Page 69 of Master Cole

“For what?” she mumbled against his fingers.

“For being an ass.” He brushed a lock of hair away from her face. “I wanted to protect you, Janie, so much, even from me, that I pushed you away.”

“Damn right you did.”

Cole grinned. “Tell me how you really feel.”

“Why did you feel the need to protect me from you?”

“Because of Sally.”

“Your sister?”

“Yes.”

Janie reared back and stared at Cole. “What really happened to Sally?” She reached up and stroked his face with her fingers.

“You know she died when I was almost twenty-four.”

“Yes. I’d barely gotten to know her.” Janie figured it was something like that, but it didn’t really explain Cole’s protectiveness. “I’m so sorry she died.”

He nuzzled against her palm. “But it was my fault.”

“That can’t be true.” How could he think that? He was the most loving, caring, protective man she’d ever known outside of her father. He couldn’t have caused his sister’s death.

“It is.” Cole shifted away from her hand and gazed at her. “I didn’t protect Sally like I should have.”

“Cole, you can’t protect someone twenty-four hours a day.” Well, that explained where his protectiveness came in, but there had to be more. “This is about BDSM, isn’t it?”

He nodded.

“Tell me what happened.”

“Sally fell in with a bad Dom.” His voice was low as he started to talk.

Janie stayed quiet as he explained Sally had wanted to explore BDSM, and because he and his dad were in the lifestyle, she didn’t want to come to them. Instead she had gone out on her own. While he and his dad had been open with Sally, she’d fallen for the wrong Dom.

“He liked to play mind games, so much that it really messed Sally up. None of us realized, not even on the day she took her life.”

Janie wrapped her arms around Cole’s shoulders and hugged him. “You found her.” It was all starting to make sense.

“Yes.” He ran a hand over his face. “I’d come home from work early because she’d been so quiet that morning. I went into her room ... ”

“It wasn’t your fault.” Janie framed his face with her hands and forced him to look at her. “Don’t blame yourself.”

Cole shook his head. “I should have seen it.”

“Bullshit.” She bopped him on the nose with her finger. “Sally hid it from you, she hid what was happening to her.”

“Just like you hid things from me.”

Janie ducked her head. “I withheld something personal, not something that could be deadly.”

“You could have died today.”

“I’m safe now.” She wiggled on his lap. “I know how to defend myself, I was just waiting for the right opportunity.” She took a breath. “But I want to know more about what happened to Sally.”

“I didn’t know until today, but Sally called Rick at Whips before she decided to take a bottle of pills. He arrived right after I did.” Cole shook his head. “Anyway, she left a note telling us how sorry she was. She wrote that she’d fallen for the wrong man, but she wasn’t sure if it was love or not. Let alone the way he treated her.” Cole shuddered in Janie’s arms. “He was a sadist.”

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