Complete Me (Book Three of The Kirkland Family)

Complete Me: Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Cole returned to his apartment around nine o'clock, exhausted. He would have been quite happy with a light workout at the gym, but Max felt he needed to demonstrate every piece of equipment and give Cole a fitness test. Then around seven-thirty, Bucky, Max's sister-in-law, showed up, and Cole found himself in an unsaid contest of endurance on the elliptical — basically, who could handle the uphill climb the longest. He was proud to beat his record on that setting...but didn't even come close to Bucky's. And Max annihilated both of them.

Right now, he just wanted a cool shower and something to eat. Kicking his shoes off at the door of his apartment and dropping his keys on the desk, Cole walked straight to the bathroom, peeling off clothing as he went. He turned on the shower and stood under the spray, rinsing off the sweat and waiting for his jellyfied muscles to stop quivering. Once he washed, shampooed and rinsed again, Cole felt refreshed and ready for his day. With a bath towel wrapped around his middle, he left the bathroom in search of clean clothes.

Violet grinned at him from her seat under his windows.

Cole stopped in his tracks.

"Now, that's a sight every girl needs to see in the morning," she said, leaning back against the wall as her eyes traveled all around his near-naked body.

"You're still here," he said, clenching his towel tighter around his waist.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, with her blanket draped over her shoulders, she replied, "Yes...I woke up, started snooping around, found this little gem—" She brandished an open book. "Tell me, how is it that you have a signed copy of Daniel Brit's new novel? A novel that won't hit the shelves for another three weeks?"

Cole made sure his towel stayed in place as he hurried over to the box that still held most of his clothes and rummaged for the basics. "We have a working relationship," he answered her question, heading back to the bathroom to make himself decent. Then the rest of what she said hit him. He stuck his head around the doorway. "You went through my things?"

She looked up from the book, thumbing her place on a paragraph. "Yes. You know your laptop has a fingerprint scanner? Very annoying. But also very intriguing. What secrets are you hiding, Cole Fuller?"

Cole eyed her a moment longer. He finished dressing and came out of the bathroom. "I keep all my work on it," he replied. "Manuscripts and contract information. I'm obligated to secure it."

"So...you could get in trouble for letting me read this, huh?" she asked, tapping on the book.

"Not really," he said, turning on his coffee pot. "Daniel has had advance copies out in the open for months now. Why were you trying to get into my computer?"

She shrugged. "Wondering what kind of porn you prefer."

"Excuse me?"

She laughed. "Rose doesn't strike me as the weird fetish type of girl. What do you think?"

"Rose came into this conversation...how?"

Violet sighed and stood up, careful to keep the blanket around her. "You're in love with her. You're charming, in your own way. Rose likes you. Somewhere down the road, sex will naturally follow. I'm just making sure she's not walking into some kind of giant-teddy-bear-covered-in-creamed-corn fixation."

He stared at her. Creamed corn teddy bear? Who would find that arousing? "My only fixation is Rose herself," he explained calmly.

She nodded. "Good. Rose hasn't had the best history with the opposite sex."