Breaking Free (Phoenix Rising)

Chapter 9 - Cole

"I'm scared Cole." She says and I feel my heart drop in my chest. I have to protect her, this is all my fault. She never would have ended up with that dickhead if it wasn't for me. If I had just told her I'd come back.

I reach over to her and pull her to my arms. This is where she belongs. I look down at her as she curls tighter into my chest sobbing, she has always fit perfectly against my side. I hate that she's upset like this though.

"Kitten, he can't hurt you and he can't take you. You're not his to take anyway, never was and I'm not going to let him."

"Cole, you can't promise me that. You don't know him." She says softly.

"I have resources and my own power. I can promise all of that and your safety."

She slightly relaxes against me. "I messed up." She admits. "I can't go back to that, I lost myself."

She must have to let that guy have a hold on her. She was always too spunky and independent for that.

"What brought your spunk back?" I ask.

She laughs against my chest. "You. Well, Sonja but her words struck something you used to say."

"Me?"

"I seen Sonja for the first time since my wedding at Grams funeral. We got drinks after while Brett worked, I was interrupting a case with Grams passing, you know?"

"He told you that?" This guy is a bigger dickhead than I thought.

She nods her head against my chest and I grip her tighter putting my hand in her hair. If he ever gets close enough, I'm going to beat this guys face in.

"Sonja and I grabbed some drinks snd she told me that I lost my spunk, asked if I was okay. When she said that it all just hit me, I had lost my spunk and I wasn't okay. You always told me I was full of spunk and light." I bury my nose in her hair, cinnamon and vanilla. "When she said that it broke my heart all over again, more than when you left because not only had I lost you, I lost everything you loved about me."

"I never should have left without telling you, this is all my fault."

She lifts up from my chest to pierce my eyes with her ocean blue ones. "Cole. Brett is not your fault."

"He is. You were never his to have. You were mine, always mine, still are."

She breathes my name, but my self control is gone at this point. I lift her face to mine and take possession of her lips. It's a need at this point, I need to feel her lips on mine and she needs to know that she still owns me. I'm hers and she's mine. She releases her control over to me and I press further, possessing her mouth, tasting her.

Mine.

Then my phone rings. "Fuck." I say into her mouth and she pulls away. I feel cold without her. I'm going to kill Chris.

"Only emergency calls come through kitten, I'm sorry." I say before I answer and get up stepping away.

This better be fucking urgent Chris."

Yeah, yeah. Busy with the blonde and all that. This is fucking urgent Prez.

What did I fucking tell you man?

Again, don't care because that's personal. Workwise though, someone tried to break into the warehouse off west.

What the fuck do you mean?