Because You Love Me ; Journey to My Heart

by Terra Little

  “Aww, look at you,” Cooper murmured into her mouth as his glans stretched her opening wide and dipped inside of her. “Is this what you want?” Her head snapped back on her neck like a piston and he chuckled wickedly. “Ahhh, so this is what you want. Here you go, baby.” Inch by agonizing inch, he slowly filled her until he was buried inside of her balls-deep and she swore that she could feel him in her belly.

  “Mmm, you feel so good, Olivia.” She cried out when he began stroking her slowly and deeply, turning her inside out. “Sooo...goooood...” Every stroke elicited a cry, a shriek or a moan. “Aww, you make me feel so good.” His lips found the shell of her ear. “I love the way you take this dick.”

  His mouth against her ear, the words that he murmured into it like a prayer tipped Olivia right over the edge of insanity, into a free fall of mind-bending pleasure. “Oh God, I’m coming!”

  Together with the sharp staccato of his grunts and the steady thump of the bed underneath them, they created a symphony of musical erotic tension that ended with a gut-wrenching sob of gratitude as, once again, Cooper’s magic shaft discovered her G-spot and completely annihilated it.

  * * *

  The car service that Cooper had ordered the night before arrived bright and early the next morning to pick him up and take him to the airport. Nerd that he was, his monogrammed suitcase was neatly packed and waiting by the front door, he was meticulously groomed and dressed in a navy pinstripe suit and polished wingtips, and his iPad was working overtime, toggling back and forth on command, between five different live news streams and a video conference with his assistant, when the doorbell rang.

  Smiling at the strikingly sexy image that he made, Olivia tightened the belt of her pink silk robe and followed him as he strode out of the kitchen and down the main hallway to the door without once looking up from the device. The quiet authority in his voice when he spoke was as much of a turn-on as his confident gait and unflappable demeanor, especially since she’d been up close and personal with the other side of him—the greedy, savage, carnal side of him. Knowing that it was hiding inside of him and what it was capable of, that she was privy to the secret to unlocking it, made her heavy and wet between her thighs.

  She hung back while he opened the door and spoke to the driver. Then, wild-haired and droopy-eyed from a night spent rolling around with that very side of him and loving every second of it, she moved into the circle of his arms when he turned and opened them to her, and went up on the tips of her toes for his kiss.

  “Call you later?” Cooper asked after several seconds, when they finally pulled apart.

  “You’d better,” Olivia replied and sent him off with one last kiss.

  Chapter 14

  Still half asleep, Olivia watched the car until it was out of sight and then closed the door, leaning back against it heavily. She’d never been a morning person, particularly when she’d had less than two hours of sleep the night before. Cooper, on the other hand, had rolled out of bed at precisely 6:30 a.m., whistling a catchy tune and threatening to scramble his own eggs if she refused to do it for him. Afraid for the shelf life of her Williams-Sonoma stainless steel cookware, she had reluctantly rolled over and eventually mustered up the energy to climb out from underneath the covers, but it definitely hadn’t been easy.

  Now that he was gone, she planned to make up for lost time by spending the rest of the morning and half of the afternoon in bed. Thankfully Harriet wasn’t due to return from her spur-of-the-moment mini-vacation until tomorrow morning, and she wasn’t due to video conference with Elise until later in the day, so there was nothing stopping her from doing just that.

  She smelled him on her pillow, on her sheets, as soon as she crawled back into bed and slid down into a cave of rumpled covers. Sandalwood, she mused, sliding the pillow underneath her head and pressing the side of her face into its down-filled fluffiness to inhale deeply. And citrus. There are definitely hints of citrus, she recalled as her eyes drifted closed and her breathing evened out.

  Sleep had just wrapped its arms around Olivia when her eyes suddenly popped open and her head shot up from the pillow. Something was off, she thought as she quickly scanned her bedroom. At first glance everything appeared to be in its place, but something was still off. As sleepy as she was, it took her a while to figure out exactly what that something was, but eventually it hit her.

  Cooper’s beat-up leather messenger bag, the one that he said he’d been carrying since his undergrad days, the one that his absentee father had given him when he had popped up out of the blue at Cooper’s high school graduation, was still lying on its side, where he’d left it, on the upholstered bench at the foot of her bed. Meanwhile he was probably halfway to the airport, if not already there, by now.

  Olivia rolled across the mattress and grabbed her cell phone from the nightstand. Cooper’s cell number was programmed into her cell’s speed dial, so she touched a finger to a number on the keypad and put the phone to her ear. “Great,” she drawled when his voice mail switched on a few seconds later. She tried to call him two more times, with no success and then, thinking that she could probably find a number for his assistant, who might be able to reach him through other channels, she threw the covers back, crawled across the mattress and picked up the bag. The last thing she was expecting was for the bag to fall open, spilling most of the files and loose papers inside of it across the bench and onto the floor beyond it.

  “Dammit!” she hissed, hopping off the bed and hurrying around it. At this rate she’d never get back to sleep. Dropping to her knees on the floor on the other side of the bench, she started gathering up the files and stray papers, stacking each handful neatly before shoving it back inside of the bag. She was three or four handfuls in when her own name jumped out at her from the sheet in her hand. Curious now, she plopped down on the floor and started reading.

  Thanks to her clumsiness, Cooper’s papers were hopelessly out of order, but she managed to make enough sense of them to find the rest of the file that he had compiled on her, as well as most of the contents in the surprisingly thick one that he had clearly been compiling on Shannon for some time.

  Wide awake now, Olivia took the papers and the bag that they had fallen out of with her downstairs to the kitchen. There she switched on the coffee maker and settled on a stool at the center island to read while she waited for the handy little machine to finish doing its job.

  And for Cooper to realize his mistake.

  To his credit, it only took him a half hour to miss his favorite accessory and send a text her way.

  Sorry to wake you, Liv, but did I leave my messenger bag there by any chance?

  She sipped her second cup of coffee and considered how best to respond. In the end she decided that straight to the point was best. Yes, she texted back.

  My flight was delayed for routine maintenance and refueling, so I have a little time. Okay if I come back and get it?

  Yes, I think that would be best.

  At least that way, if she suddenly had the urge to throw something, Cooper’s head would be a realistic target.

  She texted one last message.

  See you in a bit.

  Then she set her cell down on the granite countertop. A moment later she shifted on the stool and her nostrils were instantly filled with Cooper’s scent. It was wafting off her skin, she realized, and she was suddenly struck with the urge to shower.

  Just a few minutes ago, she had considered his scent an aphrodisiac. But now that she knew that he’d been lying to her all this time and playing her for a fool—spying on her and sleeping with her while he was doing it—well, that...that certainly changed things, didn’t it? Now the scent of him on her skin just made her feel queasy.

  She took the time to read one last incoming text, this one from Eli, and then, feeling like an even bigger fool, she headed for the shower.

  * * *

  Cooper notice
d the change in Olivia as soon as she opened the door and their eyes met across the threshold. Unsure of exactly what to make of it, he stepped into the foyer cautiously and searched her eyes as he closed the door at his back. “I thought you’d still be asleep,” he said, smiling. It was still early. He’d been expecting—no, hoping—to find her still in her robe, still half asleep and grumpy, and still naked and warm from the bed covers. Hoping to kiss her until she was breathless and then talk her into a quickie against the foyer wall. But she dodged his hands when he reached for her the first time and sidestepped them altogether the second time. Confused, he dropped his hands and his eyebrows shot up. “Baby...what...?” He looked for her eyes, but couldn’t find them, and took a breath for patience. “What’s happening between us right now, Olivia?”

  Avoiding his eyes, Olivia sprang into action like she’d just been plugged into an electrical socket, hurrying across the foyer in her bare feet to the marble table and scooping up his bag. “Um...here’s your bag,” she said, bringing it over to him and pushing it into his waiting hands. Her hands were trembling almost as badly as her voice. “It...um...it actually f-fell open when I t-tried to pick it up and some of the papers ins-side fell out. I s-saw my name on some of them, s-so I read them.”

  He heard the thickness in her voice and saw the tears standing in her eyes, and cursed under his breath. He reached for her again but once again she eluded his grasp, which only frustrated him even more. “Sweetheart, please stop running from me and let me touch you.”

  “Oh, trust me, Agent Talbot. Putting your hands on me right now is not a very good idea.” She moved to the other side of the foyer and folded her arms underneath her breasts, staring at him mutinously.

  “You’re upset.”

  “Wouldn’t you be if you discovered that the whole time that I was sleeping with you, I was investigating you behind your back because I thought you were a criminal?”

  His eyes slid closed for the space of a second. “Look, I know how this looks...what you think you saw, but if you would just let me explain—”

  “Explain what, Cooper? How you pretended not to know anything about me, to be so interested whenever I shared something with you about my childhood or my college days or my sister, and it was all stuff that you already knew? How you thought I was a criminal but you slept with me anyway? What exactly would you like to explain?” He opened his mouth to speak but her face lit up with a new thought before he could utter a single word. “Oh, I know. Why don’t you explain to me why it never occurred to you to tell me that I had opened up my home to a dangerous criminal?”

  “It’s not what you think, Olivia.”

  “Oh, really? Then what is it? Because what I think is that you have got to be the best goddamn actor that I’ve ever seen. I mean—” she paused to chuckle incredulously “—you actually managed to get one over on me, and can I just say that, up until now, that hasn’t been a very easy thing to do. But you...” She trailed off, pointing one stiff finger across the foyer at him and eyeing him with a twinkle of malicious admiration. “You’re good—I’ll give you that. It’s just...just hard, you know? Admitting to myself that I—the notorious man slayer, Olivia Carrington—got played by none other than a Harry Potter impersonator, with great taste in clothes and a giant dick. My God, it was all an act, wasn’t it, Cooper? You and your FBI agent buddies must’ve really gotten a good laugh at my expense.”

  “Olivia—”

  She paced back and forth on her side of the foyer. “Did you tell them stories around the water-cooler about what I’m like in bed?”

  “Olivia—”

  “Answer me, Cooper! Is this, like, something that you do all the time? Do you go around routinely seducing the unsuspecting idiot women that you meet while you’re working a case? Is it a game for you?”

  “You know damn well that none of this is a game for me.”

  She waved away his words impatiently. “What else do you know about me that you haven’t told me?”

  Cooper searched his memory. “Baby... I don’t know...” At a loss for words, he shrugged helplessly and shook his head. “Nothing.”

  “Liar,” she snapped. “There is a file in that bag with my name on it and my life story inside of it, Cooper. You’re going to have to do better than that.”

  “I never finished reading the damn thing, if you want to know the truth.”

  “More lies.”

  “Look, can we please just sit down and talk about this?” He started around the table toward her and she took off, power walking in the opposite direction, only stopping the impromptu game of ring-around-the-rosy when he did. In new positions around the table now, they stared at each other warily across the width of it. “Olivia, this is ridiculous.”

  “No, what’s ridiculous is the fact that I was actually going to pack my bags and meet you in Indiana next month,” she said quietly, locking gazes with him and forcing him to watch a lone tear spill over and roll down her cheek. “I actually thought I was falling in love with you, Cooper. Can you believe that? I mean, isn’t that ridiculous?”

  “Listen to me, babe,” he said calmly, even as the impact of what she’d just said threatened to buckle his knees. “I read enough to confirm that you weren’t involved in any criminal activity. After that it was all about you and me, and what was happening between us. I didn’t need to read any more, so I didn’t.”

  “Should I sweep my house for bugs, too? What about my car? Did you tape us having sex?”

  “The focus of my investigation has always been on Shannon Bridgeway, Olivia. Not you. Do you really think you need to go to those extremes? That I would do something like that to you?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know what to think anymore, Cooper. You’ve had plenty of opportunities to come clean to me about the background investigation in your bag, but you didn’t. And you could’ve warned me weeks ago about Shannon, but you didn’t. I had her sleeping right down the hallway from me and I gave her spare keys to my house. Anything could’ve happened.”

  “There was nothing in her adult profile to suggest that she was currently a threat to you or anyone else. By the time my suspect offered up what he knew about her, she wasn’t staying here with you anymore, and you said yourself that the two of you had barely been in contact with one another. At that point, whatever I knew about her became need-to-know information, and I’m sorry, sweetheart, but you didn’t really need to know.”

  “She’s going to be indicted for taking part in the robbery at the bank that she managed,” Olivia informed him curtly. “Did you know that? Wait, what am I saying? Of course you knew that because you know everything, don’t you? I only just got a text bringing me up to speed a few minutes ago, so I’m the one who’s late to the party.”

  “Yes, I knew.” He’d found out just this morning, as a matter of fact. Less than an hour ago, via a text from Rhinehart. “Who told you? Did Bridgeway call you?”

  “I’m a private investigator, Cooper. I have ways of finding out things, too. Maybe if I had used them, I’d have known what you and Shannon were up to long before now.”

  “I suppose I deserved that.”

  “I slept with you. You didn’t deserve that.”

  Another zinger. Saddened beyond words, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I love you, Olivia,” he eventually said and meant it. “I hope you believe that.”

  “Get out,” she said, marching to the door. She threw it open and stood back with her arms folded underneath her breasts, waiting.

  “Olivia—”

  “Please just go.”

  * * *

  Elise picked up after the first ring. As soon as the camera flickered on and came into focus, her smiling face filled the screen. “Sooo...how did it go?” she purred suggestively. “Did Mr. Goodbar leave you walking with a limp again?”

  Off camera, Olivia was too busy mopping the tears
from her face and struggling to control the lump in her throat to venture a reply. When she finally got herself together and turned the camera toward her, Elise took one look at her sister’s face and scowled.

  “Olivia, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

  “Cooper and I broke up.” She couldn’t seem to stop her bottom lip from trembling.

  “Oh my God. I’m so sorry! What happened?”

  “Well,” Olivia began, just before the floodgates burst open and the whole sordid tale rushed out. “Cooper...” she said with a sob. “He was spying on me...” More sobs. “And Shannon...she’s a criminal...”

  “What...are you crying?” Olivia hardly ever cried. “What in the world is going on there?”

  “Everything is a mess...” More tears spilled over and out, until Olivia was sobbing uncontrollably and Elise could do nothing but watch helplessly.

  Chapter 15

  The next four weeks passed in a blur of activity for Cooper, but for once he wasn’t complaining about the extra work that having a team mostly made up of rookies added to his plate. The busier he was, the less time he had to think about Olivia Carrington and the way things had ended between them. She wasn’t taking his calls, nor had she responded to any of the text messages that he’d sent her, and at this point he wasn’t sure that she ever would. Her silence was as deafening as it was telling, and he had no choice but to accept what it meant.

  It was over.

  Which, as much as he thought of her and his body ached for her, was probably for the best anyway. They lived in two different states and led two different lives, and his was already jam-packed as it was, with responsibilities to his team and to his writing career, and with the ongoing speaking engagements that he could never seem to get out of. He spent half of his life on airplanes and the other half at his desk, only coming up for air from either extreme to find release when his cock would no longer be ignored and there was time enough in his schedule to accommodate its needs.