Page 56 of Twisted Play

He raised his hand as if to cup my cheek, and I flinched back. Hurt reflected back at me from his golden eyes, but I knew if I softened, he’d push and push and push—and I couldn’t bear for him to think I was the kind of woman who’d cheat on him.

Tristan would find out eventually what Cole was doing to me. And what Alek was doing. If he was like every other man I’d ever met, he’d blame me.

I couldn’t bear the thought of having him only to lose him. Better to end it now, before I lost my heart. Hot tears burned behind my eyes.

I shoved to my feet.

“Eva!” Tristan shouted after me, but I ignored him, dashing out of the weight room, more concerned with hiding my misery than whether the team saw me run off.

When Dr. Parker looked at me questioningly as I shoved through the door, I shook my head.Just give me a damn minute,I thought, hoping she’d understand my expression.

I leaned against the cool concrete of the wall, pressing my palms against my eyes in a futile attempt to stem the tide of tears.

“Sparrow?” Cole’s voice was low and warm beside me.

I ignored him.

He shifted until he caged me between his arms.

“Sparrow,” he said again.

I looked up at him, sure my defiance was reflected in my expression. “What do you want?”

The cruelty of his answering smile told me I’d regret this encounter.

“You didn’t tell Tristan what you did yesterday?” he asked as he ran one hand up the side of my hip then under the hem of my tank top.

“Fuck you. Of course I didn’t,” I spat back. “I’m not a monster. I know what it would do to your friendship.”

His fingers brushed my bare skin over the top of my leggings then up my side, a ghostly touch under my shirt that left gooseflesh in its wake.

“What are you doing?” I asked him.

“Whatever the fuck I want.”

“Cole, someone could walk out of the weight room and see!” Horror seeped through me, turning my flesh to ice as his lips tilted into a smile.

“Guess I better get a move on, then.”

His fingers wandered across my stomach then under the waistline of my leggings. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.

“What are you?—?”

Cole wrapped his free hand around my throat and squeezed, not so hard he cut off my air, just enough to scare the shit out of me, and then the assholeshushed me. Heat wound its way through my core and my nipples tightened.

No, I didn’t like this. Icouldn’tlike this.

His other hand continued its path down my belly. “So fucking soft,” he murmured.

The fingers wrapped around my throat held me captive, preventing me from jerking away and ending this travesty.

“Stop, please,” I whispered. “You can’t.”

I searched his eyes for the disgust I knew I’d find there as he ran his fingers over the parts of my body I hated the most, but I found only heat.

“I think you’ll find I can,” he answered. His fingers slid under my panties, further, and then—“Oh, filthy girl. Shaved bare, just for me?”

“Forme.”