We may be enemies, but our bodies didn’t seem to know that. My toes tingle even now thinking about his mouth on mine. Iceman was making me senseless.
Her eyes widened the slightest bit at my strange behavior. I was positive I looked flushed. My skin warming at the thought of him and how he’d forced his tongue down my throat.
“Curiosity.” Minimizing my emotions, pushing along. Praying she doesn’t read too much into it. I’d tell her, soon. Just not now.
Her gaze turns pungent, but she doesn’t push which I’m grateful for. “Like all the hellhounds, they do whatever they want. Not even Madison can fault him for that,” she adds, following in step.
“Why does she try so hard to get his attention if she knows he won’t date her?”
She lowers her voice. “Between me and you, I think he uses her as a shield.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, cocking my head.
“Of the three of them, Cole has always been the most… selective, when it comes to hookups.”
What was she saying?
“Madison is like his guard dog and keeps any female within sniffing radius away because she wants him.”
She sighs carelessly while I continue listening waiting on her to finish.
“He uses that to his advantage. She does all the work of turning out the weaker of potential girls. Unlike Finn who will sleep with anything that breathes. Cole always seemed like the type who hated the extra attention. Like we’re all annoying inconveniences.”
“But he thrives off the power?” I say, confused. Cole loved control, in everything.
“Exactly. It’s a conundrum, but it’s only a theory.” She shakes her head side to side like she was debating something. “It’s like she takes out all the cowards. Him choosing the ones that manage to slip through the cracks of her rank. Gain his attention.”
Is that all our kiss was the other night then? A power play like she suggested. Hailey’s theory made sense.
“So Madison does all the work, and he reaps the benefits?” My tone disgusted.
“I think that’s why he allows her to do whatever she wants to people.”
Basically, giving her free rein to be cruel to others for no reason?
“A different girl sleeping with Cole doesn’t happen very often, so when it does, people know,” she adds.
So that’s what I was. Someone who’d gain his attention. Revulsion twists deep inside my chest for Cole. How could I be so naive?
Knowing how he’d operated from the beginning and yet I still fell into his trap. Playing into his hand like the fool I was. I’d lapsed in my judgment. Cole never pretending to be something other than who he was.
“You sure nothing happened between you two?” Hailey asks, noticing the tingle of awareness I’ve felt since I stepped out the doors of KPA. Cole’s gaze tracking my every move from his peripherals.
Not once has he directly looked in our direction, but I knew he was following me with his eyes. Us leaving the quad.
“I’m sure.”
She snorts. “And I’m sure I had a cat named fish sticks as a kid.”
My head snaps in her direction. “You had a cat named fish sticks?”
“Don’t change the subject,” she belittles. Watching the same thing I was.
A muscle in Cole’s jaw twitches like he can sense my anger boiling over. Shooting invisible lasers at his head. Good, I was glad.
I had been careless and stupid. Thinking that our kiss meant anything. I was only someone who’d slipped through the cracks like Hailey had said. Nothing more.
It wouldn’t happen again.