“I’m not in the mood.”
She averts her eyes, and I see a tear slipping free. “I promise, I’m not cheating anymore. I blocked my professor’s number, and I haven’t seen the others in weeks.”
My eye twitches. Is it bad that I don’t care? It’s a huge fucking sign I should end this. “Go to sleep,” I tell her. “We’re fine, I’m just tired.”
“Do you promise we’ll be okay? We’ll get back what we had?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
We both know that’s a lie, especially when she falls asleep and I check on Blaise four times before I manage to pass out.
“Cole…” His name dances on my cracked lips in the early morning hours. The sun hasn’t risen yet as I blink my eyes open, suppressing a groan. Fuck, my head hurts.
I lift my head, confused for a moment. Where the fuck am I? I rub my eyes. The moon’s silvery light filters through Mia’s pink lace curtains, casting an almost magical light over the room.
“Were you dreaming of me, brother?”
I stiffen.
What the fuck?
My head snaps in the direction of the corner near the door.
Cloaked in shadows and mystique, Cole smirks. His long legs stretch out in front of him as he leans back against the wall. Fuck, he’s a vision, shrouded by the dark as though it’s his ally and protector. Or maybe his greatest weapon.
Sitting up straighter, I devour the sight of him. My heart thuds hard in the ensuing silence while we observe each other. I don’t want to talk first. I wouldn’t even know what to say. Why is he here?
Drawing his leg up, he rests his forearm on his knee. Even in the darkness, I can make out his long fingers, the leather bandsaround his wrist, and the veins that paint a roadmap on the top of his hand. He’s effortlessly attractive in a devastating way. We’ll ruin each other. It’s not a matter of if but when. We circle like magnets.
“Don’t flatter yourself.” I glance around the room.
“Mia isn’t here.”
My attention skates back to Cole, who rises to his feet, the shadows thickening around him like the night.
“We’re alone.”
He emerges from the shadows, his large boots sinking into Mia’s white, fluffy rug. He’s even more breathtaking in the moonlight.
I struggle to focus when he runs a hand through his mussed hair before setting his eyes on me. Something pulses between us. Something elusive.
“I know what you did,” he says in a tone that caresses my senses like a whispered kiss against my collarbone. I shiver, watching his approach. This side of Cole is uncharted territory.
When he levels those intense eyes on me, I’m lost in an enchanted forest, called forward by a bewitching voice in the distance. My heart thuds harder, throbbing in my throat, and I wet my dry lips.
The floorboards creak beneath his weight as he comes to stand beside me. Anticipation thrums through my bloodstream, and I hold my breath while he slowly fingers the quilt, watching me the entire time. I drown in that drugging look. What will he do next?
He rips the quilt away, making me jerk.
“Cole?”
“Shut up for once.” Walking around me, he comes to a halt at the foot of the bed, and my lungs burn. I need to inhale a breath—just one. I’m caught in him and the curve of his sensuous lips.
He climbs onto the bed, cloaked in the night’s mysterious pink and silvery hue filtering through the lace curtains.
“Cole?” I question as his hulking frame stalks me, the mattress shifting beneath his heavy weight. “What are you doing?”
“I changed my mind.”
