The trouble with that was she didn’t know if she wanted her brother or anyone else in her family to know about him yet, let alone have their approval. Not that she wasn’t starting to warm to the idea of Cooper. She just hadn’t had time to catch her breath and figure out exactly what was going on with them yet.
Her family had loved The Jailer when she’d first started dating him. They’d thought he was perfect for her, not knowing the way he eventually started to dictate everything she did, right down to picking out her clothes for her. They’d been devastated when she’d broken up with him after more than three years together, then shocked and surprisingly angry with her for not telling them how he’d treated her for the last half of it.
She’d vowed to not introduce them to anyone else until she was sure about whoever she eventually got serious about. If it ever happened again. She’d dated a couple of guys without getting sexually involved since becoming single, and she’d had a couple of fun flings thanks to Petra and her key parties. None of them had been like The Jailer, but they hadn’t stuck around long enough to get serious about either.
Now RJ knew about Cooper, and he was possibly the worst of her three brothers when it came to keeping a secret. He called it looking out for his younger siblings, but Patrick, Bree and Dillon called it being the family snitch.
Cooper left not too long after RJ, saying he needed to get ready to meet with friends of his from college for their monthly poker night. Bree spent the first hour he was gone pacing her house, waiting for her mother to call and pester her for details. She washed and dried the only load of laundry she had, ironed clothes she never ironed and cleaned her bathroom even though it was already clean.
The call never came. Which only made her more antsy.
Bree called Petra to see if she wanted to do something, but Petra had to work that night. Rachel invited Bree to come out for burgers and a movie with her and Ben, but Bree wasn’t keen on being the third wheel in such a new relationship.
It started to rain about the same time she thought she should go for a bike ride and burn off some of her nervous energy, so she started up the Maroon 5 playlist on her iPod and ran for twenty minutes on the treadmill. A shower killed another fifteen, but doing her hair was pointless because she didn’t have anyplace to go. She thought maybe she would give herself a pedicure, but she couldn’t decide on a color of polish.
She’d been staring at the television without seeing it for who knew how long when a knock on her door roused her out of her thoughts. The clock on the wall over her couch said it was after midnight. There was only one person she wanted to be on the other side of the door, but with her luck it was Dillon showing up unannounced and looking to crash.
It wasn’t Dillon.
“I shouldn’t be here without calling first,” Cooper started.
“Oh, thank goodness,” she breathed, and dragged him across her threshold by the front of his sweatshirt.
“Oh. Okay,” he said when she wrapped her arms around his neck.
He kissed her and her racing mind went calm. His arms came around her and held her tightly to him and the shaking in her body shifted from pent-up jumping bean to nervous anticipation. She’d been wanting him, and he was there.
He smelled like good cigar smoke and tasted like mint. He was warm and solid and kissing her that way he did that set her body on fire from the inside out. She took his glasses off as she drew him farther into her house and kicked the door closed.
“I was going to call,” his hands smoothed over her back, her hips, “but then I just started driving.” Warm fingers slipped up the back of the t-shirt she was wearing. “I wasn’t going to knock, and then I was standing on your porch.”
“You must have heard me summoning you,” she said with a smile, leading him bodily toward the hallway. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about last night.”
He let go of her long enough for her to lift his sweatshirt off. “Neither have I. I lost so much money at the table tonight because I could not get my head in the game.”
She stuck out her lip in a pout and he let out a heavy breath.
“Poor guy,” she simpered playfully. “How will we ever get your mind off it?”
He pulled off her t-shirt as they crossed into her bedroom and they were both naked from the waist up. “I can think of about a dozen ways off the top of my head.”
She popped the button on his jeans. “Tell me one and I’ll make it happen.”
“Christ, Bree.” He pulled several condoms out of his pocket and tossed them on the bed. She must have forgotten to tell him she picked up a box between leaving him working with her brother in the yard and Chinese food.
She frowned. “I don’t know that one.” She let out a squeal of surprise when he picked her up and tossed her onto the bed, then gripped the waist of her yoga pants and pulled them off in one quick move.
“It’s more commonly known as the missionary position,” he said, pushing jeans and underwear down at the same time.
“That one I do know.” She rose up on her elbows, knees raised and legs open wide, to better admire his cock and the way it appeared to be looking right at her. “Did you drive over here with that thing going all Incredible Hulk in your pants like that?”
He stepped out of shoes and pants at the same time. “Yes.”
She bit her lip and let her gaze travel slowly up his beautiful body.
“And what would you have done if I hadn’t opened the door for you?”
“Probably spend the night in jail for jerking off in your driveway,” he told her, his dimple appearing when she laughed.
She snatched a condom off the bed and tore open the wrapper as he crawled over her. He kissed her so hard her head pressed deep into the comforter, then released her with a heavy rush of breath when she rolled the condom over him.
“Good thing I—” The rest of the words got stuck in her throat as the thick head pushed inside of her.
“Yes, it is,” he answered in a whisper, his lips just touching hers.
She gasped when he thrust and filled her to capacity in one move. She laid her legs flat but wide open on the bed.
She ran her hands over the taut muscles in his ass. “Fuck me, Cooper.”
He repositioned his arms so his weight was mostly off her, then withdrew almost all the way. The angle of her pelvis and the way her legs came together made it possible for her to feel every inch of him as he moved most of the way out of her body. She squeezed as he drove back inside of her and he called out her name on a desperate groan.
“Come on.” She squeezed again, loving the way he pressed against her clit when he was buried as far as he could go inside of her. It was so incredibly good. “Fuck me, Cooper,” she repeated.
His gorgeous eyes opened. He withdrew and came back with a quick snap of the hips, taking her breath away. He did it again—over and over again—a slow withdraw and a fast push inside, his thick length rubbing and bumping every place she needed him to rub and bump.
When she couldn’t take it any more she brought her knees up and dug her heels into the mattress. Her hips rose up to meet his, both of them moaning and gasping out of control. She could feel him get thicker inside of her, feel his cock pulsing within her as he came, his body seized tight.
Bree dug her fingers into his ass and her teeth into his shoulder, rolled her hips once and her body burst into a million bright points of pleasure. He rocked his hips once and pushed her higher, then did it again. She released his shoulder and cried out as an even higher peak shook her body and caused her vision to go dark for a moment.
Gradually she became aware that he was speaking to her in a whisper, his mouth pressed to the side of her face. “Baby, baby, baby,” he sighed, smoothing her hair back from her face. “You can’t believe how happy I am that you opened the door.”
She felt him smile against her skin when she laughed.
“I still can’t believe you let me eat frosting off your incredible little body for
my birthday.” He growled and grazed his teeth against the sensitive spot behind her ear, making her squeal. “And that I got to hold you in my arms the night a tornado nearly carried us off to the land of Oz.”
“Cooper, stop,” she pleaded, feeling a serious case of the giggles coming on.
He kissed her, his lips salty with the sweat on her neck, until she calmed.
“I don’t want to stop,” he told her, rolling so she was on top of him. “I want to go all night with you.” He spread his arms wide. “I am yours to do with as you please.”
Oh the possibilities. “Anything I please?”
He ran his hands up her thighs. “Anything.”
“All right,” she told him with a look of warning. “You asked for it.”
Chapter Seven
Cooper was getting ready for bed, closing the light-blocking curtains over his bedroom window when his phone rang. He smiled at the name on the screen.
“Hey, Bree.” He hadn’t seen her outside of work in a few days.
They’d spent one day together since the day after his birthday, but their confilicting work schedules had kept them from making any more plans since.
“Did I wake you up?” Her voice sounded strained.
“No. I keep my work hours on my nights off.” He pushed one of the curtains aside and looked down at the street six stories below. “Are you all right?”
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone and then a shaky, “No. I’m downstairs. Can I come up?”
He turned away from the window. “Of course you can.”
“Are you sure? I’m not here at a bad time?”
“Bree, I already said come up.”
He pulled a pair of shorts over his naked ass, and met her in the hallway as she was getting off the elevator. Her eyes and nose were red and her hair was more disheveled than usual when she finished a shift. She was still in her scrubs, and as she got closer he could see little spots of dried blood all over her, an ugly brownish-red on lavender.
“I’m sorry,” she said as she came toward him. “I shouldn’t have come.” Her chin quivered.
“Don’t apologize. Come in.” He caught the scent of antiseptic soap and nervous sweat as she passed him through the doorway.
She made it five whole steps into the living room and kicked off her shoes. She pulled off her top and pushed her scrub pants to the floor, leaving her in nothing but a plain but unbearably sexy white bra, pink panties and her socks.
“I want to forget, Cooper.” She reached for him, slid her arms around his waist and pressed her shivering body to his. “Make me forget. Please.”
As much as he’d been aching to get his hands on her again, this was not the right time, no matter what his hardening cock was telling him to the contrary.
He took her face in his hands and kissed her gently.
“Sweetheart, I don’t think that’s a very good idea. Tell me what happened first.”
She shook her head and her face crumpled. “I can’t.”
“All right. You don’t have to,” he soothed, smoothing his hands over her hair when she touched her forehead to his chest.
Her shoulders shook twice. He could feel her tears on his skin. He tried to hold her closer, but she drew in a deep breath and pushed away.
“I’m sorry,” she said again, swiping at her eyes as she blushed a deep red. “I don’t know what I was thinking coming here.” She bent and snatched her scrub pants off the floor. “I’m a big girl. I’m a professional. I can handle this.” It was almost as if she was talking to herself. “I’ve had bad nights before.”
She was attempting to put her foot through the leg of the pants but she kept missing. After the third time, Cooper laid a hand on her shoulder. She stopped and straightened with her eyes shut. Moving very slowly, he took her pants out of her hand.
“You wouldn’t be so good at your job if you didn’t care so much, Bree.” He pulled her close again. “And everyone gets affected from time to time.” She relaxed against him. “Come on. I’ll run you a bath and pour you a drink. If you still don’t feel like talking about it afterward, at least you might relax enough to sleep.”
Her arms tightened around his waist and she nodded in agreement. “Thank you.”
He jokingly swore her to secrecy before he showed her the jar of bath salts he kept for soaking after long runs. He dumped a liberal amount into the water and left her to finish undressing while he put her clothes in the washing machine and poured her a glass of wine.
“I don’t mind that you came here,” he told her when she apologized for what seemed like the tenth time. He sat down on the closed toilet lid. “Actually, I’m flattered you think I could have made you forget whatever it is that has you so upset,” he added hoping to at least make her smile.
She’d taken the braid she’d been wearing when she arrived out of her hair and twisted it into a messy knot on top of her head. There were damp curls around her face, which had been scrubbed clean of her smudged mascara. She was heartbreakingly beautiful that way, even though, when she did humor him with a little smile, it didn’t eliminate the haunted look in her eyes.
She sipped the wine and settled deeper into the water.
“There was a car accident on the expressway,” she started, her voice quiet.
Cooper leaned forward, elbows on his knees and fingers laced together, and waited.
“A semi truck swerved and ran over a Volkswagen Beetle with three young women inside.” Her eyes closed and her nostrils flared as the tip of her nose reddened. “They were on their way home from dancing in the city. There wasn’t so much as a drop of alcohol in one of them. The truck driver had fallen asleep at the wheel.”
“Two were dead at the scene but we got the third. We worked on her for more than an hour, but she was too far gone.” She set the glass on the side of the tub and wrapped her arms around her knees as she leaned forward. “I don’t know why we tried so long. There was hardly anything left of her to put back together,” she whispered.
The water rippled around her as she hung her head and sobbed quietly.
Cooper got a washcloth and knelt next to the tub. He soaked it and squeezed the water out over her exposed upper back, letting it run in wide rivulets over her skin. He’d cried that way over similar situations throughout the years. There were some things a person just never developed the strength to handle without falling apart.
He also knew the situation had struck close to home. It would have been the most awful reminder of her and her mother’s close brush with a similar fate.
Bree rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands and looked forward, staring at nothing but likely reliving the scene in her mind.
“They were sisters, two years age difference between them. Twenty-one, twenty-three and twenty-five.” The look she gave him was a knife through his heart. “Cooper, they were their parents’ only children, and they were all wiped out in a blink. And the semi driver walked away with nothing more than a couple of stitches in his face.”
He held her as best he could with the side of the tub between them and let her cry. There was no reason to point out the driver had walked away with far more than a scar. He’d taken the lives of three, and would have to deal with that for the rest of his life.
Cooper knew Bree knew that as well.
When she stopped crying and leaned back with her eyes closed, he let her be for awhile. He put her clothes in the dryer when the wash cycle ended and gave her a t-shirt to wear to bed. He lay awake for a long time after she’d fallen asleep with him curled up behind her, thinking how odd it was that she’d chosen him out of all of her friends to come to on a night when her job had become too much.
Even more odd was the fact that he didn’t mind her showing up out of the blue that way one bit. In fact, he liked it very much.
And when she turned in his arms some time later and woke him up with soft kisses and her hands stroking him everywhere, he liked that very much too.
*
* * * *
“Cooper, what happened to your marriage?”
They’d been sitting at the tall counter on the back side of his kitchen island in comfortable silence, drinking coffee and waking up slowly. They’d been half focused on the television he’d had installed in the space in his cupboards where a microwave was supposed to go, watching one of the cable news channels they both liked.
He looked at her. “What made you think to ask me that?”
She continued to look at him a moment. She was beautiful first thing in the morning, sleepy-eyed and rosy-cheeked, still wearing nothing but his t-shirt.
“I know I have limited knowledge of you considering we’ve only spent a handful of days together. Granted, most of that time has been spent in bed, but you’re not a jerk outside of work,” she finished, as though it was an explanation.
“So what you actually want to know is how I missed it up.” He nodded when she did. “Why does it have to be my fault?”
She snorted and slid him a sly sideways look. “Darling, it’s always the man’s fault.”
She was right, they’d only spent a very little amount of time together outside of the hospital but he’d already picked up on the fact that Bree did not speak in generalities unless she was having fun with whoever she was talking to.
He started to smile, then checked himself. “Duly noted.”
“I mean, it has to be something you did,” she added, giving him a playfully challenging look over the rim of her cup as she sipped. “Otherwise I can’t find anything but your bossiness at work wrong with you, and I don’t believe in too good to be true.”
He arched an eyebrow at her, then looked down at his own coffee cup.
He wasn’t perfect. Not by far.
“It’s more like what I didn’t do,” he told her, becoming serious as a twinge of old guilt worked in his gut. “She wanted the kind of doctor husband who only worked Monday through Friday, put her up in a huge house in a fancy neighborhood, gave her two kids and took her on two-week-long tropical vacations twice a year.”
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