After two hours of shopping, I arrived home to find my mother in the kitchen, preparing dinner. She stopped short when she saw me, her hand over her heart. “Oh my! I haven't seen your hair that short since you were a baby! What made you decide to cut it like that?”
I could tell she didn’t like it. She loved my hair even more than I did. She hadn't seen me sneak out of the house earlier with a cap on to cover Cole's masterpiece. I trembled at having to answer her with a lie even though I had already given myself a pep talk earlier. I wasn't going to get Cole into any trouble with his father, not unless he made a serious blunder. If I were to rat on him, it would have been when he had choked me in the bathroom at school.
“I just thought it was time for something new, mom. It's been a bit of an adjustment being here and I thought a new haircut would help me change my mindset a bit.”
“Oh, honey. Is there something you want to tell me?” She looked quite regretful and I hated having to continue feeding her with lies.
”It's nothing, really. I promise to update you if anything important pops up.” I squeezed her hand for good effect.
Dinner was nothing short of torture. Marcus had insisted quite early on to make dinner a family event. However, Hans had decided to go on a date and hadn't told Cole about it, leaving Cole pissed at dinner, which he left halfway when Marcus started to bring up the wedding preparations. Sometimes I wondered if Marcus was pressing his buttons intentionally. The wedding preparations didn’t seem like they were going anywhere fast, although I wasn't sure why. My mother didn't seem too worried and neither did Marcus, so I guessed things were still okay.
Afterwards, I implemented part one of my plan. I knocked on Cole's door and waited with a hammering heart. I hoped I wasn’t going to look stupid. When he opened the door, I felt my breath catch in my throat. He was shirtless, and his skin was displayed in all its golden glory. He had a pair of shorts on that hung low on his waist. I felt my mind shut down as my thoughts turned into goo. His abs were ridged, and he had those defined, muscular shoulders that looked like they should grace magazine covers.
His eyes narrowed when he saw me. "What do you want?"
I forced myself to focus. Eyes to his face, which currently sported a scowl, making focusing on my task slightly easier. What a waste of perfection.
"Listen. We need to talk."
His eyes narrowed further, and then he slammed the door. I muttered a curse under my breath and waited, but the door remained closed. Growling, I knocked again, loudly this time. If he could throttle me, there was no reason I couldn’t bang on his door loud enough to alert our parents.
The door flew open, revealing a now-dressed Cole. He clutched my arm painfully before yanking me inside. “You’re asking for trouble.”
For a moment my heart stopped, and my eyes flew to the door, which he was blocking. Oh god, let this not be the end of me. He rolled up his sleeves and I squeezed my eyes shut, breaths coming in pants. I should have told someone I was planning to corner him. I waited for the pain, or the sound of leather as his belt came undone, something, anything. When nothing happened, I peeked through half-closed eyes.
He was silent, and although in most books I read I would expect the villain to be predatory or menacing, he was neither. In fact, he stood there, staring, as if I was the weird one, some strange specimen worthy of close scrutiny.
“Why are you all scrunched up like that?”
So I was. His eyebrows were drawn together, and he looked confused. I straightened to my full height, feeling foolish. Was it unreasonable to think he would lay his hands on me after the crap he had put me through?
He took a step towards me and I instinctively took a step backward. His eyes narrowed. “Stop wasting my time and tell me what you're here for.”
I squared my shoulders, feeling the bite of his words. I shouldn't forget what this guy had done to me, just because he temporarily looked innocent. ”Listen. I know you want me and my mom out of this place.”
”Damn right, I do.”
”...but just because you do, it doesn't mean you get to torture me like this.”
His mouth twisted into a frown. “Torture? You call that torture? That was barely anything. I was just thinking of stepping up my game.“
As if I had zero sense of self-preservation and an equal lack of survival skills, I retorted, ”Well, why don't you? Why don’t you prove to everyone that you're nothing more than a coward hiding behind the face of a big bully?”
Something in my words must have resonated with him. I watched as his taunting smile turned into a pained grimace before a mask of indifference quickly slipped into its place.
”Since you're so brave, we'll see what you think about the rest of your week." The words were laced with malice, and I watched in fascination as his jaw clenched. The distance between us narrowed so quickly I didn’t have time to react. His face merely inches
