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Cole methodically uncoiled his shirt sleeves, buttoning the cuffs. “My mother died giving birth to me. I spent a good deal of my younger years trying to reconcile with the fact that I’d killed the woman who gave me life. And then one day my father shows up with a beautiful woman he claimed was to be my new mother. And she had a son, and therefore I now had a brother. He was blond with boney limbs, and eyes the color of pale emeralds.”
I tried to get his attention with the force of my stare. Daniel sat riveted, while I strived to remain in my skin.
“I’d never met Selene or her son prior to the day they showed up at our estate hand in hand. My father had met her on a beach and proclaimed love at first sight. I didn’t understand the concept at first, but then I got to know her,” Cole whispered before finally gazing at me. “I was a surly kid in need of love and affection who didn’t want anyone coming in and erasing the memory of my mother. Her pictures were removed from the walls shortly before they’d arrived. We no longer lived in a shrine to her. The last of her had been killed.
“I wasn’t in the business of letting anyone in. I had no time for a boy who wanted to spend his days helping the staff prepare meals and clean the messes he’d made. A boy who thought handmade Christmas gifts meant more than something shiny from Tiffany’s. A boy who’d sneak food to my bedroom door when I was ordered to go there without dinner for being rude to him. A boy who got two thousand signatures on a petition to name a fountain in the park after my mother. Jasper is relentless when he believes in something, and he believed in me. Without him I might have ended up like you, but because of him, I know what makes a great man. And he’s the greatest man in this room.”
When Cole decided he needed to be heard, everyone within earshot listened up. Even the thunderstorm had held its breath for him.
Cole left me flushed and speechless, and I didn’t chance looking over at Daniel for fear he’d see everything I’d ever hidden from him written all over me. His cell phone rang from somewhere upstairs, interrupting the tense silence left over from Cole’s less than subtle chastisement of him.
Daniel ducked his head and muttered a faint, “Excuse me,” before his chair legs scraped the floor in his departure.
Cole and I were left alone with all our memories before the romantic firelight and arcs of lightning flashing across the night sky. His chest rose and fell rapidly with each angered breath, but he didn’t eye me with judgment, only a raging need to comprehend.
“Why?” he implored. “You’re too good for him.”
“Don’t.” I looked nervously toward the stairs.
“Why do you let him demean you?”
“He grew up with expectations, too. You of all people should understand that. He didn’t have me to save him like you did,” I said. Cole had been groomed to one day take over Nexcom, and had nearly buckled more than once under the pressure. Franklin could be equal parts good and uncompromising. Gentle and hard. Nothing would stand in the way of Cole becoming his successor, but I’d been there for the more difficult days when the weight of his destiny had been too great a thing for him to shoulder alone.
“But he has you now, and he doesn’t even see you,” he said. “Even the way he touches you—” He cut himself off, sucking in a hiss of air through the seam of his lips.
“Keep going,” I said, challenging him. “How does he touch me, Cole?”
“Like you’re his,” he said boldly.
“As opposed to yours?”
“No, that’s not what I meant. You’re property to him. A pet. Something he can train to his whims, even if he’s doing it without malice. I’m not saying this because I want you. I’m saying it because I care. Because you would do the same for me.”
I let up on the grinding of my molars. Iwould’vedone the same for him, under different circumstances, though. I didn’t need him riding in on his high horse to fight my battles for me. A lot needed to happen before we got to a place where looking out for each other’s best interests was merely that. We needed the luxury of time. Time to be something different to each other. I was in way over my head here, and soon I wouldn’t care. “Cole,” I sighed.
“Sorry about that,” Daniel said, sticking a pin in our balloon.
“No worries,” Cole insisted. “I need to get going anyway.” He stood, and like a heartstring being tugged, I did, too.
“It’s still early,” Daniel said, checking the time. “I was going to ask about the storm reference you made earlier. I would love to know what trouble this one got up to.” He waggled his brows and hugged me into his side.
“Some secrets are Jasper’s to tell,” Cole said, leaving the room in a hurry. Daniel and I trailed behind him.
“Well, he does seem to be more willing to share when you’re around. I think your presence will be good for us,” Daniel said. Cole ignored his comment.
“Can I give you a call tomorrow?” Cole asked me, getting his wool coat from the closet.
“Ah, yeah. Sure,” I said.
“Daniel, I’ll see you in the office bright and early.”
“I’ll be the one with bells on,” Daniel replied, and I wondered how he could speak with his mouth hard-pressed to Cole’s ass.
We were alone for two seconds before Daniel wheeled around on me. “I think I may have offended him.”
“Youthink?” I asked, wondering if maybe the embarrassment I thought he’d expressed before leaving the dining room had been imagined. Did he think that much of himself that Cole’s reprimand of him had gone right over his head?
“I’m overthinking it. Everything’s fine.” He bit his lip in thought, staring at the door Cole had exited through.
