Page 50 of Sneak Attack

God.

He shouldn’t have done that.

Weshouldn’t have done that.

The story of us.

“I…”

“I’m not sorry,” he whispered, and his voice was gravelly. There was a hitch in it as I felt the weight of his stare on me. I couldn’t bear to look. I looked down to the porch, unable to face him. One look at his lips, glistening wet from one and I’d crumble in my resolve that this was a very, very bad horrific idea.

“I need to go.”

Except he was still bending over my chair and caging me in and there was no way I could leave until he moved.

And he truly needed tomovebefore I did something irreparable like trace him and lean forward, taking his mouth this time and slip my hands behind his neck, lace my fingers together and pull him against me. My fingers burned with the desire to do just that. I curled them into fists to prevent myself. In my peripheral, his hand rose, and I flinched.

He stopped, and I closed my eyes. “Stop.”

“All right.” He stood, and my chair swayed back and forth as he stepped away and blew out a breath. “I won’t apologize for that, though.”

Of course he wouldn’t. Cole rarely apologized for taking what he wanted…except he had.Once.

I apologized.

It couldn’t have been that simple. Not that Cole had made it sound easy, but he just apologized to a dead girl, and everything was copasetic again?

But no, of course it wasn’t, because he’d had Jasper. His son was who brought him back, gave him something to fight for, to accomplish his goals, and I was so damn happy he’d had that.

“I need to go,” I repeated because while he’d given me space there wasn’t much room to maneuver around him, and it wasn’t just that he was large and took up his space, it was fear that if I stepped close, I’d be sucked right back into him.

Dangerous and stupid is what that was.

“I need to get to the field anyway for practice, so I’ll let you leave with us not talking about that, but we’ll talk again. Soon.”

As if I wasn’t given a choice in the matter.

As if I could handle the conversation he most likely had in mind. Especially if it involved more ofthat.

“Right,” I whispered, and licked my suddenly parched lips.

Cole’s gaze fell to my mouth and lingered, before slowly rising. “You going to be able to get back to Marley’s okay?”

“Yeah.” I hoped. I was still rattled, would spend the rest of the day thinking and replaying every word he spoke to me. Not to mention thekiss.

“Good. Come on, Bongo.”

He rose from his lounging sleep on the front porch and yawned, licking his mouth as he rose and stretched.

“I didn’t tell you this, but I really love your dog.” I couldn’t help but smile down at him. Bongo must have known I needed the touchstone to stay grounded because he came to me, rubbed his head against my knee so I could bury my hands in his soft fur.

There. Exactly what helped settle my still racing heart.

Cole turned and headed down the stairs of his porch, but Bongo stayed at my side, tail gently swaying in the air while he stayed close enough for me to keep petting him.

“You don’t have to walk me to my car.”

“I know,” is all he said without looking back at me, and yet he did it, anyway.

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