear the guard shifting on his feet as the soles of his shoes scraped against the floor. He squeezed her tighter and began to rain kisses along her jaw.

“It’s Coco, Ken. It’s okay to call me Coco. You don’t have to be so formal.” Coco said over his shoulder, as he moved to bring her closer to him and inhaled the fragrance she was wearing when she was finally flush against him.

She lifted her hands that had been resting on his arms when she failed to keep their bodies apart, and raised them onto his shoulders, where she began to rub them in affection like a dutiful fiancé, then slowly dug her nails in.

He groaned.

“Okay, well, yes, let me go and continue my rounds. Looks like you two have a lot of catching up to do.” He heard the security guard say before pivoting on his shoes that continued to squeak on the floor.

“Leh me go do! Before I cuff ya down!” She hissed in his ear.

“What?! Never mind. Is he gone?”

“Yeessss, push offa me!” She whispered out angrily.

“No, not yet, until the coast is clear. Besides, you used to like these arms around you.” She drew in a breath, and he knew she was about to curse and demand to be set free again.

He turned his head and could see the guard watching again from the elevator and he turned and captured her protesting lips with his.

She stiffened in his arms and moved her hands up to his hair where she grabbed a fist full and pulled hard enough for the roots to feel like they were separating from his scalp.

In retaliation, he moved his hands from around her waist and down to her plump buttocks, taking both heavy globes into his hands and squeezing hard as he moved her flush against his hips, where his cock was beginning to stir from the feel of her voluptuous body in his arms.

He muttered against her mouth. “Open and respond to me.”

“Leff me boy…”

He frowned because he couldn’t understand what she was saying.

“Here let me say it properly for you to understand me. Not on your fucking life .” She growled out in frustration.

“Fine.” He lifted up and turned his head again and saw the guard was gone and released her immediately. She stumbled back a bit and gave him a look that said if a gun was around, he would be dead now.

“ Rasshole .” Colin heard her mutter under her breath in irritation.

He could tell that was definitely a swear word and bit back a laugh. “So where do I put my chair before you show me around?”

“Right here.” She said as she strolled past him. Grabbing the handle of the door, she opened it and, with a big flourish movement of her arm, indicated where he was to go.

Looking at her now, he saw a woman that rather do him bodily harm than marry him and that he couldn’t take the time to woo her.

But he had to just get her to agree with his plan; she deserved better than to be conned.

He grimaced because what he was about to do was going to get worse for her, but there was no choice in the matter.

He walked up to her and pushed the door closed, facing her now mutinous expression.

“We have to talk, and I know you are not about to like what it is I am about to say.”