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“Promise?”

“It’s our secret, Rach. I promise.”

That was the first time she fell for a boy.

“And what about you?”

Josh’s voice pulled Rachel from her memory, reminding her of the reason they were talking in the first place.

“What about me?”

“Are you happy? With Cole?”

Rachel narrowed her eyes. “It’s only been a few days, Josh.”

Josh looked her over and waited patiently.

What is it with the men in my life? All of them are so damn patient. Well, except Mason.

“Are you seriously asking me this?”

“Well, do you blame me? You’ve been acting different lately, and Shelly mentioned how you all first met him.”

“Oh, she did, did she? What exactly did she say?”

“Come on, Rach. Don’t get mad at Shel.”

Raising a brow, Rachel sighed. “Okay, okay. At first, I was unsure about him.”

“At first?”

“Yes. At first,” she stressed. “But now, I’ve gotten to know him.”

“You have?”

“Yes. Why? Don’t you know him? He’s your friend,” she decided to point out.

“Well, yeah, he’s my lawyer and a friend, but I don’t actually know him personally.”

Rachel thought about the serious lawyer who had somehow crept deep inside her tightly locked heart and had pretty much broken down all her walls just the night before.

“Yeah, that seems like Cole. He’s very…” Rachel searched for the right word and ended with, “Private.”

“He’s a cagey bastard,” Josh retorted.

Rachel found herself chuckling. “He’s composed.”

“He’s distant.”

“He’s just different from you and Mase, so you both feel like you have to stick your noses in.”

“He’s reluctant to let people in, Rach, and that makes me wonder why.”

Rachel shook her head. “I told you. No gloomy warnings. I like him, and I want to see where that takes me.”

Josh straightened and winked at her as he pushed his hands back into his pockets. “If it helps you to be less annoyed at him, Mason told me yesterday that he was happy to see you smiling last night at the restaurant. That has to mean something, right?”

Rachel watched Josh turn and walk to the front door.

“Josh!”

He stopped and turned to face her.

“It helps, and I should have said this months ago, but I’m so glad you finally came home.”

“To Chicago?”

Rachel grinned and told him sincerely, “No, Daniels. To us.”

Unbuttoning his wool coat with one hand, Cole made his way through the tiny foyer of the apartments where Rachel lived and pressed the button for the elevator. He had dropped her off at the front of the building several times, but this was the first time he was going up. When the old elevator groaned to a stop at the bottom, he had to admit he was slightly nervous about getting on it. Taking a step back, he waited as the metal doors parted, ready to move aside for any occupants. That, of course, was the plan before he looked inside.

Life is too fucking good to me right now, he thought.

The woman inside the death trap of an elevator stepped forward on a pair of heels so tall that they made her eye-level with him. Cole was trying to find the words, Hello, Rachel, but the only problem was he currently had no power to speak. She had rendered him mute.

She was wearing the most sensual dress he’d ever seen. It was held up—barely—by a thin strip of ivory-colored satin around the neck, and then it flowed down over her body to the tops of her heels. It showed off every sexy curve she possessed.

As she moved off the elevator, Cole watched the silky fabric part and split, all the way up to her right mid-thigh.

Fuck the function. Where’s a bed?

As that thought entered his mind, he heard her finally speak.

“Wow. You look like one of those ads in a glossy magazine.”

Cole was still too busy looking over every inch of her to respond, and for once in his life, he was truly speechless. The rich cream color of the ivory fabric made him want to reach out and touch because she looked so damn soft, but at the same time, so incredibly sexy. It was such an innocent color, yet the minute she moved, it had that wicked split that made him want to run his fingers up her leg and under the dress.

Yes—up, under, and inside her.

“Cole?”

Finally, he brought his eyes to hers. In a voice that demanded she obey, he told her, “Turn around for me.”

Very slowly, she pivoted on her toes and revealed the back of the dress…or more accurately, the lack of it. And nothing could stop him from touching. Cole moved quickly and decisively, and before she could turn any further, his front was pressed so close to her back that his coat was almost surrounding her. In the middle of the small foyer, he gripped her hips and pulled her flush against him.

Placing his lips against her ear, he asked in a voice he barely recognized, “Are you trying to destroy every semblance of control I have?”

Turning his face slightly, he took a deep breath and inhaled her intoxicating scent, and then he noticed her hair for the first time. It was pulled back into a high top-notch bun, showing off her elegant neck and the perfect tattoos decorating her spine.

That wasn’t what held his attention though. Her hair didn’t have any bright color in it. It was sleek, shiny, and jet-black. When she turned her face toward him, those fascinating blue eyes locked with his, and Cole knew it was all over for him.

This is where the search stopped. This is the woman.

His heart was now in complete agreement with his head.

“I take it you like my dress?” she inquired in a tone that told him she already knew the answer.

Sliding his fingers over her waist, he let the silky fabric brush under his palms as he caressed the material covering her hips before moving to rest his hands against her lower abdomen. Cole gave himself a moment to enjoy her, and then it hit him. He couldn’t feel any kind of panty line.

“What are you wearing under this, Rachel?”

Turning in his arms, she looked him square in the eye, courtesy of her heels, and gave him a sexy wink. “Two silver studs. Why?”

He knew it.

Fuck. This night is going to take forever.

Approximately an hour and a half earlier, they had walked into the reception room at the Shedd Aquarium fashionably late. The fact that they had made it out of the car and into the reception at all was a testament to Cole’s control, certainly not hers.

Rachel had wanted to ditch the function the minute she had stepped off the elevator and seen him standing in her dingy little foyer, looking like a runway model from a GQ magazine. She’d known Cole would look amazing in a tuxedo, but to see him in person in the black-and-white ensemble…well, shit, that is a moment I will never forget.

She wanted to undress him one immaculate piece at a time.

Yes, starting with the little black bow tie.

That would have to happen later though. Right now, she was seated in one of the most impressive function rooms she had ever been in. The tables were surrounded by large glass windows that looked into the stunning aquarium. The setup was simply breathtaking, and Rachel found herself smiling as she followed the colorful fish swimming over and under the coral before bringing her eyes back to her date.

Cole was currently standing across the room with a shorter bald-headed man, who Rachel assumed was a business associate. Although he was engaged in conversation with the man, his eyes hadn’t left her where she was seated at their table.

“So, Rachel, how long have you known Cole?”

Rachel swiveled on her seat, reluctantly tearing her eyes away from their purchase. Seated beside her was a woman who had to be close to her fifties. She was smiling so warmly that Rachel couldn’t help but return her smile.

“Oh, just a little while.”

“Ahh, I see.”

Probably not, Rachel thought. She decided against mentioning, We decided to sleep together last week, and it seems to have turned into one of the deepest connections I’ve ever had. Please tell me what to do because I have no idea what I am doing.

“He’s a lovely man. Quiet and very serious, but always so charming,” the woman told her as she stared across the room to the man in question.

Rachel wasn’t quite sure what to say to that, so she moved on from there.

“Is that your husband with him?”

“Yes, that’s Byron. They’ve been doing business together for years. He won’t work with anyone but Mr. Madison. He trusts him one hundred percent.”

Well, Rachel liked that answer. Hell, that’s a lie. She loved it. She knew it was rare to hear in advance that the man she was falling for was completely trustworthy. Looking back at the two men, Rachel felt her heart start to thump as they moved back to the table.

The shorter man walked in front of Cole, but that by no means detracted from his approach. His broad shoulders and commanding stride made him stand out as if he owned the room, and the exhilarating part was he was looking directly at her. Not once did he look away as he drew closer, and not once did Rachel drop the connection. When he stopped in front of her and held out his hand, Rachel rose without any words and took it, moving in close to him.

“I don’t know about you, but I’d like to take a look around,” he suggested as he wrapped his fingers around hers.