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“Cole Delaney,” he replied without moving his gaze from Ryland. “Izzy’s boyfriend.”
Well, he couldn’t exactly say something like sex-basement-buddy to my family, could he?
“Oh,” said Jaxxon. She waved a hand toward where Ryland and I stood, adding, “Well, then, I’m sure you’ll want to deal with this.”
Um, it was best that I did that myself. Then again … Ryland hadn’t listened to me in the past, had he? I’d told him time and time again to stay away from me, I’d told him that I wanted nothing more to do with him, but he’d disrespected my wishes and ignored my declarations. Maybe he’d heed the male who was currently prowling toward him.
“Now just what would you be doing here?” Cole asked, eyeing him coldly.
Ryland showed him the ring box. “What does it look like?” he snarked. “I’m proposing to Izzy.”
Cole very slowly cocked his head. “What in God’s name told you thatthatwould be a good idea? She doesn’t even want to talk to you. Why in the fuck would she want to marry you?”
Excellent question.
Ryland’s grip on the ring box tightened. “She’s hurting, I know that. But I intend to make it up to her. I’m prepared to spend the rest of my life doing that.”
“Noble,” said Cole, his voice bone dry. “But she’s not hurting. Not at all. She’s uninterested in talking with you because she’s uninterested inyou. Simple.”
Ryland scoffed. “Well of course she’d tell you that. She might even have convinced herself of it. But she and I both know the truth. She loves me.”
I felt my mouth drop open. He couldn’t honestly believe that. Maybe he just wanted Cole to believe it; maybe he’d spewed out that crap in the hope of landing a verbal blow on Cole. If not, the man was plain delusional.
Cole gave him a disbelieving look. “Loves you?” he echoed, his voice dripping with disdain. “You think she loves you?”
“Iknowshe does,” Ryland asserted. “Just the same, I love her.”
“You love the thought of owning her,” Cole corrected. “You love the thought ofherlovingyou. You love that you’d be the envy of so many if she was yours. It’s all about how you feel. Which is why you refuse to see how she truly feels. I doubt you even really know Izzy.”
An affronted expression slipped over Ryland’s face. “Of course I know her.”
“Yeah?” asked Cole, doubtful. “What’s her favorite color? What’s her favorite movie? Favorite snack? Favorite animal? What’s a place she’s always wanted to go but not yet had a chance to visit? Surely you can answer at least one of those questions.”
Ryland sneered. “Likeyouknow the answers.”
“Yellow.Donnie Darko. Snickers. Wolves. Salem.”
I felt my brows rise.Well.I hadn’t expected that he’d filed away any of the stuff I rambled about.
An angry flush stained Ryland’s cheeks. “Just because you know basic, trivial things about Izzy doesn’t mean that you know her better than I do. It doesn’t meanshit.”
“I know plenty about her. I fully intend to learn everything else there is to know. What I don’tintend is for you to be hovering around her, harassing her, turning up at her home, or fucking proposing to her.” Cole ate up every bit of Ryland’s space. “This ends now.Like it or not, you’re nothing to Izzy. She’s never going to be yours. Never. Fact is she’s already mine.”
Ryland’s face scrunched up. “Yours?”
“Yeah. Mine. And that won’t be changing.”
“What, you think she’d actually be content in a simple arrangement forever?”
“What Izzy and I have is far more than an arrangement, and there ain’t anything simple about it.”
My pulse skittered. Cole sounded so serious. So resolute. So honest. And I felt a flame of hope flicker to life in my stomach.
Ryland’s flush deepened. He abruptly turned to me. “Tell me he’s lying. Tell me you aren’t in a relationship with him.”
I met Cole’s gaze. It was as intense as it was unreadable. His entire expression was uncharacteristically inscrutable, giving me no help in deciding whether he’d meant what he said or he’d only spoken such words to shoo Ryland along.
“You can’t be serious about him, Izzy,” Ryland added. “He’s a boxer. He hits people. He’ll hit you.”
