by Layne, Ivy
Fate or Cooper Sinclair. Sometimes I thought they might be the same thing.
Cooper stepped through the door and everything inside me stopped. Like a clock wound too tight, I was frozen in time for an endless moment, staring at Cooper, my soul drinking in every inch of him.
Slowly, I became aware of the beat of my heart, the breath in my lungs. Of Cooper waiting at the door, an unfamiliar hesitancy holding him back.
I expected my stored-up anger to sweep in and bring me back to life, but my rage was nowhere to be seen. All I felt was sweet, cool relief, a balm to my soul.
Cooper was here.
I'd run from him because I'd needed space to think, only to find that without Cooper I couldn't untangle the emotions in my heart. Why he should be the answer to a problem he’d helped cause, I didn't know.
I stayed where I was, eyes burning with unshed tears, and waited.
Cooper hovered at the door, a white bag in one hand, his other still closed over the knob. Was he nervous? Kristi had taken one look and said he was hot but scary. I was so used to the scary I took it for granted most of the time.
Watching him stand there, waiting, I realized that I wasn’t the only one who’d been messed up by Maxwell’s lies. I’d thought of Cooper as an adversary, as coming after me because that was what he did. Because it was about ego and him being in charge.
Seeing uncertainty in his eyes, the pale blue a flame instead of ice, my heart thawed. I’d been hurt by Maxwell’s lies, but so had Cooper.
When he stayed where he was, didn't barrel in demanding he get his way, a tight knot inside me relaxed. I opened my mouth, not sure what I planned to say but knowing instinctively that Cooper needed words.
Out came, “You're late.”
Cooper let out a bark of a laugh, tinged with relief. “I would have been here yesterday, but I didn't want to break up the wedding celebration to track you down.”
I focused on the bag in his hand. “What's that?”
“I wanted to bring you Annabelle's, but it's a long drive. The place in town isn’t as good, but I brought you breakfast.”
“Coffee?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“That I did bring from Annabelle's,” Cooper said, pulling a vacuum-sealed thermos from the bag. “Skinny vanilla latte.”
I took the coffee and retreated, leaving a few feet between us. I sipped, savoring the scent, the taste of rich bitter coffee, sweet vanilla, and cream.
Maybe I needed coffee to reboot my brain. Maybe all I needed was Cooper. He opened his mouth and my hand shot up to stop him.
“Before you say anything, I have to ask you a question and I need the truth. No matter what. It won’t change anything, even if it isn’t what I want to hear, but I have to know.”
Lips pressed in a thin line, Cooper nodded.
“I know you said you want this thing with us to be real, but when it first started, was it because of what your father told you? Did you think since I was finally divorced I’d be up for a fling with my boss? Was I just convenient?”
“No!” Cooper barked out the word so fast I couldn’t doubt its truth. His tan skin faded to an ashen gray, and he took a step forward before forcing himself to stop, every muscle in his body locked tight, his eyes aflame with an emotion I was afraid to read.
“No, Alice,” he finally choked out. “It was never a fling. Not for me. My father had nothing to do with it. I swear.”
“Why did you believe him?” I asked, realizing that was the only question that mattered. Why had Cooper believed Maxwell's lies? How could he have thought so little of me?
Cooper shifted the bag in his arms, his eyes never leaving mine, seeming to weigh his words before he spoke. Finally, he said, “My dad made up the whole story because he knew I had a thing for you. I wasn't going to do anything about it, you were married, and, unlike my dad, I respect that. But he knew. He didn't want any of us to get involved with any woman beyond sex, said it was a trap. He made up the story about sleeping with you to scare me off.”
“How do you know?”
“He admitted it to Knox. Apparently, I'm the only asshole who fell for Dad’s story. Knox, Evers, and Axel all knew it was bullshit.”
I tightened my fingers around the thermos, shock chasing words from my brain. Cooper had feelings for me way back then? He was so cool, so remote, I never would have guessed. Not in a million years.
Cooper drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I should have known he was lying. Maybe I would have, but I was trying to talk myself out of wanting you. You were married. There was no chance. Ever since you took off, I've been asking myself— Why? Why couldn’t I see through his lies like everyone else? I think it's because I needed to put you out of reach. Just like he planned, my dad gave me the perfect excuse to convince myself to walk away. To stop pining.”
I was a statue, unable to move, mouth hanging open, eyes wide, breath trapped in my lungs.
What. The. Fuck?
Cooper had pined for me?
Cooper had wanted me so much he couldn't convince himself to stay away?
He waited for me to say something. Anything. I had nothing. Of all the things I’d imagined he’d say, this was nowhere on the list.
He’d pined for me?
I was going to melt into a puddle. Pined for me?
All those years I watched him in the office, admiring him from afar, knowing I’d never act on my crush—
He was my boss. I was married.
All that time reminding myself he’d never have looked at me even if I’d been free, and he was pining? My brain couldn’t fit around that idea.
I must have looked like a fish out of water, gaping at him, my mouth open to speak only for the words to dissolve before they reached my tongue.
Done with waiting for me to get it together, Cooper closed the distance between us, setting the paper bag he still held on the kitchen table, taking the coffee from my hands and putting it beside the bag.
I stared up at him, my heart an erratic drumbeat in my chest, still soaring with hope, diving into confusion, leaving me utterly without words.
Cooper’s hands closed over my shoulders, and the heat of his palms spread through me, thawing me, bringing me back to life.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Alice
I'm sorry,” he said, his eyes fixed on mine. “I’m sorry I believed my father. I’m sorry I let my mother get anywhere near you. I’m sorry I hurt you. It's always been you, Alice. Only you. Since the day you walked through my door.
“Even when I thought there was no chance, it was you. These last few weeks have been perfect. Because of you. All I want is this. Us, together. Tell me what I need to do, and I'll do it.”
And just like that, I found my voice. “I'm sorry I ran. I was so embarrassed I couldn't face you.”
Cooper smoothed my hair off my face, pressing his lips to my forehead and murmuring, “No, no, Alice. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. I'm the one who fucked up.”
“Cooper.” That was all I could say. Cooper. It was enough.
“Will you come home with me?”
I nodded, my throat tight, body loose with relief. Home. With Cooper. That was what I wanted. To go home with Cooper.
Because home was Cooper.
D.C.
Atlanta.
It didn’t matter as long as Cooper was there.
I leaned into him, winding my arms around him, ready to stay like that, his heart beating under my ear, my body pressed to his, forever. A face invaded my mind and I jerked back, knowing it wasn’t this easy.
Taking a careful step in retreat, I looked up into Cooper’s wary eyes.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“I want to go home with you, but there’s something we have to get clear first. About Lacey.”
&nbs
p; “Alice, you don’t have to—”
I shot up my hand, and like he had before, Cooper stopped and waited. Too bad that little trick wouldn’t last beyond today. Cooper was way too headstrong to be shut up so easily under normal circumstances.
“She's your mother, so I’ve always tried to be polite. Respectful. I'm not putting up with her anymore. The name-calling. Her snide comments. I know she's unhappy, but I'm done with her throwing her misery at everyone but your father when he’s the only one who deserves it. I’m not going to be a bitch, but if she comes after me, I’m not going to take it. Not anymore.”
Cooper pulled me back into his arms, resting his cheek on the top of my head. “I fucked up there, too. I didn’t realize how bad it was or I would have put a stop to it before this. I talked to her before I came up here, told her if I have to choose between you two, I choose you. You, Alice. I’ll choose you.”
Silence as I digested what he’d said. “Did you really tell her that?”
“I did. And I meant it.”
“Did she lose her shit?” I shouldn’t have enjoyed that picture in my head, but I did. I enjoyed it a lot.
A wry chuckle from Cooper, his arms tightening around me. “She did, but then she went back to her apartment and poured herself half a bottle of wine. That was after the gin she had at my place. She probably doesn’t remember the conversation, but that just means we’ll have it again. And again. As many times as it takes.”
My satisfaction fell away as I pictured Cooper’s part in that scene. Watching his mother erase him with alcohol, knowing he’d have to relive the painful ultimatum over and over because the one person who should put him first never would.
“Oh, Cooper. I’m sorry.”
“You’re not the one who should be sorry,” he said darkly. “She’ll learn. Eventually. And if she comes after you in the meantime, I’ll handle it.”
“We’ll handle it,” I corrected. I wasn’t leaving him alone to deal with Lacey. Not when she’d hurt him like this.
“Is the office a mess?” I asked, wanting his mind off his mother.
“Don’t care,” Cooper growled, his hands running down my back, pausing as they registered the lack of a bra strap under my t-shirt.
“I’m sorry—”
He stopped me with a finger on my lips, leaning back to meet my eyes. “I mean it, Alice. I don’t care. Come back to work or don’t, as long as you come home with me. I want you to be happy, and I want you with me. That’s all I care about.” He rubbed his finger against my lower lip. “Though you should know, no one else believed Dad. I’m the only idiot.”
“A few people did, back then—”
“Any of the assholes who bothered you still with us?”
I thought about it. “No. They’ve all left or been fired.”
“Everyone else who was around back then knew Dad was lying. And if anyone says shit to you, I want to know. I choose you, Alice. Over my mother, over the company. Don’t ever question that.”
“But you’d be okay if I didn’t come back to Sinclair Security?” I wasn’t thinking about leaving my job. Not really. I was just trying to get my head around the new reality Cooper had laid before me.
“Not if you don’t want to. But we’d all miss the hell out of you. I’d never hear the end of it.”
“I like working with you,” I said quietly, thinking of Cooper in his suits, the masterful way he strode around the office. A tendril of heat curled through me. “I used to feel guilty for the way I looked at you. I was married. I wasn’t going to do anything about it, but I looked. I thought about you. I shouldn’t have, but I did.”
His mouth brushed the corner of my lips, caressing my skin as he murmured, “You can look all you want now. You can even take me back to my office and lock the door and tell me all the things you’ve been thinking about.”
“I think we’ve done all the things I was thinking about.”
“Then we can do them again. Or you can think of more.” Cooper dropped his head to press his lips to the skin behind my ear, sucking lightly, sending heat shooting through me in fireworks of lust.
“I like the idea of you sitting at your desk making secret plans for my body.”
Hands closing over my ass, he hauled me up, bringing my mouth even with his. I lunged, my lips on his, drinking in his taste, his scent, every cell in my body parched for Cooper.
My legs went around his waist, holding tight as he strode down the hall in search of the bedroom. Laying me down on the mattress and covering me with his long body, his mouth ghosting over my cheek, my jaw, my neck, his words spilled into my ears.
“I missed you so much, Alice. Home was empty without you. Don’t walk out on me again. Promise me. If things go wrong, if I fuck up, don’t walk away. Promise me, Alice.”
Cooper lit a fire everywhere he touched me. I couldn't string together my thoughts, except to give him the vow he’d asked for. “I promise, Cooper. I promise.”
Then just his name. Cooper. Every time his mouth grazed my skin. Cooper. Cooper.
I pulled at his clothes, dragging them off, tugging on his buttons, baring his warm, smooth skin to my touch. His mouth was everywhere, tasting my breasts, his tongue dipping into my belly button, across my hipbone, licking my folds, closing around my clit with a hard suck.
I arched off the mattress, my mind splintering, all the scattered pieces of my life—my worries and hopes and fears—coalescing into one bright ball of pleasure, of joy.
I came against his tongue, sobbing his name, tugging on his hair to pull him up until he covered me, filled me with his cock. Legs locked to his sides, I rocked up into him, giving him everything.
It had been two days and felt like an eternity. Everything was empty without Cooper. My body. My heart. With him I was complete.
He filled me over and over, taking me with hard, claiming thrusts that threw me into another orgasm, my body claiming his in tight pulses, drawing him into release along with me.
After, draped over his chest, sticky with sweat and sex, I flicked out my tongue to taste his skin and imagined all of this contained in one of his formal business suits. It hit me and I burst out laughing.
“What?” Cooper asked, a hand dropping to close over my ass.
I tried to talk, and a snort burst from my nose. That just made me laugh harder. Cooper’s chest moved under me as he chuckled at my oh-so-unsexy snort.
I kept seeing him in my mind, so cool and contained in his suits, his eyes giving away nothing as he secretly imagined bending me over my desk.
I’d had no clue. Not one.
Sitting at that very desk every day, pretending to be all business while I secretly wondered what his hand would feel like exactly where it was, those long fingers curving over my skin, dipping down to skate between my thighs.
“Are you going to tell me what’s so funny?” he asked, his voice still lazy from orgasm, though his fingers were anything but. A gasp cut through my giggles and I squirmed, aroused and still laughing, not sure how to balance the two.
“It’s just—I had no idea. We were thinking the same thing and neither of us had a clue. Griffen was right, we are dumbasses. You put on a good front, Cooper Sinclair.”
“Leave Griffen out of it,” Cooper grumbled, voice sharp, all his post-orgasm laziness gone. He sat up, pulling me with him so I ended up straddling his hips, looking into his intense ice-blue eyes.
“I don’t want to put on a front anymore. I want you to move in with me. At least for a trial run. You can keep the apartment downstairs as long as you want, I don't care. I want to go to bed with you at night and wake up with you in the morning. I want you with me all the time. I want us to be together.”
“I want that, too,” I whispered.
Cooper went still, hands tight on my hips, eyes searching mine. “You’ll move in with me?”
&nbs
p; “I’ll move in with you, Cooper.” It felt like another vow.
His lips took mine, moving away only long enough to whisper, “Finally.” Then he leaned me back over his arm, his mouth closing over a nipple, and he didn’t say another word for a long time.
Later, after we’d jumped in the lake—me in a t-shirt and Cooper gloriously naked—after we’d squeezed into the small shower and thrown on clothes, after we’d eaten the breakfast Cooper brought with him, he asked, “Do you want to go home or stay here another day?”
“I want to go home, but you were driving all morning. Unless—did you fly here?”
“We needed the plane for a client, and all the flights were sold out, so I drove.”
I did some quick math, realized how early he must have gotten up to be at my door by breakfast. “We should stay.”
“There’s plenty of time to take a nap and drive home tonight. I want to fuck you in my bed. In our bed.”
In our bed. My heart did a little swoon at the way that sounded. Our bed.
“Then let’s take a nap and drive home later. I want you to fuck me in our bed, too.”
Cooper carried me to the bedroom, where we tried to make sense of the tangled sheets. Pulling me into his side, he stretched out, letting his eyes slide shut.
“Cooper?” I asked, sleepy and sated, my mind wandering in circuitous paths.
“Hmm?” His fingers traced up and down my arm.
“I call half the closet,” I murmured, a little drunk from the salt and man scent of him, the heat of his skin against mine.
“Done.” Rolling to his side, Cooper wrapped himself around me, one leg over my hip, his arm keeping me close. I should have felt smushed given my small size and the pounds of muscle he carried on his long frame. I didn’t. He held me as if I were the most precious thing in his heart. Cherished. Protected. His.
I was his. With that thought steadying me, I fell asleep.
I woke hours later to find myself alone. Cooper was in the kitchen, placing the clean coffee pot on the rack. While I’d dozed, he’d cleaned up, the cabin as neat as it had been when I’d opened the door early Sunday morning.