Chapter 123

And Cole watched Aiden, who was both nothing like she had thought he would be and yet still, somehow, everything she wanted. He was stern and sweet, rough and gentle, invincible and vulnerable, wickedly sexy and unexpectedly kind.

He missed his father, didn’t understand his sister, resented his own desires, and, occasionally, made Cole the center of his goddamn universe. Cole knew herself well enough to recognize that she was well and truly fished. All it would take was a twitch upon the line, and she would be arse-over-elbows in love with him.

Once they had taken the edge off their hunger, conversation flowed pretty naturally. Cole noticed early on that Aiden was doing his thing again, asking lots of questions, discovering where someone’s passions lay and letting them talk.

But he had already been way more forthcoming than he had to be—all that stuff about chess and his family—so Cole left him to it. She simply enjoyed the way he had of making people feel listened to and importan