I would never again be the little girl who fights for his or anyone’s attention. I knew my value. My worth.
…I survived worse, so I knew I could do better.
Always look out for yourself first.
I grab at the handle yanking the door open. Taking Lillian up on her advice. I wouldn’t end up like her. Pathetic and whimpering, over a man.
Cole steps back as I climb into Xander’s car. Doing what I’d always done best. Protect myself.
thirty-four
Rory
Ifanyonehadtoldme that this is where I would have ended after seeing Cole’s car sitting in the Casper’s driveway instead of Hailey’s I would have laughed and slammed the door in their face.
Oh, wait. I did do that.
Pulling out my phone, I was about to text her asking where the hell she was when I heard his voice down the hallway. Was he in the kitchen?
“She’s not coming,” Cole says, biting into an apple.
He chews leisurely, the corner of his mouth twitching almost like he wanted to smile. My eyes tracking his movements as he takes another bite. His swallow seductive in nature.
I watch in fascination as the muscles along his jaw move.
“You know what happens when you look at me like that, princess…” Cole’s voice is alluring and flirtatious.
I needed to learn to control my emotions better around him. I was becoming about as translucent as the air I was trying to force through my lungs. A titillating wicked look forming in his brow, before its wiped away. Replaced with something else as devilish.
Mischief.
My skin prickles in awareness. He was up to something.
“Come on, we’re going to be late,” he accuses. “Thenyoucan deal with the tantrum that’s to follow.”
“And if I say no?” Jutting out my hip defiantly.
I had no idea what he was talking about, and I would be damned if I was going to get into a car with him without knowing. I may be naive sometimes, but I wasn’t stupid.
His eyes glint, heating my skin up a notch, gaze piercing. “You know what happens when you don’t listen, princess?” Cole smirks, daring me to disobey.
He doesn’t move as I step closer, angling my head up. Not giving in.
“You’ll only be disappointing Finn if you don’t come,” he adds.
Eyeing the apple, I take it, biting into it. The muscles in his cheeks lift, liking my defiance.
Spinning on my heel, I don’t give him the satisfaction of seeing my reaction. Playing it off as I walk out the door. His brash, hunger-filled gaze had nothing to do with the apple and everything to do with me.
I use the excuse of exiting the door to cool off. My flesh burning from the inside out.
“No way. Not gonna happen,” I say again. Seeing what sits in front of me.
The oversized parking lot almost completely empty. Except for one other familiar looking car, Finn’s.
I bite at the inside of my cheek. I was going to kill him.
The theme park, in all its brightly colored glory, staring back at me. Winding colored tracks, blind my vision as the shiny metal reflects off the sun. Twisting and turning in every direction like a messed-up spine.