Chapter 91
Chapter 91:
Cole slammed the Maybach’s heavy door, walked around to the other side, and the black car pulled away into the night — leaving Alycia behind.
The interior of the Maybach was pitch black, save for the faint glow of the digital dashboard.
The heavy car glided silently down the Hamptons Coastal Highway. The atmosphere inside the cabin was suffocating.
June sat pressed against the far left door, arms crossed tightly over her chest. Her body language made clear she would rather jump from the moving vehicle than touch the man beside her.
Cole sat on the right, a tablet open on his lap, but his eyes weren’t reading the financial reports. His peripheral vision was fixed entirely on her.
The cabin smelled heavily of the artificial rose perfume Alycia had been wearing. It clung to Cole’s suit jacket. June’s stomach turned. The scent brought back the physical memory of boiling soup hitting her skin.
She reached out and pressed the silver button on the door panel. The window rolled down, and a blast of cold, salty ocean air whipped into the cabin, blowing her hair across her face.
Cole frowned. “Roll the window up,” he said, not looking up from his tablet.
June ignored him. She kept her face turned toward the dark ocean. “The cheap perfume in here is making me nauseous,” she said, her voice razor-sharp. “I need oxygen p>
𝖲𝘢𝘃𝘦 𝘆o𝗎r 𝘧𝗮𝘃о𝗋𝗂𝗍е 𝗻𝘰𝘃els 𝗈ո.с𝗈m
Cole’s jaw clenched. He knew exactly who she was insulting.
He reached over to the master control panel on the center console and pressed a button. June’s window rolled smoothly up and sealed shut. A small red light blinked on her door — he had locked her controls.
June snapped her head around and glared at him with pure hostility.
Cole pressed another button without a word.
The Maybach’s advanced air purification system hummed to life. Within sixty seconds, the heavy rose scent was scrubbed completely from the air, replaced by a clean, subtle cedarwood aroma.
June uncrossed her arms and turned to lean her temple against the cold glass.
The adrenaline from the confrontation with Alycia was fading. The heavy painkillers she had taken at the clinic were pulling her mind into a thick fog, and the gentle, rhythmic swaying of the luxury car was hypnotic. Despite every intention to stay awake and alert, her eyelids grew heavy.
Ten minutes later, her breathing slowed into a steady rhythm. She was asleep.
Cole heard the change. He turned his head slowly.
June’s face was lit by passing streetlights — skin pale, dark exhausted circles beneath her eyes, brows slightly pinched together even in sleep, as though her back was still hurting her.
A strange, painful tightness gripped his chest.
He set the tablet down. His body leaned toward her without his conscious permission. He raised his right hand, wanting to brush the stray lock of hair from her cheek, wanting to smooth the crease from between her brows.
His fingertips hovered exactly one inch from her skin.
He stopped. He pulled his hand back and clenched it into a fist.