Catching Cole

Chapeter Twelve

A tear slid down my cheek, his thumb darted out and brushed it away. 

“I know you’re scared. I know that you don’t trust. I know your walls are high. I’m not asking for a solid commitment. I’m just asking for a chance. None of this no-strings attached bullshit.”

“But you’re the President of the London Charter,” I implored. 

“And you’re the daughter of Gunner Priest,” he countered. 

He watched my expression, registering my surprise. 

“Yeah, I know who you are, and I find everything about you Sadie,” he leant in whispering the rest in my ear, sending shivers down my neck, “intriguing as fuck.” 

He pulled back and looked at me again, “Now, I’m not saying we won’t have our complications, but this, what we have between us, is something that I don’t want to just walk away from, simply because..” 

I bit down on my lip, waiting for him to continue. 

“Hell, a relationship wasn’t something I was looking for either Sadie, and now sure as s**t isn’t a good time with Club business and stuff, but I’m not about to let you walk when you want this just as badly as I do.” 

I blew out the breath I had been holding in. 

“So what are you proposing?” I asked. 

“Let’s just see where this goes. One step at a time.” 

He closed the gap between us, dipping his head forward until his lips met mine. The kiss was filled with all the sensual longing that had built up over the last week of not seeing him. I’m not sure how long we stood there kissing, but soon enough I heard some catcalls, with Cole flinging his hand up and giving them the finger without removing his lips from mine. Eventually I pulled up for air and said, “I actually need to get to the airport.” 

His eyes met mine in an unreadable expression, and finally he dipped his head in acknowledgement. 

“Prospect!” he called out. And suddenly a young guy came running out the gate. 

“Yeah Pres?” 

“Call Sadie a taxi, and then follow it to the airport, Don’t come back until she’s on that plane.” 

“Sure.” 

I stared at him. “Jesus Cole, you can’t just command him to follow me!” 

“I’m the President sweetheart, and we’ve just established that you and I are doing this thing, so that means, you’re under my protection.” 

He pressed a kiss to my temple and whispered, “Stop overthinking it.” 

I’m not sure how they managed it, but my taxi arrived in record time. 

“Your taxi’s here darling,” he nudged me gently. Honestly, I felt like I was sleep walking. I wasn’t even sure what I had just agreed to. 

“When am I seeing you again?” I asked. 

“We’ll work it out sweetheart.” With that he opened the taxi door, his hands lingering on my waist. 

“Bye Cole.” 

“Text me when you board the plane Sadie,” he spoke with seriousness. 

The drive to the airport was quick. My phone had been blowing up with texts from Layla. 

L: I’m sorry. 

The first message came through. 

L: I wanted to tell you.

Read the second message. 

L; Cole asked me not to. He wanted to be the one to tell you and I didn’t want to interfere in Axel’s life.

The messages just kept coming. 

L: Are you just not going to reply? 

I couldn’t bring myself to. I didn’t expect Layla to choose the club over me. I didn't expect her to choose a guy over me. She knew we were seeing each other. She knew my history with the Club. And yet, she chose to keep Cole's secret over just telling me who he actually was. I just felt betrayed. 

L: Okay, I just spoke to Cole and he’s not telling me anything. What is happening with you two? 

I decided to let her stew. I wasn’t ready for the conversation that needed to be had. 

True to my word, I texted Cole while boarding the plane, the prospect watched me until I disappeared behind the gates. I kind of felt sorry for him, but I also knew that this task was minor compared to the others he’d have to do to earn his patch. 

C: You need to tell me how you know Harry Po :-) 

My phone vibrated with a message from Cole just before take-of. 

S: You’ll have to ply me with Prosecco for those tales. I replied. 

C: Deal. 

I duly switched my phone to aeroplane mode and allowed all my thoughts from the day wash over me. 

The next two days back in Luxembourg were insane. Hunter had a crazy tight deadline that we were trying to meet - why did I agree to that again? - and Jeanette was demanding a full new character description and development within the app. I was up to my eyeballs in work, and yet despite that, Cole still called every night and sent me text messages throughout the day. 

As I replied to the umpteenth email to Jeanette explaining that no, we can’t use Hindi gods and goddesses as characters in our game, because firstly Hindi is a religion, and secondly that’s f*****g offensive, my dad called. 

“Hey dad,” I answered on the first ring, shoving a handful of chips in my mouth. 

He chuckled. 

“Working hard I hear.” 

“What?” I asked defensively, “A girl has got to eat!” I spoke between mouthfuls. 

“You still busy with that Japanese company that isn’t actually Japanese?” 

It was my turn to laugh. 

“Yup. And they’re still driving me insane.” 

“As long as they’re keeping you on your toes.” He was such a dad. 

“So,” he cleared his throat, “how was Axel?” 

Ah. Here was the reason he was really calling. He was checking to see how I was handling being back in a club environment. 

“I’m surprised uncle Harry didn’t fill you in,” I jibed in return. 

“Ah, don’t be like that baby girl. He happened to be in town, so of course he was going to check on you.” 

“Yeah, I suppose,” I grumbled. 

“Axel looks really happy there,” I added. 

“I’m sure he is, from what I hear it’s a good club.” 

And there it was, his subtle opening to talk about the club. I sighed and continued. 

“Yeah it seems that way. Their President seems to have a good handle on things. I mean if Axel is happy there, then I suppose it isn’t all bad.” 

He breathed out a sigh of relief. 

“Sadie honey, that’s what I’ve been telling you, just because we had a bad run with our Charter, doesn’t make all the Charters bad” 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, doesn’t mean I’m going to sign up and join a club though.” 

He laughed, “From what Harry told me, you looked pretty comfortable.” 

“Dad,” I groaned, “I was just hanging out with my friends, of course I looked comfortable.” 

“Sure, I get that.” 

He hesitated for a moment. 

“Any guys I should know about Sadie?” His casual tone was strained. 

I groaned audibly. 

“Dad.” I chided. 

“What?” he demanded, “Can a father not ask his daughter if she has a special man in her life?” 

I was willing to bet good money that Harry had told my father all about Cole. Even if he wasn’t sure, he would have made it his business to find out exactly what was going on. I briefly wondered who snitched, but I supposed in the end it didn’t matter. 

I decided to divert the conversation. 

“What about the ladies in your life dad?” 

He laughed. “Fine Sadie. I’ll let this go, but if it gets serious I get to meet him okay?” 

“You know I don’t really date dad.” 

His tone softened, “Honey, at some point that has to change, you can’t go through life refusing to let anyone in.” 

“You know this is the pot calling the kettle black right?” I rebuked. 

“My mistakes don’t have to be yours as well,” he responded in a way I’d never heard before. 

“I’ll think about it dad.” 

“That’s all I ask.” 

It seemed to be the day for phonecalls, because as I hung up from my dad, Jeanette was already calling. I braced myself as I answered. 

“Darling!” she cooed down the line, “David and I have spoken, and of course Cole has okayed it all, actually he wants to attend as well.” 

I tried to make sense of what she was saying, “What are you going on about Jeanette?” I asked, trying to be diplomatic about it. 

She laughed, “We’ve decided that we need to have another team conference, work thing.” 

“Okaaaaay…” 

“It’s really quite divine, you, Josh and Pratt can work on the new character. We’ll also be able to check in on the project as a whole, and honestly, what better place to do than Cannes.” 

I closed my eyes. Of course Cole approved, he had been hinting that he wanted to see me, and from what I was getting he wasn’t exactly the patient type. 

“Um, so when are we meeting up in Cannes?” 

"We’re thinking next week. Does that work for you?” 

I mentally shuffled work around. Vivienne and I were heading to Switzerland this weekend, and I actually had Hunter’s work under control, so it was do-able. 

“Sure, just send me the dates you’re thinking of and I’ll make it work.” 

She seemed chipper, making me think she hadn’t actually read the email I’d just sent. 

As Jeanette hung up, I typed out a quick message. 

S: Cannes? Really? I texted Cole. 

C: It’s beautiful, and it gave me an excuse to see you. 

And when I say it really was the day for phone-calls I wasn’t kidding, because Cole called within minutes after his text came through. 

“Hey,” I answered. 

“Good morning sweetheart,” he purred. Hearing his voice reminded me of all the reasons I desperately needed to see him. 

“So, I understand you might want to be discreet in Cannes,” he spoke matter of factly. 

“Um, yeah, It’s people I work with. I’ve been doing projects with Jeanette for three years. Once this project ends, I still want to work with them, and I don’t want to be viewed as ‘the girl who slept with their investor’”. 

“Fine,” he ground out, “I get that, but I’m not hiding us from my Club or your town or any other s**t. And if we get more serious, then Jeanette and everyone else are going to have to know.” 

“Fine,” I barked. 

“See? I’m not all uncompromising asshole all of the time.” 

I laughed. 

“How are you? Really?” he asked, “You’ve been working pretty hard these past couple of days.” 

I was surprised that he’d even picked up on that. 

“Yeah,” I acknowledged, “I’m just tired.” 

“Then go back to bed,” he said, although his voice held a sensual note to it. 

“You know Cole,” I laughed, “I think you may actually be good for me.”