Colton's Spring

Chapter 7

"So the brat came to you."

Colton's voice was arctic cold, but he could tell Chantale had been expecting his antipathy because she merely smiled.

"Spring is far from a brat," she reprimanded him mildly, "but yes, she did come to me. We had an off-the-record chat."

He wasn't sure he liked the sound of that. "You mean like girl talk?"

Now, Chantale looked less at ease. "Maybe."

"What the hell did you tell her?"

"She told me it wasn't sexual assault," Chantale said. "She said you mentioned coercion, but I just don't see that."

Which meant Chantale was either being perceptive or honest and Colton was never sure which. So instead of speaking, he simply nodded.

"And then I might have told her about how you are in bed," she said in a rush. "But that was so she might understand-"

In a heartbeat, Colton was out of his seat and advancing on Chantale.

"You had no right."

Chantale shot out of her seat. "You once threw it in my face, if you're recall, so don't go getting all high and mighty on me."

He stopped, stunned. He had done that, he remembered, and it had not been one of his finer moments. He took a breath. "I was wrong then just like you're wrong now."

"Maybe," she conceded. "But I felt Spring needed to understand. She's a bright woman, Colton, and my telling her goes a long way to explaining some things."

"But I never coerced you, Chantale. What we did was always consensual." He stopped dead in his tracks. "It was, wasn't it?"

Chantale frowned. "Of course it was, why the hell would you ask such a stupid question?"

"Because...I just don't get why you had to tell Spring." He let out a sharp breath. "I was married to her sister, you know. Now she's going to think..." His eyes closed and he felt slightly nauseous.

"She asked what I thought about that and I was honest and told her I didn't know. Heck, I hadn't even known you had been married, so I certainly wasn't in a position to offer an opinion."

He swallowed convulsively. "I...it wasn't like that with Sunshine. Oh, Chantale, I don't know how to explain."

"Because you're afraid you'll hurt my feelings? Again, Colton - it was mutual. If you had a more tender relationship with Sunshine, that's not going to hurt my feelings. I liked what we had. And I'm going to tell you something that you'll never repeat to another soul."

"Of course," he said, wondering where this was going.

"Declan likes it when I get aggressive with him. I also like it when he's tender with me. You and I were passion and fire with ice and snow and nothing in between. You kept me out and I didn't push because, let's be frank, the sex was really good. You were right to walk away from me, Colton, because I wanted more. I needed more."

"And you've found it with Byrne."

She nodded. "Yes, I have. It sounds crazy, but he's like the other half of my soul. I gave him permission to have fun, to not take everything so seriously. In return, he showed me what it was like to love someone unconditionally. He brought me to my knees the day he walked away from me. It hurt ten times worse than your defection."