Her Forgotten Betrayal(50)

“Perfect,” he said. “You feel perfect.”

They moved with the precision of lifelong lovers. She lifted into the magic of each stroke. She fought to hold him inside her, knowing he’d love the friction. They both gasped each time he pulled back, then filled her again, driving them to the brink.

“Stay with me,” she begged, desperate.

“Always.” He held her gaze, waited an endless moment, then moved even deeper.

“Forever.”

The wave of pure, unfiltered need that transformed his expression sent her screaming blind into her release. He rode her hard through the peak of it, his head dropping to her shoulder. He kissed her there, then softly groaned her name as she felt him explode.

Minutes, possibly hours, later, they were still moving, skin against skin, neither wanting to leave the amazing place they’d rediscovered. Her feet smoothed up the backs of his thighs, her hands found the muscles of his ass and squeezed. He was softer inside her. But she was so sensitive, each brush of his body back and forth set off series after series of aftershocks.

“Perfect,” he was whispering against the skin of her neck.

And it was. For the first time in forever, no part of her was running from her trauma, searching for answers, wracked with fear.

In Cole’s arms, feeling his total commitment to her, to them, she was finally, blissfully, at peace.





Chapter Thirteen


“Open it,” Cole said beside Shaw. He was next to her in the conference room closet, warming her, loving her.

“Are you crazy?” she whispered. “They’ll kill me.”

Voices raged on the other side of the door. Was she finally ready to see the faceless man? She was remembering differently. Images and sounds were more vibrant, more detailed. Her dream was changing, because Cole was in it now.

“You have to open it.” His powerful body wrapped around her, his arm encircling her waist. He was solid, confident, determined. “You have to remember who he is. What he’s doing here. Facing him is the only way to go back.”

Go back to what?

Back to her empty life? Back into the danger she’d been too blind to see hurtling toward her? There was nothing to go back to except disaster. Disappointment. The worst kind of failure she could imagine. Her life would return to the cold existence she’d made for herself if she went back.

She wanted to go forward. She wanted Cole.

“I want to stay here with you.” She shrank into him, closing her eyes. “I want this perfect place we’ve found again to last forever.”

Except it wasn’t perfect.

The dream shimmered in and out of focus.

They were in her nightmare’s closet. Together. Something was still terribly wrong, not perfect at all.

The muscles in her body cramped with panic. She was suddenly trembling, not from her position, but from the certainty that she was in even more danger than before. Cole had said he’d be there for her forever. Why couldn’t she just trust that? Why did having him here with her feel as threatening as the faceless man on the other side of the door? She shifted her balance, the truth pressing closer. She looked over her shoulder at Cole.

Pain seared through her at the guilt and anger spreading across his face, as if he’d hated her all along and could no longer hide his true feelings.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

The confrontation beyond them erupted into a frenzy of shouting. But the growing silence within the closet, Cole’s silence, was even more disturbing. His hand caressed her cheek, then he pulled his touch away, leaving behind a chilling emptiness.

“Don’t go.” She tried to kiss him, to love him with her mouth and her body, but she couldn’t get close enough. He wouldn’t let her. “Please…”

“No. You don’t understand.” His emotionless whisper was a harsh blast of reality. He jerked her away from him, shoving her against the closet door with a crash. “This isn’t real. I can’t trust you, and you shouldn’t trust me. Not until you finish this.”

“Cole!”

The noise they’d made had given away their hiding place. She held her breath, her hands plastered against his chest, hoping. Praying. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. He wouldn’t betray her like this.

“Please…,” she begged him. “Don’t let him find me.”

“He already has, Shaw.” Cole’s features tightened with exasperation. “Why do you think I’m here?”

“To help me hide.”

“Am I?” The cruelty of his smile made her sick. “Are you sure?”

What was happening? Why was he doing this? He turned her to face the door, refusing to let her shrink back. Footsteps approached. Her nightmare was waiting for her. Cole had chained her to it instead of saving her. He’d never really been there for her at all.