Free Stepbrother Wants (His Twisted Game, Book Eight) by Chloe Hawk Page B

his chest up against mine.   He pinned me to the back of the door, put his hand on my
face and traced my cheekbone with his index finger.  
    “Why?” he asked, his voice soft.   “Why didn’t you tell me, Avery?”
    “I don’t know,” I said.   “I just...I didn’t want you to judge
me, I guess.”
    Cole’s brought his mouth down on me,
crushing his lips against mine, his tongue pushing past my lips.   When he pulled away, his eyes were
crazed, intense.   “How many times?”
he demanded.
    “What?”
    “How many times were you with him?   Was it just that once?”
    I closed my eyes tight, feeling tears of
shame well up behind my eyelids.   “No.”
    “How many times?” Cole growled.
    I didn’t say anything.
    “Avery!   How many times!”  
    “I don’t know,” I said meekly.
    “You don’t know?” he repeated incredulously.
    “Maybe five or six.”
    “Five or six?”   He shook his head.   “And you never told me?”   He
looked at me.   “Jesus, Avery.”
    “You never tell me anything, Cole.   You didn’t tell me about Lucy, you
won’t tell me about the papers you took from Gordon’s office.   You keep secrets all the time.”
    “This is different.”
    “Why?   Because it’s me and not you?”
    “No, because I don’t like thinking about
him having his hands on you.”
    “It was in the past.”
    “I don’t care.”
    I shook my head.   “This is insane.”
    “Is it, Avery?” he said.   “Is it?”   He took my face in his hands again and came in for another
kiss.   Our tongues danced together until
I was breathless, his teeth nipping at my bottom lip when he finally pulled
away.   He rested his forehead
against mine, his thumb brushing over my cheekbone.   “I don’t want anyone else touching you.”
    He skimmed his hand down into the
waistband of my jeans, his fingers skating over my hipbone.   His touch sent shivers through my body.   “I want my initials on you,” he
said.   “Right here.   The way I have yours.”
    I closed my eyes, thinking about his
tattoo, the one he had of my initials.   The thought of getting his initials branded into my skin was
exhilarating.   A hot thrill
skittered up my spine. “Okay,” I said.   “But Cole, you have to promise me you’re not going to go after Jeffrey.”
    Cole had seemed like he was calming him
down, but this seemed to send him right back over the edge.   “Stop protecting him.”
    “I’m not!”
    “Avery,” he said.   “I think you should leave.”
    “What?”
    “You should leave.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “This is too fucked up, this is … ” He
stepped away from me, pain and torture clouding his face.   “We’re not good for each other.   I can’t… I can’t control myself around
you, and it’s not going to end well.   For either one of us.   Even now, just looking at you… I want to grab you, I want to
strip you and fuck you.   I want to
control you.”
    “So do it,” I said, panicked at the
thought of not being with him.   “Take my body, Cole.   Use
me.   I want you to.”
    I reached my hand out to him, but he
pushed me away.
    “Dammit, Avery,” he said.   He turned and walked back toward his
desk, increasing the distance between us.   “You need to stay away from me.   I’m serious.   I need you to
leave.   Right now.”
    “So what?”   I asked.   “You’re just going to send me home?”   I hated the way my voice sounded, so weak and wounded.   But he had the power to destroy me, and
there was no hiding it.
    “No,” he said.   “You can’t go home.   I’ll help you find an apartment, I’ll get you set up with a job.”
    I stared at him for a long moment, our
gazes locked on each other.   I
waited for him to take it back, waited for him to tell me that he couldn’t live
without me, that he would treat me the way I deserved to be treated the way
he’d promised the other night at our parents’ house when we were lying in my