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And I had.
For the first time in a long time, no monsters found me because Cole was there to keep them at bay.
Pulling on a t-shirt, I slip into the bathroom. My body aches but in the best kind of way, and I’m hardly surprised to see bruises around my hips as I hitch the t-shirt up. But they don’t bother me. Not half as much as the ones dotted around my arm.
A shudder rolls through me as I fight to keep images of the man in the ski mask out of my head.
“Hadley?” Cole calls, and I hurry to wash my hands.
“Coming.”
I pad across the room, falling back into bed beside him. “I thought you’d gone.” He nuzzles my neck and a sense of peace washes over me.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I say. But what are we going to do about Donny, Cole?”
“We are going to do nothing, but I won’t let anyone hurt you again, I promise.” He kisses my shoulder.
“But—
“Shh.” He pushes a single finger against my lips. I peek up at him but he’s already asleep again. His arm is slung possessively around my hip and his legs are tangled with mine, if anyone saw us now, they’d assume we were a couple in love.
My heart squeezes as it hits me that I want that. Because I’m completely and utterly gone for this broken boy from the Heights.
I just hope that underneath all his darkness, he feels the same.
Are you okay?” Remi asks as we lie on my bed. It’s Sunday evening and I’ve finally returned to the dorms.
She asked me to spend the weekend at the pool house, but I didn’t think that was a good idea. Not after everything.
The guys didn’t like it though, and after Cole almost blew a gasket, I relented and stayed.
The four of us had hung out in the pool house. Conner made himself scarce, but Cole reassured me that he was okay.
It had been nice, normal even. We didn’t speak about the attack or Donny again. But I couldn’t stay at the Jaggers’ forever.
Not unless I wanted Miss Jones to get wind of my absence, since she was so invested in my life.
Cole had wanted to bring me back, but Ace didn’t think that was a good idea, so we agreed Remi would come back and make sure I was okay.
I’m relieved that he conceded. Now the weekend is over, I need some space from Cole, from the things he makes me feel, the things I let him do to me.
We didn’t talk about us or what happened. We didn’t even have sex again. It was like Cole was afraid to touch me.
And honestly, I’m not used to gentle Cole.
Everything feels different, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.
“Want to talk about it?”
“I think there’s something wrong with me,” I confess.
“Because of your feelings for Cole?”
“It’s not normal, the way we are with each other.”
Even if this morning, cuddling in his bed, had been totally swoonworthy, it had also been strange to not have the push and pull, the fire burning between us.
“I used to think the same thing about me and Ace.” She shrugged. “But then I realized love isn’t always defined by a set of rules. It’s messy and hard and it hurts... fuck, it can hurt so bad. But you know Cole would never hurt you, right? He just doesn’t know how to love properly. You need to teach him,” she says, as if I have the answers.
