“Shh.” His grip on me tightened. “You went to the one person who made you feel safe. There’s nothing to feel guilty about.”

“You’re wrong. There’s everything. I made the choice to be with a bastard like Ollie. And when things went horribly wrong I turned up at my overprotective big brother’s work covered in my own blood.” My shoulder hanging out of its socket, my right eye swollen shut, my clothes torn . . . “How did I think he would react?”

Cole brushed his thumb over my cheek to catch a tear. “The way any man would react when someone he loves has been violated. He went to teach that fucker a lesson.”

“Logan put Ollie in a three-day coma.”

“Shit.”

I nodded, lips trembling. “My brother got two years in prison.” And there it was. The worst thing I’d ever done.

“Shannon,” Cole murmured in sympathy, tucking my head under his chin and tightening his arms around me.

Rae knew about the attack, but she didn’t know about my brother. It was the first I’d spoken of it since leaving Glasgow.

“I had to leave. My parents, my sister . . . they hate me for ruining Logan’s life.”

“Your brother’s actions are his own,” Cole said, and I heard the tremor of anger in his words. “Don’t take that on. Your family is wrong.”

“It would never have happened if I hadn’t made the choice to be with Ollie and men like him.” I pulled out of the comfort of Cole’s strong embrace and met his worried gaze. “The whole point of me telling you this is so you understand where my head is at. I came to Edinburgh to start over and to keep my distance from my old life, my old choices. From bad boys.” I laughed hollowly. “And the only interview I got was at a tattoo studio where the good-looking tattooed manager began flirting with me immediately like I was a sure thing.”

Cole winced. “That wasn’t why, but I can see after everything you’ve been through—”

“Why I thought that.” I smiled weakly. “But I presumed to know you because of that and I assumed you were like all the men who’d buggered up my life. All the men who had hurt and disappointed me. In doing so I said some unforgiveable things.”

“Shannon—”

“I need you to know that you are not nothing and when I said that, that was my issue. Not yours. You shouldn’t have to carry that.”

In answer Cole bent his head toward mine, bringing our faces close as he cupped his hand around the back of my neck. He wanted all my focus and I gave it to him, somewhat transfixed, in fact. “It’s now completely forgotten, Shortcake. Think no more on it.”

Relief, an overwhelming amount of relief I had not been expecting to feel, rushed over me, and the tears were back in my eyes but for a totally different reason now. “You forgive me?”

“Sweet girl,” he murmured, his voice thick with an emotion I didn’t get. “How can you even worry about me after everything you’ve been through?”

“Because you’re a good person,” I said.

He gave my neck a squeeze in answer, but his eyes had turned hard. “What happened to Ollie?”

“He recovered. He got a prison sentence—thirty months.”

Cole curled his lip in disgust. “Is that it?”

“The lawyer reckoned he would have gotten more, but Logan’s attack was detrimental to my defense.”

He did not look happy, but he nodded.

It was then I realized how close we were sitting, and how intimate we were as we gazed into each other’s eyes. It was suddenly very important to me that Cole didn’t misunderstand the reason why I’d told him my story. I didn’t want him to think this was some ploy to turn him around and . . .

Feeling naked and vulnerable all of a sudden, I shifted back and his hand fell away. “I should go home.”

“I don’t want you to leave when you’re upset. Stay,” he suggested like it was no big deal. “You can sleep in my guest room.”

Just the idea of staying with Cole was too much for me to handle. I smiled kindly. “I’d like my own bed tonight.”

He nodded and leaned down to press a kiss to my forehead. I stared at him, my blood hot, as he stood up. “Then let me see you home.”

“You don’t have—”

Cole cut off my protestations with just a look. A very stubborn, concerned, warm look.

A look that knocked on my heart.

A look I kept in my mind’s eye as I closed my eyes to sleep that night.

CHAPTER 12

I didn’t know how Cole would act around me the next day at work. I did know it was Saturday, so there was a possibility he’d use how busy he was to avoid having to interact at all. On the weekend I’d taken to coming into work at the same time as the tattooists—half an hour before opening.

Although nervous, I also felt relieved that he knew the truth, so I was in a fairly good mood as I came in bearing coffee for everyone.

I took Cole his coffee first.

When I knocked on his door and stepped inside, he looked up from a document he was reading and his expression brightened at the sight of me.

It winded me.

He stood up, grinning when I held his coffee out to him. Instead of taking it, he wrapped his hand around mine and we held them there. “How are you feeling?”

Noting the dark circles under his eyes, I had to wonder if my troubles had caused Cole to have a sleepless night. That was sweet; it really was. But now I felt terrible because for the first time in a while I’d slept like a baby.