Page 86 of Love Me Gently

Prepare yourself.

I shivered as Jonathan’s voice reverberated so clearly in my mind, it was like he was right there.

“That means something,” Cole said. His voice was a deep rumble, but I barely heard him. All the years.

All the moments those words were spoken to me when only nastiness came after.

“I can’t go back to him,” I whispered, and my tangled hands fisted in my lap until pain cut into my palms. “I can’t go back to him. Swear it, Cole. Swear I won’t ever have to go back.”

“Never.”

It was a fiercely spoken word like a shot in the tight space in the cab of his truck.

I sniffed and blinked back tears before facing him. “I can’t do it again.”

He leaned closer, and while one of his arms rested on the armrest the other was on the steering wheel. As he turned to me, there was nothing relaxed or calm about his posture or his expression. “What did that mean? When he said that to you? It means something to you.”

I shook my head. “I can’t go back there.”

“You won’t, Trina. I swear it on my life. Tell me what that means.”

I peered up at him. With tears running down my cheeks and my chin wobbling, I forced the truth out of me. The ugly, disgusting parts. “That was what he said to me before he planned to hurt me, and I don’t mean the times he hit me.”

A fiery blast of fury slammed and bounced all over the cab. Cole cursed, and then he moved so quickly I yelped, right as his palm slipped to the back of my head.

“Listen to me,” he growled, and that deep, thick voice was so angry I had no choicebutto listen to him. “Listen to me, Trina and listen closely, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Over my dead body will that manevertouch you again.”

He was so close his breath skated across the tip of my nose as he spoke, but I couldn’t pull myself away from the anger swirling in Cole’s gaze. None of this was on him, none of this had anything to do with him, and yet he was furious. Forme.And it wasn’t because I owed him.

It was because he spoke the truth.

He loved me.

I only wished I was worthy and good enough for it, but I was still too afraid. That ship had long since sailed.

“Cole.”

He blinked, and it was then I realized I was touching him. My fingers brushed over his stubble, and his eyes closed. Leaning into my barely-there touch, a fluttery breath left his lips.

“He will never touch you. Never hurt you again. I don’t care if I have to shoot him myself.”

“I trust you,” I whispered.

I wasn’t sure if I believed him, but I trusted Cole, and for me, that was saying a lot.

But this was Cole. The boy who’d loved me before we ever really understood what love was, or at least before I did.

Because love wasn’t anger and manipulation and it wasn’t coercion and proving yourself right.

Love was this, right there.

Being willing to sacrifice yourself to keep someone else safe.

Loving was giving everything you had.

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