Hard & Fast (Rules to Break #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

at the door, and I realize he needs to pass. I stumble aside, and then he’s gone.           
    I heave for breath, goosebumps flashing over my damp skin as my body cools. What just happened?
    Minutes pass and I still don’t move.
    I think I made a big mistake.
    My phone buzzes, and I fumble in my purse to retrieve it: Cole. Hope flutters in my heart like the wings of a caged bird.
     
             Please make dinner arrangements for two for tonight.
     
    I smile.
    Then another text comes through.
     
             And tell my mother I’ll pick her up at six instead of six-thirty.
     
     
     
     

Chapter Four
     
    I’m standing in the living room when Cole gets back to his house three hours later. I’ve been sitting, standing, pacing, waiting since I crept out of that trailer, hiding behind my hair and praying nobody would notice I came out wearing a different top than the one I went in with.
    I’ve picked up my phone thirty different times to call Kate, but I just can’t tell her what I’ve done since I moved in to Cole’s house. She might not even believe me—I can barely believe myself.
    As soon as I got back, I threw all my clothes in the wash and showered. Not because I didn’t like smelling like Cole and sex, but because I liked it a dangerous amount.
    It will never happen again. Never.
    And then came the utter humiliation of being reduced to staff two second later. This isn’t me. I’ve never had sex with someone I only met two days ago. I’ve never had sex with someone I wasn’t dating. And I’ve certainly never had sex like that. I rip my thoughts away from the animal look in his eyes and focus as Cole’s key turns in the door.
    Heat burns up and, to my horror, down, as he steps in and throws his keys on a side table. “Rose,” he says, in a slightly surprised way, like he wasn’t expecting his assistant to be waiting for him. “Problem with the reservations?”
    I swallow, completely mortified all over again. “No,” I say, running my sweating hands down the pants I chose. They’re too hot for this weather, but I felt like I needed them.
    “Can we . . . talk?”
    Cole’s mouth pulls up at the corner. “Sounds ominous. Should I sit down?”
    No, but I probably should. My legs don’t feel like they’ll hold me up at all. I move so the black leather sofa is between me and Cole, who’s come into the room now and seems to be sucking all the air out of it. 
    “Look,” I blurt, before my heart starts banging any harder and I pass out. “About what happened back there. That was so totally out of character for me that I don’t even know where to start and I just . . . I just wanted to tell you that. You’re my employer, and—” I lose my train of thought. Cole’s head is tilted down a little, but his green eyes are boring into me and even though I’m ridiculously hot in the outfit I put on, a shiver goes through me. “It won’t happen again,” I finish, lamely. Then I stand there, uncomfortable and hyperaware of him at the same time.
    He doesn’t say anything, and as the seconds tick by, I start feeling annoyed. I smother it. I’m not about to let him see that he winds me up in all the ways I can be wound up. No, I shouldn’t have done what I did, but neither should he. Clearly it’s nothing to him to have sex with any female that crosses his path, but I’m better than that.
    “It won’t happen again,” I repeat, this time sounding firm and looking right at him.
    He’s studying me with an unreadable look. Then his gaze drops down my body and back up again. “Fine,” he finally says, as if I just asked if he wanted pizza. I don’t know how it makes me feel.
    He throws himself down on one of the sofas. “I have to ask you, though, why is it such a huge deal? It’s just sex, Rose.”
    Just hearing him say the word sends a hot flash through me. But I come to sit on the sofa opposite. He doesn’t work the same way I do. The way he sent those texts barely