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I run my fingertips over the lines, watching his thick muscles tense. “Are you serious? You got this in jail?”
“There’s not much else to do in there,” he says. The bitterness in his voice surprises me. “And some of the guys are very artistic.” He frowns, making a little move with his shoulders, like a duck flicking water off its back, then flops back down on the mattress. “You like tatted guys, honey?” He drawls, slipping back into his lazy, easygoing persona. “I can get more.”
I refuse to be distracted. “What happened?”
He smiles wryly. “You’re not meant to askwhat happened.You’re meant to askwhat did you do.”
I shrug. “Whatever it was, it can’t have been that bad.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you’re not a bad person.”
His eyes soften a bit. “Fuck, you’re sweet.”
“Maybe I’m being too trusting. Is this the part where you tell me you’re all murderers working together? You charm women up to the cabin, Cole takes them out with an axe, and then Riven dissects them for their organs?”
He nods, but his smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “Don’t look in the freezer. It’s full of kidneys. No, it was, uh, possession. Coke. I was in for a year.”
Holyshit.A wholeyear?“How old were you?”
“It was only a few years ago.” He thinks. “Five, I think? I was twenty four.”
My mouth drops open. That’s so recent. “Oh my God, are you okay?”
“Yeah. Not a high point in my life. But what can you do?” He grins, cheek dimpling. “Missed the women the most.”
I narrow my eyes. “You’re full of shit.”
“You’re not the first to tell me,” he admits, stretching out on top of the pillows. He looks at me from under his lashes, green eyes twinkling. “You’re supposed to ask me if I did it, you know.”
“I am?”
He nods. “You’re terrible at this. I don’t want to just monologue about my tragic past all by myself. I’ll get shy.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know audience participation was required.” I curl up next to him, putting my face on his pillow. “Did you do it?” I whisper.
He rolls closer. “Nope.” He whispers back. “I wasframed.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “Seriously?”
He nods. “I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some rich bitch with a great lawyer and a party drug habit blamed it on me.”
“And you did a year with a bunch of drug criminals? Oh my God, Eli.”
His jaw tightens. “You know the real kicker?” He reaches out to play with a strand of my hair.
“What?”
“It was Riven’s dad who put me in jail.”
* * *
We stay in bed for another hour or so, messing around, then I eventually force myself to get up and take a shower. I’ve literally just soaped myself up when there’s a rough banging on the door. I sluice myself off quickly and wrap myself up in a towel to open the door.
Cole is standing on the other side, arms crossed over his chest. He scowls at me.
“Sorry, did you need the bathroom? Give me a sec, I’ll just dry off—”
