He keeps it out of reach and his eyes darken with every passing second.
Damn it.
“So it was Adam,” he says coolly, with almost no emotion at all. This side of Cole has always scared the shit out of me.
I can never tell what he’ll do next — whether he’ll rage or leave. Though I’ve never seen him rage, not really.
“That’s what you’ve been hiding from me, Silver?”
I hate when he calls me by my name.
“I have to meet him,” I murmur. “He’ll post a picture and there’ll be a scandal.”
“He won’t.”
“How would you know that?”
“If he had it, he would’ve attached it to the text and threatened you with it. He’s bluffing.”
“What if he isn’t?”
He grabs me by the arm and pushes me inside my room, then slams me against the door, keeping me pinned in place. “He won’t. Even if he does, you’ll only make it worse if you meet him.”
“But —”
“Shut up.”
“Cole…” I plead.
“Shut the fuck up, Silver. I told you I won’t be lenient if I find out on my own.” He retrieves his phone and puts it to his ear. “Frederic. How are you? I think there could be an intruder near the back garden. Can you have one of the security guys check?”
I fidget with my back glued to the door, my toes curling against the floor before I release them.
“Won’t he get mad if we provoke him?” I whisper.
Cole places a finger against my mouth, shushing me. My brain has other thoughts, though, like kissing that finger and telling him everything bottled inside me.
“I see,” he says to Fredric. “Thank you. Have a great night.”
“So?” I ask as soon as he hangs up.
“There was no one. He must’ve left.”
“What if he didn’t?”
“What are you going to do about it? Go out like that and meet him?”
“No. I was in a hurry. I didn’t think.”
“You don’t seem to be doing a lot of that lately.”
It’s more like I’m thinking too much.
“I’m confiscating your phone. Go to sleep.”
I peek at him through my lashes. “You won’t sleep with me?”
“I thought you hated me. Why would you want me to sleep with you?”
Ugh. The arsehole.
I huff as I climb under the covers, pulling them to my chin. He pulls out my chair and a book we’re reading for literature and sits opposite me.
“You can go. I don’t need a babysitter.” I try not to sound frustrated that he prefers the chair over me.
“Considering you were going out to meet your stalker in fuck-me clothes, you obviously do,” he says without lifting his head from the book. Wuthering Heights. Fitting.
“What do you care? I thought you weren’t going to talk to me.”
“I’m not.”
“Well, you clearly are right now.”
“Go to sleep. You’re confessing tomorrow.”
“Confessing? To whom?”
“To Elsa, who almost drowned because of you. Because you were self-centred and enjoyed having a stalker say you’re beautiful.”
Tears prickle my lids and I hide farther beneath the sheets. “You know that’s not the case.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You think I want to hurt other people? What is wrong with you? Are you crazy?”
“Watch that fucking attitude, Silver.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Go to sleep,” he repeats quietly.
I do, with tears in my eyes and emptiness in my chest.
For the first time since he moved here, Cole doesn’t hug me to sleep.
For the first time, he’s so disgusted with me, he doesn’t want to touch me.
I hate myself for hating this.
And I hate him.
I hate him so much, I dream of him hugging me.
* * *
In the morning,Cole takes me to the Meet Up.
More like, he drags me.
He’s still not speaking to me and I’m starting to feel pitiful.
I loathe being pitiful. It brings back memories from when I was a child and every single one of my parents’ friends gave me that look.
Poor Silver.
Since then, I’ve built walls and a whole new persona so no one would give me that look again.
Cole and I are sitting in the small cottage, and I recall the pain I felt when I thought he’d lost his virginity to Miss Goldman.
So what if it didn’t happen? He made me believe it.
Well, I made him believe I lost my virginity to Aiden, so there’s that.
Ugh. I hate this tension.
I sit on the chair, waiting for Aiden and Elsa. Cole stands right behind me like the Grim Reaper.
True to his Grim Reaper image, he’s not speaking either.
I’m too scared to look behind me, so I murmur, “Are you going to keep up the silent treatment for long?”
“Not a word, Silver. I don’t want to hear your voice.”
I pretend he didn’t slash my heart open with that and mutter, “Screw you, Cole.”
The door opens and Aiden and Elsa come inside.
She watches me as if I’m a freak while Aiden appears mostly annoyed. “What are you doing here, Queens?”
“Ask Cole,” I speak low.
Elsa steps inside, observing Cole and me carefully, as if we’ll jump her. “Hey.”
Cole offers her his signature polite smile that he offers to everyone. The good boy image. The good son, good stepson, good freaking citizen.
But I know Cole the best. I know the image he puts out and the one he keeps tucked underneath layers of practice.
He’s a gentleman in public. A monster in private.
With me.
He’s being a monster to me right now and I hate how much it hurts.
“Elsa,” he says. “Sit down. There’s something you need to know.”