Intrigue

Chapter 78

Sophie's POV

I made my way to the bar and sat down on a stool, not quite close but not too far away. I knew he'd see me eventually. I could see him, sitting down on another stool, his back to me as his hand circled around a whiskey glass. He was wearing a suit, like he always did, and his hair was perfectly backcombed.

I ordered the same drink that he had and checked my phone for messages. It hadn't been an easy day, especially for Sean. I glanced at my knuckles, and the impact on them after I'd punched Malcolm.

I had liked Malcolm, once, but he'd gone too far now.

My eyes glazed over the male figure to my right. He shifted in his seat, and it was now that he caught my eye. His eyes widened, and he stood up, abandoning his drink to come over to me.

"Sophie," he said in surprise, as he bent to kiss my cheek. "I wouldn't have expected to see you here, of all places." He looked at my glass.

"Why, because I'm a woman?" I turned to him now. I watched his eyes glaze over my sheer black top briefly, before setting on my eyes.

He cocked his head sideways, appearing amused. "Always the charmer," he said. He sat down on the stool next to mine. "I haven't seen you in a long time, not even at work. Your brother was released, right?"

I suppressed a chuckle, not surprised that he had immediately asked for Sean. "Yes," I answered.

"How is he?" His eyes laced in interest.

"Good," I replied shortly.

He turned to the bartender, and ordered two drinks, one for himself, and one for me. Whiskey on the rocks, again. He turned back to me, a smirk on his face. "And how's my favourite Michigan doing?" he asked.

I frowned. "Sean?" I clarified.

Cole just laughed. "No, I meant you, darling. Not Sean. Only God knows how hard you and I had to work to get the companies back on track after he shamed their names with what he did."

I was silent for a few seconds. I remembered this period, how I was seeing all that my family had worked for for so long crumble to pieces, because of the association with Sean and what he'd been convicted for. The news stories about what else other people had seen him doing had never stopped, too. It was thanks to Cole's intervention that we'd managed to get the companies back in business.

"I'm good," I said now, meeting Cole's eyes.

"Great," he answered, taking the whiskey offered by the bartender. He placed the money on the counter and his wallet back in his back pocket. He put the drink in front of me and didn't meet my eyes. "Are you meeting anyone here?" he asked me.

"No," I answered.

He turned to me now, realising why I was there. "You came here to look for me," he stated. I arched an eyebrow, but didn't confirm or say no. "Why?" he asked now.

I was surprised to see that he looked almost annoyed at me. It was rare of Cole to act like this, he was always alluring, especially to me. "Aren't you glad to see me?" I asked him.

He chuckled. "You Michigans have always been charming," he said sarcastically. I tried not to dwell on how he kept making reference to Sean. "Anyone new on the scene?" he inquired.

It was easy to read Cole, to make him ask the right questions. "No," I said easily, even though my mind had drifted to Jeremy.

"No?" Cole sounded surprised. "Not even someone younger than me?"

"Pardon?"

"You never explained why you ended our relationship. I thought maybe you met someone else. Or perhaps you thought that I was getting too old for you, or that I didn't satisfy you enough, or perhaps you didn't like the fact that we worked together. Or maybe I did something to you that I don't know?" Cole's eyes pierced into mine. I looked at his glass. It was almost empty. I wondered how many he'd taken for him to start speaking that way. He was clearly pissed off that I'd dumped him, and was still dwelling on it.