Page 60 of The Denver Alpha

Nothing.

“Cole!”

Nothing.

“Hey, I’m talking to you!” I shout, losing patience.

Cole slams to a halt so abruptly that I almost run into his back, barely catching myself in time.

“What do you want?” he barks as he wheels around on me.

My brows draw together, my mouth turning down in a frown. “Whoa, what the fuck is your problem?”

“I’m busy.”

“That’s fine, but it’s no excuse to ignore me or treat me like crap. What gives?”

A low growl rumbles in his chest and he turns around, continuing toward his office.

“Hey, I wasn’t done!” I call after him, scrambling to keep up. He ducks into his office and I follow him inside, watching with a scowl as he makes his way around the desk to take his seat. “Seriously, what crawled up your ass and died today, Sergeant Dickwad?”

Cole shoots me a glare as he sinks down into his chair. He doesn’t respond or explain, though, which only irritates me more.

I fold my arms over my chest, studying the big, broody man behind the desk. Nothing looks to be out of the ordinary. He’s dressed in his usual slacks and a button up, his sleeves rolled up to the elbows because I swear he knows it drives me crazy when I can see those veiny, muscly forearms of his. His appearance is tidy, as is his workspace, like usual. Nothing I can see tips me off as to why he seems to be on the warpath today.

I heave a sigh, taking another step toward him and pinching the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger. “Look, I don’t know what you’re so pissed off about, but don’t take your bullshit out on me when I didn’t do shit to you.” I finally say.

Another long pause stretches between us. Cole’s eyes flicker up, his dark gaze colliding with mine. My heart thumps against my ribcage, pulse picking up speed like it does every time he looks at me like that.

He leans back in his desk chair and scrubs a hand over his face, sighing. “You’re right.”

I blink at him, actually fucking speechless for a moment. “Say that again?”

“You’re right,” he repeats, throwing his head back and rubbing his eyes. Then he straightens his posture, returning his gaze to mine. “I’m just having a bad day, Jules.Fuck.”

“Well bad day or not, whatever the fuck that just was isn’t acceptable,” I say, throwing a thumb over my shoulder. “You’ve gotta use your words like a big boy.”

Cole slowly arches a brow. “You wanna see big? Bring that smart mouth of yours over here and I’ll stuff it full of my cock.”

His words register in my ears, but I feel them between my thighs. “After that shit?” I scoff. “In your dreams, Sarge.”

Though not gonna lie, I’m a little tempted.

“Would you rather get on your knees for someone else?”

I roll my eyes hard. “Don’t even try to pull that jealousy shit on me now. Tobias and I are friends, you know that. And besides, he has someone else. What you saw was the tail end of me giving him shit for his walk of shame with Tayla this morning.”

Cole looks surprised to hear that, and it’s the teensiest bit satisfying to throw Tayla under the bus like she never hesitates to do to me. And even though Cole said he was done sleeping with her, there’s no harm in solidifying that by letting him know she’s getting it on with someone else, right?

“She was still here?” he asks, brow furrowed.

Okay, not the question I expected…

“What do you meanstillhere?”

He groans, shoving back in his chair and tossing an arm over his face, covering his eyes. “She was waiting for me when I got back last night,” he grumbles.

I swear the whole room tilts a little bit, the blood draining out of my face. “Were you going to tell me?” I grind out. I’m really, really trying not to jump to conclusions here, but suddenly all I can picture is Tayla, dressed in that skimpy-ass outfit she was wearing this morning, hanging all over Cole. And yeah, I just gave him shit for pulling the jealousy card, but it sure feels different when the shoe is on the other foot. That card is now firmly in my grasp and doesn’t feel unreasonable to pull at all.

---