Page 109 of When We Fall: Part One

“Cole,” I moaned. “Oh my god.”

He continued his work until I felt boneless in the sheets. Satisfied, he slowly climbed up my body, losing his boxers along the way, before his lips met mine in a soft, deep kiss.

I raked my fingers through his silky blond hair, earning a purr of approval from him before he gently pushed forward and breached me.

Another moan slipped past my lips as he bottomed out in my pussy, filling me completely, his lips fused to mine, a hand cradling my face while the other gripped my hip tightly.

And that’s how he made love to me. It wasn’t fucking. He made me feel so many things that I couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t.

So slow. So deep. So full.

In and out. Over and over. His pace never changed.

“I love you,” he whispered against my lips. “My Rosebud.”

“I love you,” I answered back, going in for more of his delicious kisses.

And when we came, it was together. I’d never been made love to like that from him. We’d had some really good moments in the past, but this was something else entirely. This was a man not only telling me he loved me and could change, but he was showing me.

Any doubts I had in my mind about things working out disappeared as he pulled out, then rolled me onto my side after we both came. He lodged himself deep inside me again, his arms holding me tight.

“I’m going to fall asleep just like this,” he whispered in my ear. “Buried in the only woman I’ll ever love. And maybe I’ll get lucky tonight. Maybe we’ll start our garden. I really fucking hope so.”

He kissed my temple fiercely before covering us.

I lay with my back against him, his cock still very much hard and buried inside me.

Maybe he was right. Maybe we would start our garden soon.

Tonight made me want it even more. He’d shown me exactly what I needed to see.

If there was hope for Cole Scott, then there was hope for all of us.

THIRTY-EIGHT

ETHAN

Isat on the couch while Fox paced the room, his phone pressed to his ear as he called Rosalie for what had to be the hundredth time this morning. Enzo was doing the same but trying to reach Cole instead.

Neither had responded.

I’d woken with Enzo to find Rosalie gone. Cole’s car was gone, too. Fox said he hadn’t heard anything. I’d expected Fox to run off with her into the night, not Cole.

The very real fear of something being wrong was eating at me.

It wasn’t like Cole to not reach out to us.

Enzo left the room after redialing Cole, and I sat looking at my phone to see if I’d missed any calls or texts.

Nothing.

Moments later, Enzo came back into the room and tossed two phones onto the coffee table.

Fox moved his phone away from his ear.

“They left their phones. She’s not wearing her jewelry. Nothing. I have no fucking way to find them,” Enzo’s voice trembled. “The men said they were instructed to stand down by Cole yesterday morning. We’ve got nothing.”

I looked to Fox, my heart in my throat.