Page 5

“ NO.”

“Coco, you need to listen.” Colin loomed over her, trying to use his body as intimidation; he still had the thick, tall, heavy build of the hockey jock he used to be in high school, but Coco stood her ground.

Her ex from school was very popular with his peers and the women at Ryerson high.

She’d thought she was the luckiest woman in the world to be dating Colin Norris and not because he was touted to be an NHL hockey hopeful and heir to the Norris fortune, but because her crush had turned out to like her too.

Until he broke her heart without a second thought and no regrets.

Thank God it was the last year of high school and that she was going to leave for university, living in the dorms with Jackie as her parents moved to their new home in Canada as ambassadors from Barbados.

She leaned closer to him, pulling his ear down so that he could hear her better as nothing she said before seemed to get through to him.

“I said no, there is no way in hell that I am going to marry you. Now get out of my office and leave me in peace. I’ve had enough of you wasting my time and telling me what I need to do. ”

He stood firm, staring at her stubbornly.

Her blood rushed to her head. “Get out or I will call security back to escort you out.” She tried not to shout in anger.

Her voice was already rough from trying not to scream the walls down in aggravation.

She could not believe this was happening.

Misfortune was playing dirty in bringing her high school ex back into her life.

Coco pressed two fingers both on each side of her temple and began to rub as a way to distract herself, knowing that her migraine was coming on fast, and it was going to be a doozy.

She would have to stay in her office tonight because she would not be able to leave and face the oncoming traffic or the bright lights from outside.

She needed to take her medication and go lie down on the pullout couch that she had in her office for just this type of emergency.

Her office was also equipped with a shower and a change of clothes, because sometimes she was here late working in her lab or with her small staff coming up with ideas or marketing for her hair and skin product line.

She knew she didn’t have long to get rid of him before she was unable to function properly.

“Migraine coming on?”

She glanced up to see concern now in his blue gaze but now the lights were beginning to hurt her eyes, and she lowered them.

“Yes, so can you please go.”

“Coco, I—”

“Please, we can discuss this tomorrow.” She whispered now as a sharp pain hit the front all the way to the back of her skull.

She felt warm hands on her shoulder, then her body being guided to sit on the couch. She closed her eyes now from the intense light in the room.

“Where is your medication?”

She flinched because his voice sounded like he was shouting at her.

But knew he was leaning close to her because she could feel his breath on her ear, and she could smell the faint scent of mint candy that he still liked to suck on.

She remembered tasting it on his tongue when he’d kissed in school.

Others liked gum but his was always a mint.

“Top drawer in my desk.”

She heard him ruffling around her drawer before hearing the pop of her medication bottle top and the sound of pills being shaken out.

“Here.” She felt him gently take her hand from her temple and place the pills in her palm. Then the sound of him grabbing one of the glasses off her bar.

“Here’s some water to wash them down.”

She would have nodded but knew even that would send more shooting pain throughout her head.

She took the pills, then downed the water.

“Does this couch pull out?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, going to raise you up and pull it out, okay.”

“Yes” was all she could manage.

She stood there, listening to Colin move around, to the springs protest as he transformed the couch into a bed for her. He then helped lower her to the bed, and she felt his hands on her legs, tracing them all the way down until he took off her shoes. She stayed on top of the covers.

“Please turn off the lights and lower the blinds. Keys to lock my office and front doors are also in the drawer. I will get them from you tomorrow and thanks.” She whispered.

She didn’t see him leave but heard him moving around in her office, rolling the blinds closed and plunging the room in darkness.

Though she opened her eyes to slits, she closed them again with a sigh before she heard her door lock.

She pulled the covers up around her; even though she felt the weight of her clothes, she couldn’t move just yet and lay in the quiet until the medication began to work.

How she was going to get Colin out of her life for good without having to give into his demands, Coco didn’t know, but she hoped tomorrow everything would be different and he would come to his senses.

She dropped into a restless sleep where her past relationship came back to haunt her again.

She cursed as that day in the hallway appeared and morphed to the last night they spent together.

He was between her legs but instead of a young Colin, it was now the man he’d become.

She could feel the rough bristles of his reddish-brown beard, scraping the sensitive skin of her thighs.

She shivered and moaned at the slow slide of his tongue between the wetness seeping from the slit in her pussy.

Passing over the swollen flesh until she came with a low moan.

He moved over her and she heard him say, “Having a wet dream of me, are you? Does that mean you will agree to my proposal?” Colin sounded amused.

“ Huh ?”

“Or we can make that dream that you are having a reality. It has been a long time since I have tasted the sweet nectar of your pussy.” She felt the press of his lips on her neck and the heavy weight of his chest on hers and woke up with a start, her eyes closing and then opening to slits against the weak sunlight seeping through her office window.

“Shit.” She pressed her hands against his solid chest and pushed hard. Colin grunted as he tumbled back and almost off the sofa bed.

Coco rose, sitting up from the bed, pushing the sheets off her, then wrapping them back around her quickly. That’s when she realized she was only in her bra and panties. Panties that were also wet.

She turned back to Colin when she heard him chuckle and say, “Good morning, Fiancée.” And then he stretched, his chest bare, except for the reddish-brown hair that lay across his upper chest and tapered down to his abs that rippled as he breathed in and out.

She followed that path of hair down to his boxers, which showcased the early-morning erection he was now sporting, then noticed the defined muscles of his thighs, calves, and ending her gaze at his big feet and toes that wiggled in greeting to her.

Her eyes rose to see the merriment in his, but also there was a banked flame waiting to ignite and she swallowed before her eyebrows met in a frown.

“What are you doing here, Colin?”

He rolled to the side to face her. “Taking care of my duties as a fiancé.”

“Stop calling me that, you know fully well I said no, and I meant it. You can’t walk into my life after ten years and bully me into getting what you want. And why me? You have so many women from your past to choose from.” She said sarcastically.

“You kept up on my dating life.” He grinned.

She growled through her teeth, exasperated with his cavalier attitude. “I won’t agree to this.”

“I have shares in your company that you want back, and I need a wife for a short period of time to appease the whim of my dying grandfather.” Colin sat up in the sofa bed, discarding the facade of using his charm and good looks to coax her.

He shed that image like a second skin to reveal the cold, calculating businessman when needed.

Coco wasn’t surprised; she’d seen this cold side to him the day she confronted him over their severed relationship.

It had all been about the sex with him. She wanted to wait and he didn’t, so he moved on to someone else that did.

She was the new girl at the school and had only been a challenge for him.

She stood there in the empty hallway of the school as he looked down at her with cold, blue eyes, then she’d turned and walked away.

Coco had been glad in that moment she’d not given her virginity, but hurt and rage filled her up as she put distance between them, not giving him the satisfaction of seeing how much he’d hurt her.

Thoughts of revenge had filled her but when she’d gotten home, her parents revealed her grandmother had fallen ill and that they were going to fly home to take care of her.

She’d finished the last of her studies for high school while staying in Barbados, returning for her graduation with her parents, sister, grandma, and new boyfriend cheering her on.

When she walked off the stage to head back to her seat, her glance met Colin’s intense stare; she felt her face flush with heat, then went cold when a bored expression crossed his face.

She’d wondered briefly what that intense look was about but soon forgot when everyone was done with their diplomas, and she went back to her parents’ place with Jackie and Zahara to celebrate.

Now she couldn’t believe she was faced with the man from her past that should have stayed there.

“I don’t have time for this, Colin. Just give me back my shares.

They mean nothing to you, and I have worked very hard to get this company going and where it finally is today.

” He shrugged, his face set and fuelling her to anger.

She spat, “ This will never work; I loathe the sight of you and your touch, and my expressions will give it away.”