Counting On Cole (Wilde Ways #8) - Cynthia Eden Page 0,61
low and rough. “But it’s a price I’d pay for you in an instant.”
She whirled back toward him. “Don’t say that.” Anger churned through her, sharp and hot. “Don’t put something like that out there in the universe! Do not ever say—”
“What, Evie?” Cole cut through her words as he walked toward her.
She instinctively backed up, but, dammit, there was a wall behind her. Nowhere for her to go. Not that she was running. She wasn’t running.
“What don’t you want me to say? Is it that you don’t want me to say that I’d trade my life for yours, if you were the one who had been taken?”
“Cole.”
His hands closed around her shoulders. “Because I would. In an instant. No hesitation. Not ever.”
She shook her head. “Don’t say…”
Understanding flashed on his face. “Are you afraid to hear the truth?”
No, she wasn’t afraid. She was—
“Because I want you to know it. I love you, Evie. I loved you two years ago, and I love you now, and to be quite honest with you, I’m sure I’ll love you until the day I die.”
Her body jerked in his hold.
“Is that what you didn’t want me to say? You didn’t want to hear that I love you because you don’t love me?” He let her go. Didn’t step back. Just stood there, all strong and resolute. “I know you saw the tattoo.”
Her heart pounded too fast. Too hard. Too loud. “You…have a lot of tattoos.”
“Because I have a lot of fucking scars.”
Shock stole her breath. Even though she’d feared…
“Your brother was telling the truth. I did have a mission that went to fucking hell.” His jaw clenched. Then, he gritted out, “Hell. I lived through it, though. Lived through that sonofabitch slicing me with his knife over and over because he thought he could make me talk. He thought he could break me. He couldn’t. Because every single time that blade cut me, I just thought of something else.”
She still couldn’t draw in a deep breath.
“I thought of you, Evie. I thought of coming back to you. I knew I had to come back. I wanted a second chance. I wanted to tell you I was sorry, and I wanted a shot with you.”
But you came back, and Harrison never told me, and I spent too much time being angry and hurt.
“The SOB wanted me to break. I didn’t. When I wouldn’t talk, he planned to burn me alive. Had this whole big explosion planned. I had other plans.” Now Cole retreated as he put a few careful feet between them. “I didn’t break. He broke, though. I made sure of it.” His chin lifted. “Right before I killed him and all the other bastards working with him.”
A shiver slid over her.
One that his sharp stare caught. “Yes, I’m a monster. You knew that already, didn’t you?”
“No.”
“Yes.” A slow nod. Then, voice low and rough, he added, “But I’m your monster, baby. The big, bad wolf who bows to your command. There is not anything in this world I would not do for you. That’s why your brother originally called me back in. He knew that truth. Knew I would protect you with my life. Knew that I would trade my life for yours in an instant.”
About five feet separated them. Chill bumps covered her arms.
Cole lifted up his arms. Stared at the tattoos. “I was going to be covered by small white scars. Courtesy of that bastard’s knife. I didn’t want to live that way. I didn’t want to carry his marks on me for the rest of my life.”
The tattoos were beautiful. Dark and swirling. So many designs. So many—
“So I decided that I’d choose what I carried. I’d choose what the world saw. I picked out every tattoo. And you know what the very first one was?”
She swallowed.
He yanked the T-shirt over his head. Dropped it to the floor.
“Your name,” Cole said simply.
She saw the careful cursive lettering over his heart.
“Because you marked me, Evie. You took my heart, and for the rest of my life, I knew it would always be yours. I don’t love easily. I’m the one who doesn’t let others get close.” A pause. “You were the best thing that ever happened to me, and I wanted something good on me. Not scars from that prick’s knife. Something good. So I started with your name.”
She blinked quickly.
He cursed. “I’m fucking this up. That’s a trend I have with you.”