Unravel You: A Hot Billionaire Romance (Cole Brothers Series Book 1) Read online

  Unravel You

  Diana A. Hicks

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  UNRAVEL YOU

  COPYRIGHT © 2019 by Diana A. Hicks

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or HMG, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Cover Art by Cassy Roop of Pink Ink Designs

  Photo image by Wander Aguiar Photography

  Publishing History

  First Edition, 2019

  Digital ISBN 978-1-949760-06-4

  Paperback ISBN 978-1-949760-07-1

  Published in the United States of America

  For Gina and Erik Martin.

  The NC Staters are alright.

  Contents

  1. The Thigh-High Stockings

  2. This Was Us

  3. Don't Run

  4. Talk to Her

  5. Derek’s Lilly’s Son

  6. No and Yes

  7. Are You Kidding Me?

  8. This Is More Than a Bump

  9. The Referee Calls Unfair

  10. What Else Did You Lie About?

  11. Technically, That Was a Fat Lie

  12. How’s Valentina Liking Hotlanta?

  13. Not Everything Is a Puzzle for You to Solve

  14. You've Never Done This Before?

  15. We Said No More Secrets

  16. This Is Your Engagement Party

  17. He's Not Here

  18. She's with Him

  19. I Wasn't a Stupid Little Lamb

  20. Yeah, I Was Losing My Shit

  21. You Can't Make Someone Love You

  22. That Will Never Change

  23. One Day at a Time

  24. That Side of Perfect

  About the Author

  Books by Diana A. Hicks

  1

  The Thigh-High Stockings

  Valentina

  “Mrs. Cole?” The maître d’ slid into my line of sight.

  My gaze jerked up at him. “We’re not married.”

  “I’m sorry?” He stepped forward in that way super-fancy servers move in super-fancy restaurants.

  I sat back on the blue-velvet couch and downed the rest of my champagne. “Mr. Cole and I are not married.”

  “My apologies. Mr. Cole…the ring…I assumed.” He placed his hands behind him, standing perfectly straight.

  “Not yet.” I smiled, and his features relaxed some. Not all the way, but we were still in a very exclusive establishment. “Is my car ready?”

  “Yes. Take your time.” He poured more wine into my glass.

  I glanced at my watch, placing a hand to my forehead. How did I end up waiting two hours for him again?

  “Mr. Cole already took care of everything.”

  Of course, he did. “No, thank you. I’d like to go home now.” I scooted one spot over and rose to my feet. The silk of my dress skimmed down my legs, and images of Derek’s hands inching up my thighs flickered through my mind. That had been the day he’d left on a business trip, roughly three weeks ago. God, I missed him.

  “Of course.” The maître d’ ushered me to the entrance of the restaurant, where one of Derek’s drivers waited for me, and swung the door open.

  “Thank you.” I climbed in and relaxed, running my hand along the supple leather of the seat. The car pulled out of the parking lot, and I kept my focus on the soft feel of the upholstery.

  My phone rang in my purse, but I didn’t answer it. Derek wasn’t here. A call from him wasn’t going to fix that.

  “Mrs. Cole?” The driver was new. Derek had hired him to drive me and my son Max.

  “It’s Valentina,” I said. “We’re not married yet.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize.” He cleared his throat. “Mr. Cole is trying to reach you. Can he try again?”

  “Yes, that’s fine.” I fished my phone from the bottom of my clutch. Derek’s incredibly handsome face and intense blue gaze lit up the screen. I stared at it for a few more rings before I swiped right to answer.

  “Valentina, I’ve been trying to call you. Are you okay?”

  “Yes.” I glared at the tiny letters that said the connection was poor and video wasn’t available. I wanted to see him. “Where are you?”

  “I’m so sorry I missed our dinner. I’m still at the airport in Atlanta. My plane has an engine problem they thought they could fix right away. Turns out I’m stuck here ’til the morning. It’s so late now. But I promise I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

  His deep voice, the way he spoke every word with such confidence, dulled all my senses. Suddenly, the disappointment of being stood up vanished. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I started to say I’m on my way home, but he already knew that if he’d texted the driver to get me to answer his call.

  “I gotta go. I love you.”

  My skin flushed, as it always did, when he said he loved me. I smiled at the phone. “I love you too.”

  The connection ended, leaving me with an odd sense of emptiness. I tapped on my messages and then on our housekeeper’s name to let her know Derek wasn’t coming home. After I typed a few letters, I gave up. Of course, she already knew he wasn’t coming. Derek, the all-powerful billionaire, had a whole team of people monitoring and managing his entire life.

  When the driver pulled into Derek’s Andalusian-style mansion in the northern part of Tucson, I climbed out of the car and darted up the stone steps that led to the massive wooden door. “Good night.” I waved to the driver.

  “Good night, Mrs. Cole.”

  “We’re… Good night, Tom.” I let it be. We were as good as married. Derek and I were engaged, and I’d already lived in his home for all of four weeks. His idea, not mine. I would have stayed in the small cottage he leased to me after I graduated college two months ago.

  Derek didn’t like waiting. He wanted a life with me; he didn’t see why we couldn’t start immediately. For my part, I couldn’t think of a single reason to stay apart from him, so I’d agreed to everything—the house, the ring, the fairy tale—though I kept waiting for the other glass slipper to drop. This was too perfect, too fast.

  Except for the ones leading up to the stairs, the lights were off inside the house. I went straight to Max’s room. He was already asleep in his perfectly made-up bed. Up until two months ago, I only got to see my son on weekends. I went to school while he stayed home in Casa Grande with my parents, about a forty-minute drive outside of Tucson. Yeah, small-town girl making the big move to the big city.

  Some leap. Not four months after I’d arrived almost seven years ago, I got pregnant by a jerk who didn’t want anything to do with me or my baby. For months, I told myself I never should have left home. I finished my freshman year, but after that I spent the rest of my pregnancy hiding in my room. A couple of random jobs and two semesters later, Mom talked some sense into me and made me go back to school.

  Things made more sense after Max was born. He gave me the strength I needed to reapply at the university and finish my degree, though that meant being away from him for the next five years, at least during the week. Since the moment Mom had placed him in my arms in the birthing room, all I wanted was a home so Max could live with me, so we could be on our own together. Derek did that for us and then some. He did
n’t just offer a place for us to stay. He gave us a home, a family.

  I kissed Max’s cheek and pulled the sheets over his shoulder. After I turned off the nightlight, I strode to the master bedroom at the end of the long corridor and got ready for bed. It wasn’t that late, but I didn’t feel like spending the next hour or so looking for things to keep me entertained when all I wanted was to be doing something else with Derek. I missed him so much. I missed his hands in my hair, his lips on mine, and the way my skin felt alive every time he whispered something in my ear. His warm breath and deep voice never failed to send flutters down my back.

  “Ah.” I fell on my pillow facedown.

  The next morning, I woke up to an empty room. I checked my phone and found a message from Derek.

  Came in late last night, or was it early this morning? I found a flight from Atlanta to Phoenix. See you in the office? I miss you.

  I didn’t bother with a response. I tossed the phone on his side of the bed and got up to get ready for work. At least, we were on the same time zone now.

  “Mom, we’re going to be late.” Max ran to the bottom of the stairs when I came down. He had his backpack ready by the door and a piece of bacon in his hand.

  I glanced at my watch. “We have plenty of time.”

  In the kitchen, our housekeeper, Em, had coffee ready for me. This perk I could get used to. I sat on the barstool and sipped my latte. Em kept her gaze on me, her eyebrows slightly raised. She already knew Derek had stood me up last night.

  “He gets caught in his own head sometimes. Give him time,” she finally said when I kept my focus on my hot mug.

  “It was an engine malfunction this time.”

  She smiled. “He’s been alone for a long time.”

  I’d been alone too. “I know. I’m not mad. Just disappointed. Three weeks is a long time.”

  “Mooommm,” Max called.

  I rolled my eyes at Em and drank the rest of my coffee. “I only hope he keeps this enthusiasm for school when he gets to middle school.”

  She laughed and turned to grab his lunch bag. Another perk I could get used to. “Thank you. I overslept this morning.”

  “That’s what I’m here for, dear. I like having company in the mornings now. He was up at five.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “No, I was up before that.” She patted my hand. “Go on. You don’t want to be late. Car’s already waiting for you.”

  I rushed out the door to find Max already in his booster seat. This kid was going places for sure. On the ride to school, he talked incessantly about all the work he had planned for the week. First grade was a crucial year, apparently.

  “And Derek gave me his mason account, so I can buy all the books I want.”

  I chuckled. “You mean Amazon?”

  “Yeah. He says they have everything there.”

  “Okay, I will talk to Derek about that. I need to approve all purchases.” I grabbed a wipe off the middle console and cleaned his greasy face.

  “Oh, I already put some stuff in the cart.”

  “Omigod. Okay, I’ll look into that.” I kissed his cheek. Derek and I needed to have a talk on parenting. Or maybe we needed to back up a bit and start with simpler things—for example, what were his mom and dad like? His brothers? He had four brothers who lived all over the country, but I’d never met them.

  “Bye, Mom.” Max waved when Tom pulled up to the drop-off area.

  “Going to the office, Mrs. Cole?” he asked when we left the school. “Looks like Mr. Cole is running late this morning.”

  “Yes.” My phone buzzed with another message from Derek.

  Trip from hell. Running late.

  The office was the usual morning chaos when I arrived, maybe a little more since everyone knew Derek was finally back. He injected the place with energy somehow. I didn’t have meetings until midmorning, so I took my time getting to my office, which Derek insisted I move into, even though I was only a project manager in his department. He didn’t care if people thought I was getting special treatment for sleeping with him, which I was.

  As soon as he took over as CEO again, he sacked his ex-wife Bridget for embezzlement and for trying to sell his company out from under him. He’d also promoted me to manager. When Bridget ran the company, she’d hired me during a student job fair at the end of the fall semester. I started out writing code to update old reports for her. She was so intimidating; she scared the crap out of me. But she’d offered me the one thing I wanted most. A real job so I could afford a home for Max. Back then, I didn’t know Derek, and I had no clue I’d fall for him so hard.

  I fired up my computer and swiveled my chair around to see out the two-story window. The view of the city from up here was breathtaking, complete with a clear blue sky and a serene desert landscape. Since Derek moved to Tucson for one of his biggest clients, he’d acquired more office space. Cole Communications, Inc., owned all four buildings on the block. They all faced into a large courtyard lined with benches and water features throughout.

  I felt the tremble on the windows and the floor before I spotted Derek’s chopper. The one he used to commute to Phoenix on a daily basis. His client base was growing at a fast pace now that he was back in the CEO chair, so he spent a great deal of time there. We’d actually considered moving, but we loved it here so much that in the end we decided commuting every day wasn’t a big deal.

  The chopper landed on the helipad on the rooftop of the building across the way, and I held my breath for a moment, waiting for Derek to climb out. He was already dressed in a dark suit, hair perfectly styled, and wearing sunglasses. The scene in front of me could easily be a magazine photo shoot or an Omega watch commercial. That guy could wear a suit.

  His admin met him by the door. By the way she talked with her arms flailing urgently, he was needed somewhere. I picked up my phone and typed a message for him.

  Lunch?

  He glanced down at his screen before he disappeared through the door. A minute later, his text came in with a loud ping.

  Need a year-to-date report on recent acquisitions. Can you bring that by?

  Right. I’d seen that request on my phone on the drive down. I giggled. Or maybe Derek only wanted an excuse to get me to his office. We’d been apart for so long, surely, I wasn’t the only one thinking about sex. What did he have in mind? I glanced down at my skirt and blazer, glad I’d decided to wear a lacy bra, matching underwear, and thigh-high stockings. Yeah, three weeks was a very, very long time.

  I headed for the door, then stopped myself. Not that Derek cared what people thought, but how would it look if I showed up at his office empty handed and stayed for an hour. Or two. I rushed back to my desk and grabbed my phone and the first file I found, a red one that stood out in my hand.

  On the way to his office, I ran into my boss, who had a million and one questions about the acquisitions report. I was popular today. I answered his questions as quickly as I could. When he finally took a breath, I stopped him. “How about I email you the report when I get back to my office. That way you’ll have it all in one place. I’m late for a meeting right now.”

  “Okay. I have what I need for now, but do send me that report.” He pretty much said that to the back of my head. Derek was all I could think of right now.

  Derek’s office was one floor above mine, on the opposite end of the building. I did my best to brisk walk through the maze of cube offices without looking too desperate. My blood rushed with anticipation. I could still feel Derek’s hands sliding up my back from the last time we were together. The memory got me so wet it was all I could do not to take off running.

  When I reached his reception area, his admin waved me through. I blushed, ears burning hot. As it always happened when he was around, a tiny flame flickered right smack in the middle of my chest. I blew out air and entered his office.

  My face caught fire when ten different set of eyes, Derek’s included, turned to look at me, holding a silly red folder. Shit. He was
serious about the report.

  The scowl on Derek’s face stopped me in my tracks. Was his admin supposed to announce me since he had company? He glanced down at my hands. “Is that the report I asked for?” He used his this-is-a-business-meeting tone on me, and that sent a rush of embarrassment throughout my body. It still didn’t do anything to fix the wetness between my legs. Shit.

  “Yes.” I peeked at the label on the front. I’d brought Max’s summer-school projects. “But you know, I just remembered I have a more current file on my computer. I’ll go get it.”

  His blue gaze moved slowly from me to the four men sitting across from him, then to his phone. He typed something on it, and tossed it on his desk. “No need. Just give us a quick update now.” He gestured toward the only empty chair in his office.

  I blew out air slowly through my teeth and slogged to my assigned seat. I’d put the update together over the weekend. I knew exactly what was on it, but for the life of me, I couldn’t find the words. All I could see in my mind, flashing in neon pink, were the words he didn’t call you here for a quick office tumble. I set my mobile down on the coffee table but kept the folder clutched to my chest.

  His phone rang the second my butt touched the soft leather seat. He put up a finger. “One second. It’s the urgent line.” He put the handset to his ear and listened while I ogled him.

  I’d missed his chiseled profile and full lips. The light made his blond hair look darker than I knew it was when the sun touched it. He leaned forward, and his suit jacket stretched around his shoulders and biceps. Gosh, the man was gorgeous.

  I slanted a glance over to the men sitting next to me. They kept looking down at their watches, as if they had somewhere to be. After a few minutes, Derek finally dropped the phone onto the base.