It’s the reason he’s done that endorsement and got his body out for the world to see,a little voice reminds me.
“Yeah,” I muse. “I’m starting to understand that.”
“Accept it and enjoy it. Life is short. Who knows what’s around the corner?”
“Yeah,” I repeat.
“Are you okay? You seem…distracted.”
I close my eyes, and I’m immediately back in the kitchen with his breath washing over my cheeks, his eyes darting between mine and my lips.
“I think…I think he wants to kiss me.”
34
COLE
Iwas late getting home that night. Despite being desperate to get back to her, it was out of my hands. Training ran over, then I needed a session with Parker. Being the sadist that she is, she forced me into an ice bath for what felt like a year. The witch smirked the whole time, too. It was as if she knew I needed punishing for what happened earlier in the day.
I almost kissed Freya. Standing there in front of her in my kitchen, it was all I could think about. Hell, it’s pretty much all I’ve been able to think about since, and it was almost a week ago.
She kept my dinner warm for me that night, and no sooner had I walked in the door than she served it and fled.
I guess the silver lining was that she drove home in her new car. She even remembered to message me when she got in, which left me wondering if she was thinking about me, too. I guess she was, but probably in a very, very different kind of way. She’s pissed over the car. I get it. I did blindside her with it. But it’s just a car. I haven’t put a freaking dog collar around her neck and claimed her as my pet.
Freya is her own person with her own life, hopes, and dreams. No matter the kind of relationship between us, I would never let her forget about them. She deserves to find herhappiness and not be put into a box where she’s expected to do as she’s told.
Every time I think about her ex and the things she’s said, the need to put her name into Google gets stronger. But I won’t. Like she said, everything is out there to find, but I don’t want it to be that way. I need her to trust me enough to tell me. I need to help her heal enough that she’s strong enough to talk about it.
Now, as I sit on the team’s plane heading home, all I can think about is seeing her.
We’ve been messaging on and off, but there’s a distance between us that I’m sure wasn’t there before.
It has occurred to me that I may just be reading into things a little too much. I’ve just…I’ve never had a woman in my life like Freya before. All I want to do is make her smile, take her stress away, make her happy.
When I was a kid, I remember a time when I’d do anything to make those around me happy. I was under some stupid illusion that if I did, they’d want to keep me around, give me a home, and some semblance of a normal family. I quickly discovered that it didn’t help. No matter how nice I was, how much I did for the people who took me in, how good a kid I was, it never stuck.
I soon learned that the only person I needed to try to make happy was myself, and that’s pretty much the way I’ve lived ever since.
But then she walked into my life and turned everything I thought I knew into chaos.
“Looking forward to getting home?” Killer teases from beside me.
I might not have told him anything when it comes to Freya. But he knows enough, and he knows me well enough to know something is off.
“You know it,” I mutter, keeping my eyes out the small window, watching as the bright lights of LA come into view.
He snorts a laugh.
“Shut up,” I hiss.
“It’s cute,” he says, ignoring my demand.
“Nothing is cute.”
He chuckles this time, making my fists curl against my thighs.
“It’s really cute.”
