007. Good Girl, Bad Taste...
1036 Words
Before I could even blink, Cole pulled open the passenger door.
The icy night air rushed into the heated car. But it was nothing compared to the cold feeling coming from Cole. His massive frame completely blocked the porch lights of the frat house.
He was breathing hard under his black t-shirt, his knuckles were white, and his dark eyes looked wild as they darted from Ryder to me.
"Get out of the car, Amy," Cole growled.
"Cole, wait…" I started in a trembling voice as I pulled Ryder’s heavy leather jacket tightly against my chest.
"I said get out. Now." He didn't wait for me to move. His large hand grabbed my forearm and pulled me onto the patio tile.
My heels slipped on the wet surface, and I stumbled, but Cole caught me instantly, pulling me against his side. His arm locked tightly around my waist. He felt like solid stone, vibrating with pure fury.
Behind us, Ryder didn't panic or even stand up. Instead, he just leaned back against the driver’s side headrest, draped one heavily tattooed arm over the steering wheel, and looked up at Cole with a lazy, deeply amused smirk. He looked exactly like a predator watching a caged animal throw a tantrum.
"Relax, co-captain," Ryder drawled in a deep, smooth and very unbothered voice. "No need to snap the intern's wrist. I was just making sure she didn't freeze to death after she decided to play dolphin with Chloe."
Cole stepped forward, slamming his free hand down onto the roof of Ryder's matte black sports car with a loud thud.
The metal dented slightly under the force. "I told you to stay the hell away from her, Ryder. I'm not going to warn you again. You don't look at her, you don't talk to her, and you sure as hell don't put your hands on her."
Ryder’s smirk only widened. "You're with him, intern?" he murmured mockingly, sounding amused as he stared at my shivering form. "Good girl, bad taste."
"Get the f**k out of here," Cole snarled, stepping into Ryder's line of sight to block me completely.
Cole immediately grabbed my hands, his rough palms turning my wrists over in the dim light to check for marks. "Did he touch you? Did he hurt you?"
"No, Cole, he just…"
I heard a soft sound near my feet and looked to see Ryder had tossed my small black purse out the window, letting it drop onto the wet grass.
"Keep that strong energy for the weekend game, Cole."
With that, Ryder chuckled, shifted the sports car into reverse, and tore out of the driveway.
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Cole didn’t say a word. He just held my waist tightly as he marched me across the dark campus toward the freshman dorms.
His jaw was clenched so tightly I could hear his teeth grinding. Every time I tried to speak, the terrifying, iron-clad rigidity of his posture shut me up.
It wasn't until we reached my dorm room and the heavy wooden door clicked shut behind us that the suffocating tension finally snapped.
I leaned against the wall, my body shaking violently from a mix of the freezing pool water and pure adrenaline. Cole stood in the centre of my small room, pacing like a caged beast.
He looked at the empty desk chair, then at my neatly organised bookshelf, before his eyes finally landed on me.
Suddenly, the terrifying, aggressive co-captain completely evaporated.
His shoulders dropped, and he let out a long, ragged breath that sounded dangerously close to a broken sob. He covered his face with both hands and then ran them through his dark, messy hair.
"Cole?" I whispered, taking a hesitant step forward.
"I'm sorry," he muttered quietly in a raw, vulnerable voice I haven’t heard from him before. He dropped his hands, looking at me with a sad, exhausted expression. "I'm so damn sorry, Amy."
"It's not your fault," I murmured, pulling Ryder’s leather jacket tighter around myself, suddenly feeling a massive pang of guilt. "Chloe was the one who…"
"I should have been there," he interrupted, stepping across the room and placing his hands gently on my shoulders. His touch was warm, contrasting the iciness of the pool water. "The coach dragged me into the den to discuss the pro scouts' itinerary for next week, and I couldn't get away. I promised my dad… I promised your mom… that I would look out for you here. That I’d keep you safe from the toxic bullshit on this campus."
He looked down at me, his thumb lightly brushing against my collarbone. "The pressure right now... it's making me lose my mind, Amy. If I don't get this pro draft, everything my dad built, everything we've sacrificed since our parents got married... it's gone. I'm spiralling, and I took it out on you. I shouldn't have yelled at you."
"Cole, it's okay," I said softly, my chest aching.
Looking into his eyes, I didn't see the tyrannical hockey captain everyone feared. I just saw my overbearing, fiercely protective older brother trying to carry the weight of our entire blended family on his back. "I'm fine. Really."
"You're shivering," he noted, his voice softening completely as he stepped back toward the door. "Get out of those wet clothes. Go to sleep. I'll handle Chloe tomorrow. She won't come near you again, I swear it."
"Okay. Goodnight, Cole."
He paused at the threshold, his dark eyes hardening back into that strict, unyielding wall. The soft brother vanished, replaced by the man who held my entire life in his hands.
"And Amy?" his voice dropped into a deadly quiet warning. "Stay away from Ryder. I mean it. My dad tracks our credit cards and our academic portals from home. If a single photo or rumour about you and the rival captain gets to dad, or he hears you’re fraternising with the enemy, he will pull you out of this university before the weekend is over."
My breath hitched in my throat.
"If he comes near you again," Cole whispered, "I won't just fight him on the ice. I'll make his life a living hell. Lock your door."
- Writer
