Page 19 of Broken

“Well, okay with being ravished by you, because I like you. But probably not okay with you being the kind of guy who would take advantage.”

“Now I’m wishing I was that kind of guy.”

He thought he heard a faint giggle, but he wasn’t sure. Was she just fucking with him?

She said, “I still want you to stay though.”

Fuck my life. “Fine.” He got back into bed. “But no ravishing.” Although he had the feeling he’d regret letting the chance pass him by.

He lay there for a little while, but he could tell by her breathing she wasn’t asleep, so he asked the question he’d been turning over in his mind. “Weren’t you angry about being held captive like that?”

Because he didn’t feel that rage in her.

She said softly, “I didn’t want to stay angry with them. Anger is… corrosive. It eats you from the inside out. So I let it go.”

Hell. That was some powerful shit there.

He said, “I didn’t.”

She didn’t say anything, but she moved her head, so he knew she was listening for more. “I used to work for the government. Shifter Special Ops. Not because I wanted to, but because it was a deal I had to make. They threatened me—and they threatened my brother.” Boomer had been only sixteen. “Nobody hurts my brother.”

She nodded slightly. “What did they make you do?”

Cole shook his head. “I don’t talk about that. But I never stopped being angry.”

She looked up at him then, and touched his chest, over his heart. “You still haven’t.”

“No.”

She rested her hand on his chest. After a while she asked, “Why do you hate Riker so much?”

“I don’t talk about that either.”

“I can’t hate him. No matter what he did.”

“That’s okay,” Cole said. “I hate him enough for both of us.”

She touched his heart again, gently. “Then I hope it doesn’t eat you alive.”