Tristan’s hand slipped between my legs and found my clit, and I cried out. “Good girl. So fucking perfect.”
I shattered at the praise, sobbing as I collapsed onto the bed. Tristan shouted my name as he came inside me, and then he followed me down onto the bed, pressing gentle kisses to my spine, my shoulder, the top of my head as he covered me.
When I looked up at Cole again, his bruised face was blank, the evidence of his own climax spattered over his shirt.
The sight should have filled me with satisfaction. This was what I’d wanted—to hurt him like he’d hurt me.
Instead, I just felt hollow.
22
COLE
Hours later,Tristan and Eva laid in her bed, tangled up in one another, sleeping soundly. I should have stood up hours ago, should have walked away the moment Tristan’s mouth touched her skin. Instead, I’d sat here like a voyeur, watching him give her everything I’d been too proud and too cruel to offer. My legs were numb, my back ached, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t stop torturing myself with the sight of what I’d thrown away.
Every minute had been agony—watching Eva’s face transform with pleasure, hearing her moan Tristan’s name. But leaving would mean accepting it was over, that I’d lost them both forever.
The door opened downstairs then closed. Her father. We were so fucked if he peeked in.
Footsteps ambled past Eva’s door, and I listened to him get ready for bed as I stared at his daughter, her pale skin luminescent in the moonlight.
Tristan, too, glowed with preternatural beauty.
They deserved each other, far more than I deserved them. I’d watched Tristan make love to her with a tendernessI’d never shown. All I’d ever done was take from her—her body, her dignity, her trust.
I’d resolved to be a better man, and that had to start now. By leaving them.
Mind made up, I stood, wincing at the scrape of the chair against Eva’s desk. This was what being a better man looked like—walking away from what I wanted, giving them the peace they’d earned, even if it destroyed me to do it.
Eva rolled over sleepily. The sheet slid off her, revealing one perfect, teardrop-shaped breast and her rosy nipple. I ached to worry it with my teeth, to use our sheer physicality to convince her to forgive me.
Watching them sleep, I finally had to admit I would have done exactly the same thing she’d done to protect the people I loved, that I needed to do the same thing to protect her, and Tristan, and Alek, that I’d do anything for them, like she’d done for her father.
Fuck, I was an asshole.
I must have made a noise, because her eyes snapped to mine, and she jerked the sheet up.
I couldn’t look away.
She was so fucking beautiful, with her tousled red hair and her eyes blinking the sleep away.
I remembered how she used to arch into my touch, how she’d beg for more even when I’d been cruel. Now, she covered herself like I was a stranger—a threat.
We stared at each other for long moments.
“Cole?”
“Yeah, sparrow,” I rasped, unable to remain silent.
“Come to bed?” Her voice was raspy with sleep, and for a moment, I thought I’d misunderstood. My heart stopped. After everything I’d done, she was still inviting me into her bed. I didn’t deserve this mercy. Then, she snuggled closer toTristan, making space beside her, and lifted the sheet, inviting me in.
I’d never moved so fast in my life. I kicked off my shoes and slid in next to her, resting her head on my bicep and twining my fingers in Tristan’s over her hip.
“You’re not forgiven,” she mumbled softly as she snuggled up to my chest and, a moment later, dropped back to sleep.
I didn’t believe in God, but lying here beside Eva and Tristan, I thanked whatever it was that had bought me this brief moment of peace.
When Eva’salarm went off, she sleepily reached over to her bedside table to hit snooze then blinked awake with surprise when she had to reach over me to do it.
