Moonlight Kisses Read online

  “And those are probably our good points.” Cole chuckled. His heart did a strange flip-flop when she squeezed his hand and laughed along.

  He pressed on, although chances were she wouldn’t be pleased to hear his unsolicited advice. “With that said, we’re also confident, responsible, honest, hardworking and competitive. There’s also no denying we’re good at what we do.”

  Sage’s brown eyes narrowed. “Those all sound like virtues to me, so why do I sense there’s an impending but?”

  “Because in excess virtues turn into liabilities.”

  “I’m not following you.”

  “Are you enjoying yourself this afternoon?” He asked.

  She spared a glance at his crotch. “Immensely.”

  Forcing himself to remain focused on their conversation, Cole looked past her heated gaze to the phone in her free hand. “And exactly when was the last time you enjoyed yourself?” he asked, and then quickly amended. “I don’t mean sex. Tell me the last time you took a couple of hours for yourself. Saw a movie? Had a massage? Read the latest bestseller? Or turned into a couch potato in front of the television?”

  Cole had already known the answers to his questions, however her silence and the blank expression confirmed it.

  “You’re here now. Let’s continue to enjoy the day and each other.”

  “But I have to...”

  Cole saw her grip tighten around her phone. “No,” he said, “you don’t.”

  “I have a business to run.”

  He saw the spark of annoyance in her eyes and expounded before her temper ignited. “I realize that. I also realize this isn’t my place, and I should stay in my lane. However, part of me feels like I know you as well as I know myself,” he said. “You’ve got to learn you can’t control everything.”

  Sage extricated her hand from his and huffed out a sigh. “Just what I need, another person insinuating I’m a control freak.”

  Cole raised a brow. “Well, aren’t you, General?”

  Sage abruptly stood. “How dare you?” she ground out, the temper he’d hoped to avoid now full-blown. “The only thing you’re right about is the fact you should stay in your lane. Just who do you think you are?”

  “The admiral.”

  “Huh?”

  “The admiral,” Cole repeated. “It’s the name the employees who worked under me at Force Cosmetics called me behind my back.”

  He took advantage of Sage’s surprise to continue. “Coming from my family’s company, I felt like I had a lot to prove, and I went about it by being a workaholic, micromanaging control freak.”

  She sat back on the sofa, and once again, Cole took her hand in his.

  “I earned that moniker and probably a lot worse. Along with the disgruntlement of the people who worked for me,” he said. “I was never locked in a closet, but only because they never got the opportunity.”

  They shared a private smile, and Cole could feel the tension melt between them and her anger ebb away. Sage stared down at the phone in her hand.

  “Stiletto’s more than just a business to me, it’s...” She started, paused, and then started again. “Even if I wanted to, I’m not sure I can stop being the general.”

  “Were all of Stiletto’s hiring decisions made by you?” He asked.

  Sage nodded.

  “Are you confident in your judgment?”

  Again, she nodded.

  “Then trust your decision and the people you hired to do their jobs. Take the first step.” Cole pulled his hand from hers and placed it over the one holding the phone. “Delegate.”

  Her watched her gnaw at her bottom lip as she stared at his hand covering the phone.

  “I’m not sure if you can understand this, but I’m not talking about surrendering control of your business. I’m talking about freeing yourself of the minutiae so you can truly take control of it.” Cole patted her hand and rose from the sofa. “Now I’m going back to the bedroom to enjoy those delicious strawberries while I persuade Burger Tower to deliver. I hope you’ll decide to stay and join me.”

  Cole hoped like hell she would. Deep down he didn’t expect her to. With every step back to the suite’s bedroom and the sex-rumpled bed they’d shared, he prepared to watch her get dressed and leave.

  Ten minutes later, Cole was sitting on the bed scrolling through Burger Town’s menu on his phone’s web browser. He looked up to find Sage standing in the doorway. She was holding her own phone to her ear.

  “Yes, you heard right. I want you to do what I hired you to do and handle it,” she said into the phone.

  Their eyes connected across the room. When she smiled, Cole’s chest tightened with an emotion he couldn’t identify.

  “If there’s anything else, contact Amelia,” Sage said, the phone still against her ear. “I’m unavailable for the rest of the day.”

  She shut off the phone and tossed it over her shoulder. He laughed as she made a running dive for the bed. Sage landed on top of him, and Cole finally pinpointed the emotion blooming inside of him. Happiness.

  “By the way, the answer to your question is no,” she said.

  “Huh?” He was so relieved she’d decided to stay that he had no idea what she was talking about.

  “Earlier, you asked if my lipstick shade was really called Lick Me.” Her smile turned seductive as she slowly shook her head. “The answer is no.”

  In an instant, Cole was harder than he’d ever been in his life. “Mind telling me the actual name?”

  “Not at all.” Sage rose to her knees on the bed and shed the hotel robe. She leaned in and whispered the name of the lipstick shade in his ear.

  He faced her. “Really?”

  “Really,” she confirmed.

  Cole flung his phone across the room in the vicinity of hers and pulled her into his arms. “Well, let’s see if we’re both flexible enough to make that happen.”

  Chapter 12

  The next day, Sage stood in her bedroom staring at her reflection in the full-length mirror.

  It was a good thing Amelia wasn’t around. She would have noticed the flush in Sage’s cheeks, the extra sparkle in her eyes and the fact she was practically glowing—and blown it totally out of proportion.

  Her assistant would have immediately jumped to conclusions and likened her to a heroine in one of those sappy romance novels.

  “It was just good sex,” Sage told her reflection as she as she switched her hoop earrings for black pearl studs. “Nothing more.”

  Her explanation disregarded the fact that the afternoon she’d spent with Cole had extended into the evening and then overnight. It overlooked that she was expecting him to pick her up any minute now for dinner.

  She shoved her feet into a pair of gray patent-leather combat boots, grateful to have a respite from her usual heels. She wore a gray minidress with matching tights. Cole had said he was taking her somewhere casual and there was no need to dress up.

  Cole.

  Sage smiled at the thought of seeing him again. Catching sight of her face in the mirror, she wiped the grin off her face.

  They were simply having dinner together. Tomorrow morning, they’d return to the real world, sit behind desks at their respective businesses and resume being competitors. However, for the remainder of the weekend they were friends and lovers.

  The doorbell rang. Sage sucked in a big gulp of air and exhaled to quell her excitement at seeing him again.

  Good Lord, she’d just seen the man an hour ago. If she didn’t keep herself in check, she would indeed be as bad as Amelia.

  Sage opened the door and the grin returned to her face. Cole stood in the doorway. He wore wool pants and a sweater topped by a black leather jacket. She looked from his gray slacks and sweater to her own gray attire and shudd
ered.

  “We’re so much alike it can be downright spooky,” she said.

  He wrapped an arm around her, pulled her against him and kissed her. “I’m a lot more interested in our differences.” His hand slid down to her behind. “Namely this gorgeous ass and those endless legs of yours.”

  Sage kissed him again, and then inclined her head toward the inside of her house. “Come in, before the neighbors see me throwing myself at you.”

  Sage hadn’t had many visitors, just the family next door or Amelia, who occasionally stopped by for something related to Stiletto. As she led Cole inside, it occurred to her how modest the small cottage she took so much pride in must look to someone of his wealth and background.

  “Nice house.” His tone was genuine as he looked around her living room with its repurposed furniture and kitschy decor. “When things settle down at Espresso, I’m thinking of buying in this part of town.”

  “Really?” Sage couldn’t keep the note of surprise out of her voice. Although it was rapidly changing, the neighborhood was still considered rough by most.

  “Sure. Not only is it a great investment in an up-and-coming area, it’s walkable, has a sense of community, as well as great restaurants,” he said. “I’m always coming here to eat anyway.”

  Sage nodded. Those reasons along with her budget were the same reasons she’d settled here.

  “Right now, I live in a town house I bought a few years after college, but I never took time to really make it a home. Not like this.”

  Again, Sage found herself taken aback that he appeared to see her house the same way she did. She was also surprised at where he lived.

  “By the look on your face, I’m guessing you thought I resided in some mega mansion south of the city,” Cole said.

  Sage nodded. It had been exactly what she’d thought. It was also one of the two areas people with substantial wealth put down roots.

  “My town house has an entire floor I’m rarely in.” He shrugged. “It seemed excessive for me to buy a huge house to live in alone.”

  Remembering her manners, she offered him a seat and a drink.

  Cole glanced at his watch. “We’d better get going if we want to be on time for dinner.”

  Assuming he’d made reservations at a nearby restaurant, Sage shrugged on her red coat and grabbed her purse. She hadn’t eaten since Cole had ordered breakfast in bed from hotel room service that morning, and it was now nearly six.

  Locking her front door, she saw his car parked behind hers in the driveway and did a double take at the black Dodge Challenger, which, except for the color, was identical to her red one. Sage looked up at Cole. “Again, spooky.”

  “Or perhaps it’s kismet,” he said softly.

  Sage brushed off his words and the little piece of her heart they touched with a casual shrug. As Cole drove, she wasn’t sure if it was the familiarity of the car or the similarities they shared, but she felt close to the man. They’d only seen each other a few times, but in some ways it was as if she’d known him her entire life.

  Now who’s the one being ridiculous? the commonsense part of her that often mocked Amelia questioned.

  Caught up in her thoughts, Sage hadn’t paid attention to where they were going until the car slowed along the cul-de-sac of a residential street.

  “I thought we were going to a restaurant,” she said.

  Cole turned into the driveway of a two-story, Craftsman-style home. “I said I wanted to have dinner with you, but if I miss another invite to my aunt’s for Sunday dinner she’ll kill me,” he said. “I didn’t want to disappoint her. Also, I want to make the most of this time with you before we both return to work in the morning.”

  He didn’t say it, but they both knew their obligations to their businesses overshadowed any feelings they thought they had for each other.

  “You should have told me dinner was with your family,” she said.

  “I was afraid you’d say no.”

  Cole was right, of course—she would have. His family was powerful and wealthy, and Sage didn’t like putting herself in the position of feeling like the poor, orphaned girl.

  He reached over the console and grasped her hand. “I apologize for not telling you,” he said. “If it’ll make you feel better, my cousins are all girls so I’ll be outnumbered.”

  Sage softened to the idea. “Well...”

  “You’ll like them and my aunt Janet,” Cole said.

  Sage nodded her agreement. In college, she’d dated guys from rich backgrounds, one seriously. None of them were eager to bring a woman who lacked both money and connections around their relatives. Yet Cole, a man who could buy the lot of them ten times over, was practically pleading with her to meet his family.

  “Still, I wish I’d known. I would have brought flowers or a bottle of wine,” she said.

  “All you need to bring is yourself.” Cole squeezed her hand. “That’s plenty.” He leaned over the car’s console and kissed her.

  Sage sighed into his mouth, swept away by the slow dance of his tongue mingling with hers. The man’s panty-melting kisses would be the first thing she missed when they resumed their lives tomorrow.

  A knock on the driver’s side window startled them, and they broke apart, ending the kiss.

  “Put it on pause. The rest of us would like to eat sometime this evening.”

  Sage looked from Cole’s wide smile through the window to a woman standing by the car. She had honey-hued skin and shoulder-length sandy-brown dreadlocks. Her hands were fisted on her hips, but her warm smile matched the one on Cole’s face.

  He rounded the car and held the door open for her.

  “Sage Matthews meet my rude cousin, Riley Sinclair,” he said. His fondness of his cousin permeated his voice.

  The woman raised a brow. “The Sage Matthews?”

  “The very one,” Cole said.

  “Nice to meet you,” Riley said. “Although after yesterday, I expected all I’d see of you was your foot in my cousin’s...”

  “Riley!” Cole scolded.

  Sage stifled a laugh at the interplay between the two.

  “My crew and I were responsible for transforming the hotel’s Grand Ballroom into Espresso’s makeover central yesterday,” Riley said. “Hope you won’t hold that against me.”

  “I won’t,” Sage confirmed, taking an instant liking to Riley Sinclair. “However, I will take your card just in case I need you to help me construct a little payback.”

  Cole’s cousin slapped her on the back. Sage stumbled and nearly saw stars, the woman’s friendly gesture packing quite a wallop.

  “We’d better get inside. Mom’s about ready to put dinner on the table,” Riley said.

  Cole’s hand rested lightly on her back as Sage followed his cousin up the porch stairs and into the house. The place had the same warm, inviting vibe as Riley. Its open floor plan provided unobstructed views of both the living room and the dining room table, which was already set for dinner.

  A woman who appeared to be in her midsixties fussed over the table. Her entire face lit up the moment she spotted Cole. She put down the napkin she was folding, rushed over and enveloped him in a huge hug.

  “Glad to see you could make it to dinner.” The older woman beamed up at him. “I thought I was going to have to send Riley after you.”

  “I wouldn’t miss having dinner with my favorite aunt.”

  His aunt swatted his arm, and then turned to Sage. “And I’m even more delighted to see you’ve brought your girlfriend,” she said. “Maybe she’ll keep you here in Nashville, and you won’t take off again, gallivanting all over the world.”

  “Oh, I’m not his girlfriend,” Sage said automatically.

  The older woman dismissed her claim with a wave of her hand. “Of course you ar
e, hon. Why else would you have spent the past fifteen minutes in the driveway, steaming up my nephew’s car windows?” she asked sweetly. Then she added a mischievous wink that made her look like her daughter.

  “Aunt Janet, I’d like you to meet my friend, Sage Matthews,” he said. “She also runs a cosmetics company here in town.”

  “Riley’s already filled me in on the particulars,” the older woman said.

  “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Sinclair.” Sage extended her hand.

  The woman bypassed Sage’s outstretched hand. Instead, she wrapped her in a hug as warm as the one she’d bestowed on her nephew. Cole had been right. She liked both his aunt and his cousin, and Sage suspected she’d feel the same about his other cousins.

  “So where are Nina and Hope?” Cole asked, looking around.

  “Nina’s on a job in Memphis, and Hope’s home sick,” Janet called over her shoulder on the way to the kitchen.

  “It’s just a cold,” Riley said. “I took some chicken soup over to her place earlier.”

  Soon the four of them were seated at the dining room table. The conversation was minimal as they dug into a Sunday dinner consisting of a juicy rotisserie chicken, salad, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, and warm cornbread muffins smothered in sweet honey butter.

  Good food overwhelmed the rules of etiquette and Sage was the first to ask for seconds, soon joined by both Cole and Riley.

  “I don’t mean to be rude, but unless my next door neighbor takes pity on me I don’t sit down to a home-cooked meal often,” Sage said, heaping another scoop of mashed potatoes onto her plate.

  Janet and her daughter exchanged glances.

  “Actually, you aren’t sitting down to one this evening, either,” Cole’s aunt said. “Like most of my meals, this one was picked up ready-made at the grocery store.”

  “Sage isn’t the only one who thought this was homemade. I thought you’d spent all day in the kitchen,” Cole said, reaching for more chicken.

  Janet Sinclair took a sip from her water glass and placed it back on the table. “Like you two, I have a business to oversee. Sinclair Construction doesn’t run itself.” The older woman inclined her head toward the kitchen. “So that stove in there is for looking—not for cooking.”