Counting On Cole (Wilde Ways #8) - Cynthia Eden Page 0,65
her.
“Do not tell him what I’m saying! Did I stutter on that line before?”
Leo sounded desperate. He wasn’t the desperate type.
“I got information last night at the gala. Cole has been stalking you.”
What?
“For at least a year. Maybe longer.” His voice was hushed. “He was recognized at the charity gala. He’s been coming to your shows. He’s been watching you from a distance. And, word is, he swore to do anything necessary to get you back.”
Her skin felt cold. No, icy. “I don’t understand.”
“We need to meet,” Leo told her flatly. “I have to talk to you about this in person. Without Cole watching everything that you say or do.”
Cole was watching her right then. He’d pulled on a pair of jeans, and a faint line cut between his eyebrows as he frowned at her.
“You were misinformed,” she told Leo carefully. “I appreciate your concern, but you’re wrong—”
“Robert Demakis isn’t the type of guy to be misinformed,” Leo threw back as his voice hardened with intensity and worry. “I’ve worked with him plenty before. Robert is one of those tells-you-like-it-is types. He said he recognized Cole because Robert had seen him at a few of the shows you worked on. Robert was certain of it, and he was worried about you. I’m worried about you.”
Her hold tightened on the phone.
“We need to meet,” Leo said again, voice urgent. “Robert even has proof, if you want to see it. He has photos that some paparazzi took when you were doing a show last December. He can show them to you.”
“I have to go now, Leo.” Go straight to the source.
“But—”
“I’m good. I’m safe. I promise.” She hung up. Evie sat there a moment, still holding the phone and with the covers still tucked under her arms.
The silence in her bedroom seemed far too heavy.
“Your friend is worried about you.”
She nodded. Okay, just say it. Blurt it out. “It’s…a little more than that.” She put the phone down on the covers and tipped her head back so that she could meet Cole’s bright gaze. “It’s crazy, really, but…”
He waited.
It seemed almost silly to say because this was Cole. “You haven’t been stalking me, have you?”
Chapter Fourteen
I am so screwed.
Cole didn’t even blink when Evie asked her breathless, nervous question.
He also didn’t reply.
She laughed. The sound was high and, just like the question, nervous. “I know, it’s ridiculous.” She rose from the bed and pulled a sheet with her, wrapping it around her delectable body all toga-style. “But Leo was told that you had been stalking me for, like, the last year.” She shook her head, sending her blond locks sliding over her cheeks. “Which is absolutely ridiculous because you’ve been working for Wilde and they are based down in—”
“Atlanta.”
A nod from her. “Right. Atlanta. Not like you were flying back and forth to see me.”
But he had worked cases in New York. Plenty of them. “Where did Leo get his intel?”
She nibbled on her lower lip. Of course, that small movement drew his attention right to her mouth and made him remember all of the amazing things that she could do with her lips and tongue.
Dammit, dumbass, focus.
“Where?” That question came out too rough. Cole tried again as he cleared his throat. “Sorry, um, where did Leo hear that story?”
She pushed back her hair. “From one of our chief suspects. Can you believe that?”
“No.” Yes. Dammit.
“Robert Demakis told him. Robert said that he’d seen you at some of the shows I choreographed. That he even had proof if I wanted to see it.” She advanced toward him, and the back of the sheet trailed behind her like the train of a wedding dress. It slithered ever so softly over the floor. “Some paparazzi photo that was supposedly taken last December.”
“Last December, huh?”
“Yes.” She stopped in front of him. Stared up at him.
Cole swallowed.
Her right hand lifted and slid over his cheek. His stubble probably felt like freaking sand paper to her, and he made a mental note to shave ASAP. When he had his face buried between her legs, he didn’t want to scrape her.
“I don’t believe the story.” She smiled at him. “But I figured I’d go straight to the source so you’d know what was being said.”
His chest squeezed. “You trust me.”
“Well, of course.” She offered him a sunny smile. “I love you. Can’t very well love you without trusting you. That would just be weird.”
I love you.
She brushed around him and maneuvered for the bathroom.