Page 35 of Strip Search

Figures.

Pulling into my assigned parking spot, Cole puts his truck in park, but he doesn’t shut it off.

I want to ask him to come inside. More than that, I want him to talk to me. I need to know where his head is at right now.

Fearing his rejection, I keep my invite to myself and open my door to climb out instead.

“Thanks for bringing me home. Get some sleep,” I try to maintain confidence in my voice, pretending my heart isn’t cracking even more.

“You’re not going to invite me in this time?” Cole’s question surprises me.

When I look up and see his sexy smirk, my heart leaps into my throat. “I...you...I...” The words jumble.

He turns off the truck and pulls the key from the ignition before getting out and coming around to the passenger side. A surprised squeal escapes when he lifts me out of the passenger seat and slams the door shut, quickly hitting the lock button on his keyring.

Cole carries me all the way up the stairs, to my front door and over the threshold after he unlocks the place with his own key.

Inside my place, he finally sits me down on the counter and pulls his shirt over his head. “I need to wash all the dirt from the past few months from your body.”

Taking my cue, I hop down from the counter to start the shower when his arms wrap around me.

“Bathtub,” he mumbles against my neck while slipping his hands under the hideous smock top they gave me to change into at the police station.

Cole let’s go long enough for me to turn the water on and let the tub begin to fill, then he’s on me again. Taking his time to undress me, slowly. He doesn’t kiss me, doesn’t touch me with his mouth, but his hands trace feather light touches everywhere. When the water is high enough, he steps in first and holds out his hand. Joining him, I settle comfortably between his legs, my back to his chest as we sit.

He massages my shoulders, and my head falls back. “That feels amazing.”

Cole kisses my cheek. “I think we have some things to talk about.”

I know we need to talk and there are a million questions flowing through my head but now that I’ve finally gotten him here, and we’re together like this, I can’t find the strength to care about any of that at this moment.

I let out a sigh and try to weasel my way out of doing this now. “On a scale of one to ten...how much trouble am I in exactly?” I already knew when he realized I was a virgin he’d have a whole lot to say on the matter.

“Oh, you’re in a lot of trouble. We’ll come back to the part where you left out one really important detail before you let me fuck you senseless. And, we’ll address what the hell you were really thinking, stepping out on that stage and showing off your body.”

“Hey.” I look over my shoulder. “I told you, that was all for you.”

“Bullshit,” he chuckles, but I’m not sure he really is amused.

“I got the reaction I wanted,” I confess. It’s a partial truth. “The more I think about it, I would have never been able to go any further than I did. Regardless of how empowering it felt for a moment. All that time downtown? It felt pretty shitty in hindsight. I was counting on you to stop me before it went too far.”

Turning myself around so that I’m straddling him, and better able to see him, I tell him about Roxy. “She’s the one I took a hit for, remember? Her real name is Sara. She’s only sixteen. I knew the minute I met her in the hallway that night that she was underage. She was one of many young girls that those bastards were selling to the highest bidder online. Cole, I had to save her. Stepping out on that stage, was to protect her from having to. When I agreed to it, I had no idea that Dallas had already gotten her out and taken her to a safe house.”

I see the understanding in his eyes.

“Mol?”

“Yeah,” my voice cracks and I feel all of the emotions from the past few hours boiling to the surface.

“Two things I wanted to tell you before we talked about your other indiscretion.” He winks playfully, relieving pieces of the tension around us.

“Hmm?” I hold my breath.

“The first thing is that I’m really fucking proud of you. You know how much I hated this fucking idea, but without you – I don’t think today would have happened this quickly. If at all. You were right all along, as much as it pains me to admit that.”

Part of me wants to say something witty about trusting me and that I’m always right, but I’m having a hard time fighting back the emotions, so instead I ask, “What’s the second thing?”

“I talked to your brother.”